iPad (Apple Tablet) Details

Rumors, rumors, rumors. That was all one would get while searching for the Apple Tablet. The tablet was revealed yesterday by Steve Jobs who confirmed that the tablet will be named iPad.

The name resemblance is not the only similarity to Apple's overly successful branch of gadgets. The show yesterday revealed lots of information about the iPad and we have collected all the important bits for you to help you get an overview of what it can and cannot do.

Let us start with the price of the device. The announcement that the cheapest model of the iPad would cost $499 was a surprise to many who expected the tablet to start at $799 or even more than that.

But $499 means that the device will have severe limitations. It comes with a 16 Gigabyte SSD drive and no 3G. The 32 and 64 Gigabyte iPad models retail for $599 respectively $699 but they too come without 3G. 3G costs $130 on top of this which means that the price span for the iPad ranges from $499 for the basic iPad without 3G to $829 for the 64 Gigabyte hard drive version of the iPad with 3G.

Dimensions and weight:

• Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
• Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model, 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

iPad Hardware specs:

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology, 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Processor: 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
• Battery: Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery ,Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music (according to Apple)
• Wi-Fi model: Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
• Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz), Data only2, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
• Input / Output: Dock connector, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, Built-in speakers, Microphone, SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)
• Viewable document types (mail attachments): .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

What speaks for the iPad? Its design obviously which is something that Apple seems to be very capable of doing right. Support for the all apps that are currently offered in the App Store.

What the iPad does not offer:

• Connectivity is bad. It does not have one USB port nor the possibility to use an adapter for better hardware support. That means no external hard drives (buy the more expensive devices if you need more space), no card readers to automatically upload the previous photos from your kid's last birthday and no functionality for devices that can only be connected with wires (most printers for example).
• No Flash. the iPad does not support flash much like the iPhone which makes it less usable for web surfing, especially for entertainment hungry folks
• No Camera. No camera, no webcam means no video and webcam chat.
• 3G costs extra. If you want 3G you have to pay an extra fee of. To be precise it will cost $130 in the US
• Fixed battery that cannot be replaced by the user
• No optical drive which means no option to view movies or access files this way
• multitasking

The unknown

• Which formats can be read by the iPad once they are on the hard drive. Are those the same formats that are supported to be viewed as mail attachments?
• Will there be DRM?

There you have it. The iPad is there and it seems that while some users cannot wait to get their hands on the stylish tablet computer others are wary and prefer to wait for the soon to be released iPad 3G instead.

Summary

Article Name

iPad (Apple Tablet) Details

Description

Rumors, rumors, rumors. That was all one would get while searching for the Apple Tablet. The tablet was revealed yesterday by Steve Jobs who confirmed that the tablet will be named iPad.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

Publisher

Ghacks Technology News

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