DomainTools.com, a site know for its domain research tools, has released a cool new application for the iPhone and iPad. It has a WHOIS lookup feature with site thumbnails as well as a domain availability checker.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Download the Domain Tools iPhone app

When it was officially announced that the iPhone would never have Flash player installed, Apple users moaned. When Steve Jobs denounced Flash and swore that the iPad would also be Flash-free, people began to become concerned. For animation and video, Flash currently reigns supreme on the Web, but it has not been and is still not the only option.

A company called Smokescreen has introduced a new technology (or rather a merging of old and new technology) to produce Flash-like animated ads using software that all platforms support (Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile operating systems). The ads use a combination of Javascript and HTML5 to create ads that are nearly identical to their Flash counterparts.

The Smokescreen website lists multiple demos of their product in action, although some of them still need to work out the kinks. Technology powerhouses like Apple, Google, and Mozilla are pushing for the adoption of HTML5 video, while Adobe hopes to hold onto its claim on web animation and video. One obstacle that HTML5 proponents must overcome is the inability for current HTML5 video to display dynamic ads. Several marketing firms are working quickly to develop solutions. Current YouTube videos using HTML5 do not display ads, and those videos that do use Flash only.

Continue reading: Smokescreen to Create Flash-free Ads

With the imminent launch of the iPad, speculators are scrambling to register any iPad domain they can think of. These names are now starting to trickle onto eBay, and as you can expect, the sellers have some pretty outrageous asking prices.

For TheiPadShoppe.com, one seller wants $60. Not withstanding the fact that the name is easily confused with “ThaiPadShoppe.com,” the name isn’t anything special to begin with. If you’re looking for a real deal, theAppleiPads.com, BuyiPad3GS.com, iPad3G4U.com, and iPad3GBUY.com are available in a 4-pack for $4999.

Any money spent on iPad domains is money wasted. These names are all violations of the iPad trademark and if Apple wants to gain control of them, Steve Jobs won’t give a damn how much you paid.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Speculators scramble for Apple iPad domains

Ever since Steve Jobs announced the iPad some time ago, the new product has received its fair share of hype and heat. A colocation company has taken things to a new level, however, with the launch of iPadcolo.net.

The site advertises iPad colocation with 64 GB of storage in a world-class data center. According to the FAQ page, the iPads all run from Wi-Fi and are clustered together onto racks. Each iPad is allowed to fully charge and then unplugged until the battery requires recharging. Worried about multitasking? The company advertises the ability to remotely start and stop services, which must be run one at a time.

By now you’ve probably caught on that this isn’t real. The site is actually part of a marketing campaign for a colocation provider specializing in the OS X operating system. Pretty cool, huh?

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Colocate an iPad?

Despite working for years to design its iPad tablet, Apple failed to register any domains related to the new product. It doesn’t own iPad.net, iPad.eu, iPad.de, or even iPad.com. What was the Cupertino company, which has filed trademark-related disputes over numerous domains in the past, thinking?

Without owning at least the .com, Apple is losing quite a bit of traffic. Hundreds of thousands of people typed “ipad.com” into their browsers yesterday, but none of them reached an Apple-owned site. The firm no doubt lost quite a bit of traffic.

Interestingly, Apple owns .coms for most of its products, but not all. Other names it doesn’t own include MacBook.com and iBook.com. Maybe Apple didn’t register the domain to keep its product name secret? Or maybe Apple doesn’t see any value in domains now?

Source | Washington Post
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Apple misses out on iPad domains