This week's roundup takes a simple approach on things. We'll take a look at the top platformer games for your Windows Phone. With no rhyme or reason, we tapped half a dozen of the top fifty platformer games. We have a rolling ball, a running dude, ninjas without legs and temples of death. Most are fast paced, entertaining games that are challenging enough to keep you interested without being too frustrating.
Keep in mind that if an app doesn't make the roundup it should not reflect poorly on things. These are just a collection of apps or games that have stood out to us. If we've missed an app that you think should have been included, sound off in the comments. With 100K titles, we'd be scrolling for hours to cover them all in one round up.
Platformance Temple Death (trial version/$.99): With retro styled, pixilated graphics Platformance Temple Death is aptly named. The game calls for you to navigate through ancient temple to rescue a damsel in distress. Along the way you must avoid a wide range of dangers that can easily spoil your day.
Platformance Temple Death has over forty challenges to overcome, zoom feature to see the full map, three difficulty modes, and screenshot capability. You control your player with a virtual joystick and jump button. In just tinkering with Platformance Temple Death, it is a challenging game that is a decent time waster. There is a free trial available and the full copy will run you $.99. You can find Platformance Temple Death here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
ORB ($1.29): ORB is a fast paced platformer game for your Windows Phone where you have to steer a rolling ball across a field of solid tiles. Sounds easy, right? The only issue is that the field of tiles has large gaps that you'll need to navigate around and if that wasn't challenging enough, there are also tiles that are mined. Roll over one of these tiles and lights out.
The path you have to navigate your ball starts out fairly wide and the further you progress, things can get a little on the narrow side. ORB is nicely drawn up, challenging and has some catching background tunes. ORB will run you $1.29 and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Runner7 (trial version/$.99): Runner7 reminds me a lot of the old Mario Brothers games. You have the runner that you navigate across the platform jumping blocks, canyons and diving under obstacles. You don't have the evil mushrooms coming at you but there are bouncing cactuses. All movements are done through a series of taps and swipes.
Runner7 has nine levels with the first being a tutorial to help you get used to the action controls. The retro graphics fit the style of the game but the music may drive some a little crazy. Runner7 isn't a bad game just a little short lived with only nine levels.
There is a free trial version available for Runner7 and the full version runs $.99. You can find Runner7 here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Running Dude (free version/$.99): It seems that most platform games are fast paced and Running Dude is no exception. Running Dude is a gray scale, pixilated game that has you racing from platform to platform. All the way dodging enemies and capturing boosts (jetpacks, mechanical walker, etc) to help you run as far as you can.
Running Dude also throws a few twists along the way like inverting and slanting the screen. You have two gaming modes, an online leaderboard, and plenty of action to keep you busy. There are two versions available for Running Dude available at the Windows Phone Marketplace. An ad-supported free version and a $.99 ad-free version.
Legless Ninja (trial version/$1.49): Legless Ninja is an interest game for your Windows Phone. Graphics have paper cutouts for your ninja (who has no legs) and the ninja stars you collect. You race across a "hand drawn" styled platform with a similar backdrop.
The object is to see how far you can survive by jumping over, ducking under, and dashing past dangers. There are four difficulty levels and awards to be earned (online leaderboard in development). Legless Ninja is a fast paced, challenging game for your Windows Phone.
There is a free trial version available for Legless Ninja and the full version is running $1.49. You can find it all here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Fastball 2 (free version/$.99): Fastball 2, in many ways, is a profile version of ORB. You race a red ball across a platform jumping gaps and obstacles along the way.
Just tap the screen to have the ball jump to avoid all the dangers. Fastball 2 is a multi-level game (130 levels) that progressively becomes more challenging. You even have a store you can choose different ball types from.
There are two versions of FastBall 2 available on the Windows Phone Marketplace. You have a free, ad-supported version and a $1.99 ad-free version.
So there you have it. A round-up of some of the top platformer games over at the Windows Phone Marketplace. You also have Doodle Jump, Gravity Guy, MonsterUP, Escape from Heaven and many more quality platformer games on the Marketplace. If you have a favorite, sound off in the comments and let us know what you like.
While we had hoped to announce the winners of the Windows Phone Central Ringtone Contest yesterday, judging proved to be more difficult than expected. We had a lot of quality entries submitted over in our Forums Discussion. Nonetheless, after listening to all the entries our Ringtone Contest Winners are:
All have won a Nokia Play 360! We are dispatching emails to get everyone's shipping information and will get the Nokia Play headed their way shortly.
We would also like to extend our congratulations to Elvis7 and Kyle H for being randomly selected for our weekly prizes, WPCentral Accessory Store gift card, during the contest period.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest and if you didn't win, don't give up hope. We've got a few more contests up our sleeves for next month.
Update: It has come to our attention that one of the entries selected as a winning entry may not be original content, which was a requirement. That entry is under review and we will update the post shortly.
Update II: Okay... we've review things and the ringtone in question was not original content and disqualified. We've looked over the entries that and have chosen our third winner. Congrats to all.
We’ve got a pair of interesting games for you to take into the weekend: Dead Trigger, a first-person zombie shooter with awesome graphics, and Kingdom Rush, a slick tower defense game that made a big splash when it was initially released on iPad.
Zombie-shooting games are a pretty well-worn genre in the iTunes App Store, but Dead Trigger sets itself apart first and foremost by carrying great graphics. The game was created by the same developer that made the recently released Shadowgun, another beautiful title using the Unity Engine, and like that game, it brings lots of shooter action in great 3-D environments.
