iPhone - iPod

I got a good question today via Twitter that I have some expertise in: 

What would you consider the "best" monitor for Macs...for a [good] price?

I've been buying monitors for small to mid-size companies for awhile and have one each of a Sharp, Dell, Samsung, Apple and HP monitor in my house so I feel like I have a bit of experience in the area.

Disclaimer: If you are a professional artist, you are going to want something else.  There are a lot out there, but this recommendation isn't for you.

Dell has the best value in monitors and has for the last few years.  They aren't built like Apple displays but they are very solid and look good. 

If every penny counts, you can find the Dell 1600x900 20" display out there every once in awhile for $89.  But really, for $40 more you can step up to 1080P resolution.

I say this cold: No one should have anything less than a 1080P 1920x1080 screen on their desktops.  You can buy a 22" 1080P display for $129 with free shipping on sale at Dell every once in awhile (currently $149).  If it isn't on sale, you can usually find it refurbished for that price or less.   I use a Samsung equivalent in my bedroom as a mediacenter display and it works great for Blu-Ray movies at about 4-8 feet away.  This is basically the same display (size/pixels/aspect ratio) as the $1000+iMac 22" without LED lighting.  The viewing angles aren't what you'll get in a more expensive display and the color takes a little calibration (2 minutes, very easy) but you have a 1080P display on your desk for less than the price of a parking ticket in some cities. 

But that's not the best inexpensive monitor you can buy right now.  Dell makes a 23" "better than HD" 2048x1152 display with HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs, USB Hub, cable management, Webcam and analog audio I/O.  It also looks great with a "not as glossy as Apple's" display.  It doesn't have internal audio, but I'd rather use external speakers (for another day's review) for sound.  They have a $10 sound bar you could get but I wouldn't reccomend it. 

The  hits every sweet spot for me and you can currently get it for $229+Free shipping at Dell.  Compare that to Apple's $900 Cinema Display with few Pixels and ports. (yes it is lovely and has power for MacBooks, etc)

The viewing angles are great but it also has an adjustable arm in the back for both angle and height (Apple's are angle only).  I've had this monitor as my main display since Apple botched its Mini DisplayPort to dual DVI adapter part over a year ago.

I'm not quite sure I buy this whole story.  A TUAW reader with a new Core i7 iMac says that when they ran Software Update, they got the 10.6.3 Pre-release that was released today:

When finished, they had the new 10D572 build of Snow Leopard 10.6.3. 

Is this a Prius acceleration type of phenomenon?

We've managed to get some screenshots of the updated iTunes Connect interface for submitting iPad applications for those who might be interested. Have a look:   

Apple sent the following email to developers today signalling that they will now accept apps made for the iPad.

Guess we'll start to see what is out there pretty soon.

We know that Intel and Apple's relationship isn't what it once was even a year ago. A few years ago, they were getting processors ahead of launch and Intel even built the original MacBook Air its very own chip.  Now things are a bit different, which may be a reason why MacBook Pros haven't been updated to the current generation processors (released in January).  Digitimes today says that:

Intel is giving priority to major clients [Acer], and second-tier and smaller notebook players have to wait much longer before receiving supply of the CPUs, the sources noted.

Has Apple dropped to "second tier"?

According to a report by the sometimes spotty (ahem removable battery?!) Korean Times (via DL), Samsung will soon begin producing iPad screens.  This follows news this morning that Wintek may or may not be having issues with production yields on their iPad touch screen sensors.

"Samsung Electronics has won a contract worth $240 million from Apple to supply 3 million LCD panels used in the iPads," a high-ranking industry representative told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified. "The most expensive component in the iPad is the display and touch-screen interface that costs $80 for all models. The 9.7-inch display is more than twice the size of the iPhone 3GS screen and costs five times as much," he said.

LG, who has a $500 million/ multi-year display deal with Apple, is already building 10 million iPad displays according to the report, which would put the total order for displays at 13 million.  That is a lot of iPads.

If true, it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in the capabilities of the two screens.  There was some controversy when Apple changed the quality of the screens in its 13-inch Unibody MacBooks last year.

Apple is abandoning its plans for TV subscriptions (for now) but may have some $.99 television shows for the iPad's launch according to an updated report by the Wall Street Journal.

Apple has narrowed the device's scope. It has put on hold its idea to offer TV subscriptions that would be viewable through the iPad, because few media companies were interested. Instead, Apple is discussing dropping the price of TV shows to 99 cents from the $1.99 and $2.99 charged for most shows on its iTunes store, said people familiar with the situation. Apple hasn't yet reached a deal with many major TV producers on the price cut, these people said.

The WSJ reports that although most eBooks will be ready at launch, Magazines and TV are a harder nut to crack...

China Mobile is itching to get their hands on the  iPhone according to the FT (sub. req.) today.  

The head of China Mobile has called on Apple to include Beijing's home-grown standard for third-generation mobile services in the next generation of the iPhone, underscoring the growing pressures on the world's largest mobile operator to attract 3G subscribers.  The request comes amid fears that China Mobile risks falling behind rivals China Telecom and China Unicom - the only telecom operator in the country to have a distribution deal with Apple for the iPhone - in signing up subscribers. Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile chairman and chief executive, said at the group's annual results yesterday that "including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do - RIM is doing it". But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.

China Mobile has over half a billion subscribers (almost double the US population) and Apple had already made the concession of taking out Wifi (only to put it back in) for China so they might have a shot.   Also, Apple is hot for China. 

Apple, however, seems to be loyal to its carrier partners no matter how lucrative building devices with different radios for competing carriers might be….at least from my view here in the US.

Businessweek reports today that an elite group of developers have received iPads to test their applications on, however, these iPads must be kept tethered to a fixed object and in rooms with blacked-out windows.

Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad. To ensure that it can't be removed, the iPad must also remain tethered to a fixed object, said the people, who asked not to be named because their plans for the iPad have not been made public. Apple won't send out an iPad until potential partners send photographic evidence that they've complied.

Our immediate reaction to this is: What does Apple want to hide at this point?  Haven't we seen the iPad in its final form from a hardware perspective?  From a software perspective, what is so interesting that they need developers to hide it?  This level of secrecy on something already announced piques our interest.

The WSJ is one of the companies who has the iPad under lock and key as outed by Rupert Murdoch himself...among other things, though they'd be an unlikely source for a Bloomberg leak.

Digitimes gives fair and balanced coverage of possible iPad delays by first quoting Liberty Times as saying Wintek's display panels' low yield rates are hampering iPad production, a fact that has been discussed before.

Taiwan-based touch panel supplier Wintek has been blamed for a delay of Apple's iPad shipments, according to a Chinese-language report on Liberty Times. The report claimed that Wintek is facing a manufacturing bottleneck in its touch panel production, and its low yield rate for touch panels has hampered its shipments to Apple.

But on the flip side of the coin, Digitimes reports that Wintek has reported to the TSE that all of its operations have been running in-line with its plans.

Wintek, in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) today, said that all of its operations have been running in line with its plans, and it declined to comment on individual clients or particular orders.

We'll see in coming weeks how well Apple is able to meet demand, which already appears to be pretty high.