Cult of Mac

Although John Gruber over at Daring Fireball predicted it a couple weeks ago, I think most of us were shocked when it turned out that Apple’s newly announced iPad tablet didn’t have a forward mounted camera.

After all, why not? With an entry-level price and a $29.95 unlimited 3G coverage plan, the iPad seems like it would afford a perfect solution for mobile video calling. Hell, even if it didn’t have those things, surely it would be just as good as, say, a MacBook in letting people play around in Photo Booth. Right?

No. I think Apple knew what they were doing here. Unless it’s mounted in the iPad keyboard dock accessory, the iPad is going to be predominantly used in a below eye-level position. What that means is that a forward fronted web cam would need to point upwards at a slant to capture a human face.

So what, our lithe and muscular long-necked readers ask? Two words: double chin. Or three words, if you prefer: double triple chins.

One of the most crucial announcements of today’s iPad introduction was the launch of iBooks, Apple’s e-reading application, which has a bundled iBookstore that allows users to purchase e-books on the go. By all accounts, the experience is compelling and fun.

But there’s a big question here around content access. Though Steve Jobs listed off about 8 book publishing partners for the platform, he didn’t mention access to a specific book store partner like Borders, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. And that’s pretty troubling. Even though Apple’s going with the open-source ePub format, which means books from Barnes & Noble should work, there’s no direct mechanism yet for connecting the two, and the import experience remains to be seen.

And I’m not confident in Apple’s ability to populate an amazing bookstore on their own. The movie selection of iTunes leaves a lot to be desired, and I fear the same for books without a partner on-board who really knows the field. Janky as the Amazon Kindle is, its library selection is unmatched.

iBookstore: Slamdunk or Slamflop? You decide!

Always fun to see long-term Apple design language tics show up in brand new products. The wedge shape of the iPad in its case set up for horizontal typing is making me remember the Apple IIc. Pretty rad.

Image via Recycled Goods

When I was a kid, there were lots of gaming platforms, but several failed due to existing IP. A prime example is the Commodore 128. Commodore touted the computer’s C64 compatibility as a major plus, but it meant no-one created C128 games, because loads of C64 ones already existed. The same, to some extent, went for the Amstrad CPC, which got loads of duff ports from the ZX Spectrum, due to some shared architecture. I wonder how iPad will fare. Apple’s device not only resembles a giant iPod touch—it also runs almost all existing App Store content. You get apps sitting centrally in the screen or ‘pixel doubled’.

With nearly 30 million iPhones and millions of iPod touches in the wild, and many thousands of games available, I wonder how many devs will target iPad, and how many will just continue developing for Apple’s already popular handhelds. If the former happens—and developers take a punt, hoping Apple’s new device will become as successful as iPhone and iPod touch—you end up with another top-quality gaming platform from out of nowhere. If not—which could so easily be the case—iPad will be a pretty device playing games that look OK, but were ultimately designed for another system. Here’s hoping the former’s the case.

This article originally appeared on Revert to Saved.

We’ve told you everything we know about the iPad so far. But when will you be able to buy it?

Well, the official page is here, and according to Apple, here are the release dates:

The WiFi version will be shipping in late March.

The 3G version will be shipping domestically in April.

International carriers will unveil contract plans in June.

You can sign up to be notified when one is on order here.

Phew. It’s all over. And a new era has begun.

Ladies and gentlemen: Say hello to iPad. It will cost you $499. Even the most expensive model is $829. The WiFi version ships in late March, the 3G in April

Here’s an overview of everything we know so far.

With most pay apps in the App Store running at $0.99 could most apps for the iPad be $9.99?

iWork for iPad will be $9.99 per app. That means you can have at Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for under $35.

With developers delivering quality content at such a low price point, can we see the same low prices if this low priced iPad becomes widely adopted?

I say it’s $10 for an app and $30 for a Grand Theft Auto Irish Mafia.

One little details Apple just mentioned at the iPad Media Event is the technology they are using in the display.

