Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines! iPad preorders for the United States begin today. TUAW is reporting that “ The Apple Store is currently down in the U.S., the U.K. and the rest of the world.” Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan with your neighbor Osama, you probably know that iPad preorder sales begin this morning. But did you know the exact time? We didn’t think so. iPad preorders at apple.com begin at 8:30 am EST (that’s a bleary-eyed 5:30 am for our West Coast MacLife staff & readers!) Before you start palming your credit card, remember that come April 3rd, only the Wi-Fi model will be available. We presume that any preorders from today through April 2nd will be scheduled to arrive via FedEx on April 3rd, as is customary for Apple product launches. However, if you have your heart set on a 3G-enabled iPad, you’ll have to wait until an unspecified date in late April — exactly when, Apple ain’t saying. There were also some new, last-minute rumors on Thursday that we might see refreshed MacBook Pros and Mac Pros today, so keep an eye out for those as well when The Apple Store springs back to life.

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It’s March 12th — Do You Know Where Your Credit Card Is?

GPS is an amazingly transformative technology, originally designed for military commanders to pinpoint enemies and navigate through hazardous battlefields. Though GPS has since spread to car navigation devices and handheld camping gizmos. Starting with the iPhone 3G, Apple began integrating GPS into their mobile device with features users eventaully took for granted. Except when those features fail because, though GPS is now almost ubiquitous, it certainly isn’t perfect. Even the iPhone, cool as it is, has a few flaws that keep it from being the seamless experience Steve Jobs no doubt wants it to be. Here’s a list of the top ten reasons GPS can fail on the iPhone. 1. Tall buildings: Most iPhone users, especially those in New York and San Francisco, are intimately familiar with AT&T’s spotty service, but what they may not realize is that their urban environment is also working against them. GPS is a line of sight technology that needs a clear path from phone to satellite and back again. In a dense city packed with skyscrapers like New York, finding an unobstructed patch of sky to divine your location can be a serious challenge. 2

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10 Reasons Why You Can’t Always Rely on GPS on the iPhone

Hit the road, Mac. Whether your road-warrior gifteee travels for work, for fun, or just roams around the city using coffeeshops as their office, we recommend bags and travel-ready accessories that are sure to brighten their holiday season. Able Planet True Fidelity Active Noise Canceling Headphones (NC300) For less than half the price of Bose QuietComfort, the True Fidelity delivers active noise cancellation (perfect for blocking the noisy drone of an airplane, train, or bus) and a light, comfy fit. The inline control lets you adjust the volume easily, and Able Planet also includes a carrying case, 1/4-inch adapter, AAA battery, and airplane adapter. Oh, and the cable is detachable so if you ever break it, you can replace it for $9.95 . The True Fidelity (model NC300, in black or white) retails for $129.99.   Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 If you’re hitting the road but plan to spread out at your destination and really get some work done, Microsoft’s latest Bluetooth keyboard is svelte enough to fit in your laptop bag, but comfortable enough to type on all day. There’s no Command key, so just use the Keyboard System Preference to set the Modifier Keys up the way you like them. The keyboard also includes a separate numeric keypad, which is a hundred times more convenient than trying to use the numpad keys on a MacBook. The 6000 retails for $89.95

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10 Gifts for MacBook-Packin’ Road Warriors

The new week begins with a new Tablet-related rumor that’s bouncing its way cheekily around the tubes. This one comes to us courtesy of New York Times executive editor Bill Keller. According to Nieman Journalism Lab , “…the digital staff gathered for an ‘all hands’ meeting at TheTimesCenter to hear updates on various initiatives in advertising, business development, and content.” Sounds riveting. Anyway, Keller delivered a lengthy monologue (you can watch the whole thing here ) but, around eight minutes in, he says: “I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that.” Is that simply speculation on Keller’s part, or is he a man in possession of privileged information? As I mentioned  last week , Apple is said to have recently been in secret talks with publishers about content delivery via a new platform, and given Apple’s long relationship with the New York Times, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility Keller would be in on the inside track of those talks. Lingering a little longer on the “slate” moniker,  Edible Apple reminds us of a series of tweets from Kevin Rose a few weeks ago, who, while enjoying a few recreational beverages at a bar, met an inebriated lady claiming to be an Apple employee: Omg just met a drunk girl from apple “no apple tablet coming… well, we wouldn’t call it a tablet” haha leak!! So, they wouldn’t call it a Tablet… but perhaps they’d call it a Slate, yes? Kevin Rose has been wrong oh-so-many times before. But sometimes he’s right. So these two threads of discourse may be contextually connected in just the right way to lead to conclusions (and the “jumping to” thereof)… or they’re really a big fat nothing.

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NYT Editor Hints at Upcoming Apple Slate

Filed under: Hardware , iMac , Apple , First Look TUAW may have had the date wrong (we guessed October 9, 2009), but the new iMacs we were looking for finally showed up today. The 20″ and 24″ models are gone, replaced by 21.5″ and 27″ iMacs with a true 16 x 9 HD aspect ratio. It’s also obvious that Apple intends for the new iMacs to end up on the desktops of a lot of designers, since the line now includes the first quad-core iMac ever. The pricing for the iMac line starts at the same US$1199, but that’s where the similarities stop. The displays are now backlit by LEDs, providing better energy efficiency. The 21.5″ model has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is the equivalent of a 1080p HDTV. That screen size is actually 90% of the resolution of the old 24″ iMac. Resolution on the 27″ model is 2560 x 1440 pixels.

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First Look: New iMacs announced, and they’re incredible!

