Apple’s Latest Creation is the iPad. Yes it is called the iPad. Take a breathe and let that pass. The jokes will come and go but the iPad will be coming. To a store near you probably by late spring.
Looking back at our prediction, we can be happy to say we got more than 50% of our predictions correct but happier to find out that the iPad is much more impressive as we have imagined.
First let’s take a look at the hardware.
Looking like a giant iPhone but with a more squarish ratio, the iPad measures 242.8 mm (h) by 189.7 (w) by 13.4mm (d) and taking design features from the unibody Macbook, the same aluminium enclosure weighs just 0.68kg for the WIFI model and 0.73kg for the WIFI+3G model. If you thought MacBook Air at 1.36kg as light, the iPad will feel like holding a magazine.
The Display measures 9.7 inch (diagonally) and has a very bright looking LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology, giving a 1024 by 768 pixel resolution, with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating that is similar to the iPhone.
It runs Apple’s own A4 custom-designed 1GHz chip and built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery that can run up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wifi. There are 3 different flash drive capacity – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and supports WIFI 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 and on selected models 3G support – however that is not to be used for phone calling, though I won’t be surprised some enterprising hacker will jailbreak to do this, unless there is no hardware voice call support.
Lastly, it has the 30pin Dock connector, 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speakers and microphone.
As mentioned earlier it looks good and as demoed by Steve Jobs, is comfortable to use on the top of your lap or carried between both hands. It is also light enough to be lifted for some game action for an extended time.
Thanks to gdgt for the image
I am surprised the maximum capacity didn’t hit 128GB – topping at 64GB, although based on my own experience with my iPhone, even with plenty of movies, TV shows, photos and music, it is tough to max out 32GB.
Thanks to iFixit for the image
At the heart of the iPad is the Apple’s own 1GHz Apple A4 chip built by the people from the acquisition of P.A. Semi, a microprocessor design firm back in 2008. This is the first device with Apple’s own chips, allowing Apple to control what the device can and can’t do.
What’s missing is the camera, which I don’t think will work on the iPad as either you have arms of steel to hold it upright for period of time, or you don’t mind showing off your double-chins when you rest the iPad on your lap.
Running the iPad, even though not officially announced, seems to be a variant of the iPhone OS that we have come to be familiar with. The same multi-touch control mixed with some new UI improvement makes it easy for anyone who had used the iPhone, to pick up the iPad and just use it.
A few of the built-in apps like Safari, Mail, Photos, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, iPod and iTunes are all reworked to make use of the additional real estate, improving the features set and user interface.
What’s a tablet if there is no app for books! Apple also announce the new app – iBook that allows you to read and buy books! (Wonder if the folks at Delicious Monster helped in the UI). Using the ePub format, the iBookStore currently sells books from five major publisher – Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan Publisher. This announcement, basically says goodbye to Kindle and all other eBook readers available in the market. I would really hope that Amazon and Apple gets a deal to make their books available on the iBookStore.
The iPad also runs almost all 140,000 apps available from the App Store that you use on the iPhone. The apps can run in their original size or expand them to fill the screen. With the new SDK released, developers can also start developing iPad-only apps, with the same tools like how they do for iPhone, giving them a smooth transition to the new platform.
New from Apple is iWork for iPad – Keynotes, Numbers and Pages – all available at US$9.90 each, from the App Store. With the iPad’s new full size keyboard and the multi-touch interface, creating and editing files with iWork on the iPad might be even more conducive as compared to working on the laptops. Add a Dock Connector to VGA adapter, you can do your presentation on a 1024 × 768 resolution screen with your iPad.
The big screen of the iPad also gives game developers a new medium to work on with handheld consoles platform ruled currently by the Nintendos and the Sony PSPs. Whether it will pick up and gives those incumbent a fight of the gaming pie is still unknown, especially without any physical input device.
However there is still no multitasking on the iPad, like the iPhone. But though it might give slight inconvenience, most of the time, this missing feature doesn’t feel like a handicap when one just run and execute one app at one time.
It again doesn’t comes with support for Flash, which again is no loss considering that many of the media sites out there are moving away from Flash for alternative implementation.
So how much will it cost?
Photo from gddt
The iPad will be available in late March for the WIFI model and April for the 3G models in the US and estimated June/July launch for the rest of the world.
So is this the next generation of computing?
Yes and no.
We know this is not the FIRST tablet device, but this is probably the FIRST tablet device that not only one can use and hold comfortably for a long period of time, but also has an operating system built specifically to work on the device, with specific user interface and input features that makes it intuitive to use.
However, as this is just a variant of the iPhone OS, we think that there is still much to do before we move into the next generation of computing. What that might be – I wouldn’t know.
On first impression, this is a well-built device with much thoughts put into how the device should work, and also how applications work without the usual mouse and keyboard interface.
But don’t expect this to sell as much and as fast as the iPhone as this is not something that everyone will need. As Jobs say, the iPad fits into the space between a smart phone and a laptop and for one who has both, it might be hard to squeeze out the money to purchase the iPad, even if the price range is quite affordable.
Lastly, I still feel the choice of name leaves much to be desired as it probably will attract much mockery and deflect from a wonderful piece of workmanship that Apple created. Hopefully that will end when the product is released in Spring 2010 and people will see what a lovely piece of hardware it is.
Will I buy? Probably yes – the 32GB WIFI+3G model.
So what do you think of the iPad? Share your thoughts and let us know.
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