Georgia, Rene, and Seth talk Kindle Fire vs. iPad vs. iPod touch, Apple's new "Love" commercial, gifts for iPad lovers and gifts for geeks, iPad 3 rumors, and setting up Settings shortcuts. This is iPad Live!
Phil Nickinson from Android Central has put the iPhone 4S vs. Galaxy Nexus head-to-head in an epic comparison, complete with videos, pictures, uncanny insight, and everything else you'd expect from a Mobile Nations showdown.
Pinball City NY: Crooked cops. Gangsters everywhere. A beautiful dame. A dead body. Welcome to New York. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link] [$3.99 for iPad - App Store link]
Best Buy has released a new advert for the holidays called “Everything Apple at Best Buy", and it's aimed squarely at poaching potential Apple Store purchasers and getting them to come to Best Buy's Apple Store . It starts off with a sales representative demonstrating a FaceTime call with an iPad 2. The customer says she didn’t know that Best Buy had all of the Apple products. See where this is going? It ends with Santa about to leave his presents under her tree however she has already bought the complete Best Buy Apple inventory; and it’s under the tree already!
If there's one thing TiPb loves even more than iPhones and iPads, it's giving cool iPhone and iPad accessories and apps to our awesome readers. This week we have...
Missed a compelling piece of iPad news, a great app review, or a killer how-to? We're not collecting absolutely everything in iPad here -- you can hit up TiPb.com/iPad for that! -- but we're carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here. For you.
And hey! -- these double as show notes for our iPad Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us and follow along!
The DracoDesign DRACO IV is an absolutely stunning aluminum bumper for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. I tested a limited edition Jewel Beatle on both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 for a couple weeks and came away impressed.
It does take a little bit of work to get the DRACO IV installed. It comes in two solid pieces. You need to properly place all the button caps into the proper cutouts and angle the larger of the two pieces so they don't fall out while you slide your iPhone into place. (Yes, it took me a couple of tries!) You can then slide on the other piece and secure it into place with two screws. Of course, that also means if you want to take it off you need to remove the screws, so it's not as convenient as a slide on case if that's important to you. But oh, the look!
The Jewel Beatle has an opalescent finish that alternates from blue to green to purple. It looks terrific. It also has nicely designed curves and angles that make it easier to grip and hold onto.
All the ports are accessible and widely cut, and fit Apple and most 3rd party dock and 3.5mm cables well. I did have a problem with a few extra thick cables, including a car charger and the POP phone receiver. So while you shouldn't have any trouble, do check your accessories if they tend towards the large size.
With aluminum bumpers there are always questions about what, if any, effect they may have on reception. In two weeks of use on two devices, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, I did notice a drop of about 1 bar on average, on a few occasions, 2 bars. That's compared to other iPhones on the same network at the same time and place. It never caused any dropped calls or loss of data, but if you live or spend time in an area of really poor reception, it's something to keep in mind.
Overall, the DracoDesign DRACO IV is one of the most gorgeous cases I've used on my iPhone. It has a beautiful, sculpted look and the finish of the Jewel Beatle in particular is just fantastic.
Comparing the pros and cons, costs and features, between Apple's iPad 2 and iPod touch, and Amazon's new Kindle Fire
Trying to decide between an Apple iPad 2 or iPod touch and an Amazon Kindle, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else? There's a lot to consider -- the quality and dimensions of the hardware, the features and flexibility of the operating system, the availability and diversity of the content, the difference in cost and value, and we'll take you through all of it, point by point, to help you decide.
