iPad

Here it is, finally the big day. Apple announcing their tablet, so named iPad. Much like a large iPod touch, works with all the same apps, using bluetooth and wifi. It’ll ship in 3 different sizes, 16gb 32gb and 64gb, flash memory.

INTRO VIDEO – IPAD WEBSITE

The best part, they’ve hit a great target with the price, starting at $499 for the 16gb. $599 for the 32gb and $699 for the 64gb. And should be ready for consumers in about 2 months.

They’re shipping with apple accesories… (not sure on prices for them yet) Picture frame type docking station, an external keyboard, and a nice case which also doubles as a stand.

Other tech specs, it weighs only 1.5lbs and is 0.5″ thick. Has a high definition 9.7″ multi-touch display running at 1024×768, and a reported 10-hour battery life. It will be powered by the Apple 1GHz A4 chip. The iPad will be able to access the iTunes store, App store and the Book store via the web and stream HD youtube. Hoping for a Pandora or other Cloud music service available for streaming as well, which I’m sure will work, just wasn’t one of the announcements.

The iPad will also have a speaker and a microphone. There will be a 3g version on GSM and mini-SIM which will add $160 to the price of any memory sized device. I’m thinking this won’t be able to act as a phone, beside perhaps through an app, but can you imagine how cumbersome that would be, holding an almost 10″ device up to your noggen, not too much fun for sure.

I’d personally really like to see a personal expandable memory system via SD cards. Paying $100 for 16gb or $100 for then another 32gb seems like a lot when SD has gotten so cheap. Using expandable also means swapping out a card for video/music/books etc to keep things seperate… at least for me that works better. Since it’s Apple, I’m sure that won’t be the case, at least until MS brings out their own version sometime next year.

Gotta say though, I’m not too impressed by the name, I thought when they secured iSlate, we’d see that being the new tablet’s name, unless of course they have another one on the way. I don’t know though iPad sounds too close to iPod, and is just rather silly. I mean what’s next the iPed or iPid or iPud or maybe sometimes the iPyd?