Apple unveils the Ipad
January 28, 2010 by Kevin
Filed under Information
The iPad is a tablet computer announced by Apple on January 27, 2010. It is 0.5-inches thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and features a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive multitouch display. It is powered by a proprietary 1GHz processor, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and is available in 16, 32, or 64GB flash storage capacities. Additional specs include an accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, 30-pin Apple dock connector, and 10-hour built-in battery.
Standard apps that come pre-loaded on the device include a mobile Safari web browser, two-pane calendar app, two-pane email app, contacts, notes, Google Maps, media player, photo viewer, iTunes store, and App Store to download third-party applications and games. Existing iPhone applications are centered on-screen at their original 480×320 resolution, or can be run in a magnified mode where the app is enlarged to fit the entire screen.
The thing I don’t get here is… So far, nothing new. This has all been done before elsewhere. I’m astonished this isn’t nicer looking or more interesting.
Jobs: "It’s so much more intimate than a laptop." Yes, Steve. PC users have known that since 2002. Geesh.
OK, this has to be a joke. He can’t really be this excited about this device. Maybe this will be a candid camera moment and all thus joyful faces in the audience will get an actual, happy, surprise. It’s a joke. It’s gotta be.
Right?
Did he just show an address book that … looks …. like a book? Ahahahaha. Oh come on. Someone pinch me. It can’t possibly be this lame.
But wait, there’s more: Widescreen movies take up approximately half the space on the surface of the iPod because the aspect ratio of the device is way off. That just seems odd. This thing should be 16:9.
OK, stats.
It’s half an inch thick. It weighs 1.5 pounds. It has a 9.7 inch display with full capacitive multitouch and accelerometer. All as expected.
A 1 GHz Apple A4 chip (What the???). 16 to 64 GB of flash memory. 802.11n. 10 hours of battery life.
The big question, of course, is the price. I’m guessing $999 to start.
But we have to wait. Because Scott "dark son" Forstall is out. To talk about apps.
It runs iPhone apps. Obviously. Stretches them out as you’d expect, if you want. (Apple calls this 2X. It’s actually about 4X from what I can tell.)
This stuff is just boring. If Apple wanted this to be a game machine, they should have built hardware controls into that huge bezel.
New York Times apps looks just like the New York Times Reader app for the PC. Which, by the way, looks great on a Tablet PC. I wonder if there’s a dedicated Kindle app at launch.
"This is just the beginning." By which he means, "of the apps demos." They’re going to go on all day long.
Aside from price, the other big question is availability. I’m guessing not immediate. Using Apple history as a guide, I’d guess they will announce it for the end of February and devices will start shipping from China on February 27 or 28.
I enjoy that the MLB app looks like ColecoVision Baseball. Anyone else notice that?
And am I missing something or does this not do handwriting recognition? You know, like the Windows Tablet PC software has since 2002?
The eBook reader stuff is another example of Apple mimicking real life objects unnecessarily. Creating a "library" page that looks like a real bookshelf and a book interface that visually resembles a book does not make this "easier to use" or "nicer." It makes it unprofessional looking, actually. Childish.
And don’t get me started on the superiority of eInk over any screen display. It’s no contest unless you’re trying to fast track to bad vision.
It’s called iBooks (of course). Uses ePub format, which makes sense.
And now iWork. A version of an app suite that no one uses designed for a device that no one should use for productivity. It’s the ultimate win-win!
