Two years ago today, the original iPad went on sale. It was first unveiled by Steve Jobs on January 27, 2010 during an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. After a few months of snickering about its name, the world was ready to buy the tablet in droves. Apple sold almost 15 million the first year and 40 million in its second year. It grabbed more than half of the tablet market by the end of 2011. Sales figures and market analysis are important, but what's more important is the impact the iPad has had on our lives. How has the iPad changed us? What do we do differently now that we have used an iPad for one or two years? Read on to see what the staff here at TUAW has to say about Apple's tablet device. I skipped the first iPad, Read More

posted by Jacob Penderworth on Friday, March 2, 2012 at 10:16 am.   Originally submitted by Jacob We’re back with another weekly installment of iFans Weekly Deals, which highlights the best app, product and accessory deals that you can get your hands on for a limited time only! As always, we’ll update this post throughout the weekend if there are any new additions, so check back frequently. This week’s apps feature the Skyfire Web Browser for iPad and iPhone at only $2.99 and $.99, respectively, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 for $.99, and more. In other deals, there’s a 23-inch Gateway monitor, a refurbished MacBook Air, and more. Check out the full list after the break! Read More

Looking for a new app this weekend?  Here are ten great new apps for the iPhone and iPad that you may want to check out! Make notes, annotate PDFs and sketch out ideas with this iPad app, where documents can be shared with others when collaborating on a project. $4.99/£2.99. An Australian RSPCA app made especially for cats, with three mini games and a clever system where the app will switch from one to another when it feels the cat has become bored!  Free. A remix of the 70s arcade game where you’re in control of a submarine in WWII, and must complete the missions to advance through the ranks.  The graphics have been improved, but sadly there’s no periscope accessory.  $1.99/£1.49 Create presentations on the iPad and save them as video files, then share via email or to YouTube. Recommended for an educational environment, it’s easy to use and has Read More

Two of the things that enchanted me most at Macworld | iWorld 2012 was the Jot stylus and a preview of Readdle's Remarks app. I've spent the past week looking at different note-taking apps to use with my new Jot Pro while waiting for Remarks to come out. The preview held not one, not two, but three TUAW writers enthralled as the Readdle folks showed it off. Does it live up to the hype? It really does. I have two specific tasks for any note-taking app for the iPad - it should handle the hand drafts I do of comic strips, and it should handle a PDF workflow I've developed for my day job. In both areas, it excelled. In handwriting mode, Remarks edges out Note Taker HD in responsiveness when it comes to using a stylus. It's able to keep up with my quick cursive without the stylus petering out, Read More

App developer Readdle has been very busy lately. A big update arrived recently for its PDF Expert software, and now the company is also launching a brand new note-taking and PDF annotation iPad app called Remarks. Here’s a hands on look at what the app offers users. Remarks, like PDF Expert, offers PDF annotation and filling tools, but it’s a much more streamlined tool than that app, with a focus on making it easy to mark up and share documents, as well as create your own notes and notebooks independent of any pre-existing PDFs that can also be marked up and shared with other Remarks users for collaborative work. Remarks is that rare beast among PDF tools, either on or off the iPad: it features a simple, straightforward interface and everything work very quickly, with speedy response times for turning pages, adding notes, and basically anything else you’d want to do. Read More