After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple's finally unveiled the iPad. It's a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display, and it's running a
custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It'll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it's got the expected connectivity: very little. There's a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. There's also a
keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation, support for up to 1024x768 VGA out and 480p composite out through new dock adapter cables, and a camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader. The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone -- you sync everything over to your Mac. As expected, it can
run iPhone apps -- either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen -- but developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today. The 3G version
runs on AT&T and comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free. Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want. Every iPad is unlocked and comes with a GSM "micro-SIM," so you can use it abroad, but there aren't any international deals in place right now -- Steve says they'll be back "this summer" with news on that front.
It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.
Hey, check out our first hands-on right here, and here's all our additional coverage:
Live from the Apple 'latest creation' event
iPad powered by custom 1GHz Apple A4 chip
iPad can run all iPhone apps unmodified, new iPhone SDK out today lets developers tweak apps for iPad use
Apple's iPad keeping Adobe Flash away from your couch
Apple reveals iBookstore and app for the iPad
Apple announces iWork for iPad
Apple iPad 3G service plans on AT&T, $30 for unlimited data
iPad has optional keyboard dock, camera connection kit and Apple-designed case
iPad vs. iPhone... fight!
Apple iPad first hands-on!
iPad vs. iPhone: what does 3G cost you?
posted January 27th 2010 2:19PM
@Swagger
horrible name really that bezel is kinda nasty as well hoorrray a giant iphone!!!
@Swagger
horrible name really that bezel is kinda nasty as well hoorrray a giant iphone!!!
@Swagger
It'll certainly kill your wallet and your arms carrying it around...
@Swagger
NOT!
@Swagger
My N900 is better than this crap!
@(Unverified)
You're kidding me, right?
My 3 year old device is looking pretty damn sturdy after this.
@Swagger Yeah because what is basically a giant ipod touch with a tweaked iphone os that can't do flash and most likely cost almost as much as a plastic macbook, that will kill all tablets that run full OS's and run flash apps.
Well at least it has that digitiz.....wait nevermind.
@Swagger
It's not an iPhone. It's a giant 3G iPod, and it sucks, with less features.
@KoW210 No no, this device is meant to be carried around between your legs. Wait till the carry cases come out for it.....
@Luke Have to agree. No Flash kills this thing. You can't surf the web today without Flash support. Everything depends on Flash. There are thousands of Flash apps out there, thousands of top rated web sites that depend on it.
Well April 3 is near now! Opinions: http://bit.ly/ipad-reactions-again
That's quite the bezel!
The demo has gone live: http://bit.ly/ipaddemo
So much FAIL!
@Evan Seriously, that is a lot of bezel. I would go back and quote all the apple fanboys who were complaining that the HP had a huge bezel, but I don't care that much.
Doesn't mean it's bad, but as with all things display - less bezel is generally better.
@Evan
It is! Plus... I said it before, and I'll say it again: "iPad"?! What kind of name is that. Like "iPod" spoken with a New England accent.
@Phillip http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3918/ipad.jpg
@Evan
Wow... You mean you can CHOOSE your own background??! GTFOH!
@Evan
LOL NO FLASH! Yeah, netbooks are useless...iPad is the netbook killer!
@Evan
At first I was like "THIS HAS TO BE A GAG POST"!
Now I'm like Ooooouch.
@Evan
10:15AM No flash here... the missing plugin icon is on screen.
bwahahahahahah. FAIL.
@One Love I agree-- at least concerning the name. iPad? I mean honestly. I know no one at Apple tests the names there, but really... did they not think about the fact that it kind of might not resonate with female Apple fans. I know they think all of the people who buy Apples are men, but there are a lot of women (like me!) who are into macs, and frankly the first thing I thought of was "wow this reminds me of feminine hygiene products."
LOL.
@Evan
Makes the device look not so good.
@Evan
To be able to hold a touch screen at the edges, you do need some non interactive space there. I don't see it as a flaw. I'm often accused of being an Apple hater, but I do think they got this right.
