On the new "MacVoices" (http://www.macvoices.com), Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus -- one of the privileged very few who received an iPad for early review -- provides his thoughts on the new Apple product.

He discusses what made the biggest impression on him out of the box, what he's already discovered about casual usability, and his positive experiences with the iPad's on-screen keyboard. LeVitus also talks about what came with his iPad, and what didn't, his app experiences, games, books ... even the quality of Apple's iPad case are all covered in the first look at a production iPad.

"MacVoices" is an Internet show and podcast that delivers in-depth discussions with the most influential people in the Mac industry, as well as "the individuals who are out there making it happen on the front lines of the global Apple community," according to host Chuck Joiner.

Hard Candy Cases is shipping the first line of protective sleeves for the iPad, with four additional models scheduled to ship in the next several weeks. There's a video of the cases at http://tinyurl.com/HCCBubbleShell that details the production process of the first Bubble Sleeves.

“We wanted to create a case that had more style and protection than the typical neoprene sleeve," says Hard Candy Cases CEO Tim Hickman. "We took it a step further by custom molding rubber feet inside the case that add 2-3x the drop protection, and which allowed us to start manufacturing the casing earlier."

Crafted with detailed stitching and zipper, the EVA molded, rigid Bubble Sleeve features shock absorbing fitted rubber bumpers to keep the iPad securely in place. A soft, padded interior lining protects the Multi-Touch display. The Bubble Sleeve is available in green, pink and black and retails...

According to a new poll conducted by ORC (http://www.opinionresearch.com), an Infogroup Company, the vast majority of US consumers (71%) are familiar with Apple’s iPad. Six percent plan on buying one within a year, equating to a sale of about seven million units, and 1% said they will purchase one as soon as it becomes available, which would translate to a sale of approximately one million units.

The findings in ORC’s survey correspond closely with market analyst predictions that five million iPads will be sold in 2010. Based on the results of ORC’s research, it is clear that a significant number of tech-hungry consumers are interested in an iPad in the short-term, but what does this mean for the long-term success of the product?

“Adoption of new technologies is often a slow and gradual process,” says Kevin Wood, vice president and senior analyst with ORC’s technology practice. “It...

OCRKit (http://ocrkit.com/), a text recognition app for Mac O X 10.4 or higher, has been updated to version 1.1. The new version adds support for new OCR languages: Polish, Russian, Turkish.

There's also control for color detection. Additionally, version 1.1 improves automatic color detection and the embedding of certain image files.

OCRKit transforms images and PDF files into searchable PDFs. With built-in OCR it allows for editable PDF files via drag and drop. And you can find 'em with the Mac's built-in Spotlight desktop search.

OCRKKit comes with support for several OCR languages, including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, and even more user-interface translations: English, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified-Chinese and Traditional-Chinese. It's designed for Intel Macs only.

OCRKit costs approximately US$56, though...

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find 'em at the Apple App Store (http://www.itunes.com/appstore/).

"It's About Time Products" has announced mini apps -- an iPad application which allows you to access and utilize multiple "mini apps" with different, customizable types of information. It will be available soon at a special launch price of $0.99.

Digital comic book distributor and software provider iVerse Media has unveiled the latest version of iVerse Comics. The free app will run on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices. Long time users of iVerse Comics will have the ability to download new, high resolution, iPad files of their previously in-app-purchased comics at no additional cost.

Onederr has released SF Way 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch users who live in or visit San Francisco.The app (free for a limited time) is packed with...

OneSpring has released an updated version of the visualization templates for Apple-branded mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch and, now, the iPad. It offers a way to define software projects from mainframes to web sites to mobile applications.

The iPhone and iPad simDK gives business analysts and user experience professionals a way to quickly prototype the look, feel and behavior of iPad applications, including screen transitions, typing, sliding, etc., before any code is written, according ot Robert Grashius, chief visualization officer for OneSpring. This approach clarifies requirements, saves time during product ideation, and speeds up delivery of applications, he adds.