Viewing angle on a lap based media device like this is an issue, obviously… for example, if you have a loved one watching a movie next to you on your iPad when on the couch.

Apple just announced that while their display is LED (and not OLED, which makes sense — for $499, that price is just a pipe dream, given the price of OLED panels right now) they use IPS technology to maximize viewing angle.

That stands for in-plane switching. Here’s the Wikipedia article about how it all works. But it’s a good thing.

Although the iPad is clearly aimed at taking down netbooks and e-readers, make no mistake: it’s also taking a secondary aim at your television.

Now let’s just see an iTunes movie store revamp to capitalize on the off-angle viewing excellence of the LED + IPS display.

[image via Gizmodo]

Typing on a capacitive touchscreen like the iPad when it’s completely flush with the table isn’t the most ergonomic of solutions, and the screen is certainly not in a position we’re used to looking at while typing, so Steve Jobs has just announced the iPad Dock.

“When you really need to do a lot of typing, this is the way to go. If you’ve got to write War and Peace, just plug your iPad in,” said Jobs.

He hasn’t announced a price, but providing this is cheap enough, this could do wonders to replace my netbook as my road writing warrior machine.

The question is: will the iPad support a mouse as well?

[image via GDGT]

[polldaddy poll=”2603845″]

Prices for the new device: 32GB for $599 and 64GB for $699 (Wi-Fi only version),
Shell out an extra $130 for 3G-capable models — so $629, $729 and $829.

Is the price right? Is the iPad a must-have or wait-and-see device?

Despite the rumblings that both Apple and AT&T were ready to see the end of each other’s exclusivity deal, Jobs just announced that the iPad will be an AT&T exclusive.

Two great plans: for up to 250MB transfer every month, it’s only $14.99 a month.

Wasnt unlimited? AT&T will cover you for $29.99.

The big news! No frickin’ contract. Cancel anytime. Does this mean no subsidies?

Also, you get free use of AT&T WiFi hotspots, like the iPhone.

The network card uses new GSM micro sims, according to Jobs.

International contracts will be available in June. Sorry, rest of the world! The USA gets it first.

[image via GDGT]

iWork for iPad will be attractive to corporate users – another sly way for apple to get into the corpspace.

Oh, suck it, Amazon.

In demonstrating the iPad’s new slick iBooks e-book reading application, it was explicitly stated that the iPad uses the free, open e-book standard, ePub format.

This is a surprisingly rare but welcome move for Apple in embracing a non-proprietary media format.

ePub doesn’t mean no DRM, but it does mean you’ll be able, if only through third party Apps, to transfer your own books from other devices.

Jeff Bezos has got to be nursing a migraine right now.

[image via Gizmodo]

After showing all of the cool new App demos, Jobs took the stage and quipped:

“Isn’t it awesome? And these guys only had two, two and a half weeks to work on this thing. Imagine what they’re going to do in the next few months.”

This may be reading into things, but that may well mean the iPad won’t be out for a few months… i.e. not the March 1st release being rumored right now.

[image via Gizmodo]

The arrival of the iPad and the subsequent cheeping, chittering, cooing, peeping, chirupping and tweeting has blown a fuse on microblogging service Twitter.

If print media is looking for its messiah, the iPad just might be it: notice how amazing the paper looks plastered on the iPad’s screen above; the highest-quailty (don’t argue) journalism fused with the easiest -to-use tech.

It’s got in-line vidclips too. If they’ve imported some of the great ideas from Bonnier’s Mag+, they’ve got a huge winner. Would you pay to read the NYT on an iPad? I would.

Apple introduced a whole new category of mobile device today with the iPad and in so doing has opened new vistas for software development that could eclipse the iPhone App Store’s 140 thousand titles in short order.

Not suprisingly, Apple VP Scott Forstall waxed giddily about the fact that iPhone apps will run on the iPad straight away, saying, “We built the iPad to run virtually every one of these apps unmodified right out of the box. We can do that in two ways — do it with pixel for pixel accuracy in a black box, or we can pixel-double and run them in full-screen. This is really cool.”

