Otaku Gadgets

The announcement that we had all been waiting for has finally been made. Apple has released their tablet device and they call it iPad. Now before you start complaining about the many things it does not have, I want to tell you that what it has is perfect for what it is meant to do. This is not going to replace your MacBook or your Alienware, obviously! But it will replace your Kindle, your netbook, even your digital photo frame. The actual fact here is that no matter what you feel now, you will think differently once you get to touch it. This is the kind of device that look great now and will look revolutionary in a few years. What you have seen is just beginning.

Let’s start with the hardware. This is a 9.7″ diagonal device that has an IPS display and displays 1024×768 pixels. That is 132 pixels per inch and that is a very nice pixel density. It will support HD video playback and it will not run out of processing power because it is powered by Apple’s own A4 chip that i clocked at 1GHz.

The storage will start from 16GB and go up to 64GB. The first units,which ship in 60 days, will be have only WiFi support. WiFi is 802.11n and it is not clear if b/g standards are supported. If they are not, then older WiFi routers will not be supported by the iPad. The next wave of units will have both WiFi and 3G and will ship in 90 days from now. So essentially, you have two broad categories on the iPad – WiFi & WiFi+3G. Each category is divided into 3 models based on storage – 16GB, 32GB & 64GB.

Then came the announcement of the data plans that have been secured by Apple. Apple really wants the iPad to reach people and what better way to do it than unlock the device and give you an amazing data plan? All iPad units are going to be sold unlocked. So you will not have to get stuck with a carrier you hate. You can go ahead and use whatever carrier you like. But if you want, Apple has got a pretty sweet deal with AT&T. For $14.99 per month, you can get 250MB of data usage. But the real sweet deal is the second one — unlimited data usage for $30 per month! You have to sign a contract with AT&T but you also get free access to numerous AT&T WiFi hotspots all over the US. But hey, this contract does not lock you in – you can quit any time! That one’s a slammer right there. As you can imagine, the attendees flipped when they heard all this. The cheer was pretty audible even through choppy audio stream.

By now, you are definitely thinking about the price if you are there and the price was on everybody’s mind from day 1. And that is where Apple has really delivered. There was a lot of talk about Apple selling this for $999. That might as well have been Apple pulling the strings because a lot of other people said that the pricing will match positioning of the product — right between MacBook and the iPhone.

But there was still a huge collective gasp and massive applause when Steve said that they price will be $499! Yes, the iPad starts at $499 and goes upto $829 for the full blown model – 64GB with WiFi and 3G. Of course, you will do really great with 16Gb, WiFi and 3G. Look below for the price chart.

Now here’s a complete list of iPad hardware features:

1. 9.7″ IPS display, 1024×768 resolution
2. 0.5inch thin and 1.5 pounds light
3. WiFi (802.11n) and 3G
4. Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
5. Accelerometer and Compass, AGPS (only on WiFi+3G model)
6. Microphone and built-in Speaker
7. 10 hours Battery life, One month’s stand by
8. 1GHz Apple A4 chip (definitely ARM, may be Cortex)
9. Storage from 16GB-64GB, Flash (of course)

Now let’s look at the UI. As rumored by many, the iPad uses the iPhone OS. It seemed like the iPhone OS right out with custom apps. In fact, iPhone apps bought directly from the app store and completely unmodified run on the iPad without a hitch. You can actually blow them up to enjoy all your favorite games and apps on the iPad.

Of course, they are not going to leave it at that. An enhanced version of the iPhone SDK has been released and it supportsiPad development and simulation. There were presentations made by developers who apparently had only 2-3 weeks to make their apps scale to iPad dimensions. And games are usually great apps to show off. So GameLoft — the “biggest game developer” on the iPhone — was an obvious choice. They showed off Nova, which reminded everyone of Doom when it was first shown off for the iPod Touch. It looked pretty good for a app as complex as a 3D FPS that was modified for a larger device in only weeks.

Apple also showed off special apps that they made for the iPad. The highlight has to be on the touch version of iWorks. Then in hierarchy is the iBooks app – a bookshelf for eBooks. Yes, Apple did talk about eBooks but not all that much. They said that 5 of the world’s largest publishers are with them — Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan. Notice that it doesn’t have McGraw Hill on the list. That’s what you get for your CEO blabbing all about stuff that he is not supposed to talk about till the embargo is lifted.

Steve dedicated only a small segment for eBook and he did compliment for Amazon for pioneering the eBook industry. They are going to ride on top of Amazon’s success and open their own eBook store — the iBookStore. Well, you knew they had to name it that!

Over all, they took 1.5 hours to talk about just one device. So you can imagine how much they are introducing all at once. This post was only a summary of what Apple has told us. I really hope I haven’t missed anything. Coming up next are my explanations for the common questions that you have about the iPad and then my opinion about its future. Hint: I think this is going to grow bigger every single day this year and the next.