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The old saying goes "the early bird catches the worm," and it certainly appears to be holding true for the insomniacs who stayed up for iPad 2 pre-orders to go live online. We've received our own orders that were placed as soon as the switch was flipped, as have several MacRumors forum contributors (as pictured above). With shipping estimates slipping longer and longer, maybe waiting on a real line isn't the most unattractive option any more.

iPad 2 online orders start arriving on doorsteps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may not have known this, but besides missing a 3G radio, the WiFi-only iPad also lacks the A-GPS chip that enables exact GPS positioning versus less-accurate WiFi triangulation. Well, according to Tablet Monsters, if you've got an iPhone with iOS 4.3 and are subscribed to Personal Hotspot, your shiny slate should be able to tap into the GPS chip of it's smaller-screened family member. Reports in the MacRumors forums confirm that people are indeed seeing this added functionality on both iPad 2 and the original. Though the native Maps app is reportedly working perfectly there's talk of unfriendliness in turn-by-turn GPS apps -- though this could have to do with the refresh rate of the transmission. If you're already shelling out for the Personal Hotspot plan this is a nice added bonus, and makes the choice between the 3G iPad and the WiFi one just a little bit easier -- assuming you've got an iPhone of course. Still skeptical? Check out a video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading iPhone Personal Hotspot transmitting GPS information to tethered iPads?

iPhone Personal Hotspot transmitting GPS information to tethered iPads? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like you weren't imagining things if you thought in-app browsers or web apps saved to your iPhone's home screen seemed slower than Safari itself. Ars Technica has now confirmed that pages or web apps loaded using those methods aren't receiving the JavaScript boost added to Safari in iOS 4.3, which the site found to be about 2.5 times faster than Safari in iOS 4.2. The problem is that those apps don't have the necessary permissions to execute dynamically generated native code stored in writeable memory (as Safari does), which basically leaves them running at the same speed they did in iOS 4.2. Not surprisingly, that has prompted some to speculate that it's all part of a grand plan on Apple's part to force developers to use full-fledged apps instead of mobile apps, but Ars Technica points out that it could just as easily be due to some technical problems. Hit up the source link below for all the technical details.

Web apps found to be lacking Safari's speed bump in iOS 4.3 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Time Warner's TWCable TV iPad app could only serve 15 of the originally announced 32 channels (which curiously did not include BBC America, despite its appearance in these screens from iTunes) due to higher than anticipated demand that crashed the servers last night (Broadcasting & Cable reports the channels have since been restored.) According to the official blog it was the most downloaded app in the iTunes store yesterday and while its engineers work on a more permanent fix, cutting the channel count was the only way to make sure people can actually open the app and log in. However, there may be more than technical difficulties that take channels offline in the future, as Adweek reports several cable networks are upset with the app, quoting one unnamed affiliate head as saying "our position is that [this sort of distribution] is not authorized by our affiliate agreements." Networks like Discovery have already made public their dissatisfaction with Dish's Sling-powered app, with everyone from Comcast to DirecTV to TiVo potentially getting in on the act we'll probably see a slew of carriage disputes and lawsuits before every channel goes the way of ESPNNetworks.

TWCable TV iPad app struggling with high demand, angry cable channels originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh Arduino, is there anything you can't do when put in the right hands? The hands in this case belong to a guy named Joven of ProtoDojo, and they whipped up the contraption you can see in the video below. Basically, it's a wired NES controller that goes to an Arduino board, which in turn controls a set of servos. Those servos articulate conductive arms to touch the screen in just the right places. The whole contraption enables a rather playable version of Reckless Racing, making it feel all the more like the RC Pro Am successor it's trying to be. Check it out in the video below, and then hope that Jovan hurries up and posts the instructions so we can start building our own.

[Thanks, Chad]

Continue reading RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video)

RoboTouch brings a wired NES controller to a wireless iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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