The iPad has recently been jailbroken. Even if you’ve held off jailbreaking your other iPhone OS devices, the iPad’s substantially faster hardware and difficult-to-define “3rd device” role make the best case yet for jailbreaking. A user- and developer-updated compatibility list will help you see what’s safe to install on your iPad, and I’ll list my favorite apps and extensions for your freshly jailbroken device.

Apple’s App Store has become notorious for its restrictive and often arbitrary decisions about what does and doesn’t make it into the store. We’ve seen many pieces of quality software get denied or kicked out of the App Store, sometimes for unclear or unknown reasons.

Many of these, however, have subsequently made their way into Cydia, the jailbroken app installer (note that the App Store works just fine on jailbroken devices, too). GV Mobile, a great interface for Google Voice, Dashboard, a clone of Mac OS X’s Dashboard for iPad, and Wifi Sync, a paid application for performing iTunes syncs over Wi-Fi, are just a few examples. And there are plenty more programs and extensions that are available in Cydia that have never even been submitted to the App Store.

Besides these examples of nixed software, the world of jailbreaking also offers a multitude of tweaks that aren’t available to the user on a normal iDevice, like changing system sounds or interface elements. While a much higher proportion of the software available through Cydia is free compared to what you’ll find on the App Store, it does also contain paid software.

The iPad: What’s Changed?

The single-button installation screen for the Spirit jailbreak for iPad.

Many people express concern about jailbreaking their iPhones because they don’t want to sacrifice stability or speed on their phones. While the vast majority of jailbreak software is perfectly stable, it’s true that this software doesn’t go through the same level of grueling testing to which Apple subjects software that makes it into the App Store. And software that lets you run 3rd-party programs in the background, otherwise change the interface, and so forth, can have effects on your device’s performance, so I can understand why some people are reticent about this.

However, the iPad’s processor and memory are substantially more powerful than that of the current iPhones and iPod Touches. Its hardware makes it much better suited to effective multitasking, and its role in most peoples’ workflow makes a good for jailbreaking, both because jailbreaking makes it more useful, and because it simply won’t be used the same way as your phone.

If jailbreaking means accepting a slightly lower standard of stability (which is debatable to begin with), it just isn’t as crucial as on your phone. After all, the iPad is a device begging to be treated more like a computer than a phone, and jailbreaking makes that much more possible than Apple’s approved software possibly can.

I for one am willing to sacrifice a little polish for functionality on the iPad.

It is worth noting, however, that multitasking will come to the iPad with Apple’s blessing, albeit in a limited form, with this fall’s release of iPhone OS 4.

Now, because of the nature of the software available through Cydia, it’s important to remember that not everything originally written for iPhone/iPod Touch works with the iPad.

Be sure to consult the Google Docs spreadsheet created by iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd, before you install anything through Cydia. If you stick to this list, you should be safe. And if you like to live dangerously, remember that you can always restore and be right back where you started if need be (and don’t forget to make a note in the Google Doc about what happened!). We’ve set up a page on our Wiki to keep track of compatible apps, too.

Jailbreak Favorites

My favorite jailbreak programs right now (on both iPhone and iPad) are Notifier, a little extension that puts icons in your status bar for new email, messages, etc, SBSettings, a little panel of useful controls that slides down from the status bar, even within other apps, and Backgrounder (source code), so you can listen to Pandora while you draft an email (for instance).

Another one of particular interest to iPad users is called FullForce, and is a convenient, packaged implementation of an elaborate .plist hack (via Gizmodo) that lets iPhone apps format themselves for the iPad’s screen without pixel doubling. It isn’t perfect, but works spectacularly for many apps, including Facebook and the New York Times.

These programs don’t all have sites of their own, but you can find them in Cydia on your jailbroken iDevice, along with description and screenshots.

For those of you planning to jailbreak, once you do, don’t forget to back up your SHSH ‘blobs,’ the hashes iTunes checks when you restore, so you can restore to this jailbreakable version of the OS even after Apple updates it, closes the jailbreak vulnerability, and stops signing restores of OS 3.2. This way, if you ever need/want to restore to an earlier version of the OS, it’s straightforward to trick iTunes with the backed up ‘blobs.’ Saurik, famed in the jailbreak community for creating Cydia, has a good explanation along with detailed instructions on doing this on his site.

Once you’re jailbroken, it’s easiest just to back them up through Cydia. Alternatively, this method, using a program called Firmware Umbrella, works whether or not you are jailbroken, and is a good idea if you haven’t yet but think you might want to in the future.

