“Steven P. Jobs has finally introduced Apple’s new tablet computer, called the iPad,” Brad Stone and Jenna Wortham report for The New York Times. “The question now is whether regular consumers will buy the iPhone-like device, which is priced at $499 at the entry level and can cost as much as $829.”
“Mr. Jobs, appearing energized but thin, a result of his continuing health difficulties, unveiled the iPad at a press event here on Wednesday morning,” Stone and Wortham report. “Its features and specifications, once the stuff of Internet myth, are now sharply in focus: The half-inch thick, 1.5-pound device will feature a 9.7-inch multitouch screen and is powered by a custom Apple microchip, called the A4. The iPad will have the same operating system as the iPhone and access to its 140,000 applications.”
Stone and Wortham report, “However, the device does not have a camera and lacks the ability to make phone calls.”
MacDailyNews Take: Correct that it doesn’t have a camera, but it does have connectivity (WiFi and/or 3G), a mic, a headphone jack, and built-in speakers, so its inability to make “phone calls” will last about along as it took you to read this sentence.
Stone and Wortham continue, “In 2008, Apple acquired a semiconductor company, called P.A. Semi. That group is responsible for the development of the A4 chip in the iPad.”
Full article here.
And the 3G version should have had a built-in iSight camera.
great product! I heard, when you are typing, it puts in the periods for you
so light! The iPad would not handle my heavy days so I will pass on this.
Exactly as MDN says it. $30 unlimited 3G data plan with IP based phone! It’s there.
Will we have to wait for the Apple A8 in 2014 before they feel the chip is efficient enough to run multiple third party apps on iDevices?
If this thing cured Cancer people would still complain!! It’s just what I wanted.
Will order one the first day the 3G is out.
A webcam and a GPS are missing. And the ability to run mac apps. I will wait v2 like for iPhone.
I was initially surprised at the lack of a camera, or even better, a through-body, double-lens camera. But it occurs to me that if Apple want to create a market for what is essentially a new product, then low prices for the initial models are essential. Once enough people get the idea that this is a “must have” item, they may be prepared to pay more for bells and whistles. I think we can expect GPS and cameras on future models.
I’m not sure I’d want to make phone calls with a tablet anyway. I would however like to be able to use iChat video on the thing and that makes the absence of a camera seem a bit short sighted to me.
iWork for iPad looks very nice but how does one quickly move iWork files from the desktop to the iPad and back without docking? I hope this can be done via WiFi. What about using Back to My Mac via mobile me? These would be great features. Does it support Mobile Me? Can I use Bluetooth on the iPad to tether it to my iPhone for internet access?
Many questions. I like what I see but I will, however, reserve judgement until further details emerge from Apple and until I have actually used one of these devices in an Apple Store.
Remember all the bitching about the first iPhone?
exactly right ‘micro me’ ppl dont often understand product life cycles, they put in every trick at once and have no upgrade path. The camera can be in the next iteration, and so on, and so forth. Ppl will buy it anyway brand new, and it is a tradeoff. Productivity or fun from day one, or wait a year for the camera version? I believe getting one now, then selling it a year from now for 70% the new price will help finance the next version, and so on, and so forth.
Think of it this way.
Executive Business Tool in an office with no camera allowed rules. You know those special government and secret Apple jobs.
Email, Schedule, Tasks, Read materials sent to you.
Write documents, spreadsheets, and one radio adapter away to projection screen connectivity for presentations, all on a device you can carry from meeting to meeting and can be locked like a phone, and if lost wiped using mobile me.
Imagine the possibilities.
The single most significant thing introduced today was the A4 chip. Forget the speed. It is how it handles data that counts. And you can be sure it has been optimized for the OS. Proprietary chips are the future of Apple and the first light was thrown on today. And think people, they did all this development making margins most people can only dream about, took on no debt and put together almost $40B in cash. For that they deserve accolades no matter what the pundits may say about anything else.
I think an add on camerais a much better solution. I hate having to adjust my position to really use the MacBook camera
An add on camera would be able to be adjusted to how you hold the iPad.
No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking.
WTF?
everyone bemoaning multitasking (especially you dallasm)…
It’s a problem a lot like copy/paste. Technically, it’s simple (and already done with Apple’s apps). The UI is a problem though, and Apple is trying to figure it out as we speak.
After all, there’s gotta be something good to say about iPhone 4.0. It’s a software problem, and that means it can be fixed at any time.
If you don’t want it because of this, stop bitching and don’t buy it.
@ Macdoc
You’re very right. And count me in, too; I’ve already registered for an email when orders are ready to be taken.
Considering this is not a phone and most phones today have a camera built in, seems like a mute point.
