Invitations went out earlier this month to a highly anticipated Apple event where many believe that Steve Jobs will unveil the Apple tablet. Some photos have been making their way around the Internet showing a supposed tablet that looks much like an over-sized iPhone, claiming these are the actual product. There’s no way to tell until the actual announcement is made, but typical to true Apple event form, the rumors are flying high prior to this event. The media event is being held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California, starting at 10:00 a.m. PST.
My Thoughts on the iPad
Now that the presentation is over, I’ll share my thoughts on the iPad device. It seems to be a great price for an entry level device, but my concerns come in when you start looking at the power under the hood. I’m not convinced a 1GHz processor is going to hold up to what they are trying to throw at it. Some of the games involved and that will be developed will definitely push it to it’s limit, not to mention the iWorks suite. Overall it looks like an giant iTouch (not an iPhone, since it has no phone component). Another downside that is readily apparent is the lack of a camera. I’m not sure with a tablet if you would want one on side facing the user or the other side, but given that most laptops and smart phones have cameras these days, I think they’re missing out on an opportunity by not including that option. Maybe that will be included in the iPad 2.0. Finally, another item that was conspicuously missing was any mention of Flash. Apparently that didn’t make it into the iPad either. I think it will end up being a great product for low-end users and even some people who are current laptop users. However, the biggest draw appears to be the iBook Store and I think that could definitely give Amazon and the Kindle a run for their money.
(Thanks to Engadget, Gdgt.com and Leo Laporte’s live team, whose coverage allowed us to blog this event today.)
Live Blog Coverage Below
11:35 – He invites the event participants to go and get some hands-on experience at the demo tables and this concludes the live event.
11:34 – Jobs also says, “We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts — we want to make the best tech, but have them be intuitive. It’s the combination of these two things that have let us make the iPad.” Really? I’m not sure how that fits into tech today unless Jobs is channeling his inner hippie from his early days.
11:32 – Jobs: “The iPad is the most advanced technology you can imagine in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”
11:31 – Jobs says over 75 million people will intuitively know how to use it (based on iPhone and iTouch sales)
11:30 – Video ends to a round of applause.
11:26 – Video presentation going over the features we’ve already seen, highlighting the iPad’s ease of use, simplicity of functions as well as top notch multi-touch design.
11:23 – Showing video that will be available online soon … basically a commercial for the iPad.
11:21 – Steve announces a special item no one (I think) was expecting: a keyboard dock! Nice accessory.
11:20 – 60 days for shipment of WiFi models
11:19 – Entry level pricing: $499 for 16GB models
11:18 – Pricing is up next … hold your breath …
11:16 – ALL iPads will come unlocked, so they can be used with current GSM cards and may work overseas.
11:15 – These offers are for the US market only, working on international deals for this summer.
11:14 – AT&T also throwing in free WiFi at all their WiFi hot spots. Additionally, there are no contracts and no plans to sign. You sign up for the plan directly from the iPad. YES! Now this is a selling point, finally!!!
11:13 – Two iPad data plans: 1) 250 Mb data only $14.99, 2)Unlimited for only $29.99 via AT&T.
11:13 – Every iPad will come with WiFi and 3G models will be available.
11:12: – Jobs is back up and talking about iTunes. It will sync with everything, literally, that you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch, via USB.
11:11 – Price for iWorks apps? $9.99 for each app. Wow. Now that’s pretty impressive!
11:10 – That concludes the demo of iWorks on the iPad.
11:08 – Moving on to Numbers now. How the heck can you do spreadsheets without a mouse or a keyboard? Over 250 formulas available from within the app. Lots of tapping and dragging, but it seems to be functional.
11:06 – Now he’s going over the demo of Pages for the iPad. Briefly went over functionality and ease of use.
11:03 – Navigation seems to be fairly easy. This would have been one of my concerns, using a touch screen exclusively to navigate any robust software package. Tapping is used to advance sliced, also to move groups of slides as a bundle. It’s a basic review of the Keynote product, adapted for a touch screen version.
11:00 – Phil is up now to demo the iPad version of Keynote.
10:59 – Steve has just announced that a version of iWorks has been developed for the iPad. Now I’m starting to be impressed!
10:58 – Several major publishers have already signed up to sell books in the iBook Store and he’s opening up the store today for others to join in.
10:54 – Steve has announced a new native app called iBooks (after mentioning the Kindle, lol). It will connect you with the new iBooks Store, which looks like a bookshelf. Nice touch.
10:52 – Scott makes a point to mention that the iPad will run all of our current apps as well while we’re waiting for new apps. Steve comes back to the stage.
10:50 – Major League Baseball is demoing their app (apparently the last developer demo) for the iPad, which features computer models of live games, inline video and replays. Very interactive, and again, taking advantage of the screen space.
10:48 – EA ‘s Travis Boatman demos “The Need For Speed” app. Nice screen views and the game seems to really take advantage of all the additional space on the screen.
10:45 – Next demo was for an app called Brushes, an art and painting app. Up next is EA.
10:43 – Up next is The New York Times demonstration of their new iPad app. It seems to integrate with their site as well as the iPhone app. Overall design looks very sleek. Will it be enough to keep the NYT going in the digital newspaper revolution?
10:41 – If you’ve played many Gamesoft iPhone games, then you probably know about NOVA. Here’s a shot of the iPad demo of the modified app for the larger screen.
10:39 – They invited some of the Gamesoft developers into a preview several weeks ago so they could see what theycould do with the larger display and games. They are coming out to demo some of their work.
10:34 – Scott Forstall has come out for the next demonstration, which revolves around accessing the current iPhone App Store. It is interesting but the sizing of the apps appears to be something they are trying to work around on this size of a device.
10:31 – Battery life of 10 hours? Say what? If that’s true, that is quite an accomplishment. Combine that with over a month of standby time and I don’t know anything that will beat it.
10:30 – It’s hooked up with 802.11n wireless, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1
10:29 – Apple is using their own proprietary chipset, the A4, running at 1 GHz coming with 16, 32 or 64 GB of flash memory.
10:28 – Going back to hardware specs now … “.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds — 9.7 inch IPS display”
10:26 – Steve is now demonstrating the video capability of the iPad to view HD video from YouTube. He’s pulling up a Star Trek clip. Who knew he was a Trekkie?
10:24 – Using map features to find restaurants and other items. You can zoom in and out and view the actual place using built-in Google maps street view. Nice.
10:22 – Using picture features and iPhoto along with easily created slideshows.
10:20 – Takes the crowd through using e-mail on the iPad.
10:18 – “More intimate than a laptop, more capable than a smartphone.” Really? I’m not convinced yet, but we’ll see…
10:17 – Steve has demonstrated Internet browsing on the iPad, showing portrait and landscape views. Sites visited included YouTube, Apple.com, Fandango and Time.
10:15 – It really does look like an over-sized iPhone … seriously.
10:12 – Going over the details of the features of the iPad.
10:10 – Announcing the Apple iPad!
10:09 – Jobs is going over what the devices can currently do and says a new device has to be more than a smart phone, and ebook reader, etc. He just dissed the netbook saying, “A netbook isn’t better than a laptop at anything.”
10:06 – Apple is the #1 mobile device company in the world. Okay Steve, tell us something we didn’t know. Anticipation is building.
10:04 – Steve Jobs is on stage and announcing progress of the company including 284 retails stores and the fact that they are now a $15 billion company.
10:03 – We’re ready to rock and roll now and apologize for the delay.
