![]()
After much hype and speculation, Apple finally releases its interactive tablet, dubbed the iPad
Apple’s new interactive tablet, the iPad, allows users to browse the web, read and send email, enjoy photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read e-books and much more, claims Apple.
It offers up a high-resolution Multi-Touch display so you can interact with applications and content. iPad is 13.4 mm thick and weighs 0.68 kg. It comes with 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March worldwide with international pricing to be announced at a later date.
Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience – Apple claims it is more interactive and intimate than on a computer.
You can import photos from a Mac, PC or digital camera, see them organised as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.
iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.
Apple also introduced a new version of iWork for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages, Keynote and Numbers you can create documents, presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store. International pricing will be announced at a later date.
iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.
iPad’s 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent colour with a 178-degree viewing angle. The intelligent soft keyboard, pioneered on iPhone, takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.
iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. The new A4 chip provides a long battery life of up to 10 hours.
iPad comes in two versions—one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.
Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminium and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.
RRP
16GB US$499
32GB US$599
64GB US$699
