Don't buy an iPad 2! The iPad 3 is right around the corner and it's certainly worth waiting a short time to see just what it will offer

But, you say, Apple hasn't even announced an iPad 3! That's correct, but the rumor mill is clogged with stories and "facts" about the new tablet.

Let's collect the rumors, and sort out what looks like what will be true, to what is purely conjecture.

Almost Certainly True: 

• The iPad 3 will be announced at a currently unannounced Apple event on March 7 taking place in San Francisco. This has been "confirmed" by major reliable sources.
• The screen of the iPad 3 will have 4X the resolution of the iPad 2's. It will be comparable to the quality of the iPhone 4 and 4S screens. This would mean that the iPad 3 would have the most beautiful screen of any device ever released, be it a laptop, a phone or a tablet. No one has seen one yet, but if the specifications are real, and everyone believes they are, the screen will be the main selling point of the tablet. It should have a staggeringly beautiful image.
• The new tablet will have a faster processor. See below for just how fast ... It will definitely be faster and will handle graphics much better. It will also output 1080p HD images with no effort.
• It will have a different camera. Again, see below for what this may mean.
• Siri will almost certainly be included with the iPad 3. 
• It will run iOS 5.1, which will be announced on March 7th along with the tablet.
• The battery will be larger than the current model. But it may not improve battery life since more power is needed for the new screen.

Contradictory Rumors: 

• Half of the reliable sources say the new tablet will house a quad core processor, the other half say it will be a modification of the current dual core processor, but with a greatly improved graphics chip to handle the new screen. Does it matter? Not really. Either way, the iPad 3 will feel faster than the iPad 2 to the casual user.
• There will be improved front and rear cameras. How much better? Some say it will have the same camera set as the iPhone 4S, which is a low quality front camera, and an 8MP rear one. Others modify this rumor to upgrade the front camera to become an HD video camera for Facetime and Skype HD calls. Finally, others downgrade the rear camera to the iPhone 4's 5MP camera. Again, it really doesn't matter. The iPad's camera will be so greatly improved from the set found on the iPad 2 that it will be regarded as a major upgrade.
• It will be a little thicker than the current iPad, by maybe 1-3 mm. Too small to matter. But others say it will be thinner. The thicker group is currenty louder at the moment.
• Battery life will be the same ... battery life will be longer. Certainly it won't be shorter ... Apple would never permit that!
• It may contain 4G LTE. Or it may not! This is most contradicted rumor out there. Very, very reliable sources swear it's going to have LTE from day one. Others say that the decision hasn't been reached yet. This one really will come down to the wire.
• It will be released on the day of announcement. It will be released 7-10 days later. It will be released in June. OK, let's parse this one out. The first one has never happened with an iPad or an iPhone. So it's not likely. The second one is the "common" release pattern for Apple. But there is a problem with that rumor. The FCC hasn't approved an LTE version of the iPad yet, and it's process is almost always made public. So one scenario is that Apple will announce the LTE iPad and then submit it for FCC approval, which can take a couple of months. Another possibility is that they'll release the wi-fi and maybe even 3G only versions very quickly, with the 4G version becoming available in a month or two. This is how they did the original iPad, so there is a history to this action. No one knows if LTE is even going to happen, so the release date is very, very hazy as a result. We'll find out on March 7.
• The iPad 2 will continue to be sold, but at a lower price. It makes sense. We'll see.

If more information becomes public, we'll let you know. If you are considering purchasing a tablet, first, DON'T buy an Android one, or even a Kindle Fire until you see the iPad 3. It will run circles around the competition. And assuming the iPad 2's price drops, then the competing tablets will again become totally irrelevant, including the Amazon Fire. 

Of course, for those who don't know what an AirPort is, or who do, but couldn't care less, you should ignore this posting and redirect your thoughts back to Valentine's Day and other topics to which the socially challenged don't have a direct connection to.

According to a variety of unnamed sources, Apple will release an update to the iPhone and iPad operating system a couple of days ahead of the release of the iPad 3 (see article below). This would follow a pattern Apple has established for a few release cycles, as we techies like to call them.

What will be in 5.1? For one thing, you will be able to individually delete photos from your Photo Stream! If you don't know what this means, don't worry about it, but I CAN PERSONALLY vouch for this needed feature (don't ask why, though!). If you have a questionable picture which is current showing in Photo Stream on, say your Apple TV's screen saver for example, you'll be very happy with this new feature.

There will be deeper Facebook integration throughout, like is currently found with Twitter.

There will be a better fix for the battery life issues people are seeing with their iPhones. The first "fix" didn't seem to help many people. 

Finally, there will almost certainly be improvements to Siri, probabaly expanding what it is capabable of doing.

We will let you know when the release date is announced along with a confirmation of the new features. iOS 5.1 will be available to all current iPhone and iPad models. 