Each level in Dead Trigger follows the story of a character working to survive the zombie apocalypse, taking out enemies by blasting them in an attempt to rack up points and big combos. The more accurate you are with your shots, the higher your score as you work through Dead Trigger’s levels. The game’s creators state that there’s 40 hours of content worked into the title, all for a buck.
Strategy title Kingdom Rush started its life as an iPad game, but the title is finally available on iPhone as well. A fantasy-themed tower defense game, Kingdom Rush includes a mix between towers and special abilities that players can use to stop incoming goblins and defend their territory from attack. Killing enemies earns players more gold, and that money can be invested in upgrading towers to make them more powerful.
In addition to just using towers to fight off enemies, players also are able to place small groups of soldiers to block enemy advances. Strategic use of soldiers, plus special magic powers like meteor strikes, are key to taking down enemies and pulling down the best scores. There’s also Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards.
Ximad has released some interesting games for our Windows Phone such as Bubble Birds, Pandas vs. Ninjas and De-Bugs Pool. Ape The Wall follows suit and is another entertaining game from Ximad that has hit the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The object of Ape The Wall is to guide your ape up the sides of buildings, canyons, or trees. All the while avoiding balconies, satellite dishes, alley cats, coyotes, tree limbs and various objects that mysteriously drop from above. There are two game modes and a hand full of power-ups to help you climb higher.
All in all, Ape The Wall is an entertaining game from Ximad and a nice time waster.
The main menu of Ape The Wall has options to enter the game, access the game's settings (sound/music on/off), view the high scores (Scoreloop integration) and exit the game. When you make the jump to play the game you have to game modes to choose from, Survival and Campaign.
Survival is simply that... climbing and surviving for as long as you can. The Campaign Mode has ten levels in the Urban setting that has you climbing to reach a goal.
Within each mode you have a choice of scenes to choose as well. Survival has a Urban, Forest, Canyon and a "Coming Soon" scene. The Campaign mode has the Urban scene and the other three are marked "Coming Soon".
Game play is simple. As the ape climbs, just tap the screen to have him jump from one side of the screen to the other to avoid the dangers. Along the way you can jump on eagles, airplanes and owls to fly you up the screen. You can jump on the cats, lizards and bears up the screen as well.
Overall, Ape The Wall is a fun game. Animations and graphics are nicely done, game play is challenging enough to keep you interested, and with the two game modes and multiple scenes there is plenty of gaming to prevent the game from getting stale too quickly.
The only nit I have with the game is that there are too many ads. The banner ad isn't that annoying but the transition ads can get old. You do have a skip button to shorten the interruption and I understand the need for ads but still it would be nice if you could dial it back a little.
Ape The Wall is a free, ad supported game that you can grab here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
While Facebook is the world's largest social networking site with nearly 1 billion users, newcomer Pinterest is giving the site a run for its money. Pinterest has become something of a showcase for people's wants — the go-to site for posting what wedding dress you'd like to wear, or what cupcakes you want to eat. Rather than cede that market to Pinterest, Facebook appears ready to compete with it via its new "Want" button.
As of now, though the button appears in the code, the functionality is not yet working. After trying to add a Want button to his site, web developer Tom Waddington told Mashable, "The button displays on the site, but clicking it shows an error message. Facebook hasn't enabled any apps to publish Wants yet."
So, is Facebook currently testing a "Want" button? Only the company knows for sure. But this little datamined nugget seems to suggest that the social network is itching to give retailers a hand in better connecting you with the products they sell.
[Tom Waddington via Mashable]
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
Very Important People. That is what VIP means to everyone, but what is a Windows Phone VIP Ambassador?
Microsoft created a training website called Expertzone, where Retail Sales Professionals could log in and take training courses on selling Microsoft products. In 2010, Microsoft created the Windows Phone VIP program and BIll Bush was at the helm building a new Windows Phone community. The program has grown to over 13,000 VIP's and nearly 100 Windows Phone Ambassadors.
Retail sales professionals can join this exclusive site to get first hand knowledge, special events, contests, and fellow windows phone users to bond with. With a small amount of users of Windows Phone, there was an even smaller amount of sales associates that actually knew anything about the OS. With the Expertzone site, new employee's train to learn about key features and talk to real windows phone users for advice on problems they were having, how to demo properly, and enter some really cool exclusive contests. The whole point of the program is to reward those individuals who really love windows phones by giving them more knowledge, exclusive meetups, rewards like t-shirts, pins, and phones. Their community is growing strong and keeps growing.
Microsoft is now upgrading the program to Windows Phone Advisors, where a current WP VIP's can refer other associates who want to become an Advisor.
The role of a Windows Phone Advisor is being the go-to guy/girl for Windows Phone at their work. They are the "experts" because of their knowledge and have gone above and beyond to represent Windows Phone. They also train their fellow sales associates on windows phone and customers.
This program is something special because they are getting dedicated, passionate fans of Windows Phones who sell them excited about Windows Phone. Knowing you belong to a larger community where you can talk to about the various devices and have the other people completely understand what you are talking about is a great feeling.
Microsoft understands they are the low-man on the totem pole,and this program gives them an amazing opportunity to get direct feedback from the people who sell their phones. They get insight to what customers are saying, what they like, don't like, have trouble with, etc... and they have time to react to their thoughts. Maybe that is why Windows Phone 8 might be taking longer, they are listening and changing things for the better!
If you sell phones, go check out Expertzone, and join the VIP Advisor program! Help spread the Windows Phone love!
The 2012 Apple Design Awards were interesting because of the fantastic apps that got the exposure and recognition of an ADA. They were also interesting in what they revealed about Apple priorities and predilections when it came to the award selections.