Finally, do keep in mind that jailbreaking voids your warranty as far as Apple is concerned, so always restore to an un-jailbroken state before taking your device to Apple for service.

Any tips on great jailbreak software I missed? Warnings about potential pitfalls? Let us know in the comments!

We’ve seen a nonstop parade of cases, docks, and stands for Apple’s iPad tablet, but one configuration we would have thought would be a natural is mounting it on a wall. After all, the iPad offers many useful widget-like apps, requires no separate keyboard or mouse, has a large bright screen that can be seen across the room, connects to data wirelessly, and–most importantly–has a long-running battery that can display useful info all day long without recharging.

Our 3M hooks: ugly but effective.
We trekked down to our local hole-in-the-wall hardware store and picked up a handful of plastic hooks from the 3M Command line (total cost, about $10). They stick to almost any surface with an adhesive strip, but can be easily removed by pulling a tab on the back. The medium plastic hooks we tried were rated to support 3 pounds of weight; the iPad itself weighs 1.5 pounds.

Largely eyeballing the measurements, we attached four hooks to a wall-mounted cabinet and slid our iPad in from the side. The fit was snug enough to be secure, and to make sure the iPad would not slide back out without deliberate pressure. The plastic hooks themselves only made contact with the iPad’s metal frame, not the glass itself, so there’s little chance of damaging the display. Once everything was set up, the end result was reasonably attractive (although we might be able to find some nicer-looking hooks), and the iPad’s bright screen stood out nicely, even from across the hall.

Firing up the Accuweather app, we turned the iPad into a permanent weather station (after setting the display to never turn off). From our anecdotal tests, the battery should be able to run an app like this all day without recharging, and we also managed to dig up a black charging cable that looked less conspicuous than the standard white cable, should one want to route power through a cabinet or along a wall to the iPad.

Is this most useful thing one could do with an iPad? Perhaps not, but we could see wall-mounted touch-screen tablets being handy in specific circumstances (a kitchen family message center, creating an impromptu kiosk, displaying promotional photos or videos), especially once tablet prices come down a bit.

Though we were never overly concerned about the 3M hooks holding the iPad securely, several of our co-workers gave the setup a worried look, and naturally, your mileage may vary. If you’re planning on wall-mounting your iPad, we’d suggest leaving something soft or padded below it at first.

As with the release of any new device, the company releasing with wants feedback. Apple is giving away a limited number of iPads to people willing to test it and submit their feedback. In return, they get to keep the iPad.

Companies have long relied on real feedback from real people. Focus groups have been a mainstay in the release of products for many years. Large companies, especially Apple, do put faith in what the public wants and likes. Now is your opportunity to let Apple know what you think of their newest product. Click below to sign up as a tester:

If there wasn’t already enough buzz about Apple’s latest invention, the iPad, there will be now that they are giving them away! Yesterday came the announcement that Apple’s new tablet device, not surprisingly called the iPad, would be released in the next 60-90 days with a starting price of $499 for the 16GB WiFi model. The device was long rumored to cost well over $1,000, but even the top of the line model will not top the $900 mark.

As with any product release, the more buzz the better. And what better way to create buzz than to give the product away? That is exactly what some retailers are doing. Several campaigns started up today offering free iPads to customers. Surely, the buzz will only increase once these devices get in the hands of the public.

As demonstrated by Steve Jobs yesterday, the iPad bridges the gap between the smart phone and the laptop computer. A 9.5″ flat device which can surf the web, play movies, read books, and play games with style and grace. It will be interesting to see what the competition comes up with, but for now, Apple has hit another grand slam.

Shocking everyone, the rumored $1000+ pricetag for Apple’s iPad tablet was just that…a rumor. Steve Jobs announced on Wednesday that the revolutionary device would have a starting price of only $499, the same as the original iPhone.

Full pricing details:

Starting at $499

Announced January 27, 2010, the price of the iPad will start at $499.

• 16 GB: $499
• 32GB: $599
• 64GB: $799
• 16GB with 3G: $629
• 32GB with 3G: $729
• 64GB with 3G: $829

Monthly costs

The iPad works with AT&T and will cost $29.99 a month for unlimited data and $14.99 a month for 250 MB of data.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage this morning at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco at 10AM. “We want to kick of 2010 by introducing a magical and revolutionary product today… but first I have a few updates,” Jobs said. After mentioning the iPod had sold approximately 250 million units and that Apple now has 284 retail stores, Jobs got down to the business at hand.

