Bonus Stories for 5 April 2010

The iPad is a Big Deal for Apple and the Mac ecosystem, and our coverage of its release this week surpassed the levels of text that even we are willing to inflict upon our dear readers. In case you read TidBITS only in email, however, we want to make sure you don’t miss a lot of great material. We’ll likely publish these articles at some point in the future, but if you want to stay on top of everything we’re covering this week, head over to our Web site. (And we encourage you to leave comments on these articles, too!)

Reading Books on the iPad: iBooks, Kindle, and GoodReader — With the iPad fresh out of the box, Glenn Fleishman tries reading in several apps – iBooks, Kindle for iPad, and GoodReader Tablet Edition – and finds the experience uniformly positive. If you’re looking at an iPad primarily as an ebook reader, Glenn’s article offers a comprehensive look. (Glenn Fleishman, 5 April 2010)

Google Groups on the Fritz — When you’re as pervasive as Google, even a slight glitch can be a nightmare for users and for your public image. That’s the case with a Google Groups problem that has recently surfaced. (Matt Neuburg, 5 April 2010)

Bento for iPad Not Just a Bigger Box — Many of the iPad apps we’re hearing about this week are little more than what you’d get running an iPhone app with its pixels doubled – stretched-out user interfaces with more space, but nothing new. Not so for the Bento personal database app, available now for your shiny new iPad. (Mark H. Anbinder, 2 April 2010)

Verizon Makes Wi-Fi Hotspot Service Free on Palm Phones — At first we suspected a delayed April Fool’s Day prank, but we checked with our local Verizon Wireless store, and it’s true. The cellular provider is now pushing the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus phones by offering those phones’ former $40-per-month Wi-Fi Mobile Hotspot feature for free. (Mark H. Anbinder, 2 April 2010)

Rapportive Plug-in Replaces Gmail Ads with Sender Info — Tired of ignoring the ads in Gmail’s Web interface? The new Rapportive plug-in replaces them with information about the current message’s sender, complete with connections to that person’s social networking data, where available. (Adam C. Engst, 27 March 2010)

Clearwire Promotes Its WiMAX Network for iPad Users — Clearwire suggests that Wi-Fi-only iPad users in regions covered by its Clear fourth-generation WiMAX mobile broadband service buy a 4G router and avoid AT&T’s service charges. (Glenn Fleishman, 23 March 2010)

Transferring Vinyl LPs to Digital: One Approach — So you have a collection of LPs and you wish you could listen to them in iTunes or on your iPod? Or you’d just like to preserve the music in digital format so you can listen without a needle touching the vinyl? Here’s one user’s inexpensive, speedy approach. (Matt Neuburg, 10 March 2010)