iPad

If the next Air Force pilot that you meet looks a little light in the step, it probably doesn’t mean what you think.

The USAF put a new contract up for bid last week. They’re looking to buy between 63 and 18,000 “iPad 2, Brand Name or Equal devices”. for the flight crews of the C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster, 2 cargo aircraft that are used to move the majority of military freight. The crews will use the tablets pretty much the same way that everyone else does. They’re going to replace flight charts and technical manuals.

iPads in the cockpit is quite the common news story now, but this one has a historical note that most lack. The US military has long been interested in reducing the amount of paper that soldiers need to do their job. This in fact goes back to at least the 1960s. The Dynabook, which I told you about earlier this week, was the result of a research project that was funded in part by the US military. They wanted a device that could replace the vast volumes of paper with a few pounds of electronics. Today’s news about the 18 thousand iPads is pretty close to the original goal from way back when, but it wasn’t achievable until recently.

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image by Global X

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Two years ago today, Apple changed the world of computing by announcing the iPad. It was the first and only tablet on the scene just two short years ago. Now there are many.

While the iPad didn’t actually come out until April 2010, Information Week is counting the announcement as its birthday, so we will too. But as InformationWeek explains, the device was a long time coming: “The iPad’s gestation period was a long one. Computer pioneer Alan Kay had conceived of a tablet computer, the Dynabook, back in 1968, around the time that the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on Arthur C. Clark’s novel of the same name, depicted a tablet news reader. Over the years, variations on the tablet theme appeared. Microsoft hardware partners shipped tablet PCs in 2002 and Windows-based tablets have lingered on, without much success.”

The tablet has come a long way. This week the company announced that it sold 15.43 million iPads in fiscal Q1 2012.

Apple announced all sorts of new tool and apps today, but that’s not the only new trick the iPad got.

The iConvert scanner was unveiled today. It’s an iPad dock that integrates a basic document scanner. This $150 gadget can scan documents at 300dpi. It’s a a front-feed, device, and that’s going to make it a little difficult to get the scanned docs afterward.

This is an expensive scanner, considering that regular scanners can be had for under $100, including some feature rich models from Brother. But this one does work directly with the iPad, and it can scan pages from 2″ to 8.5″ wide and transfer them directly to your iPd as JPG files.

Now, I would rather use  fixed unit due to the many available features. But if I needed  mobile scanner, this one isn’t bad. It would be great for anyone on the rod all the time; receipts and other business documents would seem to be its forte.

 

There’s been a rash of fake iPads in the last couple weeks. Several retail stores in the Vancouver, BC area have reported that sophisticated stammers have cleverly substituted blocks of clay for returned iPads.

Future Shop and Best Buy have each launched an investigation into the matter, and it has many people baffled. You see, this isn’t your normal scam where  customer tries and fails to return an empty box. No, these scammers succeed at the scam because they are good enough that they can open an iPad retail box, replace the iPad with clay, and then seal the box so it looks like it was never opened.

“Customers don’t expect to receive this kind of product from Future Shop, so it’s a very serious matter and something we are addressing right away for anyone who has been impacted,” Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun told CTV British Columbia.  ”It really saddens Future Shop that people stoop to be this opportunistic and make money in this kind of organized way.”

As many as 10 fake iPads have been reported, and they were all discovered by unsuspecting customers. The stores had accepted the iPads as returns and then put them back on the shelf.

via CTV

Here’s a video to make you laugh on your way out the door this holiday weekend.

The makes of Fruit Ninja have recently started working on a cat version. They posted this video of one of their cats playing the game. This cat is fairly good, and he achieved a score of 128. That’s actually higher than I can do.

The video is after the break. I’ve watched it again, and I really think the cat knows what he’s doing. Well, perhaps not the slicing, but the cat is trying to attack the flying fruit.

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Law enforcement in California keep making headlines with their relationships to iPads. Yesterday, we heard a story about how an iPad owner and police used an app to locate some stolen Christmas gifts.

Now we hear that a California prison guard has been accused of accepting an iPad as a bribe for favors given to inmates. The guard has pleaded not guilty to the allegations.

The Sacramento Bee has more: “A Seal Beach city jail guard has pleaded not guilty to accepting an iPad and other items from inmates in exchange for favors.Orange County prosecutors say 32-year-old Jose Alday entered not guilty pleas Tuesday to felony charges of receiving bribes and possession for sale of a controlled substance. He also pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.”

Along with any new technology comes new diseases and afflictions. This is true even for the iPad.

The video embedded after the break shows the tragic case of a marketing exec by the name of Miranda. This poor soul is so dependent on her iPad that she has forgotten how to interface with the rest of the world.

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You can put away the hacksaw; there’s no need to cut down your iPad to get a smaller model.

Digitimes is reporting that Apple has an iPadling in the works. According to their sources, Apple has placed orders with LG Display for a 7.85″ screen. This new smaller iPad is predicted to launch before the fourth quarter of 2012. The new smaller screens have also been ordered from AU Optronics, and screen production is expected to start at the end of the second quarter of 2012.

Digitimes has also heard that Apple will alunch 2 ipads next year; the iPad 3 is still rumored to launch in the next few months.

I believe there is some truth to this rumor. Do you know the surest sign that Apple is working on a smaller iPad? It’s that Steve Jobs hated the idea. You see, Steve dissed both a flash based iPod and ebooks, and look what Apple makes today.

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The FAA and American Airlines announced earlier this week that AA will be the first major airline to switch to a paperless cockpit. If you have a bumpy flight next time you fly AA, it might be because your pilot is playing Angry Birds (and using the same flight arc as the bird).

iPads in cockpits is growing quite popular among pilots and airlines. United Airlines have been beta testing iPads running flight navigation apps since August, and American Airlines has been testing the idea since June of this year.

AA will first use the iPads on Boening 777, and they plan to expand to the rest of their fleet shortly. Each iPad is expected to replace around 35 pounds of paper. AA expects to save over a million dollars a year in fuel costs alone, and they will likely save a fair penny in printing costs.

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Blue Kai, comScore and Nielsen have figured out the typical iPad user and made the colorful graphic, which we’ve posted above to illustrate who they are. The people who are most likely to own an iPad are male, pet owners that play video games. Does this mean that iPad owners are also likely to own Nintendogs? We’re not sure.

But we can tell you that apartment dwellers, scientists, business travelers, international travelers, vitamin takers and proponents of organic food rank second highest on the list and are 70-89% likely to buy an iPad. Married couples and college graduates are also likely to buy iPads.

Via AllThingsDigital.