from yahoo.com
The long wait is over, the rumors are over, and at last, the Apple tablet is a reality. Armed with a 9.7-inch display, just a half-inch thick, and weighing just a pound and a half, the iPad is ... well, it's essentially just a big iPhone, albeit with a price tag that's a lot cheaper than I was expecting. Not bad, but if you were hoping for a revolutionary new product, prepare to be disappointed.
Now, before we begin, let me stress that this is not a review; Apple's big presentation today only happened a few hours ago, and I haven't had a chance to hold the iPad in my hot little hands yet. These are just prelimiary impressions based on today's announcement. A full review will have to wait until I've got a shipping iPad in the Yahoo! Tech testing lab (also known as my apartment).
So, with that little caveat out of the way ... let's get started with a few specifics, shall we?
The Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled iPad (yup, that's the name Apple settled upon) will do pretty much anything an iPhone can do—including e-mail, Web browsing, calendar and event managements, photos, music and video, and apps (it'll be able to run "virtually" any app in the App Store, we're told). You'll also be able to buy books on the new iBooks store (more on that in a minute) and work on office documents using a custom version of Apple's iWork suite, all with the help on a virtual, nearly full-size QWERTY keypad.
Pricing? Much cheaper than I thought it would be: just $499 for the entry-level 16GB model, far less than the $999 price tag that many had predicted (and/or feared). You'll also be able to get a 32GB version for $599, while the 64GB flavor will cost you $699.
And yes, as predicted, 3G models will be available as well, with prepaid, no-contract plans for AT&T (and only AT&T, it should be said); expect to pay $29 a month for unlimited data, or $14 for 250MB a month ("more than a month" for most people, said a still-thin but otherwise healthy looking Steve Jobs ... which might true, so long as you don't browse too much or watch too many streaming videos). iPads with embedded 3G will cost $150 above and beyond the price of the non-3G versions (so $649 for the 16GB version, $749 for the 32GB model, and so on).
When will the iPad ship? In 60 days, Jobs promised, with an extra 30-day wait for the 3G models.
And how about battery life? Expect 10 hours, according to Sir Steve, plus a month of stand-by time. (And yes, the battery is encased in the iPad shell.)
So then ... what does the iPad do that's so special, exactly? Well ... as I said right up front, we're basically talking a big iPhone/iPod Touch here. You've got the same basic iPhone look—including the big touchscreen and the Home key at the bottom—only super-sized.
For Web browsing, for instance, you can now see an entire Web page (and be able to read the text) in one shot (although no, Flash is still not supported). When you read your e-mail messages now, you can view your inbox on the left side of the screen while you have a message open, and you've got a much bigger virtual QWERTY keypad to deal with. Now when you browse your music, you're looking at an interface that more closely resembles the desktop version of iTunes. The on-screen calendar looks like a big monthly calendar, not just a series of little numbered boxes. Mapping on the iPad is also bigger (and yes, still powered by Google), and, I suppose, better.
You'll also be able to run "nearly" every app in the App Store, either at a reduced "pixel-for-pixel" size or full screen via the magic of pixel doubling. The current Facebook app, for example, will work just fine on the iPad ... it's just a lot bigger. And in case you were wondering, well ... no, you can't run multiple apps at once, on the same iPad screen (as I was hoping).
More interesting is the potential for app developers to build apps that take advantage of the iPad's jumbo display. A revamped version of Gameloft's first-person shooter "N.O.V.A." was shown off that featured new multitouch gestures such as swiping three fingers to open a door, or two fingers to toss a grenade. On the "Need for Speed" driving game, there's now enough room to include a touch-enabled stick shift, as well as a rear-view mirror that you can tap.
We also got our first glimpse at some of the much-hyped newspaper apps for the iPad, including an app for the New York Times that looked more like a real newspaper than a phone app, complete with movable columns, slideshows, streaming video, and the ability to read in landscape or portrait modes. Not bad, but that's about all we saw from the magazine/newspaper standpoint—surprising, given all the ink that's been spilled over how the Apple tablet will supposedly revolutionize/save the publishing business.
Speaking of publishing ... yes, Jobs touted the iPad as a Kindle competitor, announcing a new e-book store called iBooks that'll let you buy and download books from five major publishers (including Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette). In terms of the e-books themselves, publishers can choose to "print" them in black & white or color, and you'll be able to change the font and font size if you wish. An initial glance at the pricing revealed several books that were conspicuously pricier than they are on the Kindle store, though.
Another new feature: a trio of productivity apps based on Apple's existing iWork suite, including Pages (for word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentations). As you might expect, each app ($9.99 each in the App Store) takes advantage of all the iPad's touch features; for example, in Numbers, you can call up a specific virtual keypad for entering cell functions, which is a nice touch. However, since there's no true multitasking on the iPad, you can't, say, have a Web page open while you're composing a document in Pages. That's a major drawback in my book (at least in terms of using the iPad as a laptop replacement).
The iPad will come with three accessories, by the way: a standard dock that'll prop the device up for viewing videos, slideshows, or other documents; a dock with a physical keyboard attached; and a "really nice" case.
Missing features in the iPad: No built-in camera (so no, there's no facial recognition that would, for instance, automatically identify different family members and switch to their personalized iPad view). No TV subscriptions (as had been previously rumored). No Flash support for the Web browser. No app multitasking. No haptic feedback for the virtual QWERTY keypad ... and indeed, nothing all that new on the UI front at all.
Overall, the most surprising thing about the iPad is the $499 price tag for the low-end model ... and that was a wise decision, because frankly, I still don't understand why I'd want an iPod in addition to my iPhone and my MacBook.
Am I disappointed in today's big announcement? Well, it's hard to imagine what Steve Jobs possibly could have unveiled today that would have lived up to the hype, and it'll take some time for the reality of the iPad to sink in (for me, anyway).
But my immediate reaction ... yep, disappointment. The iPad looks like an interesting refinement of the iPhone/iPod Touch model, but does it break the mold like the original iPhone did? Personally, I don't think so. Will I buy one? Probably yes, because tech is my business ... buy if I were the average gadget freak, I just don't know. Will it replace my laptop? Maybe while I'm lounging on the sofa (although browsing the Web on my iPhone suits me just fine, frankly), but certainly not during a business trip.
Anyway, I really want to hear from you guys. What do you think? Excited by the iPad? Disappointed? Want to buy one? How about that name? Fire away below.
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