In the Mac and iPhone categories, 2 our of 3 of the winners were games. In the Educational category, both winners were as much fun as they were facts. In the iPad category, one of the games was counterpointed by a music app that's also a lot of fun. Games and game-like books and experiences don't represent the majority of the App Store, but they represented the majority of the winners.
Apple also pointed out more than once when a title was exclusive to iOS. With the recent porting of Instagram, Instapaper, and Flipboard to Android, and some of the reaction surrounding those ports, platform-exclusivity seems more valuable than ever.
There's an argument to be made that platform specific apps will inevitably have an advantage. They don't have to support lowest common denominator features and can take advantage of platform specific API. They can also be more iOS-like because of it. That no doubt holds a lot of appeal.
Smart in-app purchasing was highlighted as well. Not so much the what but the how. For example, Paper by 53 was praised for letting users test tools before buying them.
Likewise, National Parks providing the option to buy and download additional content, as part of their overall experience, was lauded.
The cleverness of animation also attracted attention. When something didn't just appear, but moved, layered, transitioned, and otherwise delighted the eye, it was called out. Apple paid a lot of attention to animation in the iOS UI, and used it to help users feel oriented and give them time to consider or reconsider how they were moving through apps. But they always added a layer of eye candy on top of that. And they're enjoying it when developers add the same level of consideration and polish.
Simplicity was highlighted in an unlikely place -- the visual design of a game. That everything possible was removed until only the essential elements absolutely needed to play remained, and that that was used to establish atmosphere, set mood, and enhance the experience was specifically mentioned.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of apps, Apple carefully considered and chose 11 to honor with Design Awards. Considering why Apple chose them is a worthwhile mental exercise, if not in the specifics, then in the overall trends and spirit.
Everything you need to know about Apple's 5th generation iPhone 4S
Apple's 5th generation iPhone 4S was announced on October 4, 2011. While the iPhone 4S looks like the previous year's iPhone 4, it has a a faster processor, better optics, a new antenna array, and Siri, Apple personal virtual assistant, making it an impressive upgrade.
Yesterday, Apple threw this little event called WWDC, where the tech giant showed off many new things, one being a revamped Maps app in iOS 6. The good thing about the revamped Maps app is its much improved look and functionality. The bad news is, not every iPhone user will get the chance to use it.
Yes, you heard correct people. It looks like Apple will have some fragmentation issues with this new feature. Word is the awesome features that were announced in the new Maps won’t be supported on hardware released prior to 2011. To be brief, you’ll need at least A5-enabled iOS devices to use Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation. So in simple terms, you’re out of luck if you don’t have an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 (wipe that grin off your face Android fans). Apple made this clear on the previews page, in fine print of course. Here’s how it reads:
Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation will be available only on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 or later”, says the fine print. Furthermore, “some features may not be available in all countries or all areas.
This is not only surprising, but also a bit disappointing. I understand the limitation that previous iPhone’s may have when it comes to 3D graphics, which doesn’t allow for the new Maps application to work properly. That being said, it doesn’t explain why turn-by-turn navigation isn’t offered. I’m sure folks can live without the 3D maps, but not being able to use turn-by-turn navi will piss many people off – especially, since it’s been a feature iPhone users have waited for forever.
It's not thinner, it's not lighter, it's not perceptibly faster; indeed the new iPad sacrifices all of those things in the pursuit of one ferocious goal -- to be better.
The new iPad is just that. Not iPad 3. Not iPad HD. Certainly not iPad 2S. It's the 3rd generation tablet from Apple, released March 16, 2012, and the simplicity and focus of the name tells you almost everything you need to know about the product.
The iPad. Better than any iPad -- any tablet -- that's come before. That's not to say there aren't compromises or criticisms, because there are plenty of both. But everything about the new iPad confirms once again how Apple envisions the future of personal computing, and how they'll continuously, relentlessly drive themselves, the industry, and the world around them towards that future by sheer force of will, audacity of engineering, and discipline of design.
Whether that future, and this iPad, is for everyone remains the question. The greater your focus, the more you exclude from your field of vision. Did Apple manage to strike the right balance?
The new iPad
The good Eye popping Retina display and super fast LTE make words and pictures pixel perfect, and web pages and videos lightning fast.
The bad If you don't care for Retina or LTE, it's not a compelling upgrade over the iPad 2.
The conclusion Judged in a vacuum, the new iPad is incredible technology wrapped in gorgeous design at an unbeatable price. Taken in context, the new iPad will appeal most to “firsts”. First time tablet buyers, first generation iPad owners looking to upgrade, and first adopters who simply want the future in their hands today. If any of those describe you, get the new iPad.
Previously on iMore
The new iPad builds on the foundation of what came before. For a full, more contextual view of the evolution of Apple's tablet platform, see our previous reviews.
Design-wise, the new iPad is almost identical to the iPad 2, only very slightly thicker and heavier. 0.03 inches (0.6 mm) thicker, to be exact, and 0.11 pounds (51 g) heavier.
That's not a bad thing. The iPad 2 was the absolute best tablet of 2011. Wisely, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel or impose change simply for change's sake, Apple chose to address those things about the iPad it wanted to make better.
A Retina display denser at its size than anything seen in a consumer product before. LTE radios that outperform many home internet connections. A camera with not only a proper lens but a good one. And an Apple A5X chipset to bring it all together and bind it.
