We Got Ourselves a Tablet!! Yay?
Today, Apple made history. Not really. They finally announced the long-rumored and long-awaited tablet computer at their keynote earlier today (Click here to watch the keynote). A tablet computer is basically a computer that has a touchscreen surface and is not controlled by a mouse. At least that’s what I thought before Apple released their tablet, called the iPad. It’s basically a big iPod Touch, running modified/enlarged version of the iPod Touch’s OS. I thought tablets were supposed to be running the same OS as the OS of another device, like Mac OSX, except controlled by your fingers. Maybe I was wrong. Read more after the break…
Apple made a completely new Operating system very similar to that of the iPod Touch. It comes with all the standard iPod Touch applications, completely re-designed to fit the iPad. Plus, all the games you currently have on your iPod Touch can be played on your iPad (Note: There are some exceptions). Apple also made their own version of iWork optimized for the iPad, so you can use Numbers, Keynote, and Pages on your iPad (Sold seperately for $9.99 each). Specs of the new iPad include:
- 10 hours of battery life (1 month in standby)
- 9.7-inch diagonal display
- Includes accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, bluetooth, and 30-pin dock connector
- 1 GHz Apple A4 custom processor
- Half an inch wide, and weighs 1.5 pounds
All iPads come with a built-in WiFi chip and, for an extra price, you can include a 3G chip to access the internet everywhere. This 3G chip will cost an extra $130 dollars plus a monthly fee. With the iPad, Apple also released a new store: iBookstore. This store lets you download all the books you want optimized for the iPad’s screen, so that you can read them easily on-the-go.
The iPad will be starting at a price of $499 for the 16 GB model. The 32 GB model is $599 and the 64 GB model is $699. Just add $130 to these models and you will get the price of the iPad with the built-in 3G chip.
My thoughts: I really don’t know why Apple did this. Why carry around a huge iPod when you can carry around a small one? I don’t think I would want to replace my iPod Touch for this; there really isn’t that much different. Let me know what you guys think in the comments!
