Gadgetwise: Adobe Makes Apps to Enhance Photoshop - New York Times (blog)

Adobe Adobe Lava for the iPad allows people to mix colors that are then accessible in Photoshop.

The Apple iPad is quickly moving from a consumption device to a creation device.

To help this transformation along, Adobe has produced three new iPad applications that can sync with Adobe Photoshop, the photo editing and design software, on a desktop computer.

The applications have been expected, since the company announced them last month.

The new applications now available in the iTunes apps store include Adobe Color Lava, which allows people to mix colors using the iPad’s multitouch screen. The colors can then be sent to a desktop computer and incorporated into the Photoshop software. Adobe also made Adobe Eazel, which the company says will let “digital artists create rich realistic paintings with their fingertips, and introduces a new kind of interaction between ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ paints.” The applications cost $2 to $5 each.

Adobe also released a software development kit that will allow developers who build applications for the iPad and other tablets to build applications that interact with Adobe Photoshop.

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IPad Makes Apple Third-largest PC Maker, Canalys Says

Apple was the world's third-largest PC vendor during the fourth quarter last year if iPad shipments are included, research firm Canalys said in a study released Wednesday.

With iPads included, Apple's worldwide PC shipments grew 241 percent, which put the company in third place behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer, Canalys said. Apple held a 10.8 percent PC market share with 11.5 million PC units shipped and was neck and neck with Dell, which also held a 10.8 percent market share with 11.4 million units shipped.

Research firms IDC and Gartner have not included tablets in their worldwide PC shipment numbers, and their quarterly studies have not listed Apple as one of the world's top five PC vendors. But Canalys said that tablets, just like netbooks, are becoming popular enough that they need to be included in PC shipment numbers.

Worldwide PC shipments during the fourth quarter grew by 19.2 percent to 105.8 million units, Canalys said. In addition to strong iPad sales, Apple also recorded strong Mac sales, which helped push the company into the third spot.

When reporting financial results last week, Apple said it sold 7.33 million iPads during the first fiscal quarter for 2011, ending on Dec. 25, compared to 4.19 million tablets for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010. The company also sold 4.13 million Macs during the first fiscal quarter, a 23 percent year-over-year increase.

Apple is benefiting from tablets just like Acer, Asus and Samsung benefited from netbooks a few years ago, said Daryl Chiam, senior analyst at Canalys.

Acer overtook Dell as the world's second-largest PC vendor during the third quarter of 2009, partly due to growing momentum in netbook shipments, according to IDC. At the time, Acer was the world's largest netbook vendor, while netbooks were a small portion of Dell's PC shipments.

Apple dominates the tablet market with the iPad, but there is increasing competition coming from Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Apple could face more competition in the next few months from Hewlett-Packard, Research In Motion, Dell, Acer, Asus and Motorola, which are all due to release tablets soon. More than 100 tablets were announced at the recent Consumer Electronics Show, many with Google's Android 3.0 operating system, which is code-named Honeycomb.

The top two PC makers, HP and Acer, recorded single-digit PC growth rates during the fourth quarter last year, according to Canalys. HP shipped 18.7 million PCs worldwide, growing by only 2.9 percent year over year and holding a 17.7 percent market share. Acer fared better, with shipments growing by 8.8 percent to 13.6 million units, a 12.8 percent market share.

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iPad 2's Improved Pixel Density Makes Processor Boost a Given

The iPad 2 is really starting to shape up- at least in theory. It's "believed" to be set for launch somewhere between four weeks from now, and April. Some rumors have Apple acting as exclusive retailer for the first three months, while a near-retinal display and microSD slot have also been leaked.

Of course, nothing at all about the new iPad has been officially confirmed. However, Nexus404 reports that developers are being asked to submit two versions of their new apps- one for the iPad and one, presumably, for the iPad 2. Seeing this, we find that the iPad's resolution will be moving from 1024x768 to 2048x1536.

That's an upgrade in pixel density from 132 ppi to 260 ppi. Such an improvement necessitates an upgrade in processor speed and RAM. We've heard rumors that the next iPad will pack a new A5 processor, which is a multicore platform that could be roughly equivalent to something like the Tegra 2. It's also possible that we'll see a lesser improvement, maybe up to 1.2 or 1.3 GHz.

