Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Tablet
After many months of speculation, the Apple tablet is finally here. The device is officially named the Apple iPad. It comes with a 9.7 inch IPS LCD display, is 0.5 inches thick, weights 1.5lbs, has 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage, accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, a built-in 802.11n wireless adapter, 3G (for wireless phone provider data plans), several connectors including speakers, microphone and 30 pin (for such things as the keyboard dock), bluetooth, a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, multi-touch surface, and it has 10 hours of battery life with about a month’s worth of standby. The iPad is capable of web browsing (no visible signs of a Flash player), and has a built in iTunes app store. This device can also run games and apps from the AppStore (runs iPhone’s apps at windowed iPhone resolution, or scales to double the size), YouTube, movies, television episodes, has an email client, book reading (iBook), iWork ($9.99) for iPad, and more.
The WiFi iPad will cost $499, $599 and $699 according to storage size. The 3G versions of the iPad will cost $130 extra. The WiFi versions will be available around April, with 3G versions coming out a month later. The 3G data plan for iPad will be $14.99 for 250 megabytes, and $29.99 for unlimited (no contact required for either plan), along with free WiFi hotspots all from AT&T. The 3G devices will be unlocked, and will use GSM micro SIMs. There will also be an optional keyboard dock for easy typing on the device.