Apple's iPad 2 at Walmart; News Corp subscribers; Canon and Thunderbolt
On the eve of the iPad 2 launch, Apple's latest touchscreen tablet has already shown up on shelves at Walmart, though customers were unable to purchase it. News Corp. announced that it has acquired over 200,000 subscribers to the Wall Street Journal on the iPad and other tablets. Finally, Canon has spoken out in support of Intel's new Thunderbolt interconnect technology.
iPad on shelves
Reports emerged on Thursday that some Walmart retail stores have already begun stocking the iPad 2 on shelves ahead of the device's 5:00 p.m. release on Friday. Customers who attempted to purchase the device, however, have reported that the store's checkout system was unable to process the purchase.
Though, in the past, big box retailers have been known to accidentally sell devices before their scheduled release dates, Apple's strict policies regarding product launches usually prevent such occurrences.
Friday's launch is generally expected to draw crowds, although online orders, which begin at 1 a.m. PT, 4 a.m. ET, and wider distribution to retail outlets such as Walmart, Target and Best Buy could reduce line lengths.
Source: Anthony Carretero
As of 5 p.m. on Thursday, six people were waiting in line at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue retail store in New York City, according to Fortune.
News Corp tablet subscribers
Speaking to reporters in Boston on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal Publisher Les Hinton revealed that the number of paid subscribers to the Journal on tablet devices and e-readers has quadrupled to 200,000 in the past year, Reuters reports.
Hinton said he was pleasantly surprised by the growing number of consumers willing to pay for content on tablets.
"The actual proliferation of these [devices] is so rapid," said Hinton. "What surprised us is that other periodicals than ours (also) seem to be getting good traction" for their own tablet content.
According to the report, the Journal, which boasts print edition circulation numbers of 1.6 million, charges a subscription rate of $3.99 a week for access to the newspaper's content.
In addition to the Journal, News Corp. is also hoping to attract iPad users to its iPad-only publication The Daily.
Canon and Thunderbolt
Canon executive Hiroo Edakubo has vocalized support for Intel's high-speed I/O technology, but stopped short of formally announcing any plans to incorporate it into Canon devices.
"We are excited about Thunderbolt technology and feel it will bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market," said Edakubo, who serves as Group Executive of Canon's Video Products Group.
According to a press release from Intel highlighting Edakubo's comments, Canon is "looking to build products" using Thunderbolt.
Edakubo's statement comes on the heels of reports that Apple and Canon may enter a new collaboration, possibly related to digital photography and video.
Thunderbolt pairs PCI Express with Apple's Mini DisplayPort standard to achieve transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. Apple became the first computer maker to make use of the technology with its latest batch of MacBook Pros.
Given that Intel expects Thunderbolt implementations from other manufacturers to arrive in early 2012, the Mac maker could have a year long head start on its competitors.
iPad on shelves
Reports emerged on Thursday that some Walmart retail stores have already begun stocking the iPad 2 on shelves ahead of the device's 5:00 p.m. release on Friday. Customers who attempted to purchase the device, however, have reported that the store's checkout system was unable to process the purchase.
Though, in the past, big box retailers have been known to accidentally sell devices before their scheduled release dates, Apple's strict policies regarding product launches usually prevent such occurrences.
Friday's launch is generally expected to draw crowds, although online orders, which begin at 1 a.m. PT, 4 a.m. ET, and wider distribution to retail outlets such as Walmart, Target and Best Buy could reduce line lengths.
Source: Anthony Carretero
As of 5 p.m. on Thursday, six people were waiting in line at Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue retail store in New York City, according to Fortune.
News Corp tablet subscribers
Speaking to reporters in Boston on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal Publisher Les Hinton revealed that the number of paid subscribers to the Journal on tablet devices and e-readers has quadrupled to 200,000 in the past year, Reuters reports.
Hinton said he was pleasantly surprised by the growing number of consumers willing to pay for content on tablets.
"The actual proliferation of these [devices] is so rapid," said Hinton. "What surprised us is that other periodicals than ours (also) seem to be getting good traction" for their own tablet content.
According to the report, the Journal, which boasts print edition circulation numbers of 1.6 million, charges a subscription rate of $3.99 a week for access to the newspaper's content.
In addition to the Journal, News Corp. is also hoping to attract iPad users to its iPad-only publication The Daily.
Canon and Thunderbolt
Canon executive Hiroo Edakubo has vocalized support for Intel's high-speed I/O technology, but stopped short of formally announcing any plans to incorporate it into Canon devices.
"We are excited about Thunderbolt technology and feel it will bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market," said Edakubo, who serves as Group Executive of Canon's Video Products Group.
According to a press release from Intel highlighting Edakubo's comments, Canon is "looking to build products" using Thunderbolt.
Edakubo's statement comes on the heels of reports that Apple and Canon may enter a new collaboration, possibly related to digital photography and video.
Thunderbolt pairs PCI Express with Apple's Mini DisplayPort standard to achieve transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. Apple became the first computer maker to make use of the technology with its latest batch of MacBook Pros.
Given that Intel expects Thunderbolt implementations from other manufacturers to arrive in early 2012, the Mac maker could have a year long head start on its competitors.
Comments
Crappy pcs at Costco and iPads in Walmart.
There is something I do not understand in the world of retails.