Retina display
When the original iPad launched, I called it the iPhone gone IMAX and that's exactly what it felt like. The iPhone's then 480x320 screen just seemed small and cramped by comparison. Then Apple introduced the iPhone 4 and the 960x640 Retina display (technically HiDPI) and everything changed. Suddenly small was sharp and cramped was clear, and while the iPad and even the iPad 2 was still bigger, the display wasn't better. It was quantity but not quality. Seeing and reading and watching on the iPhone 4 was harder but suddenly more relaxing and enjoyable.
Now the iPad has a Retina display as well, 2042x1536 at 264ppi, and once again it's biggerand better. It's sharp without being small, clear without being cramped.
Some people have used the metaphor of putting on glasses -- of the Retina screen being so good it's like they can focus for the first time. That's not entirely it though. I have a feeling the Retina display goes deeper than that. It's so good your brain is no longer distracted, no longer filling in details or ignoring jagged edges. You can just relax and enjoy, read and watch.
Apps have to take advantage of it, of course. Any graphics still rendered at the old 1024x768 size won't look any sharper or clearer. They'll make the new iPad look just like the old ones.
A regular graphic (1x) will simply be rendered with more (4) pixels per point on a Retina display, unless designers create proper Retina (2x) resources
When you get a fully Retina experience, however, it's transformative. Not as much as an old Standard Definition (SD) TV compared to a 1080p High Definition (HD) display, because for most people that involved the simultaneous jump from CRT tubes to LCD or Plasma flat panels. It's more like going from standard 480p to high definition 1080p web video. Like going from pulp newsprint to glossy magazine print. Everything is smoother yet more textured, cleaner yet more detailed.
There's going to come a point in the not-to-distant future when almost all displays are HiDPI, the way almost all TV shows are now available in HD and almost all magazines now use high quality printing. The new iPad simply marks the beginning.
Even iPhone-specific apps -- which the iPad can run but Apple boxes or shows at 2x to shame developers into making proper, native iPad interfaces -- now make use of Retina iPhone graphics when available. It's still not great. It's still double chunky. But it's no longer fuzzy.
Since the new iPad's Retina display is physically too dense to be shown off on anything other than a similarly HiDPI display, I put a macro lens on my iPhone 4S and took some close up photos to highlight just what that many pixels look like packed that closely together. Holding the new iPad at a distance, you don't see the pixels at all, of course. You just see the content. And that's precisely the point.
Non-Retina iPad 2 icon on the left, Retina new iPad icon on the right
Non-Retina iPad 2 text on the right, Retina new iPad text on the left
Non-Retina illustration on the left, Retina new iPad illustration on the right
LTE and HSPA+ radios
Apple has greatly increased the cellular data speed of the new iPad. 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is available on AT&T and Verizon in the US, and Rogers, Telus, and Bell in Canada. It enjoys a theoretical maximum speed of 72Mbps. There's no international LTE support for Australia, Asia, or Europe yet, perhaps due to the differences in LTE segments around the world. However, the new iPad also has dual HSPA+ for any GSM carrier that supports it (including AT&T in the US), which can reach a theoretical maximum of 42Mbps.
Theoretical means what you get in a lab when alone, sitting on top of the tower. In the real world we're often lucky to see half the theoretical speeds, and often considerably less.
In my tests, I've gotten anywhere from 12Mbps to 58Mbps down, and 10Mbps to 15Mbps up. HSPA+ has been 2 to 3 times faster than the iPad 2's HSPA 7.2 radio as well, at least on downloads. I've gotten between 10Mbps and 15Mbps down, though uploads have been disappointing, rarely if ever exceeding 1 Mbps.
Streaming 1080p video over LTE is fast and smooth, starting immediately and playing through without stuttering or buffering. On HSPA+, it took longer and typically had to stop to buffer mid-stream.
You can turn off LTE in Settings, and the handoff is extremely smooth and quick -- the LTE indicator goes off and the 3G (or 4G on AT&T... sigh) comes on. Switching back from HSPA+ to LTE is problematic. You have to either wait a few minutes, stay in Airplane mode for a while, or power cycle the iPad to regain an LTE connection. This isn't unique to the iPad, however, and something LTE Android users have been dealing with for over a year. Hopefully future chipsets will enable faster LTE re-engagement.
Tethering using the built-in Personal Hotspot feature (not currently supported by AT&T) was fantastic. It rivaled a home or office Wi-Fi connection. While it functions the same as the iPhone Personal Hotspot, I'd much rather use up my iPad data and battery while tethering, and leave my iPhone charged for phone calls and messaging. Also, because the iPad has an LTE radio and a much bigger battery, you can tether faster than an iPhone and for longer than any other smartphone.
In our tests, with the iPad tethered to Rogers LTE and the screen off, battery drained at roughly 4-5% an hour, significantly less the much smaller capacity iPhone 4S tethered on Rogers 4G, which was closer to 15%.
LTE and HSPA+ performance in general is entirely dependent on where you are and when, and how many people you're sharing the cell tower and backhaul internet connection with, however, so results can and will vary considerably.
Also, faster and less frustrating internet connections mean faster and less noticeable data consumption. If movies keep timing out and apps seem like they take forever to download, you're more likely to switch to Wi-Fi. Forgetting you're on LTE or HSPA+ can lead you to reaching your data cap without realizing it. So plan your data and monitor your usage accordingly.
LTE is a powerhouse, likely faster than many home broadband connections. HSPA+ is no slouch either when it comes to downloads, though uploads are disappointing.
Bluetooth 4.0
Apple previously added Bluetooth 4.0 to MacBooks and the iPhone 4S, and now it's come to the iPad as well. It's inclusion doesn't mean much right now, since there are very few accessories that support it, but its potential is intriguing.
