The iPad

With Apple's press conference this morning I was extremely excited to wake up. Unfortunately I had to go to school, but right when I got home I jumped on my computer and checked Apples website. The headline caught my eye as it wasn't what i though it would be called. The rumours had it being called the ISlate, and i knew that there was a good chance that that wouldn't be its name. I still thought that it would be, but now that I think about it, the name IPad has a good ring.

The specs for the device are almost right on with what most people were guessing. It has a 9.7 inch LED touch screen. That is 1024 by 768 resolution at 123 pixels per inch. It is running off of a 1 gigahertz processor made by Apple. It has a height of 9.56 inches, a width of 7.47 inches, a depth of .5 inches, and a weight of 1.5 pounds for the wifi model but on the wifi and 3G model it is 1.6 pounds. It comes in six different models. Some people may find this strange but stilllike it because it provides a model for every one. There are three different sizes: 16 gig, 32 gig, and 64 gig. The other three models are those same sizes but come with an AT&T 3G plan. Apple is saying that you can get up to 10 hours of battery life. This would be great, but will you really get these 10 hours? No one can tell you that right now, although if you go to the bottom of the IPad's page you will find this: "Testing conducted by Apple in January 2010 using preproduction iPad units and software. Testing consisted of full battery discharge while performing each of the following tasks: video playback, audio playback, and Internet browsing using Wi-Fi. Video content was a repeated 2-hour 23-minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. Audio content was a playlist of 358 unique songs, consisting of a combination of songs imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and songs purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Internet over Wi-Fi tests were conducted using a closed network and dedicated web and mail servers, browsing snapshot versions of 20 popular web pages, and receiving mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network; the Wi-Fifeature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on device settings, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPad units; actual results may vary." The ports on the IPad include dock connector, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, built in speakers, built in mic, and on the 3G models a SIM card slot. Some people mayask where you charge this device this is now power jack. To charge it, you have to use an IPod cable (really called a 30 pin cable)to usb. This means that you have to use a computer or one of the many usb to wall/computer converters. The IPad also has bluetooth, this means that with IPaddock you can have your device act like a monitor screen and use a wireless Apple keyboard to type. Those are the specs for the IPad.

 Apple already has a line up of accessories ready for the device's launch in 60 days (90 days for the 3G model). There are just a few of them right now but we know that soon there will be many more. The first one is a case foriPad, it not only protects the pad but can put it in different positions for easy use. Another accessory is the 6 foot power cord. This power cord lets you plug your device directly into a wall outlet. The third accessory is the IPad dock. The IPad dock lets you plug the IPad into the wall, into your computer, a powered speaker set, and it lets you use the other cool accessories. The last accessory that is out right now is called the IPad Camera Connection Kit. This lets you either plug the usb cable from the camera directly into you IPad of the other version lets you take the SD card out and put it in and transfer your pictures to the IPad that way. Those are the four accessories out right now.

Also, along with the App Store and ITunes store, this device will have a new store that will be just for books. The App will be called IBook. In this app you will have a bookcase-like look that shelves all the books that you have bought and downloaded to your device. Then there will be a button that you can click that will move you to the book store where you can buy the book. This will all happen in the same app so you don't have to go all over to buy a book then read the book. The other big released apps are the IWork apps. IWork is Apple's version of Microsoft Office. These apps will sell for around 10 dollars for each of the different programs. These are designed to work with multi- touch and everything else on the IPad. The next question that some people may be wondering is if they will be able to play all the othergames that I have on my IPhone or ITouch.Well the answer is yes. The new SDK was released so that developers can design apps just for the IPad. This means that they will be taking full use of the processor and the size of the touch screen. The IPad is running a beefed up version of IPhone OS. This means that all the pre-made apps are on it. They have all been changed for the better and made more to feel like you're really on a mac. Just by looking at pictures and the video that was released I can tell that there are really nice changes.

Now for the Prices:

16 gig: $499

16 gig with 3G: $629

32 gig: $599

32 gig with 3G: $729

64 gig: $699

64 gig with 3G: $829

To learn more about the IPad or find pictures or the video go to:http://www.apple.com/ipad/