Does this thing have I/O ability to hook up to USB? If so, would any of us be surprised if someone made and marketed a usb clip on camera for iChat capability.
Plus without a camera, the corporate world will have one less thing to moan about.
I like the iPad. Still not crazy for the name or the majority I heard. I think some peoples accent up north might be hard to determine iPad from iPod, but that’s okay.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, and now the rest see what a Tablet should be, when will Microsoft be modifying the tablet versions they, along with their 3rd party developers, have been releasing since 2000 and later?
http://news.cnet.com/2300-1041_3-6067135-2.html?tag=mncol
@ CitizenX. I think we can expect to see some small, add-on cameras for the iPad in the next few months. However, for such a strikingly unitary device, it would seem like clumsy solution, long-term.
The new Apple A4 microprocessor is fascinating. I wish they had given more information about it.
What kind of video chip resides inside the iPad? I didn’t see that listed. Is the video GPU integrated on the CPU chip? Geeks need to know.
Remember all the bitching about the first iPhone?
——————-
Yep, and two months later, Apple fixed the price issue (biggest complaint,) and a year later they added 3g, the second biggest complaint in addition to bringing the price from $400 to $199.
Give the iPad a year or so, these complaints will be fixed as well.
The A4 is the most important development. Apple is producing its own, custom ARM chips. I hope that it somehow gets into Macs as a supplementary chip.
@montex
I’m with you there, would love to know more about the A4. ARM cortex A9, perhaps? I would beat GPU is integrated. The tech specs page on apple.com says it’s a system-on-a-chip, so I think most everything they need is in it.
Ay, Rot’nApple, you gotta face on ya like a hens arsehole in the nort west winds – a tad batty at that iPad name, wait a fair wind, and Ay’ll git one cas’ we gotta keep the lingo bye’s, shay’s easy to lose out ‘ere, Lard tundering Ay’ll tell ya I may as well be sitting on tuh jiggin’ rock me wants one so bad.
@Scott:
No, not having multitasking is a deal breaker. This thing is a disaster. Are you seriously telling me that Apple could have thought of a way to let me listen to Pandora while working in Pages? Palm thought of a really good way with WebOS. Google thought of a really good way with Android. There is no excuse for this.
iPad is a disaster. No one is going to buy this.
@ tornjeans
cracked me up
@ Dallasm
wtf? who cares? what do you need to multitask for?
@ dallasm
Apple could care less about Pandora. How about playing some music with the iPod functions while you are in iWork? That works and what’s wrong with that? Maybe the iPod functions on the iPad will even support iTunes radio stations
Its a disaster because it can’t play Pandora while you iWork? Come on. Try playing music on in iPhone or iPod Touch, then click to an app and you’ll see what I mean. Music multitasking is available, just maybe not with Pandora.
I’m not crazy about the name either. I still think Canvas or TouchPad would’ve been much better names for it. Eh, it is just a name, but it does kinda make me think Apple is losing site of innovation and just remarketing stuff. Although the “i” was originally intended to represent “internet” the connotation has changed to mean individual or intimate. Just starting to feel over-done these days. Again, it is just a name and won’t dissuade me from buying one.
“iPad is a disaster. No one is going to buy this”, @Dallasm
MDN—iCal this fo schizzle
No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking. No Multitasking.
WTF?
_____________
Steve Jobs did it to piss you off Dallasm. Deal with it, he doesn’t like you.
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disappointed it doesn’t have writing capability for math and science students to take notes on.
Not running full OSX, seems to kill it in the educational market as a replacement in higher education
A few other comments hit the nail on the head here… The A4 chip.
The combination of OS X and the A4 will afford Apple’s mobile devices a level of efficiency and power that will be unmatched by competitors.
OS X is already a very capable and efficient operating system; running on a 600MHz CPU the iPhone OS provides a much more fluid and responsive experience than Android running on a 1GHz chip. (This is not a dig on Android, just one example of benefitting from optimized design.)
I’m sure Apple optimized the A4 specifically for OS X, which means it will be able to do a lot more with a lot less. Will be exciting to see it appear in the iPhone!
@Everyone
I can’t believe how blind you guys are here. Why are you all apologizing for this? This is a disaster! Plethora, you say you don’t care about Pandora, okay, how about your e-mail? Are you really a fan of the idea of having to close your spreadsheet program just to check your e-mail? I get the idea on the iPhone. The Program takes up the whole screen anyways, so it’s not a big deal most of the time. But here it is a big deal. I am going to expect this thing to do more than one thing at the same time. And it won’t be able to.
