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Apple on Friday announced the official release date of its iPad — April 3 — but the company also raised more questions. Specifically, Apple's press statement suggests the iPad won't ship with all the apps that came with the iPhone. What will happen to them?
Apple's press release states the iPad includes "12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad." That number presumably refers to the brand new Videos app and the redesigned iPod, Maps, Photos, Mail, Safari, App Store, iTunes, YouTube, Contacts, Calendar and Notes apps that were present on demo units of the iPad in January. (For a clearer look at the iPad's Home screen, see Apple's press image below.)
But if you recall, the iPhone ships with some apps that appear to be left out from the iPad: Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather and Voice Memos. What gives?
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment, but I'm willing to guess Apple will just stick those apps in the App Store for a free download, and they'll be the same apps as they were on the iPhone. After all, it's unlikely there's much to do with those particular apps to make them visually special for the iPad.
There have been some other theories tossed around recently as well. Blogger Kevin Fox speculates that Apple might reintroduce the missing apps as widgets through Dashboard. If you're a Mac user, you should be familiar with Dashboard widgets. They constantly run in the background and can be accessed by pressing a quick hot key (F12). Fox points out that the missing apps were all originally Dashboard widgets, with the exception of Voice Memos, and perhaps an iPad version of Dashboard will function as a more sophisticated method of multitasking for the iPad. (Contrary to popular belief, the iPhone can multitask, but it's limited to running a select few apps made by Apple in the background, such as the iPod player and the phone.)
In any case, until April, the missing apps are a head scratcher. We'll find out soon enough.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
*Image courtesy of Apple
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