☑PC-Tips and Tricks: iPad - Did You Know?

The iPad is a line of tablet computers (mobile computers), designed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, apps and web content. Its size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers.

Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multitouch display—a departure from most previous tablet computers, which generally used a pressure-triggered stylus—as well as a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard.

The first-generation iPad showing its home screen

The successor to the iPad 2 was unveiled on March 7, 2012 by Apple CEO Tim Cook.  The new iPad sports the new dual core A5X processor with quad-core graphics, and a Retina Display with a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels this is over 50 percent more pixels than a standard 1,920 by 1,080 high definition TV screen.

Ok, so maybe you already know all that about the iPad.  But here are some interesting tidbits you probably didnt...

Did You Know?

Close-up of a PADD, as seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Pic source

The iPad name is reportedly a homage to the Star Trek PADD, a fictional device very similar in appearance to the iPad.

• Israel briefly prohibited importation of the iPad because of concerns that its Wi-Fi might interfere with other devices.
• The iPad 2 was released internationally in 25 other countries on March 25, 2011, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom, but not Japan as originally scheduled due to the earthquake and tsunami.
• During the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads worldwide.
• The new iPad has a million more pixels than an HDTV.
• As of June, 2012, there were about 225,000 iPad specific apps on the App Store.
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  Carl Crawford with the Boston Red Sox

  Due to the exclusion of pornography from the App Store, YouPorn and others changed their video format from Flash to H.264 (a standard video compression, and currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video.), and HTML5 specifically for the iPad.
  
• The iPad was selected by Time Magazine as one of the 50 Best Inventions of the Year 2010.
• Since March 2011, the US Federal Aviation Administration has approved the iPad for in-cockpit use to cut down on the paper consumption in several airlines. In 2011, Alaska Airlines became the first airline to replace pilots' paper manuals with iPads, weighing 0.68 kg compared to 11 kg for the printed flight manuals. It hopes to have fewer back and muscle injuries. More than a dozen airlines have followed suit, including United, which has distributed 11,000 iPads to cockpits. Also, many airlines now offer their inflight magazine as a downloadable application for the iPad.
• The iPad has been called a revolutionary tool to help children with autism learn how to communicate and socialize more easily.
• During the 2010 Major League Baseball free agent season, the agent for the player Carl Crawford was sending iPads to prospective teams interested in Mr. Crawford. These iPads were pre-loaded with video clips highlighting his player, and how it would benefit their team to have him.
• The iPad is able to support many music creation applications in addition to the iTunes music playback software. These include sound samplers, guitar and voice effects processors, sequencers for synthesized sounds and sampled loops, virtual synthesizers and drum machines, theremin-style and other touch responsive instruments, drum pads and many more. Gorillaz's 2010 album, The Fall, was created almost exclusively using the iPad by Damon Albarn while on tour with the band.

To get an idea of what people are downloading lately on their iPads, as of today - September 17, 2012, in the USA...


Top Paid iPad Apps

1. Angry Birds Space HD (Rovio Entertainment Ltd.) ($2.99)
2. Minecraft-Pocket Edition (Mojang) ($6.99)
3. Wipeout (Activation Publishing, Inc.) ($1.99)
4. NFL Kicker 13 (Full Fat) ($0.99)
5. Feildrunners 2HD (Subatomic Studios, LLC) ($7.99)
6. Pages (Apple) ($9.99)
7. Notability - Take Notes & Annotate PDFs with Dropbox Sync (Appsverse Inc.) ($0.99)
8. Where's My Perry? (Disney) ($0.99)
9. Photo Flash Video Player & Private Web Browser for iPad (Appsverse Inc.) ($4.99)
10. Where's My Water? (Disney) ($0.99)

Top Free iPad Apps

1. Top Free iPad Apps
2. Run Roo Run (5th Cell)
3. Gravity Guy HD (Miniclip.com)
4. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (Marvel Entertainment)
5. NFL '12 (NFL Engerprises LLC)
6. DEAD TRIGGER (MADFINGER GAMES)
7. Pinterest (Pinterest, Inc.)
8. Skype for iPad (Skype Communications S.a.r.l)
9. ESPN Fantasy Football 2012 for iPad (ESPN)
10. Tap Campus Life (Pocket Gems, Inc.)

Top iPad Grossing Apps

1. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North (Kabam) (Free)
2. Clash of Clans (Supercell) (Free)
3. Bingo Bash HD (BitRhymes Inc.) (Free)
4. DragonVale (Backkflip Studios) (Free)
5. Myster Manor:  Hidden Adventure (Game Insight, LLC) (Free)
6. NYTimes for iPad (The New York Times Company) (Free)
7. The Simpsons™: Tapped Out (Electronic Arts) (Free)
8. Minecraft-Pocket Edition (Mojang) ($6.99)
9. Slotmania HD (Playtika LTD) (Free)
10. Comics (comiXology) (Free)

 

Resource(s):  wikipedia, winnipegfreepress.com/, washingtonpost.com/, isoappstats.com/