The wait is over. A few hours ago, in a press-only event, Apple unveiled its latest creation — the iPad. Priced under $1,000, or specifically $499 for the Wi-Fi only version, Apple aims to put an iPad in every home.
Hardware
To put it bluntly, the iPad looks like an oversized iPhone. According to Arstechnica, the iPad hardware is built using a custom Apple-designed chip called the “A4,” running at 1GHz. It features a 9.7-inch, 1024×768 IPS LCD display with full multitouch input. It comes with 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, an accelerometer, a compass, a microphone, a speaker, a 30-pin dock connector, and a 10-hour battery capable of a full month of standby time. All of that hardware is contained in a case that is just half an inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds.
Highlights
Here are some of the highlights of the new iPad as reported Engadget:
- It’s not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
- The screen is stunning, and it’s 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
- The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
- There’s no multitasking at all. It’s a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you’re working in Pages… you can figure it out. It’s a real setback for this device.
- The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
- No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn’t have an SMS app!
- It’s running iPhone OS 3.2.
- The keyboard is good, not great. Not quite as responsive as it looked in the demos.
- No Flash confirmed.
The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand
New (and old) software
Since it’s running iPhone OS 3.2, the iPad can run unmodified applications developed for the iPhone/iTouch. It also comes with some applications developed specifically for the iPad: Mail, Calendar, and an image viewer that allows you to view your pictures like stacks which you can “peek” to see thumbnails of the images in the stack.
The notable one is called iBooks which allows you to read eBooks which you can purchase from Apple’s new online store.
The notable one is called iBooks which allows you to read eBooks which you can purchase from Apple’s new online store. Books you purchase from the online store downloads to your bookshelf (looks like a real bookshelf) where you can select it and read it. You can tap on a book to get more detail, looking at reviews, and can get a sample (just like Kindle). You can tap pages, or drag them if you want, and it animates as if you’re reading a real book.
According to Mashable, iBooks will initially be available in the U.S. which means, the rest of the world will have to wait for Apple to launch it worldwide.
Apple also introduced a new version of their productivity suite, iWork, specifically developed for the iPad which users can purchase from the online store for $9.99 each: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
Pricing and availability
The iPad starts at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version, $599 for the 32GB, and $699 for the 64GB. You have to add $130 for the 3G version which will be available as a prepaid, pre-activated, data-only service from AT&T which you can terminate anytime. The monthly cost for unlimited data is $29.99.
The iPad will be shipping worldwide in 60 days.
With the new price point set by Apple, expect netbook prices to go down below $400 in the next few months. I’ll hold on to that cash if I were you.
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