The Australian, a major Australian newspaper has prepared for the iPad’s launch by debuting the first Aussie newspaper app. The Australian’s Editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell said the app will allow his newspaper to lead the way in terms of new technology.

And Mitchell isn’t the only one that’s excited about The Australian debuting on the iPad, advertisers are as well. Ads for the first three months of the iPad edition have already sold out including companies like, Commonwealth Bank and Toyota. The Australian is part of News Corporation as is The Wall Street Journal which was one of the first newspapers to come out with an iPad-specific edition. After seeing the success that the iPad has had in the US, it has made it much easier for publishers and advertisers to get behind the iPad as it launches in new countries. And now other local publishers, such as the ABC and Fairfax, are also looking at creating iPad apps.

The iPad launches into Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK next week and in advance of that they have opened up the App Store and the iBookstore. One of the best ways to pass the time while waiting to get your hot little hands on an iPad is to shop for apps! You can load up on tons of free apps as well as some of the essential paid apps and games so that when you sync your iPad for the first time you’re ready to rock.

The iBookstore is also up and running however it seems that international publishing rights are tricky to navigate. For now the only books available for download are free public domain books. I’m sure this will change as Apple negotiates with international publishers, but in the meantime it’s a fantastic excuse to catch up on some classic literature. I think it’s a great idea to sneak a Dickens or an Austen in amongst the Kings and Rowlings on your bookshelves.

Happy shopping!

Naked iPad brings up some really interesting questions about the eBooks available in the App Store. As of right now there are tens of thousands of public domain books available for free in the ePub format through the App store or through Project Gutenberg. And yet those same books are also available through the App store for typical eBook prices. Naked iPad rants that this is taking advantage of book buyers who aren’t aware of the free options.

A search for Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility shows a copy for $3.99 when there are free options. A search for Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days shows a copy for $5.99 when there are free options. In some of these cases the cost might very well be justified if the publisher is providing something extra in the book, perhaps a historical framework, illustrations, or an annotated version. Read the rant for yourself, and keep your eyes out that you’re not paying for books that are available for free unless you are getting an additional value.

Apple is on track to do $40 million in annual sales just from the sales of the iWork apps; Pages, Numbers and Keynote, making them the top earner so far in the App store. It’s been estimated they raked in over $3 million in the first month of sales. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since we’ve seen all three apps have been in the Top Ten apps since the launch of the iPad App store.

As Business Insider says this shows there’s “a real appetite for serious apps on the iPad, a device that many have shrugged off as a toy”. It also means, that third party developers should sit up and take notice. There is a market here to be taken advantage of and there is room  for Microsoft, Google and others to develop “serious apps” for the iPad which is proving itself to be part toy, part workhorse.

As the iPad launch drew closer it was becoming obvious the iPad would prove to be a game changer in the arena of tablet computing, but I don’t know if anyone expected it to be quite as much of a game changer in . . . well, gaming. The iPad delivers a rich gaming experience and there are already more apps in the gaming category than any other category on the app store.

Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, has reportedly told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory and move on to Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the “enemy of the future”. Nintendo has long had great success with it’s mobile gaming devices including the current Nintendo DS, and the iPhone and now iPad are looking to cut into that revenue. In fact, the company admitted yesterday that net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 fell 18 percent to $2.5 billion, the first drop in six years. And recently Nintendo Games expert, Matt Casamassina was recruited to Apple to lead the charge in the gaming department.

It will be interesting to see what moves they make to combat the threat they see from Apple. And it will interesting to see what happens as Apple continues to add more games to the App store.

(Via Times Online)

The Google Mobile app for the iPad has an updated version available on the App store.

The app is now designed for the iPad instead of being just a scaled up version. I use this app quite a bit on my iPhone, especially the voice search function. I don’t see myself getting as much use out of it on the iPad. But it’s good to know it’s there.

By midnight Saturday night Apple had sold 300,000 iPad’s. Smashing success or lukewarm reception? Depends on who you ask.

Many analysts were predicting sales of 700,000 so when faced with those numbers the iPad did less than half of expectations. Compared to the launch of the previous two versions of the iPhone which each did over a million sales day one, the iPad seems to have underperformed.

Or maybe it really was a huge success. We have to remember . . . continue reading

The folks over at Gizmodo have a sneak peek of the new iPad app store that is launching on Saturday morning.

Apple already announced that iPhone apps will work on the iPad either in their standard size centered on the iPad’s much larger screen. Or doubled in size to utilize more of the iPad’s screen real estate. Of course, the ideal apps would be those designed with the iPad in mind. And it appears that hundreds of brand new iPad apps were submitted by developers to Apple in time to be reviewed and launched on Saturday.