New patent filings indicate that Apple also plans to add a "voltage regulator" and "smart controller" to the new iPhone/iPad. These will allow future iOS gadgets to turn on and charge from an unstable power source, like a solar panel, without damage to the battery.

There are other obvious uses for this technology- most airports have rapid charging stations, and there are a number of portable batteries meant for burst charging. Apple may just be improving the iPhone's functionality with these devices. But this could also point to plans of adding in solar charging solutions to future iterations. That would mean a wild shift in Apple design philosophy, though.

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Microsoft may be porting Windows to ARM, but it makes no sense

Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft will announce that it is porting Windows to run on ARM processors at CES next month. The target will be tablets and other battery-operated, low-power devices.

Microsoft has two operating system lines. There's the Windows NT-derived operating system now selling as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. And there's the embedded Windows CE-derived operating system, currently shipping as Windows CE 6.0 R3, which sits at the heart of Windows Phone 7. The Windows CE family is already available and running on ARM processors, and has been for many years, so the assumption is that the rumor is talking about the Windows NT family: Windows (or some derivative) for ARM.

Microsoft has refused to comment on the claims, but company insiders confirm that, at the very least, such a port has been worked on. It's been rumored before, by none other than the CEO of ARM. Some kind of Windows-on-ARM release, therefore, seems likely. What we don't know is exactly what form such a port will take—or what the point will be.

ARM processors are famed for their power efficiency. They're used in a wide range of embedded applications, including digital cameras, palmtops, Game Boys, smartphones and, perhaps most relevantly to this news, tablets such as Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Though their absolute performance cannot begin to rival that of Intel or AMD's x86 processors, in the power envelopes found in smartphones and tablets, ARM's greater efficiency wins out, making it the best performing option in this market segment.

It's this efficiency—and the lengthy battery life that it affords ARM-powered tablets—that is likely the reason for Microsoft's interest in ARM. The battery life of x86-powered Windows tablets such as HP's Slate 500 is around five hours. In contrast, ARM tablets like the iPad can achieve ten hours, and that difference is, in part, a result of the iPad's A4 processor (a high-end ARM design named Cortex A8) having much lower power usage than the Atom in the Slate 500.

The port could materialize in a few different ways. The most straightforward would be to simply port Windows 7 more or less as is to run on ARM. It would offer developers the same APIs (though they would have to recompile their software), it would offer users the same interface and usage experience; it would be the Windows that everyone knows and uses, running on low-power ARM processors.

In a similar vein, Microsoft could create a similar port, but slap the Windows Embedded label on it. Windows 7 already has an embedded variant; it's like regular Windows 7, but lets OEMs remove the bits and pieces they don't want or need. Microsoft can then sell it to OEMs to slap on their own tablet front-ends. This is one of the models that Microsoft promotes for Windows CE, so could easily be used for ARM Windows.

The other obvious option would be for the company to build an actual tablet operating system with a user interface that's usable on tablets. It would be Windows behind the scenes, but instead of the mouse and keyboard-oriented Windows interface, and all the mouse and keyboard-oriented programs, it would be a new tablet interface, with new tablet applications. A true tablet Windows, built for iPad-like hardware. The sensible option here (and I think one a lot of people would like to see) would be to build on the Metro interface used in Windows Phone 7, as this would provide both user familiarity and allow developers to target both phones and tablets together.

The problem is that none of these really make a whole lot of sense. It's true that at the limit, ARM machines will have better battery life than x86 machines. But battery life isn't the thing standing in the way of widespread acceptance of Windows tablets. The user interface is the problem. The user interface has always been the problem. The iPad has an interface designed for fingers, the Galaxy Tab has an interface designed for fingers, the future webOS tablet will have an interface designed for fingers, and it's no real stretch to suggest that every successful tablet that will ship in coming years will have an interface designed for fingers. And it's this interface that Windows lacks.

If Windows had a proper touch interface, nobody would care about the architecture it ran on. x86 tablets would be good enough, and I suspect that in many cases, the slightly inferior battery life will be more than offset by the better performance of x86 machines.