The rumor mill is exploding with iPad3 stories, which means, if tradition holds, that the new tablet is nearly ready to be unleashed to the masses. For those who have been contemplating purchasing the new iPad, here's what we think we know so far: 

• The iPad3 will look almost exactly like the iPad2. It will have the same size screen and the layout of the controls will be nearly the same. The weight will be nearly the same. It may be slightly thicker, but the difference will be very small. But overall, don't expect a new design ... it isn't coming.
• The iPad 3 will have a much, much better screen. It will essentially be the screen you see on the iPhone, but much larger. For those of us who think the iPad 2's screen looks just fine ... wait. This screen will have 4X the clarity of the current model, which means that videos, photos, games, and even ordinary apps will look incredible. The new high resolution screen will likely be the main selling point of the iPad 3.
• It will almost certainly have a much better front and rear camera. We can bet that the front one will be a HD camera to allow high def Facetime calls. The only disagreement is the rear camera. Some say it will be the 5MP type which is on the iPhone 4, others say it will receive the 8MP version found on the iPhone 4S. Either way, the rear camera will be much improved over the current, pathetic one on the iPad 2.
• The computer processor and graphics chip will be much faster than the iPad 2, which isn't slow to begin with! There is a disagreement whether the new chip will be dual core or quad (!) core. No one seems to know, though today a very reliable source claims that it will, in fact, be a quad-core processor. It won't really matter, though. Either way, the iPad 3 will be faster than the current tablet.
• The iPad 3 will almost certainly support Siri, the voice recognition found on the iPhone 4S. Everyone expects this to happen.
• It probably will support LTE 4G for Verizon and AT&T. This is probably a 75% likelihood, depending on whether Apple felt that the latest version of LTE chips were up to snuff for battery life. 
• Speaking of battery, the iPad 3 will likely have the same battery life as the iPad 2. Some say it will be a longer life, but most say that while the battery will be larger, it's needed to power the new screen and the 4G LTE. At worst, it will have the same 10-12 hour life seen on the iPad 2.

That's what the rumors say about the new model. So when will it come out? And what will happen to the iPad 2? Here's what people are saying: 

• The iPad 3 will be announced the first week in March at an Apple event in San Francisco. This rumor is coming from many sources and appears to be quite solid. Apple has yet to announce such an event.
• The iPad 3 will be release around one week after the event. This places the release around March 12. This also is coming from many sources.
• The iPad 2's price will be lowered and will continue to be sold, just as the iPhone 4 continues to be offered as the lower cost alternative to the 4S. The cost of the currently priced $499 iPad 2 is expected to be lowered to either $399, $350 or even $299, depending on which rumor you read. Most feel it's $350 or less. This would put the iPad 2 within purchase distance of the Amazon Kindle Fire, which would suffer if the iPad 2 starts encroaching on its price point.

For the many readers who live in the Pasadena, CA area, you'll be happy to hear that after almost a year of remodeling, the Apple store will reopen in its original location on Colorado Blvd. this Saturday at 10am.

After a year of operating from a temporary store down the street, the new store will debut, now with a second floor to showcase more products..

If you're one of the first 1000 people to enter on Saturday morning you'll be rewarded with a commemorative t-shirt. OK, it's no iPad, but I am sure that the shirt was well design, user friendly, and was manufactured in a safe and supportive working environment in a distant land.

"Apple introduces a sleek, elegant solution to an all-too-common problem in the Chinese workplace."

An organization called 11Mark surveyed 1,000 Americans as to whether they take their smartphones into the bathroom ... and what they do with them in there!

For those under 18, we require that that you sign the BPCF, the blog parental consent form, before reading this article. We are not responsible for your health or safety. You parents are!

For those who don't want to read this article, here's the executive white paper version: don't ever borrow anyone's smartphone. Unless you want to catch disease and infection.

OK, now, onto the "facts." From padgadget.com: 

In their IT in the Toilet study, 11Mark surveyed 1,000 Americans in an effort to discover whether people take their smartphones into the bathroom, and what they do with them while in there.

Here is what they found:

• 75% of Americans surveyed with a mobile phone admit to having used a phone in the bathroom. 
• 30% of men vs. 20% of women indicated that they “don’t go to the bathroom without their mobile phone.” Age isn’t a defense in this one either, old and young alike are guilty of this one.
• 75% of respondents had answered a call while indisposed, but wait ...
• 48% had initiated(!!) one. 
• There was very little difference between the actual numbers of Android, BlackBerry and iPhones seeing the “dark of day.” 
• While 92% of people claim they washed their hands after they were finished, only 14% said they also washed their phones. Actually, that's probably good news for those who want to continue using their phones, since water and phones tend to have a complicated relationship.

The Penn's Den will follow up on any other cutting edge relevant studies and report them to you, faithful reader, as we come across them. If it's news, it's us. 

Still working on that motto.

