App Giveaway: Air Horn

Air Horn is an iPhone and iPad app that mimics, well, an air horn. The sounds were recorded from real air horns for a realistic feel.

The loudest, the coolest, the fastest, and the best Air Horn for your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

The App features multiple high quality, and loud sounds that imitate an actual Air Horn! The sounds were recorded from real Air Horns so you and the people hearing the horn will think its a real, physical Air Horn!

The update includes:

The developer (and noted 9to5Mac news ninja), Mark Gurman, has given us four promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just let us know who you plan to blast with the air horn in the comments below!

Air Horn is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

TiPb Asks: Will iPad transition from product to product line?

We’ve been arguing for while now here at TiPb about whether Apple will leave the iPad as a singular product, the way iPhone and iPod touch are, or transition it to a product line, the way MacBooks are?

So far Apple has resisted even leaving last year’s model available as a cheaper 8GB entry-level model, the way they’ve done with the iPhone since iPhone 3G and experimented with one year with the iPod touch 2.

There were rumors earlier this year that Apple might push up the release iPad 3 (or iPad 2 Pro) to this fall, resulting in two iPads being available — the still current iPad 2 and the more expensive, Retina Display version. According to TiPb’s sources, however, has since moved iPad 3 back to the traditional spring release schedule, perhaps because those Retina Displays can’t yet be produced cheaply or consistently enough to meet Apple’s demand.

When iPad 3 is released next year, will Apple take the opportunity to leave iPad 2 on the market, perhaps at a cheaper $399 for 8GB price point? That’s a small step towards making a product into a product line.

The bigger leap would be multiple screen sizes. 7 inch tablets have been released by Samsung and BlackBerry, was going to be released by HP webOS, and rumor has it will soon be released by Amazon. None other than Steve Jobs has said Apple doesn’t like the 7 inch size, that it’s not a great experience, that it required people to shave down their fingers. But he also said people didn’t want to watch video on their iPods and we all know how that turned out…

What about a bigger screen size? Samsung already makes pretty much every sized tablet from 5 to 11 inches — in 1/2 inch increments! — but much larger tablets still haven’t really been tested. If rumors of Apple stretching the Retina Display on iPhone 5 to 3.7 or 4 inches turn out to be true, could they try to stretch the rumored Retina Display on an iPad 3 (or iPad 3 Pro) to 12 inches? I know, speculation based on rumors stacked that high is the blogging equivalent of playing Jenga on top of unicorns riding on rainbows, but…

That’s about the only other factor I can see Apple exploring. They don’t even disclose processor or RAM details, so a product line based on those things don’t really make any sense — you’ll never shop for an iPad the way you shop for a Dell. Part of Apple’s strength and success has always been its crystal clear product lines. Right now there’s one iPad and all you have to choose is front color, storage size and Wi-Fi or 3G.

Next year, could it be budget iPad 2 8GB or iPad 3 (by color, size, and radio), or could it be more? 7 inches for highly mobile readers, 9.7 inches for general purpose multitaskers, and 12 inches for professionals who push pixels or productivity? Next year, could the iPad go from product to product line? If the iPad is increasingly becoming the future of mainstream computing, will it have to?

Will iPad transition from product to product line?

We’ve been arguing for while now here at TiPb about whether Apple will leave the iPad as a singular product, the way iPhone and iPod touch are, or transition it to a product line, the way MacBooks are?

So far Apple has resisted even leaving last year’s model available as a cheaper 8GB entry-level model, the way they’ve done with the iPhone since iPhone 3G and experimented with one year with the iPod touch 2.

There were rumors earlier this year that Apple might push up the release iPad 3 (or iPad 2 Pro) to this fall, resulting in two iPads being available — the still current iPad 2 and the more expensive, Retina Display version. According to TiPb’s sources, however, has since moved iPad 3 back to the traditional spring release schedule, perhaps because those Retina Displays can’t yet be produced cheaply or consistently enough to meet Apple’s demand.

When iPad 3 is released next year, will Apple take the opportunity to leave iPad 2 on the market, perhaps at a cheaper $399 for 8GB price point? That’s a small step towards making a product into a product line.

