When Steve Jobs first revealed the iPod on 23 October 2001, no-one had the slightest inkling of what it might become.
Nobody at the time predicted that the music player would morph into a phone, and then into a multi-purpose tablet device.
The iPad is itself a very similar starting point. What we’re looking at here is the very beginning of a new product line, one that we can expect to adapt, metamorphose, and grow just as the iPod did.
Netflix instant streaming on the iPad? Not any time soon.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says, “Until we get our TV ubiquity and our Blu-ray ubiquity and we’re getting close on video game ubiquity, then we would next turn to the small screen. It’s just not a primary movie-watching (option). So it’s something we will get around to but it’s not in the near term.”
Even with iTunes’s thumb in the movie rental pie, Netflix instant streaming on the iPad needs to happen as soon as it drops. If I’m going to pay $15 for Wi-Fi on a plane I need to watch a couple episodes of Due South for it all to be worth it.
(via Yahoo! News)
Watching that MLB.tv demo on the iPad had me thinking: The iPad is going to add some serious interactivity to my live TV as long as they can figure out how to get live tv onto my iPad.
As we’ve seen, sport fans can benefit from the live stats and home/away team announcers, but how far can we take this?
Am I going to be able to vote my favorite American Idol on to the next round while I’m watching?
We’ll have to start seeing networks with their own apps and subscription fees like MLB.tv, but if Rachel Ray shows me a recipe for ribs and the iPad lets me download the recipe while watching- that’s what we in the business like to call a game-changer.
We have seen an electronic instrument renaissance with the introduction of the iPhone. Apps like DopplerPad, RjDj, Beatmaker and the new synth Argon have shown the potential of a multi-touch device in a live performance setting. The only thing keeping professional musicians from diving all over these devices for music performance and production has been their size. The iPad changes everything.
The monome, pictured above, goes for a lot of money on ebay. If you buy one of these babies new it will set you back $500-$600. What’s worse is the device is very limited release so they sell out, you have to go on ebay and the price gets jacked up. The iPad would replace this midi controller instantly.
While everyone got wild and crazy with the Leaf Trombone and Ocarina on the iPhone, the iPad is large enough to be a legitimate synthesizer/virtual instrument. Also Korg has a line of Kaoss effect pads that the tablet could easily replace.
Not only live music but recording and production: ProTools, Reason, Abelton Live. All could have versions of the software for the iPad or use it as a control surface to make the best use of multitouch.
DJ tool too. Create live techno joints. Hip Hop. Flava Flav. Boyeee
iTunes’s acquisition of LaLa.com and the cheap(ish) data plan from AT&T may be signaling a significant change in the way Apple would have us access our media. If so, the iPad is going to fit perfectly into their little plan.
Even if this isn’t the case, apps like those from Simplify Media allow me to access my photos and music from a non sleeping computer as well as stream media to my Xbox 360.
I’m hoping I’m right on this one, but I think the 16GB iPad is going to be enough to cover my must have media and I can access the rest when in range of 3G or Wi-Fi.
On Sunday night, I made a set of predictions for what to expect from Wednesday’s keynote. It was intended to be direct, straightforward and make a clear forecast of what we would actually see. How’d I do? Let’s go to the tape.
The Tablet Will Have a Custom UI, but Closer to iPhone Experience Than Mac
Probably the biggest question on everyone’s mind is what operating system will power Apple’s tablet of the future, with the leading candidates being Mac OS X and iPhone OS. The more I’ve thought about it, neither is perfectly suited to running such a device, which will be more focused on content creation than the iPhone but less so than the Mac. I’m therefore willing to say that the Tablet is a lock to get its own user interface built on top of core OS X technologies. It will be heavily gesturally driven (yes, even more so than the iPhone), and have far more precise sensing than the current iPhone screen. That said, this UI will more closely resemble the iPhone in look and functionality than it will Snow Leopard. Multitasking is still of less overall utility on a purely touch device than it is on one with a keyboard and mouse combo, so expect full-screen applications, no overlapping windows and possibly iPhone apps that run as widgets on a Dashboard.
NAILED IT! I was wrong about the apps as widgets on a Dashboard, but that’s a tiny miss — and I think it would have been better than the actual solution, which is to run iPhone apps as either iPhone resolution or blow them up to double size.
Score 9.5/10
Apple has posted video of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPad. It’s available in QuickTime and MPEG-4 formats — Low, Medium, or High.
The presentation is also available as a podcast through iTunes. Here’s the iTunes link.
The backlash against the iPad was inevitable and predictable. The lack of a hard keyboard was enough to send most geeks into a fit. But the backlash against the iPad is particularly vicious and visceral.
The word “iTampon” is the #2 worldwide trending topic on Twitter right now.
“This thing sucks. Anyone who buys it is a moron,” says one commenter at Engadget.
Some sites, particularly Gizmodo, are going the extra mile in iPad-bashing.
“My god, am I underwhelmed by the iPad,” says Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci. “This is as inessential a product as I’ve ever seen, but beyond that, it has some absolutely backbreaking failures that will make me judge anyone who buys one.”
