Today Apple finally unveiled its tablet computer, the iPad. Thus concludes Phase 1 of the standard Apple new-category roll-out: months of feverish speculation and hype online, without any official indication by Apple that the product even exists.
The Times's technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly email newsletter.
Now Phase 2 can begin: the bashing by the bloggers who've never even tried it: "No physical keyboard!" "No removable battery!" "Way too expensive!" "Doesn't multitask!" "No memory-card slot!"
That will last until the iPad actually goes on sale in April. Then, if history is any guide, Phase 3 will begin: positive reviews, people lining up to buy the thing, and the mysterious disappearance of the basher-bloggers.
iPad
The iPad is, as predicted, essentially a giant iPod Touch: aluminum-backed, half-inch thin, with a 10-inch screen surrounded by a shiny black border. At the bottom, there's the standard iPod/iPhone connector and a single Home button. It will be available in models ranging from $499 (16 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi) to $830 (64 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular).
The cellular signal will be provided by AT&T for $15 a month (250 megabytes of data transferred -- think e-mail only) or $30 a month, unlimited. Amazingly, those AT&T deals involve no contract. You can cancel whenever you like. And since this thing isn't a phone, you don't have to worry about dropped calls; you're paying exclusively for Internet service.
There's no reason you couldn't use it to make calls using Skype, of course -- Apple says that virtually all of the existing 140,000 iPhone apps run fine on the iPad. (You can run them either at regular tiny size, or blown up double with some loss of clarity.)
Then again, you might look a little bizarre walking through the airport holding this giant clipboard up to your ear.
Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/personaltech/28pogue-email.html
The Times's technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly email newsletter.
Now Phase 2 can begin: the bashing by the bloggers who've never even tried it: "No physical keyboard!" "No removable battery!" "Way too expensive!" "Doesn't multitask!" "No memory-card slot!"
That will last until the iPad actually goes on sale in April. Then, if history is any guide, Phase 3 will begin: positive reviews, people lining up to buy the thing, and the mysterious disappearance of the basher-bloggers.
iPad
The iPad is, as predicted, essentially a giant iPod Touch: aluminum-backed, half-inch thin, with a 10-inch screen surrounded by a shiny black border. At the bottom, there's the standard iPod/iPhone connector and a single Home button. It will be available in models ranging from $499 (16 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi) to $830 (64 gigs of memory, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular).
The cellular signal will be provided by AT&T for $15 a month (250 megabytes of data transferred -- think e-mail only) or $30 a month, unlimited. Amazingly, those AT&T deals involve no contract. You can cancel whenever you like. And since this thing isn't a phone, you don't have to worry about dropped calls; you're paying exclusively for Internet service.
There's no reason you couldn't use it to make calls using Skype, of course -- Apple says that virtually all of the existing 140,000 iPhone apps run fine on the iPad. (You can run them either at regular tiny size, or blown up double with some loss of clarity.)
Then again, you might look a little bizarre walking through the airport holding this giant clipboard up to your ear.
Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/personaltech/28pogue-email.html
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