News Update Presenting... the iPad

Jan 28, 2010 

REUTERS

Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPad during an event in San Francisco, Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010. -- PHOTO: AP

SAN FRANCISCO - APPLE chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a new touchscreen tablet computer on Wednesday dubbed the 'iPad', seeking to carve out a niche between the laptop and the smartphone.
'We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product,' said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.
The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimetre) colour screen and resembles an oversized iPod Touch or iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3-cm) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilogrammes) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.
The price tag for the device, Apple's first major product since the iPhone three years ago, came in less than expected by most technology analysts.
The cheapest iPad model, with 16G of memory, is US$499 (S$700) while the most expensive - which includes 3G wireless connectivity and 64G of memory - costs US$829.
Apple said it would start shipping the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also be hooked up to an external keyboard, within 60 days, making them available worldwide in late March. The 3G version will reach the market in late April. -- AFP

Review: Not just a bigger iPod Touch

SAN FRANCISCO - AFTER just an hour with an iPad, I came away with a preliminary verdict: Despite some flaws, this is one slick device.
Steve Jobs intrigued me in his slow, showman-like presentation on Wednesday when he said the US$499-and-up iPad is 'so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone'. The comparison to an iPhone makes sense, given the minimalist silver-and-black style of the iPad.
The first thing I wanted to do when I held it was browse the Web and check out the iPad's on-screen keyboard. My favourite websites looked great on its crisp screen, which is 9.7 inches (24.6cm) on the diagonal - while the iPhone is just 3.5 inches (8.9cm). When you hold the iPad with the wider side down, in landscape mode, it's nearly big enough for touch typing - an improvement over the virtual buttons that can sometimes cause typing errors on the iPhone.
As on the iPhone, the iPad's screen is extremely responsive to finger swipes and taps, which made it easy to scroll through websites like Facebook and select photos and articles I wanted to read on news sites.
It also seems like it would be a great way to read a book, curled up on my couch. The iPad comes with Apple's new iBook software, which opens up to reveal a realistic-looking wooden bookshelf stocked with all the titles in your e-book collection.
Click on a book cover, and the book will open. You can read one page at a time in portrait mode, or, turn the iPad to either side and it will show you two pages of text. The screen is sharp and the pages turn crisply, more like a real book than on electronic ink screens found on devices like the Kindle.
Like Amazon.com Inc did for its Kindle, Apple is rolling out its own online bookstore, iBookstore, that can be used to download books straight to the iPad.
I had fun checking out videos and photos on the iPad, too. You can watch high-definition clips on YouTube, and they looked great magnified on the iPad's screen. It was simple to scroll through photos, and I could imagine enjoying sharing a slideshow with accompanying music piped out of the iPad's small built-in speakers.
A glance at the device's music player showed a simple-looking interface that was easy to navigate. I probably wouldn't use an iPad as my main music player - I'm guessing it wouldn't do well strapped to my arm during a run - but I would like to use it to listen to music while reading a book.
I quickly noticed some limitations, though. The iPad's operating software is based on that of the iPhone, so it, too, does not support Flash animation. This means you can't watch videos on some websites like Hulu - a big negative for something with such a pretty screen.
And the pretty screen can't make everything look great. Apple said that nearly any of the more than 140,000 applications available through its App Store will work on the iPad, and you can either view them in their original small size in the centre of the screen or magnified. I tried the magnified version on several apps and it was simply too pixelated to bear.
If you want to use a keyboard with the iPad for, say, writing the next great American novel, you'll have to buy a special keyboard that doubles as a charging dock (Apple announced this accessory but did not reveal its price or availability).
Overall, though, I was impressed by the iPad in the short time we had together. I can't yet say if I'll be among the first in line to buy one, but I'm definitely looking forward to playing with it some more.
A version that includes 16 gigabytes of flash memory will cost US$499 when it comes out in March. Models with 32 or 64 gigabytes of memory will cost US$599 and US$699. These will go online in Wi-Fi hot spots only.
Apple expects to start selling models in April that work with data plans from AT&T Inc in the US and will cost US$130 more. -- AP

Features of Apple's iPad

* Costs US$499 for 16 gigabytes of storage, US$599 for 32GB, US$699 for 64GB.
* 3G wireless capability costs an extra US$130.
* AT&T Inc data plan costs US$14.99 per month for 250 MB of data, US$29.99 for unlimited data.
* 10 hours of battery life, and a month on standby.
* 0.5 inches thick, weighs 1.5lbs (0.68kg).
* New iBook store has partners including Pearson Plc's Penguin, News Corp's HarperCollins, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster MacMillan, Lagardere's Hachette Book Group.
* WiFi and bluetooth connectivity, compass, ability to view in portrait and landscape modes.
* Runs a variation of the iPhone operating system. Apple says all iPhone apps can run on the iPad.
* Supports iWork, Apple's productivity suite that competes with Microsoft Office.
* 1 GHz Apple-made A4 chip.
* WiFi models ship in late March, 3G shipping in April.