“It’s substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands,” Mark Wilson reports for Gizmodo. “And it’s fasssstttt.”
“Apple didn’t really sell this point, but it’s the single biggest benefit of the iPad: speed,” Wilson reports. “It feels at least a generation faster than the iPhone 3GS. Lags and waits are gone, and the OS and apps respond just as quickly as you’d hope. Rotating between portrait and landscape modes, especially, is where this new horsepower manifests in the OS.
MacDailyNews Take: PA Semi pays off with Apple’s custom A4 microchip.
Wilson reports, “It’s an optical illusion, but just seeing the depth of pages makes the iBook app feel more like a book than a Kindle ever did for me. The text is sharp, and while the screen is bright, it doesn’t seem to strains the eyes—but time will tell on that.”
More, including video, in the full article here.
Considering…
I wish I could get it, but I don’t have $499…
Well before watching the keynote I had doubts about the product but now I saw the keynote, I can’t wait anymore to get one on my hands. It’s perfect tool for internet. It’s awesome no need to carry extra weight! I love it…
And 8 reasons it sucks according to Gizmodo:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad
Microsoft + Intel + Google rolled into one
http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/ipad_big_picture
It gets on AT&T;3G.
Jobs said it’s untethered and if Verizon will support it, I’m in.
It needs HDMI, USB and a SDHC slot without the stupid dongles, multitasking, a webcam, and way to side load applications. As it is, it’s just an oversized iPod touch and as long as its tied to iTunes, we’ll never see applications like VLC, Adium, or Firefox.
The only thing about it that is interesting to me is the Apple A4 processor. I’m hoping Apple manages to put this chip or similar in the new iPhone.
Tank your post is a joke go troll someplace else. iPad (bad name) will
literally cook the rest of the pc netbook market and dramatically hurt the pc laptop market too.
It’s not perfect but it’s orders of magnitude better than anything else in a similar size and price category.
I think a few years from now this thing will be Apple’s number one or number two revenue generator.
I think they missed a trick with not having a webcam for use in ichat over wifi at the very least, but flash doesn’t bother me because video can be done in other ways and most games won’t work due to the differences between a mouse/click and multi-touch.
I’ve not had chance to see if it’s answered but how does iWork work in terms of opening and saving files? Where/how are they stored and then transferred to other devices?
Do you honestly think Apple missed something? Give your head a shake.
Apple NEVER launches a new product with EVERY intended feature already included, ever.
This strategy goes way back to the iMac.
Anyone who thinks they have somehow spotted a terrible omision or mistake that Apple has made is delusional.
The more I read about the iPad, the more I think Apple has essentially concentrated on making the platform available and giving the potential over to the legions of ingenious App developers.
Said frankly, the actual usability of this thing will be up to the developers.
The base model is predicted by some to be less than £350 in the UK. If true, that will destroy much of the Netbook market. £350 for an Apple computer with multitouch screen and ease of use and all the iApps that will arrive is a sheer winner – webcam or not.
Far better to have a low entry price than all the extras. No Netbook can do what the iPad does nor has the speed to compete.
Also, Gizmodo’s article is complete BS:
1. Without a bezel you couldn’t hold the damn thing properly without touching buttons everywhere
2. No Multitasking = this is obviously not supposed to be a replacement for your fully functioning laptop unless you were hoping for a battery life of about 1/2 hour
3. No back or front camera, this has to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. Who would want to hold something the size of a dinner plate up to take pictures of anything, and video chat is an extremely intensive application that would drain the battery almost entirely; maybe in about 10 years when we’re all wearing carbon nanotube battery socks.
4. The keyboard; I’ve been saying this from day one, that tablet computers are never going to be complete replacements for our laptops. Despite iWork for iPad I seriously doubt this thing will be good for any content creation involving any text input when you have to put the tablet down every time you want to type anything. People expect too much.
5. HDMI out; again, expecting too much from something that’s not supposed to do these functions. This isn’t a portable home theatre. the I/O was always going to be super limited and for a good reason. I can see some adaptors being developed but that’s better than having several USB ports along the side of this thing that are there when you don’t want them to be.
6. The MaxiPad; Actually I agree with him about this, but I can see why they didn’t call it the Slate.
7. Flash is such a drain on resources I’m amazed that anyone adopted it in the first place. Why Adobe and Apple won’t just work together on some kind of solution to a glaring problem is entirely beyond me. And when I have this problem on my iPhone I just go to youtube and look up whatever the video’s called, works every time so definately not a dealbreaker.
8. Adaptors; see my point about about the sides of this thing riddled with ports; it’s better to only have them when you need them.
9. Widescreen; this is the problem with laptops nowadays, widescreen is great for movies- bad for productivity. This was a compromise on Apple’s behalf and if this guy had any sense whatsoever he’d see they were right. This right here is why this guy writes whiny shortsighted articles and Apple continues to be innovative geniuses.
10. Microsim and T-Mobile; frankly not sure about this but unless they’re offering an unlimited data contract I’m not interested. I somehow doubt Apple would include two sim cards just to please one carrier, it would make sense to include the sim card that 9/10 carriers have.
11. Closed ecosystem; no need to comment here as his whining is almost a joke, I’m sure this thing will be jailbroken within the first month it comes out for those interested.
Having said that, the whiny ubergeek reaction to the iPad not having OLED screens and pancake batter mixer attached are hardly suprising and as usual, wrong.
Addendum: The only reason I’d ever want to get one of these is when it proves to be the solution to my eternal problem of having to carry several boxes of books/textbooks around with me all the time. If I can have digital books, a killer PDF application and enough filestorage (64GB sounds about right to me) then I’d seriously consider one.
For someone like me who’s always moving house and forever wishing they could take their entire library with them everywhere, this could be a lifesaver.
