Apple issued a press release this morning announcing that nine more countries have been added to the iPad’s accepted list.

The press release states that people in the countries listed below can buy all models of the Apple iPad starting this Friday, July 23rd from Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Oddly, it does not mention anything about being able to order the iPad online from Apple’s website, and a quick check for a couple of the countries listed don’t turn up any results for the iPad on their respective sites, so pricing could not be confirmed at this point.

Starting Friday, the iPad will be sold in these countries:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Hong Kong
• Ireland
• Luxembourg
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Singapore

That makes 19 total countries that can officially buy the iPad. Back on May 28th, Apple released the iPad to nine other countries (they must like the number 9) after initially releasing it in the US on April 3rd.

Also, the press release states that the iPad will be made available to several more countries later this year.

Apple has reported selling 3 million iPads so far, and that was back on June 22nd when they made that announcement. They’ve probably sold another million or so since then. Love them or hate them, Apple really knows how to create a huge buzz about a new product. Just wait until they start rolling out the iPad 2 and 3, with new smaller screens, better battery life, and new features.

Filed under: Apple iPad, News | Tags: international ipad, ipad | 1 Comment »

Up until July 1st, Canada Day ironically (aka Dominion Day for all you anti-conformists out there), the Apple iBookstore was available for download in Canada, but the selection of books was limited to free classic ebooks in the public domain.

Now, several major publishers are selling titles in Canada on the iBookstore, including Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.

Simon and Schuster has ebooks from authors like Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Robin Sharma, Kathy Reichs, and Cassandra Clare.

Titles from HarperCollins include Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes and Any Known Blood; Tish Cohen’s The Truth about Delilah Blue; Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s Debt-Free Forever; a special edition of Katherine Govier’s The Ghost Brush; General Rick Hillier’s A Soldier First; Theo Fleury’s Playing with Fire and Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s Secret Daught.

The ebooks generally run between $12 and $18. Some initial reports from Canadians suggest that the same exact books cost less on the Kindle iPad app. If you live in Canada and have an Apple iPad handy, please post a comment to confirm or condemn any pricing difference between Kindle books and iBooks.

Filed under: Apple iPad, News | Tags: canada, ibooks, ipad | 1 Comment »

Version 1.1 of iBooks is now available for download from the iTunes store, and now works for any iPhone or iPod running the new iOS 4.

The iBooks app has been out since April when the iPad first launched. And until now it was exclusive to the Apple iPad; you couldn’t even see what ebooks they had to offer using a web browser, you had to use an iPad to access the iBookstore.

The 1.1 update also adds some new features to the iBooks application, giving it the ability to open and read PDF files, and add them to the virtual bookshelf.

Apple also took a lot of the good features from the other ebook reading apps and included them in the update, such as adding notes, bookmarking multiple pages, highlighting selected passages, and changing the background color. And now that iPhones and iPods are supproted by iBooks, the app will automatically synchronize your ebook library across those devices.

Here’s the complete list of feature improvements for the new version of iBooks from the iTunes’ description:

• In addition to iPad, iBooks is now available on any iPhone or iPod with iOS 4.
• Open and read PDF documents from Mail. PDF documents will be added to your library and appear on the PDF bookshelf. You can even search PDFs for words or phrases and bookmark your favorite pages.
• Take advantage of new ways to bookmark. In addition to highlighting a word or a passage, you can now also add notes or bookmark an entire page with the new page ribbon.
• Keep your bookmarks, notes, and your current page wirelessly in sync between iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with the new automatic bookmark syncing feature.
• See your book pages in a new font, called Georgia.
• Read your books on white or sepia colored pages.
• Choose left or fully justified text layout from Settings.
• Read pages with greater ease by increasing to even larger font sizes.
• Enjoy greater stability and better performance.

Click here to check out our hands-on iBooks App Review for the Apple iPad.

Filed under: Apple iPad, News | Tags: apps, ibooks, ipad | 1 Comment »

Borders just released their new ebook app for the Apple iPad and iPhone today in the iTunes store.

The app is powered by Kobo and is pretty much exactly like the Kobo for iPad application, except everything has the Borders look and feel with red icons and menus.

