The IT Nerd

The iHype is over. (Or not judging from the Globe And Mail, Toronto Star, and CNN) Introducing the iPad (anybody betting on iSlate as being the name that Apple chose just lost some cash). Here’s what has been announced from a hardware perspective:

• .5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds — 9.7 inch IPS display with full capacitive multitouch
• It’s running a 1GHz Apple “A4” chip likely developed by P.A. Semiconductor which is owned by Apple
• 10-hour battery life, one month standby time
• 16, 32, and 64GB storage is available
• 30-pin Dock connector
• Speaker and Microphone
• 802.11N, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR and 3G wireless in some models.

Here’s some news for iPhone/iPod Touch developers, the iPad can run iPhone apps either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen. That means that when this thing hits The Temple Of Steve Jobs Apple Stores, you’ll be able to download apps to it right away. Of course a new software development kit that is being released today will help developers tweak their apps to fully exploit the iPad.

The built-in apps look like Mac apps rather than iPhone apps.  You get iPhoto and iTunes that look like touch-oriented versions of their Mac counterparts. Safari is included too, but still no Flash support. WTF Apple? But the big news is that there is a new app called “iBooks” which is an e-book reader. Not only is it an e-book reader, it has it’s own store called the “iBook Store.” Deals have apparently been signed with Harper Collins, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Shuster, Hatchett for their book content. More are apparently on the way. Books apparently use the ePub format which is an open standard that might mean that any e-books that you have might be viewable on the iPad. I should also mention that the New York Times has already come out with a iPad specific application. I expect other print media types (newspapers and magazines) to come out with apps that exploit their content.

For those who want to get a bit of work done, there’s a new version of iWork that fully exploits the capabilities of the iPad. Plus they’ve designed a user interface that makes it easy to use. For example, if you’re using Numbers (the iWork spreadsheet app), there’s a keyboard that is Numbers specific. I have to admit that it looks pretty good and it was a nice touch for Apple to add this to the mix.

As for the 3G wireless, Apple has struck a deal with AT&T to have a 250MB data plan at $14.99 a month and a unlimited plan for $29.95 a month. Both plans are no contract with the ability to cancel at any time. Apple hopes to have international partners signed up by June or July, so don’t hold your breath for an iPad with 3G if you’re not in the US. Oh, by the way, this uses the Micro SIM standard. What? You’ve never hard of the Micro SIM standard? Neither have I.

So how much is this going to cost you? The WiFi only versions are (in USD) $499 for 16 GB, $599 for 32 GB, $699 for 64 GB. If you want the 3G + WiFi version, it will cost you $629 for 16 GB, $729 for 32GB, $829 for 64GB. Accessories include a a dock as well as a dock with a keyboard. A case is also available. The iPad is shipping in 60 days for the WiFi only versions and 90 days for the 3G + WiFi versions.

So, does the iPad live up to the iHype that went on for iEver? Please leave an iComment below with your iThoughts.

UPDATE: The QuickTime stream of this event is online.

This entry was posted on January 27, 2010 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, iPad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.