Don't even bother questioning why there is video of Jean-Luc Picard bashing Twitter and talking about his love for the iPhone, just watch and enjoy. Okay, okay, it's from a PBS interview designed to promote some of their Shakespeare programming, but that doesn't matter, really. All that matters is that Sir Patrick Stewart calls his "beautiful" iPhone "an extension of whom I am," in the way that only he can.

He also bashes gaming, but only because he says it's extremely addictive, so we'll let that one slide. Here's the really important question: Has anyone pointed out the Star Trek phaser [iTunes link] to him yet? What apps (besides the weather one, we guess) does he run on a daily basis?

[via iPhone Savior]

Kirk McElhearn over at Macworld has attempted to answer the very first question I've had since I first heard that the iPad wasn't going to be in a widescreen format: Why 4:3? The answer: because for the majority of things you'll be using your iPad for, that's the right resolution you'll want. Magazines, books, the web, productivity, and so on, McElhearn argues that 4:3 is the right way to go.

Of course, taste plays a factor in there -- I prefer to browse the Internet on a widescreen monitor, actually, and I think games, which I'll be playing a lot of on my iPad when I eventually get one, tend to work better with a wider field of view. And let's be honest, the 4:3 ratio only allows Apple to start small and go with an "iPad XL" or an "iPad HD" in the future, widening the screen and perhaps even upping the resolution.

But McElhearn makes a good point that the 4:3 ratio has been Apple's home until only just recently, and for most objects that you hold in your hands and read like the iPad, from magazines to newspapers, the 4:3 ratio still fits. The ratio likely won't affect sales at all, but we'll have to see if movie watchers hold out for a better format for their media.

Attensity Group has published a study showing people's attitudes toward the iPad. Their methodology for the study is fairly interesting: They analyzed 20,000 tweets from Twitter two hours before the iPad announcement, another 20,000 two hours after, and another 15,000 four days later. Two bits of data from Attensity's study are particularly intriguing -- four days after the iPad's introduction, a full 69% of analyzed tweets expressed positive sentiments toward the iPad, with only 27% having negative feelings toward the device. So given a few days' space, the iPad proves pretty popular.

Out of the 27% of the twitterverse that disliked or even hated the iPad, what was their biggest complaint? Unsurprisingly, 41% of iPad haters cited its lack of Flash support as their number one gripe.

Of course, Twitter is a self-selecting group as well (I've seen spambots, geeks, and celebrities over there -- in roughly that order), so Attensity Group's analysis is probably not indicative of general public perception of the iPad. While the news media and the online tech community has been on fire all week about the "war" between Apple and Adobe over Flash, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for average users, the iPad's lack of Flash support isn't going to deter people from purchasing one any more than it did for the iPhone or iPod touch. All the fervor over the Flash issue will eventually die away, but not because Apple's going to cave -- not if Steve Jobs has anything to say about it (and he does).

What do you think about Flash on the iPad? Give us your opinion in a poll by clicking on the "Read More" link below.

[Via Macsimum News]

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Do you use a bottom-connector battery extender? Have you been bothered by the awkward phone geometry that involves? For me, I've found it really hard to deal with the added length, especially with the (tiny!) storage compartment on the top handle of my Jeep stroller. For me, the longer phone-plus-battery length simply doesn't work, which means I can't fit the phone in.

That's awkward because I like to use TrailGuru as I walk to go pick up my youngest from school in the afternoon. After a bit of hunting, I've located a way to detach the battery from the phone to create a bending solution that does fit.

I recently picked up a Male-to-Female dock extender from DealExtreme for under four bucks (with shipping included). The cable lets me "fold" the battery into place for afternoon walks or stick it into my pocket while using the iPhone on a tether.

As far as stroller and backpack use goes, it seems to be working quite well. As for tethering, it's a fairly thick cable, and brings with it all the standard tethered irritations. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of tethered use but when you need that extra battery charge, it's a slight improvement over having the battery pack stuck directly into the bottom of the unit.

DealExtreme ships from HongKong, so it generally takes a week or so for packages to arrive. I've bought lots of things from them and they've been reliable shippers. When purchasing from Chinese suppliers, do keep in mind that the individual item fail rate is going to be higher than you might expect: not a constant issue, but something you should factor into your purchases, and something I've certainly experienced.

A Mac version of Cerulean Studio's Trillian has been years in the making and as of this past Friday, the alpha build of the software is finally out in the wild for Mac users to try. A private alpha has been available since 2007.