Someone by the ID of rideall left an absolutely spot-on comment below that article:
“Been a fan of the Giz since 06, first time poster.
I’ve been following the Apple tablet rumors/hype since sometime like when I got my ipod mini. Remember that thing?
Remember the first iPod? 5gig, plays music, a solitaire game, monochrome screen. Wasn’t a big hit till it got to 3rd gen or so.
I think Apple needs time to get this ipad(don’t think so much of the name, I can see confusion and frustration happening here when kids ask their parents for an ipad and all they got is a lousy ipod). The next couple gens would give us isight, voice to text across all applications, Expose like interface, multitasking(once the next gen apple chips roll out). A lot of what goes into the ipad is ‘experimental’, everything from size factor, getting iwork to run on an iphone os (though I’ll much rather have a simple file system as an option and be able to run some apps like VLC to watch my avi files).
I think Apple is moving in a direction that’ll blur the edges between smartphones and net/smartbooks and from there bridge the gap of net/smartbooks to laptops as the processing power of those Apple chips improve. We’ll see one in the near future that can access another computer’s optical drive like a MacAir and move everything into the cloud.
Laptops won’t be killed by this thing, some netbooks will be. It won’t cut into the iphone/itouch/ipod market either cause there are a lot of people who appreciate portability over screen size. And it definitely, not by a long ways kill desktops.
Does Apple have what it takes to ‘create’ this ‘new’ and potentially lucrative third market and keep up sales and interest? I’ll put the money on yes, if and only if prices keep going down like each successive generation of iPod and specs keep going up(memory, hd, screen res, isight etc). If they bump specs and up the price like the mini and keep the same form factor, and keep making the MB/MBP, then well, it’s going to to go the way of the mini and ATV.
As for the name, I think they wanna keep it simple and easy to remember and maintain the i and P standard of naming, someday we’ll have something unimaginable as of yet called the iPro, just imagine what it’ll and won’t do.”
I’ll buy one. As any parent here will tell you, this is going to be a godsend when traveling – or going out to boring (to anyone under the age of 14) places.
Around the home it will be fantastic as a casual use machine, in the kitchen, lounge etc.
I’ll be buying one.
If they bring one out next year with 128Gb and a web cam, I’ll most probably buy four. It would be perfect for skyping the relatives back home. Get them off those crappy PCs which keep crashing, getting viruses and never working properly.
It is the future. PCs are dead (except for specialist applications). In three years people will be wondering what the fuss over laptops was all about.
The majority of people could live with everything the iPhone does, but it is for outside. This is for the home. That’s how I see it.
Also, with the name, most people hated the MBP’s name when it came out.
I think to some extent, the iPad 1.0 is targeted as somewhat of a niche product. It’s not going to replace your laptop or your iPhone (at least not in the 1.0 configuration), just like the MacBook Air didn’t replace your laptop or your desktop. This is simply a wedge in the door. Future editions of iPad will grow more capable, offer more services, more memory, more this, more that…until, gee, all of a sudden the door will be wide open and no one will think to wonder how it got that way…it will just be open.
Think back, everyone questioned Apple’s sanity when the floppy disk drive was eliminated from the iMac….anybody seen a floppy recently?
Everyone questioned the lack of this feature and that feature from the original iPhone, but slowly (on Apple’s own pre-determined schedule), every version of the iPhone adds more & more & more. That makes every release exciting, but it also creates a self-sustaining market.
I bought an iPhone 3G last February, but I’m anticipating what might be coming in June with the “4G(?)”…and if it’s exciting enough, I may plunk down the money, even though my 3G will still be completely functional.
The iPad situation is exactly the same. Early adopters get the “I got it first” bragging rights; those who wait for version 2 may find they get some new droolable features/services that were held back by Apple (maybe to refine them, maybe to “spur the market”…who knows but Steve?). It’s the first rule of sales….gotta get your foot in the door, then you can make the sale. iPad 1.0 is merely the opening of the door…wait and see, oh thou impatient ones….wait and see!
The other thing many complainers forget.
Every feature you want to add, then add to the price.
You also need to balance power drain and battery life.
If Apple had added many of what these complainers want and the battery life was only 5 hours, then they would bitch about the poor battery life.
Some people bitch just to hear themselves.
@auren and @Roy, you totally nailed it. I could not have said it any better. Fuck the frigtards at TechCrunch and that liar Jadon Calcanis. They’re dilittante wanna-be geeks.
The Dude abides.
I’m surprised more people haven’t picked up on the fact that Steve was showing Star Trek on it for the demo, and they even named it iPad…. this thing is a Star Trek device. Apple has/is actually making the Star Trek data pad.
(And the MDN word is “modern”)
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“Some people bitch just to hear themselves.”
Truer words were never spoken. Especially annoying are the ones who start their bitching with “Where’s the ___????”
“Where’s the webcam????” “Where’s the multitasking????”
Yeesh.
What’s really cool about this thing is the potential for textbooks. During the presentation Steve mentioned that books could have video in them. That’s brilliant for stuff like advanced math texts, physics… hell, any complex concept could be animated right there in the text.
I don’t get the crowd who conjure up images of Maxipads and tampons when they hear the word “pad.” I think of a pad of paper, maybe because I don’t use the aforementioned products, so maybe I’m just coming from a different perspective. iPad was the best possible name for this device.
Star Trek pad, yes…
I was thinking of the beatitude of cradling the iPad in lotus position, running WolframAlpha…
“PA Semi pays off with Apple’s custom A4 microchip.”
It’s just an Arm processor of similar performance to off the shelf parts. You don’t need to spend $278 million plus ongoing R&D;costs to get those. This is the PowerPC debacle all over again.
@Roy
You Rock.
Nailed it.
Dead. Solid. Perfect.
Thanks
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