Finally – The iPad

If you’ve been under a rock you might not know that Apple finally unveiled the device it calls iPad yesterday, during its event in San Francisco.

The big announcement came at 18:00 GMT when, after a lot of waffling about how much and how many Apple is worth and has sold, a dig at netbooks set up the announcement of the next player in the portable computer game.

Previously described as “the most important thing I’ve ever done” and on the night as “a magical device”, the iPad lies somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop.

Steve Jobs himself described the tablet, due to cost between $499 and $829 in the US, as a “third category” in the middle of the two.

The touchscreen device was called an “iPhone on steroids “by the Telegraph. It looks like one, and it plays like one.

It’s more muscular with higher definition, a more intense gaming platform and a beefed up spec.

It can be used to watch films, play games and browse the web as expected and predicted publishing partnership with major book publishers such as Harper-Collins, Macmillan and Penguin and newspaper the New York Times.

Literary works and textbooks can be browsed, sampled and purchased through the new iBook store – like an iTunes for books – and downloaded straight onto the device which acts just like an eBook, indeed the size and shape of the device reminds us of an Amazon Kindle DS.

The New York Times showed off its app for the iPad, it’s basically an e-copy of the newspaper, recreating the look and feel of the publication but allowing for new features such as video and video advertising.

“We’re pioneering the next version of digital journalism,” said Martin Nisenholtz, an executive at the newspaper.

iPad – the moniker finally settled on after iSlate and iTablet were banded around – has a 9.7-inch multi-touch display so users can touch type directly onto the keyboard as well as manipulating pictures and utilising the ‘pinch’ function iPhone users will be familiar with.

One of the bigger revelations was the way the shift in gaming – from and incidental to essential – has influenced iPad.

Users can sync their iPhone apps to the iPad and similarly control games with their fingers with Scott Forstall of the app division saying, “We think it’s going to be a whole other gold rush for developers.”

Mac software such as iPhoto and iWork are built in and iTunes allows the same old access to films, music and TV as ever while the app store will start selling specially designed apps for iPad.

Its gaming function could be reminiscent of a PS2 standard with high def graphics and could be a desirable platform for developers. Indeed some have questioned whether Apple ever do gaming well.

The cheapest iPad, comes with 16GB of flash memory and Wi-Fi will cost $499. At the priciest end, the 64GB version – which will have the ability to connect via a mobile 3G signal – will cost $829.

Buyers of models with 3G connectivity will need to sign up to a data plan with a telecoms provider but all the 3G models are unlocked, meaning they will work with any network.

Steve Jobs said that he hoped international prices will be in place by June or July.

At the top of the keynote presentation, Steve Jobs revealed that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App store but failed to mention that and the iTunes store were not independently profitable as was reported earlier in the week.

The announcement of iBooks, Apple’s new online book store with which they hope will revolutionise the publishing world as iTunes has transformed music,  is bound to have industry leaders such as Kindle by Amazon shuddering.

Commentators have noted with interest that the iPad may have been in development for as many as three years – a large portion of which Steve Jobs was seriously ill. It has been said in close quarters that Jobs may consider this his swansong – calling it “the most important thing I’ve done” added to this – and he may be hanging up his spurs as Apple CEO shortly.

9.7 inch- (25cm-) multi-touch display
1 GHz Apple processor
16, 32 or 64 GB of flash memory
0.5in- (1.25cm) thick
Weighs 1.5lbs (0.7kgs)
Wi-fi, bluetooth and 3G connectivity
Speaker, microphone
Accelerometer, compass