Apple kicks off New Year – new product, new market
No one ever quite realizes how much traffic is engendered by an announcement from Apple and Steve Jobs. I’ll be updating this right through my usual post time of noon MST.
Yes, it is called the iPad.
Click on the photo for Gizmodo’s first hands-on experience.
The iPad is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and has a 9.7-inch LCD screen. It’s run by a custom-made 1GHz Apple CPU, and comes with 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage. For connectivity, it has 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. Jobs claimed it will get up to 10 hours of battery life – running video.
WiFi built-in. There are models with 3G.
The bookshelf screen at iBooks – for eReaders.
Wow! Prepaid – no contract – activate right on the iPad – cancel any time.
Starts at $499 – shipping in 60 days.
Click on the photo to watch the Apple video presentation
125 million people already have accounts which can be used at the iBookstore!
If I was still traveling, selling – this would be exactly what I needed. The version with wifi and 3G.
Having content of my choice at hand – in a package this size and readable, in the device I also used as my catalog and order processor – would have been a dream device.
moss
January 27, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Poisonally, I’m waiting to hear more specs about the cpu. It is the first Apple silicon to make it into the wild. It’s called the A4. Probably the core (pun intended) reason for the combination of power and long battery life.
god
January 27, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Wow! An awkwardly-sized computer with an Apple logo on it!
It’s stupendous, really.
Cinaedh
January 28, 2010 at 7:13 am
You really must learn to use your hands for more than flagellation.
Things like this won’t seem so awkward.
Understand the important business point made at the intro was there are over 125 million people who already use the OS in this critter. Nothing to learn to use it.
Between iTunes and the App Store, they already have purchase accounts established. Not a bad business model.
god
January 28, 2010 at 8:06 am
Don’t knock it. Flagellation is good exercise! It’s self-flagellation I find kind of creepy.
To me, all OSes look pretty much like the exact same OS. It was invented at Xerox PARC, pre-1979.
RE: iPad
…but it won’t fit into any of my pockets and I threw my briefcase away, years ago…
Maybe Apple will sell it with a little – well, medium-sized – purse for men?
It’ll cost a small fortune but it will be worth it because there will be an Apple, multi-national corporation logo on it.
Cinaedh
January 28, 2010 at 8:31 am
Maybe Apple will sell it with a little – well, medium-sized – purse for men?
Here in Northern Indiana we call them Canadian Shoulder Bags.
Mr. Fusion
January 28, 2010 at 3:11 pm
The big ones are Texan Shoulder Bags
Mr. Fusion
January 28, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Just to illustrate one more time the forethought of Arthur Clarke, here’s an article – with a poster – from 2001, the Movie. Written by Clarke in 1968. Showing astronauts with a “newspad”:
http://tinyurl.com/newspad
moss
January 29, 2010 at 5:32 am
They don’t have any pockets at all. I guess it’s part of their iGlove?
Cinaedh
January 29, 2010 at 7:39 am
More likely an iCarabiner.
moss
January 29, 2010 at 8:42 am