Found an article in today's imore.com blog which describes what Bluetooth is. Who cares? Well, since you are probabaly using Bluetooth, you should know just enough about it so that the salesperson at Best Buy can't take advantage of you.

So, before we plagiarize, I mean, reprint, here's our one paragraph take on Bluetooth:

All you really need to know about Bluetooth is that it's a radio signal that spits out a signal to around 30 feet at the most. It is most frequently used to connect a smartphone to a earpiece/microphone or a speaker in your car or house. Bluetooth requires that the two devices (the phone and the thing) "bond" once to each other to make sure that the signal going out is going to the place you want to receive it. After that, like a Hollywood romance, they remain "bonded" forever (or until the bonding stop working for no apparent reason). Bluetooth is NOT wi-fi. Wi-fi is a stronger signal which allows one thing to share with many other things. Bluetooth is generally built for a one to one relationship, and because its range is so small, it's designed for "personal" connections, like phones to earpieces. But people have ambitious plans for Bluetooth, so its uses are about to expand dramatically.

Now, onto the article:

Bluetooth is an open standard wireless communications protocol, which just means that it’s a commonly available way for devices to talk to each other. Bluetooth has a range of about 30 feet. If you move further away than that, say leave your smartphone in your car and go into a store, you’ll lose connection.

There are several different Bluetooth profiles, each of which enables its own type of functionality. 

• HFP 1.5, the hands-free profile for connecting to hands-free headsets and speakerphones
• PBAP, the phone book access profile to allow for car kits to download contacts or display caller information
• A2DP, the advanced audio distribution profile, which enables higher-quality audio, including stereo audio, to be sent to remote speakers
• AVRCP, the audio/video remote control profile, that lets pause, play, stop, next track, and previous track commands to be sent to headsets and speakers
• HID, the human interface device profile, or the protocol that connects to a wireless keyboard.
• PAN, the personal area network profile, which lets you tether to a computer and share your cellular internet connection. 

The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, for example, support up to Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (enhanced data rate). EDR allows for faster data transfers, meaning smoother, better sound support and internet speeds (between 2 and 3mbps).

Bluetooth 4.0, a newer specification is supported by the iPhone 4S and will presumably be supported by future devices like the iPad 3. Bluetooth 4.0 allows for BHS (Bluetooth high speed) and BLE (Bluetooth low energy), which aim to provide better, faster data with lower battery drain.

There are very few Bluetooth 4.0 accessories available yet. However, Bluetooth 4.0 offers the potential for more ubiquitous, persistent, and useful peripherals than ever before.

Saw this posted in CultofMac.com this morning which is worthy of a reprint.

Apparently Match.com conducted a survey of Canadian smartphone users, and found out some patterns as to their dating habits.

Now, we must qualify as you read this article that these are CANADIANS responding, with a completely different set of values, ethics and manner of speaking. So take it for what it's worth, eh? 

  Android Users: The Seducer 

• Android users are most likely to be seduced on a first date. 62 percent of Android singles say they’ve done the deed after date number one, compared to 57 per cent of iPhone users and 48 percent of BlackBerry users
• Out of all smart phone users, Android fans are most likely to have a one-night stand (55 percent).
• 72 percent of Android fans have visited an online dating site, compared to 58 percent of iPhone users and 50 percent of Blackberry users. 

1. 1. 
      
   iPhone Users: The Office Romantic

• iPhone addicts are the most likely to date someone in their workplace. Nearly a quarter of iPhone singles have had an office romance in the last five years.
• After a first date, iPhone users wait just one day to reach out, while Android or BlackBerry users will wait until after 2-3 dates.

BlackBerry Users: The Drunk Dialer

• If you’re dating a BlackBerry fan, prepare to imbibe. BlackBerry users are most likely to drink alcohol on a first date – 72 percent will have a boozy beverage on a first night out.
• A whopping 67 percent of BlackBerry users say they have experienced love at first sight.

What about poor Windows phone users? I guess they just can’t get anyone to give them the time of day.

Remember, we don't condone stereotypes here at the Penn's Den, and we simply reprinted this article for your entertainment. Now, as an iPhone user, I must go and gawk over the copy machine repairwoman ... a goddess with heart of toner.

I spotted this tip on MacWorld.com today and it's a nice little timesaver.

When you're using Mail on the iPad in portrait mode, you can see the body of the message, but you can't see the list of messages. You CAN see both the list and and actual message in landscape mode.

How can you quickly get to that list after you've read the current message?

You can always press the "File" button in upper left corner to bring it up, but there's a faster way. Just swipe one finger from the left side of the screen to the right and, what do you know, the list of messages appears! It's just a little bit easier than pressing a small button so that it makes it all worthwhile!

To dismiss the list, just tap anywhere in the message on the right and the list will slide off the screen.

A simple tip, but one I'll start using all of the time.