Crappy pcs at Costco and iPads in Walmart.
Costco likes to dictate the price point and under cut the competition. Apple wasn't into that bs.
Apple exclusivity for thunderbolt is a sure way to have the industry pass on adopting it. Dumb move.
Yeah, because no one has ever used or heard of firewire.
Intel has said that Thunderbolt will remain an Apple exclusive until 2012, giving the Mac maker a year long head start on its competitors.
Not true. Intel specifically debunked this.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380954,00.asp
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/i...o-lacie-and-p/
The only thing Apple has is a head start on the technology.
Apple exclusivity for thunderbolt is a sure way to have the industry pass on adopting it. Dumb move.
What are you talking about? It says right in the body of the story that Canon is very interested in Thunderbolt for their video creation tools:
Canon executive Hiroo Edakubo has vocalized support for Intel's high-speed I/O technology, but stopped short of formally announcing any plans to incorporate the it into Canon devices.
"We are excited about Thunderbolt technology and feel it will bring new levels of performance and simplicity to the video creation market," said Edakubo, who serves as Group Executive of Canon's Video Products Group.
I will get one this weekend from Best Buy or Walmart if I can. Otherwise I will order online.
I want an iPad2, but I can wait a few days, if I can't get one tomorrow.
And that girl who is #1 in line, she is basically just a scalper, is that even legal?
What is stopping some homeless bums and crack addicts from lining up and then selling their places? That would be no different than what that girl is doing.
I used to own a Canon object.station 41 running NEXTSTEP and then OPENSTEP for MACH.
Flashback:
http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/T...station41.html
The iPad 2 is so awesome that I will buy two each for the two persons in our household! J/k
I will get one this weekend from Best Buy or Walmart if I can. Otherwise I will order online.
I see what you did there!
Were you in the military?
I see what you did there!
Were you in the military?
Don?t forget to take pictures from Google Images and then watermark them with your forum alias to prove you own them.
This is a nice 24-hour period.
The iPad 2 is so awesome that I will buy two each for the two persons in our household! J/k
Is that a DaHarder joke?
I will get one this weekend from Best Buy or Walmart if I can. Otherwise I will order online.
Yeah, I am going to order 2 online in about 2 1/2 hours... then troll the iPad resellers tomorrow night to see if I can get lucky.
Damn, the fifth ave. store was where I was going to go to get my iPad, and some knuckleheads are already waiting.
I want an iPad2, but I can wait a few days, if I can't get one tomorrow.
And that girl who is #1 in line, she is basically just a scalper, is that even legal?
What is stopping some homeless bums and crack addicts from lining up and then selling their places? That would be no different than what that girl is doing.
Funniest comment I have seen here in a long while. Crack addicts buying up iPad's to sell them at a profit!
Crack addicts buying up iPad's to sell them at a profit!
Crack addicts don't have money to buy any iPads, they already spent all of their money on crack.
I meant that people are selling their place in line. The article said that the girl who was waiting was already offered $650 for her spot, just for standing there overnight! And she was hoping to get $700!
She will spend two nights on the sidewalk, the second one quite soggy. But she's not there to buy an iPad. Her spot is for sale. She'll trade it for cash at 3 p.m. Friday, two hours before the doors open. She's had offers as high as $650, but she's holding out for $700.
No surprise that Canon would recognize advanced technology, as it was Canon that made the precursor to today's Macs after NeXT sold their hardware division to Canon! It had an advanced video sub-system for Intel systems at the time with their NEXTSTEP-optimized workstations...
I used to own a Canon object.station 41 running NEXTSTEP and then OPENSTEP for MACH.
Flashback:
http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/T...station41.html
Those were solid Pentium DX4-100 boxes by Canon, though still overpriced. We had several of them at NeXT even after the merger with Apple.
The iPad 2 is so awesome that I will buy two each for the two persons in our household! J/k
Now, now. Don't be starting stuff. You know he'll be around talking stupid soon enough.
I found some guy stocking diapers 3 aisles over and asked him whether he could sell me an iPad. He moseyed back to electronics and fumbled through his keys and finally found the one for the cabinet. He asked me which one I wanted. Even invited me behind the counter to choose because he had no clue. They had 4 new ones on hand: 2 Wi-fi and 2 AT&T.
I picked the 32 GB Wi-fi and that's when it all came apart. He tried to scan the UPC. No dice. Tried 3 more times. Same result. He picked up the phone and called the manager on duty. I could only hear one side of the conversation, but I surmise that the other side went something like, "do you know how to read that sign on the counter, moron?"
"Sorry, sir, you can't buy this until 5:00."
So I guess I'm waiting for my online order to ship...
The real issue was Apple wasn't treating Cosco as well as other partners like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. It would send them inventory first, and offer them special discounts, while excluding Cosco. Cosco got feed up and walked.
Costco likes to dictate the price point and under cut the competition. Apple wasn't into that bs.
Damn, the fifth ave. store was where I was going to go to get my iPad, and some knuckleheads are already waiting.
I want an iPad2, but I can wait a few days, if I can't get one tomorrow.
And that girl who is #1 in line, she is basically just a scalper, is that even legal?
What is stopping some homeless bums and crack addicts from lining up and then selling their places? That would be no different than what that girl is doing.
I am headed to that store after my dr. Appt. I want the whole apple experience.