Bluetooth 4.0 includes "low power" and "smart ready" attributes that open the door for peripherals running on a simple coin-cell battery, like you might find in a watch. It can connect to smart accessories, including everything from a pressure sensitive stylus to a heart rate monitor, by providing a channel for all sorts of different data types. It also has better range.
We'll have to wait for Bluetooth 4.0 accessories to start hitting the market in larger numbers, however, to see what real impact it makes.
5 megapixel, 1080p camera
Apple has been paying a lot of attention to cameras lately. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the difference between the abysmal iPad 2 rear camera and the new iSight-branded camera on the new iPad. This iSight camera boasts 5 megapixels, equivalent to the iPhone 4camera, but with many of the iPhone 4S improvements, including a f/2.4 lens and 1080p video-recording capabilities.
In our photography editor, Leanna Lofte's tests, the new optics on the iPad's iSight camera picked up a lot more detail, and produced much better bokeh (out of focus area), with a shallower depth of field. Images had much more "pop" as well.
Video was likewise improved, with full 1080p support and built-in image stabilization. Again this is similar to, if not quite as good as the iPhone 4S camera.
While most people probably won't use the iPad camera most of the time, if you're using your iPad when something important happens -- a child or loved one does something adorable, or you simply stumble across something you need to remember -- you can now take a picture or shoot a video and get good results. It's opportunistic, but since it could well be the "best camera" you have with you at a given moment, it's important that it's finally usable.
As to the front-facing FaceTime camera, it remains condemned to VGA resolution which now fails to take advantage of the high definition Retina display. Macs have begun shipping with FaceTime HD cameras. The new iPad should have as well.
The original iPad debuted Apple's first-ever homespun Apple A4 system-on-a-chip (SoC). The iPad 2 followed up with the Apple A5, a dual-core, ARM Cortex A9. Instead of an Apple A6 chipset, however, the third generation iPad launched with a souped up version of the Apple A5 dubbed the Apple A5X. While still a dual-core CPU (Central Processing Unit), the Apple A5X has a quad-core GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), powered as usual by Imagination's PowerVR technology, and a full 1GB of RAM.
In practice that may sound like it should lead to a faster new iPad. However, a lot of that power is directed into supporting the new Retina display. 4 times as many pixels means 4 times as many pixels to buffer and push around, after all. So, instead of being faster, it's working harder to maintain the same speed.
That's impressive, though it's not as perceptibly impressive. Games will benefit from the quad-core GPU, and app and web page caching will benefit from the extra RAM. Overall, however, web pages render about as fast as they did on the iPad 2, apps launch about as fast as they did on the iPad 2, and overall the responsiveness is about as good as it was on the iPad 2. Everything is just much, much better looking.
No doubt matching the iPad 2's performance while adding in the Retina display was a necessity for Apple. Selling a slower iPad would be much harder than selling a very slightly thicker, very slightly heavier new iPad. And matching the iPad 2's performance while adding a Retina display is a remarkable achievement.
However, there are some people, like our own senior editor, Georgia, who would have preferred the same screen as the iPad 2 if it meant web pages and apps would load and perform 4 times faster. It's similar to people who would rather watch fast loading, fast playing low-res video than wait for slower loading, often buffering HD video on the web.
Conversely, Designers, photographers, readers, videophiles, and many others are no doubt ecstatic over the better looking, same performance compromise.
Some have also criticized the Apple A5X for making the new iPad warmer to the touch. In over a week of hard use, and many tests, I found that the new iPad does get warmer than previous generations. I noticed that mostly because previous generation iPads were always freakishly cold no matter how hard I pushed them. Even going all out, on LTE, playing hard core games, AirPlay mirroring them, and tethering, my iPad never got warmer than iPhones have always gotten when tethering, charging, or using GPS navigation. Nor did the new iPad get anywhere near as hot as MacBooks get playing Flash video.
In the new iPad, Apple has included a much higher capacity, 42.5 watt-hour (11,666 mAh) lithium-polymer battery. It's rated for the same 10-hours of Wi-Fi battery life as the iPad 2, and an impressive 9-hours of 4G LTE battery life. Since Wi-Fi battery life remains the same, and LTE battery life is 90% of Wi-Fi battery life, it stands to reason most of that extra capacity is going towards powering that big, bright Retina display.
Like with the Apple A5X processor and performance, there are some who might have preferred the old, standard density display with this new power capacity, and enjoyed the ability to go 17 hours on a single charge. But again, Apple was intent on pushing the state-of-the-art of digital display technology, and this was just one more area required to play a supporting role.
Charging the almost double-capacity battery of the new iPad also takes almost twice as long. Roughly 9 hours. That makes it more of a plan-ahead and leave-it-overnight activity than previous iPads.
Experience
The late Steve Jobs established the score card by which any new iPad must be judged. He did it in January of 2010 when he introduced the product category -- it's ability to outperform both a smartphone and a laptop in the key areas of browsing (web), email, photos, video, music, games (apps), and eBooks (reading).
Browsing (web)
Because it brings so many different elements together in such a dynamic way, the web more than anything else has the potential to exemplify just what an experiential difference the new iPad can make.
Browsing the web on an iPad has always been a fantastic experience, primarily due to multitouch. There an intimacy and tactility to swiping, pinching, and tapping your way through a website that keyboard, mouse, and more distant displays could never match. The new iPad makes all of that even better. Text automatically looks fantastic and if the site is using TypeKit or a similar font system, it can look positively illuminated.
Safari text on an new iPad Retina display
If a website supports HiDPI images, the level of clarity and detail you can see, especially in photography, is unbelievable. If a website is serving 1080p content, video looks likewise spectacular.