The most pointless option would be a straight port of Windows to ARM. Such an operating system would have the inappropriate front-end with an added bonus of being incompatible with every existing Windows program ever written. Sure, it would have better battery life, but it would have better battery life on systems that no one would want to use, just like they don't want to use existing Windows tablets.

The embedded option is, at least in principle, the one that Microsoft promotes for Windows CE, so it could be used for embedded Windows. But it's awful for users and awful for developers, and essentially awful for everyone. It's possible that some third parties will do a decent job of creating a tablet interface, but they haven't done it so far and there's no reason to believe that they'll do so in the future.

The final option—creating a proper touch user interface—is of course the one that makes sense. But... it still doesn't make sense. Windows on ARM can't run traditional Windows software; it'll need to be recompiled. And there's no point in recompiling existing software, because it won't have a touch interface. So Windows on ARM will need all-new software. And if the platform is going to need all-new software, what's the point of the port? The only value of Windows NT is that it runs Windows NT software, and if you don't want to run Windows NT software, you don't need Windows NT anymore! Microsoft might as well use Windows CE—Windows CE, which already runs on ARM, already has a touch interface in its "Windows Phone 7" guise, and already has lower system requirements, making it more appropriate to less powerful ARM systems.

Obviously, there is an aesthetic sense in which using Windows NT for tablets is better. Apple uses a variant of Mac OS X for its phones and tablets, and Android is based on essentially the same Linux kernel as people use in their servers and desktops, it would be nice for Microsoft to be able to do the same with Windows NT, to avoid having to maintain dual operating systems—as Steve Ballmer said of Google, why have two operating systems?

But to make that consolidation a prerequisite for an entry into the tablet market? That just doesn't make sense. Tablets need new software, and Windows CE is good enough to run that software. Porting Windows NT can't be a priority.

To further confuse the issue is the suggestion in the Wall Street Journal that it will be a couple of years before Windows on ARM actually ships. By that time, ARM processors should be quite a bit faster—but x86 processors will, in turn, use less power. ARM will probably still have the edge, but as long as x86 is in the same ballpark, the battery life differences will be insignificant.

In two years' time, we're also not going to be talking about Windows 7 anymore: it will be Windows 8. Windows 8, unlike Windows 7, will almost certainly have an interface suitable for fingers. As such, a straight port of this Windows should be suitable for tablets. If Windows ARM will be Windows 8, that would at least explain the earlier rumors that Windows 8 would be on show in CES. But it still does nothing to salvage Microsoft's tablet strategy.

Microsoft might well be porting Windows NT to ARM, and Windows 8 may very well be available for x86, x64, and ARM machines. But if it is, it shows that the company is still fixated with hardware. Windows' problems in the tablet space aren't hardware problems. They have always been—and continue to be—software, user interface problems. That's a problem that needs solving now, not in two years.

There is one area where a port of Windows NT to ARM does make some sense: the server room. Future ARM designs might work well in cloud and virtualization server scenarios. Given that Windows on the desktop shares a common codebase with Windows on the server, a port of Windows for future ARM servers would of course result in a "free" port of Windows on the desktop.

But an announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show won't be about Windows Server. It will be about Windows on tablets. Making this announcement, if it comes, a bizarre distraction that brings Redmond no closer to having an iPad competitor of its own.

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iPad makes it to Brazil, at eye-watering prices

SAO PAULO (AFP) – Apple's iPad went on sale in Brazil from Friday, with customers lining up at stores to get their hands on the tablet computer whose entry into Latin America's biggest market faced pricing and other challenges.

Brazilians were being asked to fork over between 970 dollars for the cheapest version (a 16GB Wi-Fi model) up to 1,530 dollars for the top-of-the-line 34GB WiFi-plus-3G model.

Those prices were nearly twice the amount US customers were paying, due to Brazil's 100-percent tariffs on imported electronics imposed to protect the domestic industry.

The trendy computing device also ran into a problem with its name.

The word "iPad" had already been registered in Brazil to denote a South Korean-made defibrillator that has been used to restart patients' hearts in Brazilian hospitals for the past three years.

A brewing legal tussle between that medical unit's maker, CU Medical Systems Inc., appeared to have been settled to allow Apple's tablet to finally hit Brazilian shelves.

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