We loved the last iPod nano (5 out of 5 stars, Nov/08, p68) with its brightly colored, sleekly tapered aluminum case, accelorometer-assisted Cover Flow and Shake-to-Shuffle, and Genius playlists. The fifth-generation nano brings back all that goodness and shovels on even more "OMG WANT" features, including an FM radio, pedometer, and video camera. The video camera is obviously the marquee addition, no pun intended. A tiny lens on the back of the nano captures 640×480 H.264 video, and an even tinier microphone records AAC audio. We needed to experiment to find the best ways to hold the nano while keeping the screen visible and our fingers out of the shot. Whichever way the nano is held, the preview appears right-side-up on the screen, so we initially thought we could hold it upside-down in portrait mode–and we wound up with a bunch of upside-down video. If you start shooting with the nano upside-down, your video will be OK. But if you start shooting right-side-up and then turn the nano upside-down, your footage will flip too, even though the preview image on the screen is always upright. Video quality is not up to the Flip cameras’ standard, with more washed-out colors and less detail. Still, it’s fun to shoot with , provided you have enough light

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Fifth-Generation iPod nano

Though the reviews of Snow Leopard have been generally positive, it has been the “seriously guys, it’s 30 bucks, don’t be cheap” type of positive, rather than the “OMG BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD” type of positive. The main complaints have been stability and compatibility, because it seems as if Apple killed off a lot of older software with new fangled technology, especially with plugins and 64-bit. However, some of those problems may be going away. MacNN reports that Apple has begun a closed test of the 10.6.1 update, seeding it to select developers. What should we expect from the next update? We won’t know for sure until people who have used it leak info, but expect improved compatibility for the big name applications, like the Adobe Creative Suite and Quicken. Don’t expect anything new by ways of features, unless you consider less crashing a feature (though that seems like a marketing pitch Microsoft would use for Windows, so maybe not). This won’t be out for a while, until it has been extensively tested, so don’t click on Software Update TOO obsessively.  

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Apple Tests Next Version of Snow Leopard

OMG!  School as you once knew it has thrown you a curve. School Boards everywhere have decided to be conscious of the environment and make books part of history.  Instead, of building up landfills with outdated books each year along with tons of paper from homework and exams, they have decided to utilize today’s technology and provide educational materials in digital format.  That’s right, those 20-30 pound backpacks that end up straining your back are no longer needed.  Instead, you will be assigned a netbook and iPhone for your daily school activities.  Could this be the best move yet? Your regularly scheduled classes and books has been replaced by this great list of iPhone apps.    click app summary card to enlarge Read below for the full review English Throughout the first semester, your coursework in English will come from three different sources to be used by your iPhone: Scrabble  by Electronic Arts for $4.99 App Store Link Play Scrabble by yourself or with a classmate.  Shake your iPhone or iPod touch to shuffle the tiles and you are ready to go.  A new feature also allows you to connect with your friends on Facebook.  Things in this app move in real time so your stats and chats appear instantly.   Textropolix  by NimbleBit for $0.99 App Store Link We will stumble across new words as we play through 30 different cities.  A built-in dictionary is included for words used in these exercises.    Watch each city grow as you discover its words and add to your total Textropolis population! Shake your phone or iPod to get a helpful hint when you are stuck, and you can even send postcards from your best cities to a friend via email to show off your vocabulary. Free Hangman  by MobilityWare  Free App Store Link The colorful art and graphics with Free Hangman give you challenging, but solvable words in an old traditional game.  Letters are picked one at a time and a wrong guess results in part of the stickman figure being drawn.  Free Hangman is compatible with your iPhone or iPod touch. US Government Civilization Revolution Lite  by 2K Games, Free App Store Link Lead your people to greatness.  Inspire your nation with promise to build into the most powerful empire known to mankind. There is a way to win from 16 different historical civilizations whether the path chosen is via cultural, economic, military or even scientific.  A new interface has been included and multiple difficulty levels added so even the inexperienced can succeed without crashing the nation. ***Break Time*** Fast Food Calorie Counter  by Concrete Software, Inc.  $2.99 App Store Link You have just enough time to grab a decaf latte and check out the lunch menu calories at the nearby fast food joint.  Search over 7,800 menu items for their nutritional values from 66 of the top fast food restaurants.    Create unique and custom food and keep track of what you eat for the entire school year.  Feedback is welcome and updates are free. Music Rockstars Live  by Storm 8,  Free App Store Link Rockstars Live is an online multiplayer game with over 1.3 million players!  Compete against others in live in battle of the bands.  Collaborate with your friends and buy your way into stardom by purchasing promotions that will attract fans and merchandise sales.  Show off your talent while enjoying the cool rock sounds and great graphics.  Physical Education Pocket Mini Golf 2  by Chillingo Ltd. for  $2.99 App Store Link This multi-language app provides a fun and addictive app for up to six people.  Select one of three skill levels and an amazing location to golf which includes jungles, deserts, beaches, castles and mountains.  Between the graphics, options and ease of play, your PE class is guaranteed to be most entertaining.  Pocket Mini Golf 2 is compatible with your OS 3.0 or later. Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D  by Com2uS Corp.

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14 iPhone Apps Putting Fun into Back to School

…is Wednesday, September 9, and is entitled “It’s Only Rock and Roll, But We Like It.”  Gdgt will have a live feed from the event , beginning at 10 AM PST (adjust your time zone accordingly). Based on the theme, expect it to be iPod-heavy, but don’t discount any surprises popping up (Apple Tablet maybe, Uncle Steve?). [Via Gdgt ]

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iMark Your Calendars: Apple’s Next Live Event…

For the last few days, ever since it was announced by Joe Hewitt, the technorati, the blogosphere and Twitter have been all abuzz about the upcoming version 3.0 of the Facebook app for the iPhone. read more

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ZOMG! Can You Wait Any Longer?