Some of those "ifs" are fairly big, however. While you can take text almost for granted already, there's no standard for implementing images or video yet. Designers are pretty much on their own when it comes to figuring out how to support Retina display and HiDPI screens on the web. Whether or not you can get HD video is also dependent on the content creation and delivery systems providing it. Low res images and video will still look like low res images and video on the new iPad, and painfully so.
The optional LTE and HSPA+ cellular data speeds also make a qualitative difference. Everything from pages to videos load fast, sometimes even faster than home internet connections. It means you use your data up faster as well, of course, but if you work or spend a lot of time away from Wi-Fi, and you need performance, it's there for you.
Conversely, while the Apple A5X chipset performs better on SunSpider JavaScript tests, it's not incredibly better. In general, web pages seem to render at about the same speed as they did on the iPad 2. Apple is using the more powerful processor to support the denser Retina display, not to significantly improve Safari performance.
Since Adobe has officially abandoned mobile Flash development, there's no point even mentioning Flash on the iPad anymore. (You can still use workarounds if a site you need hasn't made an app or updated for HTML5 yet.) There's still no access to media or documents from Safari, however. So, for example, you still can't upload a picture to Facebook or a video to YouTube unless you leave Safari and use the Facebook or YouTube app (or an app that supports their services).
Despite that, despite sites not getting rendered perceptibly faster, if you're on LTE or HSPA+ the web loads much faster, and with the Retina display, it can look amazingly good.
With the new iPad, Apple absolutely has the best web browsing experience on the planet right now.
Email
The email reading experience benefits from the high quality Retina display text, and attachments download faster on LTE and HSPA+ than they do on older generation iPads. It's an appreciable improvement, if not as spectacular as web browsing or some of the other categories.
For triaging email on the go, an iPhone or smartphone remains a more mobile solution. For pounding out large quantities of long messages, a laptop still wins out. For browsing and shooting off quick replies from the living room, coffee shop, or conference table, the iPad is still a great option, but not significantly better than it was before.
Photos
Photography looks spectacular on the new iPad. Not only does the pixel density of the Retina display make them look less like newspaper photos and more like high end magazine photos, but the colors are brighter and better than previous generation iPads as well. It's still an In-plane Switching (IPS), Light-Emitting Diode (LED) backlit panel, it's just a better panel. And the 5 megapixel camera means you can snap pictures if you ever need to and not be totally embarrassed by the results.
Apple also used the introduction of the new iPad to release iPhoto for iOS [$4.99 -Download now], and complete the mobile version of their iLife suite. iPhoto runs on both iPhone and iPad but the larger iPad screen feels much better suited to photo manipulation. The interface itself has been divisive, with as many photo- and design-concious users liking it as not. It's definitely less elegant and discoverable than typical Apple apps, and it's a very different take on image editing than Adobe's recently released Photoshop Touch [$9.99 -Download link].
For professionals who want to carry portfolios around with them or touch-up images on the go and for first time users who simply want an easy way to fix up and share their family or vacation photos, the fantastic new Retina photo rendering and powerful new photo editing, combined with the existing screen size and portability of the iPad, make the already best in class experience even better.
Both the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 could load 1080p video, but they couldn't play it in its native resolution. (They were constrained to roughly 540p and 576p at 16:9 respectively). The new iPad can natively display 1080p content with room to spare (1150p at 16:9 to be precise). Analogies could be drawn to going from a 720p to 1080p television, but it's not the same. You typically don't sit with a TV in your lap, and from 10-feet away, most televisions aren't really physically big enough to make the difference in resolution apparent.
With the new iPad is, the difference is readily apparent.
If you'e a videophile, looking at 1080p video on the new iPad is a revelation. It's crystal clear and, like with photography, the picture is vivid and vibrant.
Thanks to LTE, you can watch it almost instantly, and without any annoying pauses to re-buffer. That lack of frustration, which would often cause people to abandon 3G and run back to Wi-Fi, may lead you to watch so much video you blow through your data cap without even realizing it. (How incredible is it that that's now a problem?)
On the content creation side, Apple has update iMovie [$4.99 - Download now] to coincide with the new iPad release. The update mainly added Retina display support and more consumer-friendly features like a movie trailer maker, but along with the recently releasedAvid Studio for iPad [$4.99 - Download now], it shows video editing is establishing itself strongly on the platform. Like with video viewing, the Retina display allows you to see much more detail when making edits, especially for HD movies, and LTE means the speed is there to post it to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other popular sharing sites. It's no replacement for a Mac running Final Cut Pro X or a Windows box running Adobe Premiere, but for some things it's experientially better than a Mac running iMovie or a Windows box running low end editing software.
Apple invented the iPod, developed iTunes, and drove the digital music revolution, but while they've spent a lot of time and effort improving the iPad's display and camera, they haven't done much to improve its audio capabilities... pretty much ever. In terms of 3.5mm stereo jack and mono speaker, the iPad has remained frozen in time since it's introduction. While there were rumors the speaker might have at least gotten a volume boost this time around, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Arguably what the original iPad had was enough. Put a great pair of headphones on and you're in for some amazing audio. For anyone who needs or simply wants to use the built-in speaker, however, no such luck. You're left to crane your neck and cup your hand, or buy a 3rd party speaker like the excellent Jawbone JAMBOX [$179- Buy now].
BlackBerry has always had good speakers and while gimmicky, HTC has gone in with Beats by Dre for their audio. Hopefully Apple will give audio some of the same attention they've given optics in the near future.