The bigger leap would be multiple screen sizes. 7 inch tablets have been released by Samsung and BlackBerry, was going to be released by HP webOS, and rumor has it will soon be released by Amazon. None other than Steve Jobs has said Apple doesn’t like the 7 inch size, that it’s not a great experience, that it required people to shave down their fingers. But he also said people didn’t want to watch video on their iPods and we all know how that turned out…

What about a bigger screen size? Samsung already makes pretty much every sized tablet from 5 to 11 inches — in 1/2 inch increments! — but much larger tablets still haven’t really been tested. If rumors of Apple stretching the Retina Display on iPhone 5 to 3.7 or 4 inches turn out to be true, could they try to stretch the rumored Retina Display on an iPad 3 (or iPad 3 Pro) to 12 inches? I know, speculation based on rumors stacked that high is the blogging equivalent of playing Jenga on top of unicorns riding on rainbows, but…

That’s about the only other factor I can see Apple exploring. They don’t even disclose processor or RAM details, so a product line based on those things don’t really make any sense — you’ll never shop for an iPad the way you shop for a Dell. Part of Apple’s strength and success has always been its crystal clear product lines. Right now there’s one iPad and all you have to choose is front color, storage size and Wi-Fi or 3G.

Next year, could it be budget iPad 2 8GB or iPad 3 (by color, size, and radio), or could it be more? 7 inches for highly mobile readers, 9.7 inches for general purpose multitaskers, and 12 inches for professionals who push pixels or productivity? Next year, could the iPad go from product to product line? If the iPad is increasingly becoming the future of mainstream computing, will it have to?

Week in iPad for September 11, 2011

Missed a compelling piece of iPad news, a great app review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPad here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPad for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here. For you.

And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPad Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us and follow along!

Developer reveals steps Apple took to keep original iPad from leaking

Business Insider talked with a developer who had early access to an iPad, before it was even announced, and he revealed a intriguing tale of physically chained down devices, hidden behind frames, subject to spot checks.

Apple flew the iPads to the developers destination accompanied by at least one engineer. They had to be kept in a room with no windows. Apple changed the locks on the doors and took the names and social security numbers of the four people who were allowed access to it. The iPads were fixed to the desk with high strength security cabling, similar to the material used for cycle locks.

They had these custom frames built around them so we couldn’t even tell what the iPads looked like. We could plug into them so we could code to them and we could touch the screen and play with that, but we couldn’t see the form factor. Then they took pictures of the wood grain. If any pictures leaked out, they could trace it back to which desk they came from.

Not really all that surprising to me; you don’t keep a product like an iPad under wraps with very little leaked information, without taking some major precautions. Apple are extremely successful with minimizing product information leaks. We still have no idea what the iPhone 5 will feature, so the system certainly seems to work.

(Now all it needs is a way to lock down all the bars in San Francisco…)

[Business Insider, Image via Creation Security]

 

Developer reveals the lengths Apple will go to minimize product leaks

Business Insider talked with a developer who had early access to an iPad, before it was even announced. The developer who remains anonymous, for obvious reasons, wanted to share the experience of the lengths Apple go, to avoid product leaks prior to launch.

Apple flew the iPads to the developers destination accompanied by at least one engineer. They had to be kept in a room with no windows. Apple changed the locks on the doors and took the names and social security numbers of the four people who were allowed access to it. The iPads were fixed to the desk with high strength security cabling, similar to the material used for cycle locks.

They had these custom frames built around them so we couldn’t even tell what the iPads looked like. We could plug into them so we could code to them and we could touch the screen and play with that, but we couldn’t see the form factor. Then they took pictures of the wood grain. If any pictures leaked out, they could trace it back to which desk they came from.

So there you go, an interesting little tale of the lengths Apple will go to avoid product leaks. Not really all that surprising to me; you don’t keep a product like an iPad under wraps with very little leaked information, without taking some major precautions. Apple are extremely successful with minimizing product information leaks. We still have no idea what the iPhone 5 will feature; so the system certainly seems to work.

Now all it needs is a way to lock down all the bars in San Francisco and its all set!

[Business Insider, Image via Creation Security]