No Speculation Zone...OK I'm lying

​Tomorrow Apple will holding what is expected to be the great iPad (mini) event. Just like with the introduction of the iPhone 5, a lot seems to be known about this new product. Spy photos of pretty much every part of this smaller iPad have been circulating around for weeks now, so not much is left to the imagination. And yet, some crucial things are not known yet:

• What will be the product's name​ ?

• What price points will it sell at ?

• What sort of screen will it have ?

• Will it have just WiFi or LTE as well ?

I won't speculate on much of the above. ​Others are much better equipped to do so. I will make one prediction though. No it won't be about the price. If Apple wanted to deal a death-blow to the rest of the industry, it would price the entry level model at $199. Even the Kindle Fire wouldn't survive that. But, hey, this is Apple we're talking about. Could they sell it at such a price and still make money ? I believe they could. Chances are the display will be non-retina. Apple have achieved economies of scale with the iPhone 3GS and the iPad2 that would enable them to go really low on this one. But they won't. We've heard rumors of prices hovering between $249 and $329. I have no doubt that even at those higher prices Apple will break sales records with these machines, but it won't be as "market-dominating" as pricing at below $200. 

No, my prediction is about something else entirely. Last January Apple took pains to unveil their iBooks strategy, and specifically the iBooks Author program that enables mere mortals to easily create beautiful textbooks for school and college going students. ​The main bottleneck for the success of that program was the price of the vehicle it required. Very few school districts could afford to buy large quantities of iPads for their students. So the tools were there, but the vehicle went missing. Until tomorrow. I believe that Apple will tout this new iPad category as the ideal school and college companion. I have a feeling much of tomorrow's presentation will focus on that particular function for this new device. Chances are they will introduce a new version of iBooks Author, and maybe even a new version of iBooks itself. 

Of course there will be other highlights: maybe a new retina 13 inch MacBook Pro, possibly a revamped Mac Mini, but in my opinion we should be paying attention to the iBooks move. Many people have had the vision of "a computer for every child"​ for years now, but this new iPad, whatever its name, could well bring this vision that much closer to reality.

How to monitor your weight when you're a geek

So is this how I will finally do it: get my weight in check ? Cool video says it all.

Children of Men

Take a couple of 2 year olds, give them each an iPad and let them play around with it. Before you know it you realise two things (1) Apple owns these kids for life and (2) when this current crop of 2 year olds grow up I am not sure we will even be able to communicate with them anymore given our old-fashioned ways of doing things, out thinking, our language and whatever else is bound to change over time as they grow up and acquire skills we can't even start to predict. Check out these two videos and let your imagination roam a little. You'll understand what I mean.

The iPad scoop we somehow missed

A few weeks before the actual release of the iPad 2 these Scandinavian guys seem to have gotten their hands on a top secret prototype model. This is actually a very cute video with a lot of cool masking effects to achieve the desired result.

The iPad 2 promo they will never show you

Those of you who have seen the new iPad 2 promo video will immediately recognize where this spoof gets it from. Funny stuff.

...and not a minute too soon

Back in May I reported on the expected Fall arrival of a cool product called the Clamcase. Like often happens with these sort of things, the product's introduction got delayed. In fact, in the meantime, the video that I had embedded in that long ago post has also been removed due to some copyright infringement. Instead a new one was posted which I am including here. It now appears this product will start shipping in January...just in time for the expected announcement of the iPad 2. Still, given how many iPads were sold to date, owners of the original iPad might be interested in sprucing up their tablets using what still appears to be a compelling product.