So to reiterate:
No Multitasking
No Cameras
No HiDef Output
No USB plug
You have to use an Adapter for everything
3:4 Screen
NO #*$& MULTITASKING? Why not just install Windows 3.1 on the thing? Even Palm figured out how to do multitasking.
This is a disaster.
@Dallasm
Brilliant comment. I would really like to browse through my photos and watch a movie while working in Pages.
Have a great life!
—
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Sent from my zune
‘seems to kill it in the educational market as a replacement in higher education”
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I don’t think it was ever intended to be a replacement product. Especially for notebooks. Why would Apple want to kill off their premium high profit margin notebook sales and replace them with much lower margin iPad sales.. If anything, it’s an “in addition to” product.
PS. The Screen has a lower resolution than the iPhone. People are going to notice these things. Why are you pretending these obvious problems don’t exist?
PPS.
If you buy one, I hope you don’t mind typing with one hand.
@Dallasm,
This is a $500 product designed to compete with netbooks and e-readers. Please remember this.
Canvas or TouchPad? Why canvas? Why does everyone keep saying this? Those are both irrelevant and bad names.
That being said, only Mac fanbase is going to buy these. So it’s not going to be big until it matures. I don’t know what the killer app is yet.
The iPhone was a must have. The iPad, well, we’ll see what happens in the coming years.
90% of the people who use a computer don’t do anything other than read and write email, surf the web, listen to music. this is easy to use. it will kill netbooks and book readers. there are a huge number of people who need only this for what they do.
Why A4? Is it related to the metric page size? Is it ‘A’ for Apple? Why not A1 then a series of chips for years to come as A2, A3, etc?…
@MikeK
Just get two iPads.
For others..
add a camera or two if you want … I’m sure they will be available.
A hi-def 16×9 screen will be next year.
Also a larger version running both iOS 4 and OS10.x. later.
For now just thank the Gods …. and Jobs … and all the folks at Apple.
The iPad is astonishingly, insanely great.
May the Force be with you. … and Peace.
That being said, only Mac fanbase is going to buy these. So it’s not going to be big until it matures. I don’t know what the killer app is yet.
—————————–
I wouldn’t be so sure, at $500 the analysts are already upping their estimates..
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/27/first_ipad_estimates_4_million_units_in_year_one_8_million_in_2011.html
Try and shift your focus a bit, watch this clip and try to focus on what it can do instead of what it can’t. The masses are absolutely going to love this.. Especially those who are spending $399 for cheap ass netbooks. For $500, nothing comes close to this device and nothing will deliver this type of user experience.
If you want to find out how much people give a shit about multitasking, count the number of iPhones sold.
woops, forgot the clip…
http://www.apple.com/ipad/ipad-video/
It’s moot, not mute.
GUYS,
3G version has a GPS.
Here’s for the one more thing…
“Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)”
MikeK,
I really want to like the iPad. But it’s not a real OS. It’s just a big iPod Touch. So it’s NOT a netbook killer because of its OS. It’s not a “computer”. I need an iPad with a real OS.
I am disappointed that Apple is focusing so much on consumer devices. I’m tired of iMacs and iPods and iPhones. I’ve lost interest in all the iProducts.
It may do well. I just don’t need one. In general, everyone needs a computer. Nobody really needs a big iPod Touch.
Suddenly the $130 extra for 3G and GPS start making sense…
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Can’t wait to mount it on my windshield
@Dallasm
You forgot no traditional “Mac” apps. Y’know small stuff like MS Office, GarageBand, iMovie, Logic, the ability to connect USB/firewire peripherals like EyeTV, etc. Oh, but that’s okay the RDF apologists say, you can run all those 10,000 iPhone fart and boob apps instead … one-at-a-time. LOL!
@dude,
Who says that the iOS is not a “real” OS? And who says that the iPod touch is not a computer?
Because whoever says either of those things is dead WRONG. iOS is a very real OS which is nothing more than a specifically tailored version of Mac OSX. And the iPod touch is definitely a very real COMPUTER. It has a processor, ram, it runs an operating system, it runs applications, it connects to the internet, it’s a computer! The iPad is simply a larger and more powerful version.
And if you still need something even more powerful, try a Macbook, a MacBook Pro, an iMac, or a MacPro. They are still available.
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“My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; judge not the play before the play is done: her plot hath many changes; every day speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.” -Francis Quarles
I think multi-tasking will come, and it will appear first on this device where battery life isn’t as mission critical as it is on one’s cell phone.
Stuck background processes happen today on iPhone — some of apple’s apps *do* run in the background and there are days when Mail or Chat gets stuck and battery life is woeful.