The iPad bridges the gap between smart phones and laptops. A device that is better than the former at “browsing the web. Doing email. Enjoying and sharing pics. Watching videos. Enjoying music. Playing games. Reading ebooks,” according to Jobs.

“So, gonna give you a little overview. It’s very thin — you can change the homescreen to whatever you want. What this device does is extraordinary. You can browse the web with it. It’s the best web experience you’ve ever had.”

“Way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal.”

The iPad will contain a large QWERTY keyboard.

The Itunes store is build into the device as well.

The iPad is ideal for browsing the internet at full resolution and photos are easy to scroll through and map out.

The iPad is a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display, and it’s running a custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It’ll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it’s got the expected connectivity: very little. There’s a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 802.11n WiFi, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. As expected, it can run iPhone apps — either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen — but developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today.

Embedded video on news sites is no problem for the iPad.

The popular application Brushes is also very impressive on the iPad. The drop down menus and the ability to really dig into the app is fantastic.

Gaming looks pretty impressive. Gaming on the iPad is like holding an HD screen up to your face, so the experience is like none other.

The built-in “bookshelf” allows users to browse their book library quickly and easily. Apple has created the iBook store which can be downloaded directly onto the iPad.

Reading e-books looks fantastic, with a really cool page turning animation and the ability to change fonts and sizes.

There is a host of other tools and applications available on the device. As far as data plans, there are two different price points: 14.99/mo for 250MB data transfer, and $29.99/mo for unlimited. Service can be activated from the iPad and no contracts are necessary.

The iPad will be Wifi capable and 3G capable models are coming soon.

How much does it cost?

Forget the $1,000+ price point everyone has been spreading rumors about. An iPad can be had for only $499.

WiFi iPads will be available in 60 days.

WiFi+3G iPads will be available in 90 days.

Look familiar? This iPad mockup has been floating around since August but according to those in the know, its pretty close to what the iPad will actually look like. Pretty cool.

Just days away from what’s looking to be the biggest gadget launch since the original iPhone, the steady drip of rumors about the much-anticipated Apple tablet has turned into a flood.Our first stop is a blockbuster article from the Wall Street Journal, posted late Wednesday evening, and it’s interesting to note that the Journal article doesn’t even bother to hedge its bets by calling the tablet “rumored” or “long-awaited”; it just jumps right in, declaring with certitude that “the new table device … is debuting next week” (next Wednesday morning, to be precise), and going on to describe it as Apple’s gambit to “reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry” (or, I might add, as the iPhone revamped the cell phone industry).

Many of the details in the Journal story have been floating around for awhile now—including chatter that Apple’s been shopping around a subscription TV service, developing an on-the-Web version of iTunes, and talking to magazine and book publishers about adapting their content for the upcoming tablet—but the article does a nice job of weaving the various bits and pieces together, painting a picture of the iTablet/iSlate/iPad as an all-purpose, 10- to 11-inch device that family members could share for surfing the Web, checking e-mail, watching TV, and reading their favorite books and magazines.

The tablet will also come with a full “virtual keypad,” and will act as both an “electronic textbook” and a gaming device, with Electronic Arts on board to demonstrate “the tablet’s game capabilities,” the Journal claims.

New to the tablet discussion is the Journal’s assertion that Apple has been toying with features that might let the tablet identify users via a built-in camera and facial recognition technology, and that tablet users might be able to “leave virtual sticky notes” for each other. Interesting … so maybe we’re talking a tablet that can be personalized for each user and/or family member, logging into their “profile” the moment they’re spied by the tablet’s camera, complete with customized interfaces and “stickies.” Pretty cool, but the Journal warns that it’s “unclear” if the facial-recognition and sticky features will actually come with the shipping tablet.

Speaking of shipping, there’s talk that we might not see the tablet in stores until this summer, not March as had been previously rumored. AppleInsider reports (based on a note from a tech analyst to his clients) that “minor” issues with “battery life and durability” may require more work, resulting in a shipping delay until June. The analyst note also repeats what we’ve heard before about pricing: somewhere in the $1,000 range. Ouch.

A separate AppleInsider post cites a new document filed with the U.S. Patent Office regarding Apple’s opposition to Fujitsu’s application for an “iPad” trademark, clearly indicating that Apple wants the “iPad” name for itself. Previous rumors had it that Apple was all set to call its tablet the “iSlate” … not my favorite name, really. I think “iPad” has a better ring to it.

