Apple today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds– thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499.
“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “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.”
iPad features 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. Reading and sending email is fun and easy on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard. Import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.
iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch. The iTunes Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.
Apple also introduced a new version of iWork for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages, Keynote and Numbers you can create beautifully formatted documents, stunning presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.
iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.
iPad’s brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.
iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours. Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan
iPad comes in two versions–one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.
Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.
Apple today released a new Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad, so developers can create amazing new applications designed to take advantage of iPad’s capabilities. The SDK includes a simulator that lets developers test and debug their iPad apps on a Mac, and also lets developers create Universal Applications that run on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
iPad will be available in late March worldwide for a suggested retail price of US$499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, $699 for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing and worldwide availability will be announced at a later date. iBookstore will be available in the US at launch.
Find out more about iPad here.
Source: Apple Inc.
re – PhxDoc
exactly
I was expecting a Mac tablet, but got a giant iPod touch instead. I think there’s going to be significant overlap for people who already have an iPhone/iPod touch. A Mac tablet would have made a better companion the iPhone/iPod touch.
My prediction: Apple will sell just enough of these to keep the product around, parallel to the situation with the MacBook Air. Much ballyhooed and supposedly “revolutionary” on inception, but not much of a game changer in the end.
I don’t know. I’ve been wrong before but no Flash support is going to turn a lot of people off.
—————-
That’s what they said about the iPhone/touch.. 75 million users later….
Flash is dead. Web designers are being forced to use alternatives to Flash if they want their pages viewable by iDevices. That’s a good thing IMO.
I get it!
I get it soon!!!
silverhawk said: “@ Brilliant Sandwich
Which Mac(s) have a SD card reader? I don’t know of any. My MBP has a PCM slot.”
———————————————-
My Macbook Pro, which is the latest generation, has an SD card reader built into the unibody.
@silverhawk
All of the latest generation of MacBook Pros and iMacs have SD Card readers.
@Brilliant Sandwich
Thanks. Mine is late 2006 and I hadn’t heard of a SD reader.
I’m still thinking on this one. iChat video would have been cool. The thing I’m most surprised by is the need to sync with another computer. I assumed (not sure why) this would be completely independent… ya, you can download music, etc… but you really need to sync.
But Apple obviously had to leverage the apps phenominom… gives them instant 140k apps.
Need to think of it more as a netbook replacement alternative than laptop/desktop alternative. It does make
netbooks look horrible.
Knees ain’t the only thing these folks are jerking.
Before everyone wets themselves, how about we give it a chance in the real world before we start bitching. Remember how foolish you sounded when the iPhone first came out? Your doing it again.
Any thoughts on why the system requirements call for 10.5.8? I would have assumed as long as your iTunes was up to date everything would be fine.
iPod Touch with iWork and a big screen…..
Not as impressed as I wanted to be. Great looking product, great design, no point carrying it around as my iPhone does all this, minus the big screen and iWork and I carry it in my pocket 24/7…
A few years perhaps this will evolve into the product we all want it to be, but it needs the following:
Camera for video conferencing
Accept tethering
Multi-task
Printing from iWork
Some kind of “Finder” which lets you easily store and locate files instead of the iPhone OS default.
Make it more computer, less iPhone.
I remember iPhone naysayers… but not among the Macheads (again, as I remember). I was blown away by the iPhone– it clearly reinvented the mobile phone / PDA category. That’s the way I felt after reading about and watching the keynote the first night.
This is very cool. But maybe cuz it leverages the iPhone so much, it’s not blowing me away.
Don’t get me wrong… I’d like to have one. But it’s not accurate to say we all dismissed the iPhone… and are doing the same here. It may take longer to come around.
The iPad needs video chat, multi-user profiles w/ parent controls, and (yes) flash. I know the last one stinks but a lot of sites for better or worse require it today.
Much better than a netbook… but I don’t have one of those either.
Syncing to another computer still freaks
me out… not sure why.
Forget it, I’m getting the WIndows version:
since I already have a data plan with att on my iphone, how about a way to tether my phone to the pad so ican use my data plan on the pad. by connecting the phone to the pad, att it would mean i use one or the other but not both. this will keep att happy since only one devicexwill be using bandwith at any given time. im happy bcause i dontvpay forca second data plan?
what am i missing?
Simple. Don’t buy one. I’ll take yours.
It looks like an oversized iPhone for retards
Disappointed, expected much more. Just a gigantic iPod is not even a miniscule magic. This is not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination.
Just a huge iPod. I do not know anyone who’s life will improve by owning it. This looks as no sale to me and very likely will be a flop. Only time will show but I am no even remotely excited … maybe my expectations were too high.
Too bad Steve focused on this product instead of on iPhone. If Apple cannot do multitasking, tethering, useful BT on this huge iPod… forget about doing it in iPhone. This is the most disappointing aspect, it shows that iPhone will be losing stream. I still have very high expectations for iPhone and I am due for upgrade in June. I love my iPhone, they should have put all energy behind improving it. I hoped 3GS is only the beginning. There haven’t been OS upgrade for a long time now. Looks to me that iPad and iPhone development will be tight together, which means that there will be new constrains on iPhone improvements and timeline. Bummer!
• Docked/plugged keyboard … no wifi or BT. No USB etc.
• Can’t sink without being wired to another computer. No Wifi Sync.
• No iPhone tethering.
• Only 64G. No memory card.
• No cam. No augmented reality.
• No multitasking. Weak CPU, likely ARM.
• Can’t reuse the apps from iPhone, need to buy new.
• Can’t reuse 3G iPhone plan, need new.
• Flash?
Without the above : thanks, but no thanks.
@ palaver
You know that at least half the things you said are totally wrong, right?
What a total let down. I was expecting something cool I could go and buy and they deliver this thing. And who the hell thought it was smart to show that Flash wasn’t working in the middle of a presentation. That’s an epic fail.
“Docked/plugged keyboard … no wifi or BT. No USB etc.”
Has Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology.
“Only 64G. No memory card.”
SD Card Reader.
“Weak CPU, likely ARM.”
You know this how? You just dropped into troll territory.
“Flash?”
Let it die. There are less buggy, more secure alternatives.
“No Wifi Sync.”
That is not good. Agreed.
“Can’t reuse the apps from iPhone, need to buy new. Can’t reuse 3G iPhone plan, need new. No iPhone tethering.”
LMFAO at those. Is your rinsed toilet paper dry enough for re-use?
“No cam. No augmented reality.”
Meh. Maybe next time.
“No USB etc.”
Get a MBP.
I watched the presentation and everything was a repeat from the iPhone presentation a couple of years ago. Yes, the iPad is bigger and faster. But $500 to watch videos, read ebooks, and to not get my hands dirty, I don’t know.
Yes, they will sell a zillion of these.
But my question is this: do I need one? I don’t see a compelling need as yet. I’ll stick with my iPod and my iMac and enjoy my Apple experience as others go forth and forge new pathways into their new Apple experiences.
@ Ampar
No webcam?!?!
“No webcam?!?!”
We all can’t be pretty.
C1:
The EaS had one but carpal tunnel was a HUGE problem.