@Mike so Apple once again steals a trademark for their signature line. Iphone belonged to Cisco, ipad belongs to Fujitsu.
Want to bet that they didn't even try to buy the name before they claimed it for their own?
@Evan
As an apple supporter I must say I HATE the name....
FAIL.
@CharlieX
Have to agree. No Flash kills this thing. You can't surf the web today without Flash support. Everything depends on Flash. There are thousands of Flash apps out there, thousands of top rated web sites that depend on it.
I dont know what they were thinking.
@Evan
I'm no Kupertino Kool-Aid drinker, BUT, I can see the bezel as a good thing. Think books. The printing doesn't go all the way to the edge, so you can hold it with your thumb, not obstructing your view.
I'll stick with something pocket-able (smartphone) when I'm mobile, and a good sized laptop for travel/home.
The "faithful" will buy it in droves. They'll find a reason, and I'm sure it fills SOME nitch.
@Evan they did steal it. Bastards
@Mike yeah. Billions of R&D; funding and years of research and all they came up with is, "iPad"?
@Evan
Yeah but you gotta hold it somewhere, right?
omg play your iphone apps in iphone resolution....... now THAT'S what i call a big bezel. holy crap
@CharlieX Not even a Youtube app to play Youtube videos at least, like you will find in some smartphone browsers
@Mike IPAD, Apple's solution to TAMPONS
@Dank Dillweed
Re: "The "faithful" will buy it in droves. They'll find a reason, and I'm sure it fills SOME nitch."
Like compulsive shopping addiction.
@PerryAJ
Yea it's a large bezel, but you have to hold it somewhere man. This isn't small enough to wrap your hand around. It's a touch interface and your thumb has to go somewhere. It makes sense even if it looks dumb.
iLame
Jobs will do anything to leverage the appstore/itunes... even it means an $800 ipod touch.
Shares will trade at 170 by the end of this quarter.
Fools.
@Evan
Yup. It's quite the.. um...tweak at Eric Schmidt.
@Evan If Apple Fanboys buy this crap it's proof they will buy anything. How can anyone be excited about a giant iPod Touch? I waited on buying a netbook for my mom until I saw what Apple had to unveil hoping it would be a tablet macbook. You can't run a real OS on this thing. You can't multi-task, it still can't do Flash, there's no camera, no ability to dock a mouse or real keyboard or to connect to larger display. This thing sucks compared to a netbook running Windows 7. You can do so much more than this thing with a netbook that is probably less than half the price.
@Mike Just asking for "Mac's iPad" or Max iPad
@Evan Palm Foleo anyone????
@Evan Yeah, that's what in was saying. The first gen iPhone vs. a rolling pin
@PerryAJ
You know, the bezel is only that big because there's gestures you can use and a photo scrubber slider (that's what engadget said it was)
@cherryboom lol, u mad.
@Evan
Wow, I'm an Apple fan (own a MBP and an iPhone 3G) but I can't see myself ever buying one of these. Quite literally an oversized iPod Touch :/
@CharlieX
Many websites are removing flash for video and moving to HTML5, which even the iPhone Safari supports. Want to bet who will become obsolete first, Apple or Flash?
@PerryAJ I'm far from a fanboy, don't own anything apple and won't consider a device like this without OLED. but the bezel is important on this. you need to be sure you can grip it without creating unintended input.
Nothing magical about this iPhone DX. No camera, no usb, no media card reader....just an oversized iTouch.
@Chaosdivine
I am *hardcore Apple*. I have a Macbook Pro, a MacPro octocore, I use Final Cut studio every day, I use Shake every day, I bought an iPhone on day 1.....
But this? This is so MEH.
@One Love
Riiiiight!
The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this picture of Steve Jobs holding the "iPad" was Dom Jolly in the Sketch show Trigger Happy TV - holding that big massive phone screaming "HELLO? HELLO??".
Not the best of starts methinks!!
@cool8man
you can dock a keyboard... though that seems completely freakin' useless given the weak OS