Apple Rolls Out The iPad

His New Baby...

APPLE has started its annual new product showcase in SAN FRANCISCO and as expected, STEVE JOBS unveiled a tablet computer that's part iPHONE, part laptop and part KINDLE ... which he called the iPAD.

Here are the highlights compiled from live blogs by ARS TECHNICA and CNET.COM:

* The presentation officially begins when STEVE JOBS comes onstage to a standing ovation. He announces, "This week, sold our 250 millionth iPOD."

* JOBS describes the App Store as an "incredible phenomenon," featuring 140,000 apps and 3 billion downloads over the past 18 months.

Jobs shows a photo of Moses holding the tablets and says, 'I chuckled when I saw this'

* He then shows a photo of MOSES holding the tablets. "I chuckled when I saw this," JOBS cracked.

* JOBS unveils the tablet, which he calls "the iPAD."

* As expected the iPAD looks like a giant iPOD TOUCH with the same home button, same bezel. It has touch screen navigation and offers landscape or portrait mode.The virtual keyboard is landscape.

* JOBS shows the usual offerings -- e-mail, FACEBOOK, ACCESS TO the NEW YORK TIMES, GOOGLE maps, acceEs to the iTUNES store.

* With the iPAD, you get "whole web site" not just a mobile version of these sites.

A "Built-In iPod"

* The iPAD has a "built in iPOD," It plays music, displays album artwork. You can scroll through your music library and by selecting an album, a pop-up window will display all the songs on that release.

* Naturally, you can buy movies, TV shows, music and podcasts through ITUNES.

* Of course, you can downloaded and watch movies and TV shows -- and you have the ability to go straight to particular scenes in the movie you want to watch. 

Specs And Battery Life

* Some specs: The iPad weighs 1.5 pounds, is 0.5 inches thin and has a 9.7-inch IPS display. There's a full capacitive multi-touch screen, a 1Ghz custom Apple chip called the A4, which JOBS claims is the most advanced chip they've done. It can have 16, 32, or 64 GB of SSD storage.

* Although previous APPLE products have been criticized for having a relatively short battery life, the iPAD 802.offers a a 10-hour battery life for its 11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, accelerometer and compass. What's more, there's one month of standby battery life -- meaning you can leave it asleep and not use it for 30 days.

App Show-And-Tell Guests

* iPHONE Software SVP SCOTT FORSTALL comes on and says every app in the APPLE App store can be run unmodified on the iPAD. App developers have the ability to modify the apps to fit the full screen.

* The NEW YORK TIMES' MARTIN NISENHOLTZ shows off the paper's iPHONE app version for the iPAD. You can scroll from left to right, save articles to a reading list, tap to change number of columns, resize text by pinching, and navigate via a bar on the bottom of the screen. The paper offers updates simply by clicking.

* Also offering demos on stage was for the painting app called Brushes, EA offered some games, as did MLB.COM

* JOBS returned to the stage to demo its own version of KINDLE, which he called The new app is called iBOOKS. Books can be chosen from a visual of an actual bookshelf. They can then be directly downloaded from, what else, the iBOOK store to the iPAD -- and all five major publishers (PENGUIN, HARPER COLLINS, SIMON AND SCHUSTER, MACMILLAN and HACHETTE) are on board ... "starting this afternoon."

* After briefly noting that the iPAD will offer access to school books, there was a demonstration of the iWORKS software for graphics, spreadsheets and the like.

* All iPads have Wi-Fi, with some models having 3G. The big news here is that APPLE will be offering two plans -- 250MB of data every month for $15; or an unlimited plan for $30 per month -- through AT&T.

* Not only will you have free use of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, but you can activate your plan right through the iPAD. There are no contracts; everything will be pre-paid.

Variable Pricing

* It looks like APPLE went out of its way to make an iPAD relatively affordible. While speculation pegged the prive at anywhere from $800-$1,000, the 16BG model -- without 3G -- will list at $499. It will be $599 for 32GB and $699 for 64GB. Add $130 to each price point to get 3G, so the loaded iPADs will be set at $629, $729 and $829.

* Wi-Fi models will be shipped everywhere in 60 days; 3G models go out in 90 days.

In a press release distributed after the presentation, APPLE CEO STEVE JOBS  stated, "iPAD is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. iPAD creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before."

A Jacobs' Eye View

One of the early reviews of the new toy comes from JACOBS MEDIA and JACAPPS VP/GM PAUL JACOBS, who told ALL ACCESS, "The iPAD is not a game changer at first blush. The iPHONE was a game changer for phones and the iPOD was a game changer for music. This is more like a game elevator; it's bigger and faster and cool and it's a new space ... so it will create its own buzz over time. The MAC nation will go crazy for it and it will sell huge.

"There doesn't appear to be any large impact on media, like radio," he added. "It's not a threat nor an enhancement. It's simply another great way for radio stations to distribute content on an elevated platform.Thankfully, all of the apps we've developed that are in the iTUNES store will work and there will be app upgrades to take advantage of the iPAD's memory and speed. It's a bigger and faster device and it's cool looking, too!"

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