Apple releases iPad

Jayne Durnin/Staff Writer

Every year, Apple comes out with a new product to catch the public’s attention, and this year they are really turning heads.

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, Apple launched it’s newest project: the iPad.

The iPad measures 9.7 inches diagonally and weighs 1.5 pounds. You can purchase it with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage, and it comes with Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity. New in this product is a multi-touch screen, which allows you to pull the corners of a picture to make is wider for example, or pinch a photo album and drag upward, so you can get a preview of the pictures in that album. The battery can last for 10 hours, and the device can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge. The iPad has multi-touch capabilities that makes it the biggest piece of technology able to do this.

Software included in the iPad includes an iPod, video player, Safari, contacts, notes, maps and a calendar, which have all been redesigned to fit the iPad.

The tablet is capable of gaming and the Apple App store has been redesigned to fit the iPad’s capabilities. The bigger screen will allow more room for controls and will create a more vivid gaming experience, as well as being very portable. It is expected to challenge many gaming companies upon it’s release.

In addition to a new and improved App store, the iPad possesses a iTunes store and a brand new iBooks store. The iBook application appears as a bookcase that houses the books you purchase and download to read on the iPad.

A new way to view photos has also been created for the iPad. You can upload photos to the device, and it will present your albums in stacks. If you want to see your pictures, it will automatically go full screen and allow you to view them in a slideshow.

Apple is also releasing a variety of accessories to go with the iPad. The Keyboard Dock for the device provides a dock and wireless keyboard. An iPad case will also be available, as well as accessories that enable the tablet to connect to television, projectors and displays.

Pricing for the iPad starts at $499 for 16GB with Wi-Fi and goes up to $829 for 64GB and built in 3G network. Apple will also team up with AT&T to create a data plan for the iPad for $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited use of data each month.

The iPad will be available for purchase world-wide in March.

I, myself, own an Apple iPod and Macbook Pro, and am very impressed with this new product. However, I probably won’t be buying it because I feel that the iPod and Macbook will be able to do anything that the iPad boasts of. Perhaps the best customer for this product is one who is new to Apple and wants to take advantage of all they have to offer.
I think that the iPad will be a revolution in the way that things are designed and priced in the technology industry. Considering that the least expensive product besides the iPad from Apple is a Macbook for $999, the iPad seems like a pretty good deal for a device that has a lot of the same capabilities.

We can definitely expect this device to be very well made, considering that Apple sets extremely high standards for its products. I think that only time will tell how successful this product is and how ready we are for this new technology.