While investigating this story, I was checking out the new page at Borders about ebook help. From there, I found a link to a page for the PC and Mac ebook application. Both are available for download on this page at Borders.

Testing out the PC app, you can browse through the Borders’ ebook store, and again, being powered by Kobo the layout is pretty much the same but with Borders red instead of the blue and green that Kobo uses. Like Kobo, you can download samples of ebooks before buying.

The app requires you to sign in with a Borders account to purchase and sample ebooks. Interestingly, if you have an existing Kobo account it will not work; it requires a new account from Borders.

The reading mode for the PC app itself is extremely basic. The only options available are increasing and decreasing font size, accessing the table of contents, and full screen mode (which is somewhat misleading because the margins are very wide). There are buttons to go to the previous or next chapter, and page forward and backward buttons. That’s it. And scrolling the mouse wheel does not turn pages.

Filed under: Kobo, News | Tags: apps, borders, ipad | 2 Comments »

Stanza is one of the most popular and versatile free ebook reading apps ever made, but when Amazon bought out Lexcycle, the makers of Stanza, everyone assumed Stanza would see no more improvements, and that appeared to be true since the Apple iPad was released and no new high-def Stanza app was released . . . until now.

Yesterday, an iPad version of Stanza was indeed released.

Some new features include PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive support, Turkish & Bulgarian translations, transfer books via iTunes by dragging files into the Stanza documents folder, open ebooks directly from web pages, and email attachments.

You can read more about Stanza’s features by visiting this existing post on the free ebook reader page.

Source: Teleread

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I find it interesting that Amazon continually refuses to divulge sales figures for the Kindles, and yet nobody can get Apple to shut up about their sales figures.

Apple issued a press release today announcing that they’ve sold 2 million iPads in less than 60 days, which is pretty amazing considering the iPad has been US-only until three days ago, on May 28th, when the iPad was released to 9 more countries.

Back on April 5th, Apple sent out a press release saying they’d sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of its release in the US, including pre-orders. Then on May 3rd, Apple issued another press release saying 1 million iPads had beed sold in 28 days since its introduction on April 3.

So far, Apple is selling 1 million iPads a month. Add another 9 counties to get iPads in July, to make a total of 19 countries in all, and we are sure to see plenty more press releases like this with even bigger numbers.

At this rate, iPad sales could exceed 5 million by the end of August. And then the holidays are just around the corner. Can you imagine how many iPads there will be by the end of the year? I think it’s time I learn how to develop some apps .

Filed under: Apple iPad, News | Tags: international ipad, ipad | No Comments »

Today marks the official release of the Apple iPad in 9 more countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Here’s a round-up of some news stories covering the Apple iPad release from around the web:

Australia

Tech-heads take the tablets as iPads finally go on sale – The Australian
Apple estimated 1000 people had lined up in Sydney, with the queue stretching halfway around a city block.

Australians Line Up (With Kangaroo Pouches) for iPads – Wall Street Journal
Fashion designer Davina Reichman attended the launch in central Sydney wearing her own twist on the traditional little black dress, the “iDress,” which has a reinforced pouch in the front to carry the iPad.

VIDEO: iPad mayhem, and other iPad videos – News.co.au
Watch how the Apple staff work the crowd and the media as we go behind the scenes at the iPad launch.

Canada

iPad launches in Canada: Vancouver lineups start early this morning – Vancouver Sun
Before the 8 a.m. early opening of Apple’s downtown Vancouver store, more than 100 people were in a lineup snaking through Pacific Centre.

Small but Enthusiastic Crowd Greets iPad in Toronto – PC World
Canadian cellular providers Rogers Communications and Bell Canada both announced support for the iPad and introduced plans that, while not comparable to the unlimited access that AT&T offers in the U.S., are generous by national standards, with 250MB of data available for $15, and 5GB for $35.

France

iPad-mania as thousands queue for global roll-out – Yahoo News (AFP)
Several French publishers, including world number two Hachette Livre, announced Friday that they had reached a deal with Apple to make their titles available through the company’s iBookstore.