Because of it's size, the iPad is better for browsing and discovering new music, whether that be exploring your collection in the Music app or expanding it in the iTunes Store app. It's also great for browsing podcast catchers like Instacast HD [$4.99 - Download now], or one of several streaming audio options like Slacker [Free - Download now] or Rdio [Free -Download now]. Because of it's size, however, the iPad still isn't as portable as an iPhone or iPod (or other smartphone or MP3 player). Sure album art looks great, but since music isn't primarily a visual activity, portability trumps presentation. Even three generations in, the iPad isn't as good as the smartphone for audio consumption.
Creation is another story. Apple's already phenomenal GarageBand for iOS [$4.99 -Download now] was also updated for the new iPad and while the Retina graphics are nice, the new Jam mode is fantastic. It lets you collaborate wirelessly with a group of friends and really take your music to a new social level. With apps like the astonishing djay for iPad [$19.99 - Download now], mixing is as good as making, and the iPad easily trumps the cramped screen of the iPhone and gives consumer desktop music software a run for its money.
Thanks to hardcore titles like Real Racing HD 2 [$6.99 - Download now], Infinity Blade II[$6.99 - Download now], and Modern Combat 3 [$6.99 - Download now], and casual titles like Angry Birds HD [$2.99 - Download now], Draw Something [$0.99 - Download now], and Cut the Rope [$1.99 - Download now], the iPad 2 was already a portable gaming powerhouse. While it couldn't match dedicated gaming consoles for pure polygon count or precision of control (multitouch just isn't a gamepad), it easily could in terms of sheer quantity, variety, and plain old fun. The new iPad improves on that in two obvious areas. The Retina display just looks fantastic, and games that take advantage of it now look better than 1080p. The quad-core graphics in the new Apple A5 chip also help push the polygon count and should lead to a generation of even better gaming. Angry Birds Space [$2.99 -Download now] is already out. Infinity Blade: Dungeonswill be out soon-ish as well.
Smartphones remain more convenient when waiting in line or otherwise out and about, and PCs will always have keyboards and upgradable graphics cards for incredibly complex über-gaming. In between the two, the iPad is now better than ever for when you're on the couch, watching something else on TV, or at a coffee shop or on a bus or train and just want to game. The bigger screen makes gameplay easier, and the longer battery life means not draining your phone or laptop. So while it might not be better, the new iPad is better than before.
Keynote was the app Steve Jobs used to give his industry leading presentations, and it works remarkably well on the new iPad.
When it comes to other apps, what Steve Jobs said during an Apple conference call remains true -- the 9.7-inch screen allows for a different class of software, not just smartphone apps stretched out or PC apps crammed down. Apple wants high quality, highly optimized apps on the iPad, and by any measure they've achieved that goal. Their latest figures put iPad-specific apps in the App Store at over 170,000. (Total app count, almost all of which can run on the iPad in boxed or 2x mode, is over 550,000.)
Retina display and faster LTE and HSPA+ networking both work to improve that experience on the new iPad. It's an iterative improvement to be sure, and for many apps it won't make a difference. Arguably, Apple's introducing of iOS 5 and iCloud -- both available on previous generation iPad's as well -- are far more meaningful for the platform. In that regard, the new iPad hardware probably won't lead to a new generation of better iPad apps, but the new iPad hardware will be able to exploit the new generation of iPad apps better than any that came before.
Like with the iLife apps listed above, Apple has already updated their iWork office apps to work with the new iPad: Pages for word-processing and layout [$9.99 - Download now],Numbers for spreadsheets [$9.99 - Download now], and Keynote for presentations [$9.99 - Download now].
Reading is what benefits the most from the Retina display. While 1080p video is nice and HiDPI photos look great, motion and contiguous regions of color are far more forgiving to low resolution than is plain, black and white text. That's why seeing beautiful type and reading articles and books on the new iPad is such a huge improvement. I've said it before but it's worth repeating -- it's like going from old, smudgy newsprint to glorious, glossy magazine pages.
Apple updated iBooks [Free - Download now] immediately, and Amazon has updatedKindle for iPad [Free - Download now] as well. As usual, Kindle has the much bigger library, but iBooks looks much, much better. And it's not just the text -- pictures in everything from illustrated kids books to text books to full on comics books, if they've been updated for Retain, look absolutely sumptuous. The detail, the clarity, and the color are astounding.
App Store apps that have updated for Retina, like Instapaper, look fantastic on the new iPad and read even better.
RSS apps like The Early Edition 2 [$4.99 - Download now] read later apps like Instapaper[$4.99 - Download now] and social aggregation apps like Flipboard [Free - Download now] all look unbelievably good (at least the text does, most web sources aren't yet serving Retina-ready images for them to make use of).
The only exception is, of course, most magazines. Not only haven't they updated for Retina display, it's going to be problematic for them to do so. Rather than actually make iPad apps or iPad content to begin with, they relied on a dodgy Adobe InDesign exporter to spit out large, graphic versions of every page of their magazine (even when those pages were primarily text). That not only made their downloads wastefully large, but it stuck them in low resolution. If they simply up the resolution of their InDesign exports for Retina display, their magazines will become prohibitively large.
Print magazines aren't going to get more popular, and digital magazines aren't going to get less popular. It's well beyond embarrassing.