The iPhone & iPad SimDK is offered by OneSpring at no cost and is available for immediate download by visiting onespring.net. It requires iRise 7.3 or above. iRise is an enterprise visualization solution.

Consumers and companies that have pre-ordered US iPads from outside the US are receiving e-mails from Apple canceling their orders in order to facilitate demand of real US consumers, according to MobileGamesBlog.com ("http://blog.mobilegamesblog.com/2010/03/apple-cancels-foreign-ipad-pre-orders.html).

Those orders (coming mainly from web sites like MyUS, Borderlinx and Shipito) that have been canceled will receive a full refund on their credit cards, the article adds.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has announced the doubling of its iFund to US$200 million of venture capital for applications for Apple's iPhone OS family of products, including iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. 

Established in 2008 as a $100 million investment pool, the original iFund is now fully committed across 14 companies. iFund companies have been supported by an additional $330 million from follow-on investors.
 
KPCB (xhttp://www.kpcb.com) also announced iFund-supported companies have more than 20 applications in development for the soon-to-be-released iPad, with 11 available at first ship on April 3. KPCB noted the iPhone has created an inflection in mobile content consumption and the iPad will lead the next wave of innovation in mobile computing. The iFund is increasing its investment dollars to back entrepreneurs and build companies that focus on these areas. Particular areas of interest on iPad include entertainment, communication, social...

Global Delight has updated Voila (http://www.globaldelight.com) -- an image capturing, annotating and sharing tool that sports the ability to capture a region from the screen in rectangular, circular, polygonal or free hand form -- to version 3.0. Users will now be able to record high-quality videos of their desktop, among other feature additions.

Features such as image resizing, single-click sharing across FTP, SFTP, Flickr and YouTube, customization with regard to capturing and exporting options are among the many additions made. The app also sports a revamped look.

Voila offers full screen capture, timed capture or a menu capture. In addition, the software is integrated with a blend of annotating tools like texts, arrows, callouts, sprays, stamps and more. Additionally, you can share your work via email or iPhoto.

Voila runs on Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later. It costs US$39.95....

SmileOnMyMac has updated PDFPen (http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/download.html), its PDF editing and form-filling tool for Mac OS X, to version 4.6.1. Text resulting from OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is now positioned more accurately for selection and highlighting.

An occasional problem with sheet-fed scanners has been corrected, as well as an issue with drawing text annotations. Other minor improvements and fixes have also been made.

PDFpen costs US$49.95, and PDFpenPro is $99.95. Family pack licenses, which cover up to five computers in one household, are $74.95 for PDFpen and $129.95 for PDFpenPro. Upgrades from earlier versions of either application are $25, and free to users who purchased after June 1, 2008. Upgrades from any version of PDFpen to PDFpenPro 4.0 are $50.

PDFpen 4.6.1 and PDFpenPro 4.6.1 require Mac OS X 10.4 or...

On this week's "Your Mac Life," the gang looks at "iPad madness."

How big a success will the iPad be? Will it be the "most important cultural phenomenon of this generation"? Or will it "remain an expensive, niche device"? These questions and others will be examined?

"YML" has also posted a video called "Please Please Mr Jobs - Don't Release the iPad..." You can find it here: http://yourmaclifeshow.com/node/4435 .

You can listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 8 pm (Pacific). Live video is on Your Mac Life! You can watch the show live at http://yml.macosg.com/ -- or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov .

...

AT&T executives have reportedly been working with Apple to resolve the issues regarding its highly criticized network issues. iPhone users have long complained about dropped calls and slow data connections.

Now, as rumors circulate (again) that Verizon iPhone is in the works, AT&T is reportedly working with Apple on improving network communication. AT&T executives flew to Apple's campus last year to assure Apple CEO Steve Jobs that they were working to resolve the issues and instruct Apple handset designers on wireless networking, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan told "The New York Times" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230473910457515407278419861...).

In mid-December, AT&T executives set up a 100-day plan to dramatically improve the company's...