iPad Monday morning cheat sheet: 11 quick links to catch up

As a busy businessperson, you didn’t have time to stand in line at the Apple Store. Nor could you spend the weekend reading gushy blog posts about Steve Jobs’ latest Earth-Shattering Device. I get paid to do both, so I collected a list of essential reading to help you keep up with the fanboys at the office.

Jobs was caught on camera making a personal appearance at the Palo Alto Apple Store, near where he lives, on Saturday.
A widely-quoted analyst firm says Apple sold 600,000 to 700,000 iPads on Saturday. But unlike the iPhone’s debut, it was possible to just walk in and buy one at some stores. Two reasons: Apple let people order ahead online, and the models with AT&T wireless networking — which requires the unit to be activated in the store, a time-consuming process — don’t go on sale until later this month.
Wired explained how the iPad will change the way we use computers. In short, the files-and-folders user interface to data is as outdated as the paper files and folders it replaced twenty-five years ago. And now that you can reach out and grab things onscreen, the mouse and keyboard don’t need to be invented. But, Wired says, a real keyboard is still useful for heavy content creators.
Games, not books, are what more people seem to be excited about. I watched shoppers in the Union Square Apple Store all weekend. Most spent time playing games on the roomful of demo units. GamesBeat lead writer Dean Takahashi posted a video that shows Need for Speed Shift and Mirror’s Edge.
Gizmodo has compiled a list of the most interesting iPad apps. Of course, the iPad’s killer app — the one that makes millions and millions of people buy a tablet — hasn’t yet been invented. Did you own a computer before Amazon.com was born? It’s like that.
USA Today and The New York Times have free apps. The Wall Street Journal charges extra, even to subscribers, and their pricing is kind of confusing. Bloggers are really screechy about this. “Rupert Murdoch is either greedy or insane,” one wrote. Duh, Murdoch is greedy. Next question?
Some tinkerers are mad at Apple for gluing the iPad shut and programming it not to run software that hasn’t been approved by Apple and placed in the company’s App Store. But the iPad was jailbroken — which means someone has figured out a hack that lets you run software not approved by Apple — in less than a day. This could lead to the ability to use the iPad on T-Mobile’s wireless network instead of AT&T, for example, or to run apps that Apple has rejected for the App Store, as it did for Google Voice.
TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington wrote the gushiest review of anyone: “I suspect I’ll rarely be away from this device.” Arrington, who founded the project that became the JooJoo tablet, thinks the iPad will not only replace his laptop, it will also replace his iPhone for non-calling tasks.
There’s already a rumor that Apple has a newer product coming soon, because of something someone found in the iPad’s file system. See? You were smart to wait.
If you did buy an iPad, Gizmodo has ten tips and tricks: How to reboot it in a jam, take screenshots, convert video from your computer for iPad viewing, sneak more apps onto the home screen, master the cut-and-paste tools, and more.
Here’s a video of some guys smashing an iPad with a baseball bat.

Tags: ipad
Companies: Apple