Since I dropkicked PCs out of my household five years ago, I've switched between iChat and the wonderful Adium. Trillian has a lot to live up to when it comes to instant messaging on the Mac. Adium, to start with, is free. Trillian costs Windows users $25USD to get full access to all of its features (the Alpha version for Mac is free). As stated when the original alpha was released, Trillian is rebuilding its software for OSX from the ground up.

I downloaded a copy of the alpha to try, and I am not impressed. While Cerulean Studios did warn that the alpha version of Trillian is lacking features, the entire experience was just unpleasant. No buddy icons from any of my IM accounts came over and the program looks nothing like the picture included with this article (taken from Cerulean Studio's blog announcement.) Having one-button clicks to access your different accounts is nice -- when it actually works. The most glaring of the missing features is no group chat support, which will be a turnoff for many. Other missing features include a lack of voice and video support, chat logs and more. You have to sign up for an Astra account to even start using the IM client.

When I was on Windows, the free version of Trillian was my IM client of choice. The Mac version has a lot to live up to, and maybe it could hold its own against its Windows big brother one day. But for now, I'd recommend sticking with much better, and free, alternatives such as Adium and Pidgin.

[Via Lifehacker]

Time to update your iPhone SDK to 3.1.3! It's a required update, otherwise Xcode will not recognize or work with your 3.1.3 device. Head on over to the iPhone dev center (developer credentials needed to log in) to download the latest version.

As always, the iPhone SDK includes Xcode, the iPhone simulator, and other tools for developing applications for iPhone and iPod touch. If you want to develop for the iPad, you'll need to join the $99/year developer program and download the 3.2 SDK instead.

Famed OmniFocus developer The Omni Group has given a brief peak at their development roadmap. The Mac Observer reports that Omni will release OmniFocus, OmniPlan, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and OmniGraphSketcher for the iPad.

The Omni Group is pretty excited about what all the iPad has to offer saying they feel that, like the original Macintosh, the iPad will be the computer for the rest of us. Omni has already begun porting OmniFocus and OmniGraffle for the iPad and will start working to bring their other products to iPad beginning in the next few months.

Omni is being very candid about their plans for the future of their products and it is refreshing to see a well-known software company keep their users informed. Omni admits that the iPad work will delay future release cycles for the Mac versions of their software but is confident that this is the right decision.

[via The Mac Observer]

Apple has upgraded the iPhone and iPod Touch software to version 3.1.3 which includes the following changes:

• Improved accuracy of reported battery level on the iPhone 3GS
• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some cases
• Fixes a bug which may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard.

The software update is compatible with all versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch and is available now through iTunes.

The folks at Mission:Repair have received iPad replacement parts from Apple. While checking them out, they noticed a slot that seems like it could accommodate an iSight. So they pulled an iSight camera from a MacBook pro and guess what happened. It fit perfectly inside the slot in the iPad's frame. In the picture at right, you see the iPad's frame (above and below) and the MacBook Pro's iSight (center).

And to add a little more fuel to the fire, some eagle-eyed event watchers claim that the iPad Jobs held on stage at last Wednesday's event actually did have what looks like a camera along the top bezel.

What does this mean? Will future iPads sport an iSight? Probably. But that doesn't explain why the 1st generation's case has the slot. It must have been pulled at the last minute for reasons of cost, function ... who knows.

If you're not going to buy one until it's got a camera, it looks like your prayers will eventually be answered.

[Via MacNN]

More coverage of TUAW's inside look at developer boot camp. See below for notes & disclaimer.

It's Tuesday at Big Nerd Ranch, and we're deep into writing simple apps for our iPhones. Once Mark Fenoglio had finished teaching us some fundamentals of C and Objective-C, Joe Conway took over as instructor to lead us through actually creating iPhone apps. He'll be finishing out the course with us. Right now, we're studying CoreLocation, and creating maps on which we can find locations and add annotations. Things are starting to get interesting, and we're really starting to apply the knowledge to our own projects. The lab should be busy tonight!

In the video after the break, you'll get a chance to "meet" Joe. I think the interview captured his Daniel Tosh mannerisms and humor pretty well (see the outtakes after the outtro). You'll see Joe at least one more time before the week is over. There will be some videos posted after the course, as we're actually in the middle of nowhere and the upstream connection isn't conducive to shipping large quantities of video to YouTube. That will be changing in the future, more on that when we talk to Aaron Hillegass.

Continue reading for the video!

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