Magazines aside, the new iPad reclaims it's position as the best way to read on an electronic device. It's almost as sharp as an iPhone again (and far sharper than many other smartphones), and far more intimate than reading on a computer. I often find myself saving articles on my iPhone or MacBook to read on the iPad, even to read immediately and not later, because the experience is really that much better.
iOS 5.1
The first iPads shipped with iOS 3.2, which introduced the iPad-sized interface to iOS, and iPad 2 shipped with iOS 4.2 which re-unified the platform and brought features like multitasking to the iPad for the first time. The third-generation iPad shipped with iOS 5.1, which is nowhere near as ambitious as previous versions, but doesn't really need to be. The iPad got iOS 5 day and date with the iPhone last October. It was a huge release that included Notification Center, iMessage, Twitter integration, Reminders, and perhaps most importantly of all -- iCloud. So the interface has been introduced, the platform re-unified, the heavy updating is all done. (At least until iOS 6 ships presumably later this year.)
While the new iPad didn't get Apple's virtual personal assistant, Siri, it did get voice-to-text Dictation. Tap the microphone button on the keyboard, talk, let Apple's servers do their work, and the words appear (almost all the time.)
That's not just a convenience either, but it's a big deal when it comes to accessibility, which is an area Apple continues to lead in and something that should become more important to everyone.
FaceTime wasn't updated to allow for LTE or 3G video calling, or video conference, which would have been exceptional on the Retina display. Also, there are still no Clock, Weather, Stocks, or Voice Memo apps on the iPad.
There is a newly redesigned Camera app, and you can now delete photos from Photo Stream. There are some new water-themed wallpapers for the iPad, and the Music app gains the same podcast controls the iPhone and iPad app have had for years.
Although not iOS 5.1 specific, alongside the software release, Apple updated their servers to allow for 50MB over-the-air iTunes and App Store downloads, and the US received the ability to re-download previously purchased movies via Movies in the Cloud.
The new iPad starts at the same $499 price point as the previous generation iPad 2, and the new 4G LTE model costs the same additional $130 as the previous generation 3G model. Storage capacities remain the same as well, as do black and white color options.
The new iPad is fully compatible with almost all apps and games currently available in the App Store.
Accessory compatibility is tricker. Since the new iPad is slightly thicker and heavier, skin cases and other cases that were tightly moulded to the iPad 2 design probably won't fit properly on the new iPad. Looser, pouch-style cases should be fine.
Screen protectors and Apple Smart Covers should also be compatible, but some early 2011 third-party magnetic covers may not work properly due to differences in polarity.
Cables, Bluetooth peripherals, and other accessories should work properly but double-check with the manufacturer or retailer if you have any questions or concerns.
Conclusion
Back of new iPad.
The new iPad is something of a paradox. In many ways to many people it seems like a modest, iterative update to last year's iPad 2. But that's only because the iPad 2 was such an achievement. Go back in time just a few short years and the 2012 iPad would be science fiction. A display that dense, networking that fast? It would be Star Trek.
It's fitting that such a futuristic product represents so well Apple's vision for the future. A car, to use Steve Jobs' metaphor, quickly slipping ahead of a pack of trucks. Automatic transmission that doesn't allow as much control as the old manual clutch, but makes driving so much easier for so many more people. And now faster and better looking than ever. That's a vision that began with the Apple II, continued with the Mac, and has now finally taken form with the iPad.
There are a lot of compromises in furtherance of that vision, but they're the right ones and the right balance. There are no complex windowing or file systems to get lost in, just full screen apps and a single button that will always take you Home. There are keyboard and gesture shortcuts, and fast app switchers and notification pull downs for advanced users to enjoy, but they're easily ignored by those for whom traditional computers have always been intimidating and off-putting.
For anyone who doesn't want a computer but just wants their web sites and email, photos and videos and music, games and eBooks, the iPad becomes all those things, and now with more detail, splendor, and speed than ever before.
It's not perfect. You can criticize missing features here and there, and the lack of control Apple allows power users who want to manage every aspect of their computing environment. But for power users tired of having to do that management, who want to stop working and just work, those criticisms are elegantly eclipsed.
Judged in a vacuum, the new iPad is incredible technology wrapped in gorgeous design at an unbeatable price. Taken in context, the new iPad will appeal most to “firsts”. First time tablet buyers, first generation iPad owners looking to upgrade, and first adopters who simply want the future in their hands today. If any of those describe you, get the new iPad.
If you have an iPad 2, unless you specifically need a Retina display or LTE/HSPA+ connectivity, there's no reason to upgrade. What you have is still outstanding. (Proven by Apple continuing to sell the 16GB version of the iPad 2 at a discounted $399 / $529 price point.)
If you don't have the iPad 2, consider the new iPad. It's simply the most accessible, most mainstream computing appliance in history made better than ever. If you want something smaller and cheaper, take a look at the BlackBerry PlayBook or Amazon Kindle Fire. If you want something more easily tweaked and with a more desktop-like feature set, look at an Android tablet like the Asus Transformer Prime or wait for Microsoft's Windows 8 tablets to start rolling out later this year.
Then seriously consider the new iPad again before getting any of those. Go to an Apple Store or Apple reseller like Best Buy or Walmart and try it out, touch it, use it. Unless you specifically don't like Apple or have a compelling use-case that an iPad simply can't fill, the new iPad has the most apps, media content, and accessory support available.
It's not thinner, it's not lighter, it's not perceptibly faster; indeed the new iPad sacrifices all of those things in the pursuit of one ferocious goal -- to be better.
7:52 AM
Fastball 2 (free version/$.99): Fastball 2, in many ways, is a profile version of ORB. You race a red ball across a platform jumping gaps and obstacles along the way.
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Zombie-shooting games are a pretty well-worn genre in the iTunes App Store, but Dead Trigger sets itself apart first and foremost by carrying great graphics. The game was created by the same developer that made the recently released Shadowgun, another beautiful title using the Unity Engine, and like that game, it brings lots of shooter action in great 3-D environments.