VIDEO: L’iPad débarque aujourd’hui en France – France24
Deux mois après son lancement aux États-Unis, où Apple a vendu plus d’un million de tablettes tactiles en avril, l’Ipad arrive en France. Une application FRANCE 24 est disponible.

Germany

Anbetung auf der Freßgass’ – Faz.net
Die Showtime beginnt etwa fünf Minuten vor acht. Hinter schwarzen Stellwänden, die den Einblick in den gläsernen Apple-Store an der Freßgass’ in Frankfurt verhindern, beginnt rhythmisches Klatschen. Großer Jubel. Das hört sich an, als käme es vom Band. Es ist aber live.

The iPad’s Random walk through Europe – ft.com/techblog
We are very pleased that Verlagsgruppe Random House’s German-language book content will be directly available from Apple’s iBookstore for Germany. . .

VIDEO: Apples iPad nun auch in Deutschland erhältlich – nrw-aktuell.tv
Digitale Schiefertafel bereits teilweise ausverkauft Seit heute verkauft der US-amerikanische Computerherstelle…

Italy

VIDEO: Assalto all’Apple Store per l’iPad – Antenna Sud
Lo ha lanciato oggi in tutta europa la Apple e anche i baresi non hanno resistito all’ipad, il nuovo strumento informatico che permette di leggere libri e quotidiani da un monitor da nove pollici. Preso d’assalto l’apple store di Bari.

L’iPad è sbarcato in Italia Fila notturna all’Apple store di Roma Est – Il Messaggero
Le porte dell’Apple store, lo scrigno che racchiude il gioiello iPad, si aprono alle 8 in punto.

Japan

Japan’s iPad Frenzy Signals a Sea Change – Wall Street Journal
More than a half-dozen Japanese business and technology magazines ran cover stories about the iPad’s debut, with one declaring in English: “Here comes the game-changer.”

VIDEO: iPad queues in Japan nearly 1km long – ITN News
Japan goes iPad launch bonkers as more than a thousand people queue for days and explode with cheers when Apple’s store opens.

Spain

Un “capricho” de más de 480 euros – Publico.es
El iPad salió a la venta en 150 puntos por toda España y, aunque Apple no ofrece datos, gran parte de ellos confirmaron que se habían quedado sin existencias antes del mediodía.

VIDEO and article: Los iPads más caros, los primeros en agotarse en España – RTVE.es
Así, calculan que la compañía estadounidense sólo ha puesto entre 3.000 y 4.000 iPad disponibles para toda España.

Switzerland

VIDEO: Apple overtakes Microsoft as iPad is launched – World Radio Switzerland
WRS video journalist Amy Wong waited in line at the Geneva store where over 150 people couldn’t wait to get their hands on one.

United Kingdom

Apple iPad: excited British fans embrace new gadget after launch – Telegraph
Apple customers, some of whom had queued since midday on Thursday, were greeted to thunderous cheers from dozens of specially drafted in staff members when they entered the tech giant’s flagship store in Regent Street, central London.

VIDEO & article: Apple iPad tablet gathers crowds for UK launch – BBC News
Hundreds of people gathered at Apple’s flagship store in London to be among the first to buy an iPad.

VIDEO: Apple iPad goes on sale in the UK – ITN
Apple’s iPad is finally on sale in the UK after a delay due to the gadget’s popularity in the United States.

Filed under: Apple iPad, News | Tags: international ipad, ipad, ipad 3g | 2 Comments »

Yesterday Barnes and Noble finally released their eReader app for the Apple iPad. Here’s a page reviewing all its features, along with plenty of screenshots: B&N’s eReader iPad App.

Filed under: Reviews | Tags: apps, BN, ereader, ipad | No Comments »

Here's a look at international pricing for the Apple iPad.

Thanks to the BBC News and the Mac Observer for the rates.

Filed under: Apple iPad | Tags: international ipad, ipad | No Comments »

Apple issued a press release today confirming the release of the Apple iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28, with pre-orders starting on May 10th from the Apple Store.

Additionally, Apple announced 9 more countries to get the iPad's release in July. These 9 countries included: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.

The press release said that Apple will announce availability, local pricing, and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.

Filed under: Apple iPad | Tags: international ipad, ipad | No Comments »