So that’s pretty much the latest, although I’m sure we’ll be getting even more tablet rumors in the next few days. Still unanswered, for me: Why I’d want to cough up $1,000 for iPad/iSlate/iTablet when I already own an iPhone and a couple of MacBooks. Then again, I wasn’t too excited in the run-up to the initial iPhone announcement, either, and look what happened.

In a week from now, Apple is going to announce its latest creation. It is not clear what it is, but the speculation is that it will be a new kind of a tablet-styled computing device that has more names than Black Eyed Peas has hit singles. The important question, for me however is what’s inside this mythical device. Today we have some answers on the semiconductor innards of this device.

Earlier this morning, veteran computer industry analyst Ashok Kumar of NorthEast Securities in a note to his clients outlined some details. Kumar said that Apple could “ship up to a 1 million units by March and plateau at 400,000-500,000 units per month thereafter.” Now those are some aggressive forecasts — not sure if I entirely buy into them — but if true can have a material impact on both Apple and its component supplier partners.

And as you read further, you will see, the most glaring absence from this list is none other than Intel which has been trying to get its chips designed into future tablet devices.  (Related post: 10 features that would make iPad a hit.)

Kumar speculates that the device is going to cost between $600 to $800 and will come with a docking station that will allow the device to be used with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The device is going to come in with wireless connectivity supplied by a carrier partner, most likely Verizon. But let’s focus on the semiconductor components for now. According to Kumar.

• The core of the application processor is said to be ARM Cortex (8) which Apple licensed from Samsung.
• Apple is enhancing the core processor with the help of design team from PA Semi, a company Apple bought for roughly $278 million in 2008. Apple has focused on enhancing video and graphic capabilities of the device with its internal semiconductor efforts.
• Samsung will be the foundry for the application processor and it will also be one of the suppliers of Flash memory to Apple.
• Qualcomm is said to be supplying the wireless wide area network (WWAN) chip for connectivity to the wireless networks.

Let me put Kumar’s comments in context.

For starters, before it was taking out by PA Semi had designed a very low power dual core ARM chip running at 2 GHz and consuming between 5-to-13 watts. That is the kind of design expertise is what you need when building portable Internet devices such as this mythical tablet. And that is precisely the kind of expertise Apple needs in-house to muck around with ARM-based chips.

Kumar’s theory is also bolstered by the fact that about year-and-a-half ago, a story in The New York Times pointed out that Apple’s Wei-han Lien, a senior manager with the chip team, telling folks on LinkedIn that he was busy working on a new ARM processor for what was the next-generation iPhone.

If you take those two random bits of information, then Kumar’s speculation makes a lot of sense. In addition, an independent source of ours also tells us that Apple has indeed been working with Qualcomm and Verizon. It could very well be that Apple has developed a CDMA version of the iPhone for Verizon.

Apple has officially confirmed its long rumored end-of-January event. The event will be held on January 27th and will take place at 1pm EST time at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. As usual, Apple is giving no hint as to what will specifically be unveiled but is teasing the world with an invite that simply says, “Come see our latest creation.” and features an image with different colored paint splotches.

Based on the teaser, it could either be a whole new product–the world is hoping for the rumored tablet–or the next iPhone, or pretty much anything else, given what Apple is capable of. Perhaps we could even see the new AppleTV, given all of the rumors around Apple making deals with content providers?

So, what do we know? So far Apple hasn’t confirmed anything (as always) but we’ve been hearing a 10 or 11-inch Tablet around the internet. We’ve also now heard that HarperCollins is apparently negotiating with Apple to make electronic books available for Apple’s rumored tablet device.

Perhaps we’ll see a convergence of two devices? Maybe the rumors around the content deals for AppleTV will actually be content deals for the AppleTV and the tablet, with Apple taking over your living room with a new 10-inch tablet that has a monthly fee that brings ALL of your content needs to your device and then can output HDMI to your living room TV?

I can’t wait to see what comes on January 27th. Chances are it’s a tablet of some sort, since some iPhone developers have even mentioned that they were asked by Apple to prepare some of their offerings for a higher-resolution screen.

The bigger question is whether or not the world will embrace this new category. Microsoft has been trying to get users to adopt its tablet PC for years, and now has announced a “new” tablet PC-ish device from HP in its slate PC category. Businesses will no doubt grab onto this slate PC, but what about consumers?

We know that touch is in, but will consumers add yet another device into the mix in the form of a tablet? I know that I’m not sold on having another device to carry around. My iPhone and other mobile devices do more than enough for me, so in my case Apple has to not only create a device, but also create a need.