While the iPad is generating a myriad of opinions, one key item is being overlooked in Apple's announcement: Apple's iWork office applications will be available for $9.99 each for the iPad. While a reduction from the $79 desktop pricing, Apple is taking a stand to show that applications delivering value can exist at higher than the $0.99 price point of many iPhone apps.

Lextech is growing and we're looking to expand our team. If you're in the Chicago area, are looking to be a part of a team changing the way people use technology and fit the criteria below -- drop us a line. Where else do you get to work on things like a rocket launcher control system, build a harbor video surveillance system, create the most elegant and advanced iPhone app available or link mobile phones to GIS tracking systems?

Responsibilities

I had a chance to get up close and personal with the new point of sale system at an Apple Store tonight. Replacing the previous mobile POS system is an iPod Touch wrapped up in a black case that contains a laser barcode scanner. The iPod runs Apple's Easy Pay app to manage the transactions. The store employee logs in with their Apple ID and they're presented a simple front end that links to Apple's existing transaction systems.

Gartner research has posted numbers covering Q3 world wide mobile phone sales. Crunching those numbers results in some very interesting data points:

• Smart phones make up 13% of all mobile phones sold (41 million of 308 million phones) up from 11.8% in 2008 for the same quarter. The total volume of phones sold was flat (308 million). The important thing to note here is users are converting to smart phones.

iPhone app promo codes are used to provide free copies of an app to reviewers or other key users. The folks over at TapTapTap posted a great tidbit for sharing iPhone app promo codes in a much easier to redeem fashion. Rather than a user having to navigate inside iTunes or try to find the nicely hidden 'redeem' link on the iPhone, the end user can click a URL which will launch iTunes on a desktop computer or an iPhone directly from an email and start the redeem process.

I live on my laptop and the data on it and my desktop is of critical importance (from family pictures to marketing videos to iPhone apps under construction). I've seen too many people in the last couple years lose something critical because it only existed in one place. Of course our key business data lives on file servers, source code revision control systems and databases that have their own backup strategies but for anything that lives on a laptop, additional measures are required.

paidContent.org has a good overview of ESPN's current iPhone offerings and strategy around using free apps to drive paid adopters.

Key take-aways:

We use Daylite for keeping most of our contacts and opportunities organized.  One of the few frustrations with it has been the inability to quickly pull Mail messages into Daylite as tasks so they could be acted on later as appropriate and not clog up the inbox.  In keeping with a Getting Things Done (GTD) mentality for task management I needed a solution.

Recently we made our annual family trek to the Dayton airshow in Ohio for one of my favorite airshows.  Seeing everything on the ground and then watching them take off right in front of you before each demonstration is so very different than planes just appearing above you.

This year I had my new iPhone 3GS with me in addition to my Flip Mino HD video recorder.  Early in the show I was swapping back and forth to make sure to capture clips on both and then I decided to try a bit of a geek grip which let me record from both at the same time.