But the presentation also showed how developers have a new palette with the iPad’s display that broadens the development horizons quite a bit.

“If the developer takes the time, they can also take full advantage of the large touchscreen display in the iPad. We did that with our own internal apps, and we expect developers will want to do that too,” Forstall noted.

The new SDK is available today and includes all the tools developers need to create custom apps for the iPad.

I’m on the hardware beat of CoM’s iPad coverage, so while the App Store devs take the stage, I wanted to just a quick aside on why I think the iPad is a terrible name for the Tablet, as spontaneously ill-considered as my opinion might be.

In an earlier post, I swore that if Apple was creatively bereft enough to call their tablet the iPad, I’d eat an extremity… but not that one. Either way, I’m reneging on my promise, since I like my digits.

But I wanted to point out quickly why I think this is such a terrible product name. I’m from Boston originally. We have an interesting way of pronouncing our a’s.

Call up a friend with a Boston accent and ask them to say “iPad.” They might just pronounce it pretty similarly to “iPod.” We’re weird that way. Or as Jake von Slatt just said to me: “Here in Boston, we’d say ‘Do you haave the big iPohd or the little iPohd?'”

Even if the pronunciation is different for everyone, though, iPad still seems a bad choice. A one letter difference makes for a lot of possible confusion.

iSlate had its problems — I equate a slate with something monochrome, fragile, easy shatterable — but it was a lot better than iPad.

What do you guys think?

It’s been 50 minutes into the event and There’s no sign of multi-tasking. To switch between apps, all they are doing is simply closing the current and opening a new – no ProSwitcher like card management. This is definitely going to be a deal breaker for the most who are planning to trade their netbook for this device.

Also, the screen’s got some good real-estate, seems like 2x the resolution of the iPhone. However,

Of all the people in the world, you’d think Cultofmac.com readers would go bonkers for the iPad. But judging from Twitter reactions, they’re not sold — and Steve hasn’t even mentioned the price yet!

Here’s some of the feedback tweets we’re getting:

@cultofmac Just a big iPhone, nothing special just yet.

@cultofmac i’m not sold. I mean why get this if you have an iphone or mac or both????

@cultofmac: It has huge borders!!! and i hoped to see usb conectors for the #ipad

The iPad is revolutionizing the way we use email, the web, play music, browse through images, and watch movies/tv. Here’s a preview on how they look on the iPad:

Jobs just bragged the iPad’s capacitive touchscreen was the best in the business, but they just showed that the multitouch display is also more sophisticated in the iPhone.

While demonstrating a game from Gameloft called Nova, it was demonstrated that drawing three fingers across the screen allowed you to open a door.

That seems to indicate the hardware and software of the multitouch display allows for a lot more flexibility in gesturing than the iPhone, as expected. More registered points of articulation = greated gesturing sophistication.

[image via Gizmodo]

We haven’t seen any integrated camera software yet, but right now, it doesn’t look like the iPad has any camera… just as John Gruber over at Daring Fireball guessed.

There’s no obvious camera in the front, and when Jobs held it sideways, there wasn’t a camera pinhole in back either.

Unless Apple has integrated the camera into the display, or otherwise obfuscated it, looks like this isn’t the lap-based video conferencing unit we expected.

[image via GDGT]

And now some of the specifics of my particular iPad tablet beef have come out.

The chip is from PA Semi, an ARM-based CPU, as guessed. It’s called the A4, and it “screams” at 1GHz.

The iPad is 0.5 inches thin, weighs 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch IPS, fully capcitive multitouch display.

“All the usual suspects: accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, dock connector. And it’s got battery,” says Jobs.

And what a battery! Netbook style! 10 hours! A month of standby. Remarkable for a device so thin.

Come in flavors between 16 and 64GB of flash, SSD storage.

Only connectivity that Jobs has mentioned so far is 802.11n WiFi. Let’s see if they unveil the 3G partners shortly.

[image via GDGT]