Cars.com’s David Thomas speculates that the iPad could prove to be a serious problem for automakers that charge a ransom for rear entertainment systems.

The base iPad, Thomas notes, costs far less than most DVD options offered by automakers. Ford charges $1,995 for a dual-headrest-mounted DVD system in its Flex crossover. In the Acura MDX, its single-screen system, with three wireless headsets and a 9-inch screen, costs $1,900. At $500 a pop, giving two kids their own iPads would cost far less than what the automakers charge for an ICE system.

The Cars.com article mentions some of the advantages of ICE, including being weather-tested to work from -5 to 160 degrees F (-20 to 71 C), and being far less prone to breakage.

Alternatively, if you’re planning a long and unconfortable flight, discover how your iPad can Make Air Travel Considerably Less Terrible.

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Source: Slashdot

Cars.com's David Thomas speculates that [0]the iPad could
prove to be a serious problem for automakers that charge a ransom for
rear entertainment systems. The base iPad, Thomas notes, costs far less
than most DVD options offered by automakers. Ford charges $1,995 for a
[1]dual-headrest-mounted DVD system in its Flex crossover. In the Acura
MDX, its [2] single-screen system, with three wireless headsets and a
9-inch screen, costs $1,900. At $500 a pop, giving two kids their own
iPads would cost far less than what the automakers charge for an ICE
system. The Cars.com article mentions some of the advantages of ICE,
including being weather-tested to work from -5 to 160 degrees F (-20 to
71 C), and being far less prone to breakage.

Most of the time, we don’t really need to own THE newest and coolest gadget that has been released to feel happy and complete; just convincing ourselves that we don’t actually need it is often well enough to make us feel satisfied anyway.

So if after reading this review you still think “what is the purpose of this?”, then there’s probably no reason for you to get an iPad.

Smile, you just saved $500 (sorry, $499)

Hartmut Esslinger, one early superstar of high-tech design, was responsible for the design of Apple devices in the 80s. He then developed together with Steve Jobs a prototype of a touchscreen phone whose main function was to make possible sending digital bank checks though a phone wire. This quite revolutionnary gizmo – remember that we’re then in 1983 – was part of the Snow White design language applied to the IIc and the original Mac.

Was Apple already trying to raise the buzz?

like it or lose it, it’s here, and in images.

> iPad by Apple [official webpage]

> News about the iPad on Google and Twitter

> want more? read this Why the iPad Will Crush Netbooks and Ebook Readers [Industry Analysis] and 8 Things That Suck About the iPad [Dissenting Opinion]

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And for the most skeptikal, I’d recommend to have a look before at those very impressive mockups below of what Chrome OS may look like on a tablet form factor. According to TechCrunch, “the photos have been posted to the official Chromium site (Chromium is the open source project behind Chrome and ChromeOS). And [...] it appears that these mockups were put together by Glen Murphy, Google Chrome’s designer. In other words, there’s a good chance that the final version of Chrome OS will resemble this”.

Stunning. It seems that just as it happened a few month ago with this sudden eBook readers’ frenzy, the tablet war will be the new theater of operations for IT giants, where they’ll demonstrate who the boss is. Apple fired first, but missed. Let’s wait for Google’s answer

[nggallery id=40]

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More on the upcoming Google Tablet (The Chromium Project)

The big news here is that Spotify has launched its mobile version for iPhone and Google Android’s owners! This is somehow surprising, knowing Apple’s usual protectionist habit, that it finally decided to let it in its AppleStore when we know that Spotify is a direct rival to iTunes. Is it a demonstration of good will or did Apple finally realized that the future of music lies within its ability to remain available anytime, anywhere and for free?

The free app allows you to stream any of its nearly 4 million tracks over WiFi or 3G and syncs playlists for playback while disconnected. However, it is available exclusively to Spotify Premium members in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France and Norway (a US launch is expected soon).

[singlepic id=41 w=640 h=480 float=center]

In one of its articles published last month, Mashable highlighs that it is possible to “store up to 3,333 songs in offline mode, making it ideal for listening to your music on the plane. The core selling point, however, remains the same as the desktop app: on demand access to 6 million+ tracks. Another neat feature: it syncs with the desktop via wifi…no need to hook up your USB cable. Even US reviewers are blown away: Wired’s Epicenter blog claims it’s so good that “you’d have to pry it out of my cold, dead iPhone before I’ll delete it from my phone”.

You just read it well: The big attraction of the Spotify app is its ability to store your playlists so you can listen to them while completely offline – on the Underground, on a plane, or wherever. Needless to say that this is a revolution in the music industry. For this, you definitely need wifi, and the foresight to remember to sync your playlists before you leave.

My feeling? I just can’t wait to have Spotify made available for Nokia S60 users… windows mobile users (Kerolic kindly shared a link to a video on which we can see Spotify running on a Nokia S60. It is just gorgeous!)

Read — Spotify on Android
Read — Spotify on App Store
Read — Spotify on Symbian S60