The much awaited suspensed version of Apple’s I-Tablet(I-Slate or I-Pad) was released today @ 10 am in California by Steve.
Excerpts from the presentation are given below: Courtesy: Live Gadget.com
Steve says “Good morning, and thank you all for coming today. We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.”
“Before we get to that, I’ve got a few updates.” Chuckles. “First: iPods. A few weeks ago we sold our 250 millionth iPod.” Big applause.
“Before we get to that [the tablet], I want to go back to 1991. Apple invented the modern laptop computer with our PowerBooks. The first laptop with a TFT screen, that pushed the keyboard up and had an integrated pointing device.”
Email with a giant on-screen keyboard: “It’s a dream to type on.”
Photos: “Flick through them, it’s a wonderful way to share your photos. Built in a calendar. Address book, great maps app with Google Maps.”
“That’s how simple mail is. If I want to reply to a message, up pops this gorgeous keyboard.” Steve is typing with two hands on his lap — not using thumbs. Very interesting.
Photo scrubber bar at the bottom. “It’s really wonderful.”
iTunes store. The UI on this thing is pretty intense, so far. Everything is familiar, but it’s all totally different from iPhone and OS X — this is a big launch for Apple. As if you hadn’t already noticed.
That is video on the iPad. So that’s a bit of an overview as to what the iPad can do.” Big applause. “Watching it is nothing like getting one in your hands.”
“It’s 0.5-inches thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7-inch IPS display.”
“iPad is powered by our own custom silicon. Our own chip. It’s called the A4, and it screams.” 1GHz. 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage. “It’s got the latest in wireless: 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.”
“What’s the battery life on this remarkable device?” Pauses. “We’ve been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life.”
Showing Facebook app: “This is the app you know and love.” Tap on the 2x button, it scales the app up to full-screen.
“We think that we’ve captured the essence of reading a newspaper… all in a native app.”
“It captures the essence of a newspaper, but it’s so much more.” Reading syncs to the iPhone app. Inline video clips. So awesome.
Next up: an app called Brushes, an art browser and painting app.
Showing Need For Speed Shift.
Touch and accelerator-enabled (of course). Tap the mirror to look behind. “A game like NFS really pushes the limits, so we wanted to show you just how fast this can really go.”
Our new app is called iBooks.
“It looks like a bookshelf — and there’s a button to a store. It’s an iBook Store to allow you to discover, purchase, and download e-books right on your iPad.”
“We use the ePub format, the most popular open book format in the world, and I’m very excited about this. We think the iPad is going to make a terrific e-book reader not just for popular books, but for textbooks as well.”
“Now, something very exciting: iWork.”
I think we’ve done some amazing and remarkable work. A completely new version of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers…”
Navigating slides — holding down slides rearranges it. Tap multiple slides then do the move brings them as a bundle (neato!).
Showing the spreadsheet-centric soft keyboard. Auto-fields and sums showing as inferred. Pretty neat for a spreadsheet. Then again, it’s still a spreadsheet.
Showing forms, too. “That’s a quick look at iWork on the iPad.” Applause. “They show the immense potential of the iPad. Apps like this are amazing, so what are we going to charge for this? $9.99 each.” Compatible with Mac versions, and “you can easily connect to a projector with a small cable.”
“I’d like to talk for a minute about iTunes. The iPad syncs over USB with iTunes exactly like an iPhone or iPod touch. So when you sync, you sync everything. Photos, music, movies, TV shows, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, apps…”
This is a real benefit. Now, I’d like to talk about wireless networking. Every iPad has the latest and greatest WiFi. But we’re going to have models with 3G built in as well.”“Now, what does it cost for the data plans? In the US cellphone companies typically charge $60 per month for a data plan for a laptop.”“We’ve got a real breakthrough here. Two awesome plans. The first is up to 250MB per month — a fair bit of data, most people will get by on that — for just $14.99.” Bit applause.
AT&T’s throwing in free WiFi hotspot use, too.” Great, because their network certainly won’t be working well enough to depend on this. “There’s no contract — it’s pre-paid. You can cancel at any time.”
“I’m thrilled to announce to you that the iPad pricing starts not at $999, but at $499
Within about 90 days we’ll be shipping 3G models. Soon you’ll be
able to get an iPad in your hands for just $499.”“We’ve got some great accessories as well — let me show you a few.” Dock!Keyboard dock!
“When you really need to do a lot of typing, this is the way to go. If you’ve got to write War and Peace, just plug your iPad in.” Third accessory is “a really nice case.”
“It just feels right to hold the internet in your hand — when you see something, you just reach out and tap it. You don’t think about it… you just DO.”
An awesome product between the laptop and the smartphone. The bar is pretty high.” “We think we’ve got the goods. And because we’ve shipped so many iPhones and iPod touches, there are already over 75 million people who know how to use the iPad.
Users have downloaded over 12 billion products. We are at scale and we are ready for the iPad. To sum it up: it’s our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device, at an unbelievable price. We think this is going to be a really great combination.”
TSo we’ve got a hands-on area, we’d like you to get your hands on an iPad. When you feel all this power and this much fun and the internet in your hands, you’ll never want to go back.” That’s it!
Sparkling Ripples 