So the wait is finally over, Apple have today unveiled the iPad, a slightly less than A4 sized tablet computer with a 9.7” multi-touch display.
The device will sell for between $499 and $829 (no word on UK or Euro pricing yet) and they say it’s for watching films, playing games and surfing online.
In a surprising move, many of the rumours about this new tablet turned out to be true. For instance it can be used to read ebooks, downloaded unsurprisingly from the iTunes store, and Apple have done deals with Penguin, Macmillan and Harper Collins so far. iTunes comes pre-installed.
It has a 1GHz processor, similar to the ones now being fitted to modern mobile phones such as the HD2 and Google Nexus One and will come with between 16Gb and 64GB of flash memory. It is essentially a big iPod Touch with the same design and the same single button bottom-centre.
9.7 inch- (25cm-) multi-touch display
1 GHz Apple processor
16-64 GB of flash memory
0.5in- (1.25cm) thick
Weighs 1.5lbs (0.7kgs)
Wi-fi and 3G connectivity
You can take from this that this is no laptop replacement, clearly designed only for light tasks. This is how Apple are able to keep the price down, many people were expecting this device to cost around £1,000. It will be perfectly good for running online apps though such as Google Docs and Pixlr.
It will have a battery life of around 10 hours of average use, which is the minimum it could really have got away with.
So the big question, which operating system is it using? It’s running a modified version of the iPhone OS, designed for the new big screen, and does indeed run programs that can be downloaded from the App Store, including the 3 billion or so already there.
The question should be asked though if this isn’t too much money for something that can do so little? It is indeed an expensive product, but Apple aren’t known for their budget range. Whether this product will represent value for money though when the tech press and public get their grubby little mitts on them is, frankly, irrelevant. The iPad is guaranteed to be a roaring success and spawn a great many clone devices.
This is exactly what the industry needs to give tablets a much needed shot in the arm. It will also, and this might surprise some, give a welcome boost to Windows 7 which introduced multi-touch technology to PCs late last year for the first time. There have been many products in the past that have done what Apple products do, but Apple have an uncanny way of popularising them and bringing them to the masses.
I’m certain now that the future for multi-touch, tablets, Windows 7 and indeed the iPad are very bright indeed.
Source : BBC News
