Apple finally unveils the iPad tablet
After literally years of speculation, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, finally unveiled the long-rumored Apple Tablet today, dubbed the iPad.
Despite numerous leaks of information that this device was coming, Apple would never even confirm that it was working on any form of tablet device. When the announcement went out last week of a press event this week, the theory was of course that we would finally see the tablet we had all speculated on, and Apple did not disappoint.
One of the biggest questions about the iPad has been exactly what niche does it fill. According to the presentation made this morning in San Francisco, the iPad fills a space between a smartphone and a laptop: it gives you mobility, but with a lot more horsepower.
First, some basic stats on the device:
- Memory capacities of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
- 802.11n Wi-Fi
- 1GHz Apple A4 chip
- 0.5-inches thick
- 1.5 lbs
- 9.7-inch screen
- Bluetooth 2.1
- Speaker & microphone
- Accelerometer & compass
- 10 hour battery life, one month standby
- 3G connectivity for $30 a month via AT&T without contract.
New features include an e-reader app named iBooks, which will include a store with offerings from Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group. You’ll be able to change the font on the fly, flip the pages like a real book, or simply touch to go forwards or back.
Apple’s office suite, iWorks, has been reimagined for the iPad, so this device will be able to do work on spreadsheets and word processing.
However, no matter how nice an onscreen QWERTY keyboard may be, the idea of typing out a long document on a screen isn’t fun. There will be an iPad dock launched with a built-in physical keyboard that allows you to stand the device vertically and turn it into a computer essentially. No word yet on the price for this peripheral.
“IPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “IPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”
So what will this magical new device cost you? Well, although speculation ran in the range of $1,000, the basic model is going to cost you $499, and the most expensive will be $829. We’ve got the full pricing breakdown for you below, but Wi-Fi models will be available in 60 days, and 3G models in 90 days.
|
16GB |
32GB |
64GB |
|
|
Wi-Fi |
$499 |
$599 |
$699 |
|
WiFi + 3G |
$629 |
$729 |
$829 |
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January 27th, 2010
Quick fix: the 3G connectivity is $30, not $60, for unlimited data (the $60 slide was what “everyone else charges”).
January 27th, 2010
Oh my, what an amazing failure of journalism. Epic, almost. “Apple did not disappoint.” Did not disappoint who? You? You may be the only one. Try doing something called research – heard of it – and you’ll find thousands upon thousands of blog comments screaming “fail!” (If you need a little hint, which it seems you do, try engadget.com)
No multitasking. No camera. Nothing really new.
The one thing is DOES do is disappoint.
Really. Get a clue or find another occupation. You suck at reporting.
January 27th, 2010
Enix – Fixed.
iGeorge – “the theory was of course that we would finally see the tablet we had all speculated on, and Apple did not disappoint.” Re-read the sentence. It has nothing to do with the features. We expected a tablet today … they showed a tablet … this means they did not disappoint. It is an old use of the word, but it is valid.