Apple's new iPad Tablet

At a much-anticipated press conference today, Steve Jobs and Apple revealed the tablet we've all been waiting for. Credit: GizmodoYou can see pictures here. Apple's iPad is in many ways like a larger iPod Touch. It's a thin device, 0.5 inches, with a 9.7 inch multi-touch screen. The screen is 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch, and so it looks pretty sweet, and video and images are very very nice. It runs most of the current iApps for the iPod Touch and iPhone, as well as Apple's own applications for them, like Safari, Mail, and iTunes, though they've all been modified to work with the screen size and gestured touch screen of the new iPad. In addition, Apple has created a new version of the spreadsheet, wordprocessor/page layout and presentation suite iWorks just for the iPad touch, and a new ebook reader, iBooks. iBooks uses the ePub file format for books, and Apple will have a book store directly available on the iPad.

It won't be available for sixty days or so, or around the end of March. There are two basic versions; the initial release is for a Wifi version in several sizes; 16G, 32GB, and 64GB. The pricing starts at $499 for the 16GB WiFi version, and goes up a 64GB WiFI version at $799. In about ninety days, Apple will release an unlocked 3G version, with pricing starting at $629.00, for the 16GB version, and going up to $829.00 for 3G and 64 GB. The 3G versions cost $130.00 more than the WiFi versions. The battery life is up to ten hours. The iPad has 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, speaker, microphone, 30-pin connector, an accelerometer and a compass. Apple has negotiated pricing on special prepaid dataplans from AT & T; 14.99 for 250MB/month, and $29.99 for an unlimited dataplan. Both plans include free use of AT & T's hot spots. These plans can be activated right from the iPad.

I'm pretty happy about this. It's exactly what I want. There's a screen-based QWERTY keyboard, but Apple has also created a dockable keyboard. I'm most excited by the iBooks application. I think watching video will be sweet, as will browsing the Web, but this is the ebook reader I want. The iPad itself is small enough to slip into a shoulder bag (and yes, Apple also has a case for it), and the docking keyboard is a decent size for real keyboarding but is still very portable. I'd much rather Apple's iPad than a netbook.

You can find Apple's page about the iPad, including a nifty video, here. You can find Gizmodo's coverage of the press event here. Apple's own streaming video of the event will be available soon; I'll post a link when it is.