The iPad is out. We’ve been listening to a flaky audio stream live from Apple’s Keynote speech to find out what’s new, and here’s what we can report:
The iPad:
It’s a 9.7 inch touchscreen tablet – think of it as an iPhone that’s two and a half times larger. It has a 10 hour battery life, comes in 16, 32 and 64 Gig versions and is wi-fi enabled – a 3G version will also be available. Price for the iPad starts from $499 in the US (converts to £310). An iBooks (eBook Reader app and store) will be available, as will iWork (Apple’s new wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentations applications). It’ll run existing iPhone apps. Looks like this will be available in the UK sometime from June onwards…
Other Stuff?
Many were expecting an announcement of a new iPhone OS, expected to be iPhone OS4. Sadly, nothing.
Our thoughts
Looks like a nice piece of kit, and it’s bound to be a hit with many. A little larger than we were expecting, but thin and sexy, as with all of Apple’s stuff.
Interesting to see Apple’s dipping into the eBook market, and their iBooks store could be a big hit, as Apple’s bound to make book purchase as easy as App store. Also, with the Apple iPad being available for $499 for a colour touch screen, Sony Reader and Kindle will have a struggle competing.
It’s going to be available in the US “in 60 days”. The 3G element will mean it’ll be several months before we see these in the UK.
Thoughts?