Okay, we’re officially not going crazy. We and many new iPad owners found the tablet to get warm, especially when running GPU-intensive apps, but now consumer watch dog Consumer Reports have officially declared the iPad’s newest feature is indeed a built-in hand warmer.

To prove that the new iPad is indeed emitting more heat (and for some at uncomfortable temperatures), Tweakers.net took a cool thermal image of an iPad 2 and new iPad.

Apple’s official response to the heat complaints to AllThingsD (bolded for emphasis):

The new iPad delivers a stunning Retina display, A5X chip, support for 4G LTE plus 10 hours of battery life, all while operating well within our thermal specifications. If customers have any concerns they should contact AppleCare.

Note the wording: “within our thermal specifications.” Translation: It’s fine and there’s nothing wrong with the new iPads. Move along now.

This type of arrogant stance is just the latest in Apple’s antics of shrugging off serious complaints. Remember Antennagate on the iPhone 4? Apples response: “There is no ‘Antennagate.” Right, that’s why it issued out free bumpers and cases. Because it wasn’t a big problem.

To further get the message across, the almighty Consumer Reports did its own intensive testing and concluded:

When unplugged, the back of the new iPad reached temperatures as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit. It was only when plugged in that it hit 116 degrees. The hottest areas weren’t evenly distributed throughout the iPad’s back, but were concentrated near one corner of the display as shown in the images taken from the rear of the device above.

The findings are roughly in-line with what Tweakers.net showed off.

Apple, heat/warm-gate is real. If after 45 minutes of playing Infinity Blade II with Retina graphics gets the new iPad to be that hot, there is definitely a problem. I thought this was supposed to be the post-PC world where gadgets don’t suffer from overheating issues like laptops and PCs do thanks to really efficient system on a chip architectures and flash storage. I’m likely returning my new iPad until Apple

straightens this problem out. Because it is a problem and I don’t want to risk any iPads exploding in my bag.

via: dvice

VMware is developing an impressive new feature called WSX that will allow users to access virtualized desktops remotely through any modern Web browser. VMware developer Christian Hammond, who worked on the implementation, demonstrated a prototype this week in a blog post.

According to Hammond, WSX is built with standards-based Web technologies, including the HTML5 Canvas element and Web Sockets. The user installs and runs a lightweight Web server that acts as a relay between the Web-based client and the virtualized desktop instance. It is compatible with VMware Workstation and ESXi/vSphere.

WSX, which doesn’t require any browser plugins, is compatible out of the box with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on the desktop. It will also work with mobile Safari on iPads that are running iOS 5 or later. Hammond says that Android compatibility is still a work in progress.

The performance is said to be good enough to provide “near-native quality and framerates” when viewing a 720p YouTube video on the virtualized desktop through WSX in Chrome or Firefox. Users who want to test the feature today can see it in action by downloading the Linux version of the VMware Workstation Technology Preview.

Although it’s still somewhat experimental, WSX is a compelling demonstration of how far the Web has evolved as a platform. It also shows how the ubiquity of Web standards make it possible to deliver complex applications across a wide range of platforms and device form factors.

HTML5 bullets

The VMware demo was one of the most impressive HTML5 demos that we saw this week, but there are a few other newsworthy items that we want to share in this roundup.

• jSFiddle is a handy tool for prototyping, saving, and sharing JavaScript snippets. It’s a bit like pastebin, but it allows you to define separate blocks of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and then see the rendered output in a pane.
• One of the developers behind Google’s abandoned Wave collaboration tool has published a JavaScript framework for building real-time Web applications with Operational Transformation. The framework can be used to add live concurrent editing to a textbox in a Web page with only a few lines of code.
• The HTML5 Rocks blog has a great tutorial that demonstrates how the Web Audio API can be used in browser-based games. It provides some good tips for implementing background music, sound effects, and 3D positional sound.
• The official Chromium blog has published several videos that demonstrate modern Web features and how they can be used.
• Firebug, a popular Firefox add-on for Web developers, has been moved to GitHub. This will make it easier for people to join the project and contribute improvements.

via: ars technica

Weren’t able to keep up with all the news from the unveiling of Apple’s new iPad today? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Whether you’re looking for more info about its Retina Display and LTE-connectivity, the refreshed Apple TV or related bits, we’ve listed links to our coverage of everything “new and noteworthy” after the break. Happy perusing! Oh, and be sure to check back to our the archive of our liveblog and pre- and post-event broadcasts for a few extra doses of “amazing.”
Via: Engadget

The staggering success of Apple’s iPad has inevitably spawned a myriad of wannabe devices from a large number of electronics manufacturers. While many of these tablets are yet to really compete with Apple’s tablet, the Cupertino company is still preparing itself for a worthy adversary by “adjusting the cost structure” of the iPad 3.

According to a new report from DigiTimes citing industry sources, Apple has lined up a number of Taiwan-based suppliers for integrated circuits for the iPad 3, which will ensure the device can compete with the growing competition during the second half of this year:

Apple is now more willing to adopt IC solutions from Taiwan-based IC design houses as it is adjusting the cost structure for iPad tablets in order to compete with an array of tablet PCs to be launched by rivals in the second half of 2011, commented the sources.

Whether the use of integrated circuits will mean cheaper iPads or just better specifications for our money is unclear at this point, but I’d like to think it’s a little bit of both.

Recent speculation surrounding Apple’s iPad 3 has been conflicting, with some reports claiming an iPad aimed at professionals will launch later this year with a high-resolution screen, and others suggesting a third device won’t launch until 2012.

via: cult of mac