iPad By Davis: “Pad & Quill Graduate Edition Case Contest – Winner” plus 4 more

Pad & Quill Graduate Edition Case Contest – Winner
New iMac teardown reveals lots of adhesive and almost no end user upgrade options
iMore show. Seth Weintraub. Tonight. 9pm ET/6pm PT. Be here.
Weekend iPad Wallpapers: Lord of the Rings Theme
Hulu Plus for iPad Updated – Adds Kids Section

Pad & Quill Graduate Edition Case Contest – Winner

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 05:27 PM PST

Thanks to everyone who took part in this contest. We had a large number of entries, lots of great comments, and one lovely poem within an entry. Thanks for that Lyn, and I have to share it:

If I won a case from P&Q
What would I do?
I'd yell with delight
"Thank you iPad Insight"
It's handsome and smart
Handmade too, a lost art
I especially love it's elegant looks
'Cause with an iPad you don't buy real books!

It's great to see that Pad & Quill has so many big admirers here. Our lucky winner is:

Laura Holmgren.

Laura – congratulations, and please keep an eye on your Inbox and spam folders. I've already emailed you asking for your shipping details.

Lookout for more cool contests coming soon.

As with every big Apple product launch, iFixIt has given the new 2012 iMac the teardown treatment. Unfortunately, it only receives a repairability score of 3 out of 10. Most of this is attributed to the difficulty level of replacing common items such as RAM or a hard drive. This time around, it's no easy task.

The first thing realized upon tearing open the new iMac is that Apple has ditched the traditional screen enclosure that used to be held in with magnets for an adhesive. According to iFixIt, it's simliar to the adhesive used in iPads. You'll need a heat gun and your ninja skills to even break into the computer. After doing so, the foam around the edges that secures the screen will have to be completely replaced. If you break the glass in the process you'll also have to replace the LCD since they are fused together in order to make the iMac so thin.

We were quite worried when we saw that super-thin bezel during Apple's keynote, and unfortunately we were correct: the glass and LCD are now glued to the iMac's frame with incredibly strong adhesive. Gone are the lovely magnets that held the glass in place in iMacs of yesteryear.

Once you get beyond the screen you'll have quite a bit of work to do before you can even replace something as little as a RAM card since it's hidden beneath the logic board. Anyone who has an older generation iMac currently enjoys being able to lay the computer flat, unscrew a few screws, pop their RAM cards out and hot swap them. This is definitely not the case here so for most users, they'll need to pay Apple's ridiculous premium for a RAM upgrade instead of ordering RAM for a lot less on their own.

iFIxIt also found some traces and connectors on their base model 21.5" iMac that they believe are for Apple's own proprietary Fusion Drive. In other words, if you order a model that is baseline, you won't be able to add your own SSD as the connectors are Apple proprietary and the connectors on upper models may even come soldered onto the main board.

While many people were irritated with the lack of repairability and upgradeability of the 15" retina MacBook Pro, the 13" variant showed a few improvements.

While laptops are not necessarily made to be largely upgradeable, desktops are. This isn't exactly good news for iMac fans who depend on being able to upgrade basic items in their computers over the years. If you'd like your new iMac to last and don't want to attempt to get past tons of glue in order to upgrade it yourself, you'll have to pay Apple a large premium for a spec'd out model.

Is upgradeability a huge factor to you when purchasing a desktop? And if you were considering a new iMac, does any of this deter you from getting one?

Source: iFixIt

iMore show. Seth Weintraub. Tonight. 9pm ET/6pm PT. Be here.

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 02:14 PM PST

Seth Weintraub, publisher of 9to5Mac joins me tonight to talk about Apple rumors and the latest iPhone, iPad, and Mac news.

Join us LIVE at 6pm PT, 9pm ET. Set an alarm. Bookmark this page. Be here.

Weekend iPad Wallpapers: Lord of the Rings Theme

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 09:18 AM PST

This weekend's iPad wallpaper choices are two with a strong Lord of the Rings theme. Both were shared to our iPad Insight Flickr group by SKR Imaging, and boy am I glad they were.

The first, shown above, is titled Orc and was painted on an iPad using the Procreate app. I think this image is just so powerful and wonderfully menacing. I also love the colors in it.

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Read the rest of Weekend iPad Wallpapers: Lord of the Rings Theme (104 words)