The big day for Apple’s announcement is finally here. Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to a crowd of hungry journalists and Apple enthusiasts.
And so far, a lot of the reactions coming from the tech nerds are negative.
Let’s start with the specs of the iPad. The iPad is .5 inches thick, 9.56 x 7.47 inches, and weighs about 1.5 pounds. The multitouch screen is 9.7 inches and has a resolution of 1024 x 768. The iPad is powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, and will be available with 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash storage. It also has 802.11n wi-fi, microphone, speaker, accelerator, and compass. It does NOT have HDMI or DVI. 3G is optional, and will be carried again through AT&T (what, the network wasn’t strained enough?). There will be a monthly fee for using the 3G, which is $15 a month for 250MB of data, or $30 for unlimited data and has no contract. It can be activated through the iPad at any time and you can cancel whenever you want.
The rest of the specs are basically the same as the iPhone. Basically the same OS and the same browser. The onscreen keyboard is very similar to the iPhone keyboard. Email has a few new touches added that are not on the iPhone like previewing messages and mailboxes.
The iPad will also run all of your favorite iPhone apps. The SDK has also been updated to allow for other tablet development. And Apple has also opened iBooks so users can download ebooks to read on the iPad.
So what’s all this going to cost? Here’s a breakdown:
Sounds a little pricey for a large iPhone if you ask me. And that’s what others are saying as well.
A lot of people were expecting to see the iPhone’s limitations corrected on this thing. And many have not been. There is still no flash, no removable battery, and most annoying of all would be NO multitasking. Isn’t that what some people want from these devices? Don’t we like to listen to music while reading an ebook? There’s also no camera at all, but that doesn’t sound like a huge loss considering people who’ve had their hands on one of these say video looks horrible.
So will this really revolutionize how we view our media? Is it worth the hefty price tag to have something that can basically do the same thing as an iPhone, Droid, Nook, or Kindle? I certainly won’t be waiting in line. You?
The Apple iPad will start shipping worldwide in 60 days.