But similar reactions greeted the iPhone, the iPod and the original iMac (no keypad, closed system, no floppy), and look what happened to them. They’re just the most popular smartphone, MP3 player and single model of a PC ever built.
Thing is, the last people to ask about the iPad are geeks. This isn’t a product built for them. They’re WAY too in the weeds. They can’t get over the lack of camera, multasking or Flash. But ask my wife about the iPad and Flash and she’ll look at you like you’re speaking in tongues.
As we predicted, the iPad is Steve Jobs’ “computer for the rest of us.” It’s a natural successor to the original Mac, which introduced the GUI to PCs – and was derided by geeks as a “toy.” But look around, the GUI kinda caught on.
The iPad is not for geeks. It’s for ordinary people who want a lightweight computer and are sick of computer headaches. This is a machine you’d buy for your grandmother and not have to worry about tech-support.
Yeah, you relinquish some control — which is something PC fans have always hated about Macs — but most ordinary people are grateful not to think about file systems, software installers and virus definitions.
The iPad is the first computer for people who are completely computer illiterate — and there’s millions of them.
Earlier on we gave you a post crammed full of iPad hardware pics. But now, some software:
See that iTunes UI? A little bit different. What’s that slider at the top left? Thicker, chunkier controls. I might write a whole post about that.
Here’s the App Store. Looks very familiar.
Someone at Apple really seems really thrilled with the whole modular-approach thing; just like they’ve done with iWork, Apple is selling the iPad in pieces. Take what you want, leave the rest.
The nifty keyboard dock above is a good example of this concept. Heavy typists — like us journos — can plop down the extra money, while the game-playing, movie-watching user can save a little dough. Of course, there’s no SD card slot, USB port or video-out either, all baubles Apple is happily hawking: the USB/SD adapters come together in what Apple is calling a “camera kit,” and a VGA-to-dock connector is required for video-out.
There’s also a really pretty, portfolio-looking iPad case that doubles as a stand. No word on pricing for any of these goodies yet.
Right now, only the people who were at the event have actually touched the iPad. So what are they saying about it?
Comedian and author Stephen Fry said on Twitter:
Ryan Block from GDGT told TWiT: “It’s heavy.” He picked it up and felt it was bulky in comparison to other tablet-like devices. He still liked it, though.
Elsewhere on TWiT, another contributor (sorry, I wasn’t fast enough to pick out who it was, it might have been Andy Ihnatko), said it was fast. It kept up with his finger movements without any fuss at all. The page-turning felt like actual page-turning. That’ll be the A4 chip doing its thing, then.
Seen any other comments by people who have Actually Touched the iPad? Shout in the comments.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGiUoXB6IV4&feature=player_embedded
Jonny Ive is on top form in this iPad introductory video from Apple.
“It’s true,” he starts the video by saying. “When something exceeds your ability to understand how it works, it sort of becomes magical. And that’s exactly what the iPad is.”
BTW: There’s a higher res version on Apple’s homepage, but it’s taking a while to load.
A lot of people following the Steve Jobs iPad keynote this morning weren’t convinced about the device until he mentioned the price: $499.
All of sudden, people wanted to buy three of them.
The price is the big news here. Everyone was expecting it to cost $700 to $1,000 — Apple makes pricey products, right?
But there’s no “Apple tax” on the iPad. This thing is priced to move, and they’re going to sell boatloads of them. And not just to Apple fans — the iPad will attract scores of Windows switchers.
Go to any Apple store and you’ll see heaving throngs of shoppers checking out Apple’s goods. A lot of them are Windows users shopping for a new home machine to replace an aging Windows box. They’re sick of the headaches and want an alternative.
The iPad is that alternative. It’s not an extra gadget, a luxury for someone who already has an iPhone and a laptop. It’s a replacement for that laptop — a true alternative.
And at $499, it’s also an alternative to the Kindle, cheapo netbooks and even Apple’s own MacBooks.
The iPad+ keyboard dock = cheap MacBook. It’s half the price of Apple’s cheapest MacBook, and a third of the MacBook Air.
Steve Jobs is a ballsy guy. He’s probably the ballsiest CEO in the U.S. right now. Who else would undercut their own laptop line — which are Apple’s most popular and most profitable computers — with a brand new device that costs half the price?
But this is how Jobs rolls. He killed the popular iPod Mini and replaced it with the iPod Nano. He’s undercutting the entire iPod line with the iPod Touch. He’s a forward-looking guy, and the iPad is a forward-looking computer.
OK folks, now for some picture pornography. This post is hardware; later on, we’ll do a gallery of software-related stuff. Keep the comments coming. Don’t be shy now: will you buy? Will you buy two? Does this compete with netbooks?
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
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.
[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?
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.
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:
[polldaddy poll=”2603443″]
There were so many possible names for Apple’s new device.
Now we know the super-slablet has been christened the iPad.
Let us know what you think of the name and what you would’ve named it in the comments.
