Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > January > 27 > Entry
Apple’s big reveal: it’s called the iPad
Ending months, if not years, of speculation, today Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s mystery product. It’s called the iPad and many of the rumors about what it is were right on target.
In form and function, it looks like a large iPod Touch. It has a touchscreen, a single button at the bottom and an aluminum back. It can be used to browse the Web, pull up Google Maps and browse photos, all the things you’d expect to do on an Internet-connected iPod Touch or iPhone. It has an on-screen virtual keyboard like those products, but because of the size of the screen, it’s much closer in size to an actual keyboard.
It includes iTunes for downloading music, TV shows and movies and can apparently play YouTube videos in HD quality. It has a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen, is half an inch thick and will come in 16-Gigabyte, 32 GB and 64 GB sizes. It runs on a 1-GHz processor, which is not extremely fast for a laptop, but is probably swift for something modeled on a cell phone or mobile media player.
It’ll of course have apps — some demonstrated today included video games, a New York Times app and an app called “Brushes” for fingertip painting/drawing, like the app currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The device is available in three Wi-Fi versions and three versions that can access 3G wireless networks. The prices start at $499 for Wi-Fi only, up to $829 for a 64-Gigabyte version with 3G. 3G fees will apply: AT&T will over unlimited access for $30 a month or 250 megabytes a month for $15 on the 3G versions of the iPad. No two-year contract will be required.
Apple’s iPad page is available for more details and videos.
Want to talk about it? Join our live chat at 1 p.m. CST here on Digital Savant.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Computers, Gadgets, Internet
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.
By Dirty Joe
January 29, 2010 9:05 AM | Link to this
I just don't see who will buy this.
People with really large pockets?
(that has a double meaning if you think about it)
By dpeeps
January 27, 2010 2:58 PM | Link to this
tablets have been around for years. they aren't everywhere because noone wants one. the only reason tablets were ever even introduced was because microsoft wanted them. now apple thinks they can make a giant ipod touch and revolutionize things.