But I have faith they’ll solve for multi-tasking in the OS, and belief that they’ll do it first on the ipad. Believe whatever makes you happy, just my $0.02
I’m very, very disappointed! I had hoped it would have a horn for turning corners. I also wished it had a bottle opener. Other than that, to me it seems perfect for 80% of people grown up with iPods, iPhones, Macbooks, iMacs, and VWs. If that’s not you and you absolutely need what doesn’t exist then apply for a job at Apple since that seems to be the place where the future is being shaped. Maybe just not yours, but I’ll be happy to tote this thing around instead of my 3Lbs heavier Macbook, whose features are largely underused by me…
I’ll bet it will be much harder to unlock/jailbreak the iPad with the custom processor. For that reason, I’ll also bet that the iPhone will get one too.
Not having a camera or being a phone! It’s almost as if Apple want you to buy an iPhone and an iPad!
I think they’ve missed a trick not having a camera for video chat, even if it was only via ichat over wifi, it would have really opened up video chat to the mainstream – and made ichat the dominant technology for it.
First comment I got when I showed the iPad to someone.
“Does it have a DVD player?”
This thing looks great as a tool to watch a DVD on a long flight, train trip or even in the car.
So does it have a DVD/CD player? Doesn’t look like it.
One way or the other though, they will sell like hotcakes.
So does it have a DVD/CD player? Doesn’t look like it.
————————–
What is a DVD?
@ Dallasm
You forgot to complain about the lack of a physical keyboard and about rounding errors. Dallasm aka Ballmer or what?
Why do I need multitasking? For IM programs, I get notifications. Then I switch over to the IM program and chat. I could care less about Pandora. Perhaps Apple will open up the Dev kit some and allow Pandora to run like iTunes? Who knows.
This iPad is amazing. It would totally do what I’d want when on the go. I’ll keep the MacPro at home for heavy lifting….
If Dallasm wants to multitask as so clearly wants to, why doesn’t he just get a laptop? So a just announced product he hasn’t even seen in person yet is a disaster? Is his real name chicken little?
Hey, Dallasm! It doesn’t have a floppy drive either! There’s something else you can bitch about!
I can just see the engineers at Griffin Tech and Belkin, working on a camera that connects to the Dock connector, and swivels from to back…
People with one track minds don’t need multitasking.
iTunes has radio stations, and they stream. You can listen to them while using other apps – Pandora isn’t the only radio station streaming app out there.
Oh, I’m sorry, it IS an Apple app, isn’t it? That means, in your small mind, it isn’t REALLY multi-tasking…
Thank You!
I can’t stand it when “a point is mute” and can’t hear!
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Love the iPad…..not sure about the name but I understand why they did named it such, as it’s only one vowel off of the name iPod, and now all three devices are iPxxxx devices. People will get used to the name after they use it and embrace the new platform.
Way to go Apple!
To all those for a web cam is the ultimate requirement. A little look at a BT-1 should convince you that that’s not a real reason to forego an iPad. It shouldn’t take long for a smart developer to produce an app to handle video conferencing via Skype, etc. So chill out and look at what an iPad *will* do.
When are we going to see this A4 or similar chip in an iPhone?
Well if this is the starting point…I’m pretty thrilled.
The absence of a webcam means a cheaper monthly data plan rate, since there’ll be less bandwidth taken by a pool of users. Perhaps the absence of a camera was also helpful in obtaining a lower rate.
I expect that come June and the WWDC Apple will release a new iPhone and iPod Touch using the A4 Processor. I also believe the iPad was probably going to have the same camera the iPod touch was going to get but for some reason Apple scrapped it for both. And when the new Mobile OS X is released at WWDC it will have multi-tasking.
@dallasm – sure you can multitask on ipad. Simply dial up pandora on your iPhone and pages on your ipad… what’s the big deal?!
I’m also disappointed, I’m not looking for another electronic device to carry around on business / school in addition to my notebook.
Does everything a notebook does, and cannot replace it.
Net book CAN replace a notebook, running full OSX.
Really disappointed in Apple pushing this product out with such capabilites missing.
iPhone was one thing, that broke the mold and was something no one else was even close too. We could buy, and know the product would improve, but even in’s original state, was soo much better than anything else out there that it made sense to buy (even at the steep beginning price). But iPad doesn’t have that same spread of capability between the netbook and itself, and in fact, the net book running OSX still looks like a much much better deal.
This is gonna hit my stock value!
“energized but thin, a result of his continuing health difficulties” Can we ever give this a rest? (sadly I know the answer)
C’mon a few bucks worth of hardware, a hole in the back, charge aonther $50. Another few bucks, hole in the front, charge anthioer $50, you can VTC with others, just like in the sci-fi movies we’ve been watching since the 70’s.
I’ll wait.