Apple’s iPad Review: What you need to know
Apple's iPad Review: What you need to know
Apple on Wednesday finally unveiled its tablet computer, called the iPad, at an invite-only event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco. The device, which looks like a larger version of Apple’s iPod Touch will be available in two to three months, and starts at $499.
Read on to get a quick overview of everything that was announced, and why it matters.
Proving rumors right, Apple unveiled the iPad, a device that looks akin to a large iPhone or iPod Touch. It sports a 9.7-inch LCD touch-screen display, which makes use of the same multitouch technology found on the iPhone, Apple’s Magic Mouse, and its notebook trackpads. It also has the same in-plane switching display technology that made its debut in the latest crop of iMacs.
Like the iPhone and iPod, it sports a finger-friendly OS with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and an accelerometer that can detect whether the device is in portrait or landscape mode. It has a 30-pin dock connector, built-in Wi-Fi, and a home button that jumps users back to the main screen of the OS. It also has a volume rocker and a mute button–just like the iPhone.
Along with a big screen, it’s sporting a 1Ghz custom Apple chip (from its pick-up of PA Semi back in 2008). Apple says it can get 10 hours of video, which is about four more than the iPod Touch and the same as the latest generation iPhone. This translates to “a month” of standby time. The iPad will come in 16, 32, and 64GB capacities for $499, $599, and $699, respectively. That’s just the Wi-Fi version though. Apple will also be selling a version of the iPad that includes both Wi-Fi and a 3G wireless modem built in. iPad users who want to make use of the 3G service, which is being offered by AT&T, can pick up one of two plans for that: $15 a month for 250MB of data, or unlimited for $29.99 a month. It also bumps up the baseline price of the device to $629 (16GB), $729 (32GB), and $829 (64GB).
The iPad with just Wi-Fi will be shipping in the next 60 days, with the 3G version in the next 90 days.
Other noteworthy specs:
• The Wi-Fi antenna supports 802.11 a/b/g/n
• The iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds. The version with 3G is .1 pounds heavier.
• The screen resolution is 1024×768 (the iPhone/iPod is 480×320).
• It can playback 720p HD video, though video output to external sources is limited to 480p. • It has the same oleophobic coating that made its debut on the iPhone 3GS. This helps face and finger grease bead up and wipe off easier.
Bigger apps
As for apps, the iPad’s screen runs larger than what can be found on Apple’s smaller portable devices, which means developers have more screen real estate to work with. At the same time, the iPad is backwards compatible with existing iPhone and iPod Touch applications. Apps with smaller screen resolutions are simply scaled up to fit. Apple is giving developers a way to modify their applications to work with both sets of hardware.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the tablet running numerous first-party apps, including iTunes, a photo gallery, its Safari Web browser, iCal, e-mail, Google Maps, and YouTube. Many shared traits of what’s been seen on the iPhone, just with more screen real estate. This was most evident in Apple’s Mail app, which now features a two-up panel display with a preview of the selected e-mail in the larger part of the screen. According to Jobs, all of its apps were re-written to fit natively on the bigger display.
Several companies also demonstrated their new iPad-optimized apps:
• Gameloft showed off a larger-resolution version of its hit first-person shooter N.O.V.A., which will be out “later this year.”
• The New York Times demoed a tablet-friendly version of its app, which mimics the layout of reading a newspaper in portrait mode, except with video links that open up within an embedded player.
• Brushes, a popular iPhone app, demoed the upcoming iPad version of its image editing software, which now makes use of the larger screen real estate to conceal large pop-up menus.
• MLB.com unveiled a tweaked version of its app that adds video highlights, team info, virtual baseball cards, and more on-screen overlays.
Apple also introduced an updated version of its iWork software. It’s the first version of the software to run on one of Apple’s portable devices, and makes full use of the iPad’s touch screen. This confirms a rumor from The New York Times earlier this month. Worth noting is that iWork will be offered as three separate apps, all of which will cost $10 apiece. Having Numbers, Keynote, and Sheets will run iPad users $30, as opposed to the $79 price tag for the desktop version.
Book distribution
Jobs unveiled a new content delivery system called iBooks (not to be confused with Apple’s former laptop line, the iBook). The new app features a virtual bookshelf with content from five major publishers: HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Shuster (note: Simon & Shuster is a division of CBS Corporation, which publishes CNET).
Apple said the iBooks store will feature both popular books as well as text books. Notably absent was any mention of whether magazines will be available as well.
Just like iTunes, books are split up into what’s popular and by genre. Users can preview the first few pages before purchasing, and downloaded books are sent directly to the user’s virtual bookshelf. They can then be read in a similar manner to what’s already been available with Amazon’s Kindle app. Users can read their books in portrait or landscape mode, change the size of the text, and hop around using a persistent table of contents.
Other tidbits
Apple will be selling a dock that comes with a keyboard for the iPad.
• Apple confirmed to CNET that the iPad is just like the iPhone and iPod Touch when it comes to Adobe Flash–it does not support the popular Web plug-in.
• 250,000,000 iPods have been sold since 2001.
• Apple has 248 retail stores that have seen 50 million visitors.
• The App Store now has more than 140,000 applications.
• There is still no multitasking. Apps can only run one at a time, that is, unless they’re Apple’s apps.
• The iPad appears to use Apple’s unibody machining process, which made its formal debut in the company’s late 2008 MacBook line.
• The new OS borrows a few cues from Snow Leopard, including the capability to change background wallpapers, and a 3D-style dock.
• 125 million credit cards are already hooked up to the iTunes and App Store.
• Apple is selling a number of first-party accessories, including a dock with a full-sized keyboard, a camera connection kit that lets users import images from their SD cards, and a case that doubles as a stand. Apple has not announced pricing for any of these items.
While it’s still too soon to tell if it can live up to the insane amount of hype that preceded its introduction, the iPad is, more than any other product the company has made, the quintessential Apple device.
From the almost entirely homegrown technology, to the addition of the books counterpart to its iTunes media hub, to taking a risk on the middle category between smartphones and laptops, the iPad completes the picture for Apple in a lot of ways.
Steve Jobs used “revolutionary” to describe his company’s newest device Wednesday, and while that’s more than a bit over-the-top, the iPad does epitomize Apple’s evolution. Before he even introduced the tablet Wednesday, Jobs brought up Apple’s three main sources of revenue: the iPod, iPhone, and Mac have made Apple a $50 billion company. By basically discounting the iMac and other desktops (which makes sense, desktops have been headed downhill for a while), he pressed the point about what Apple has become: It’s “a mobile device company,” he said. “That’s what we do.”
Though he didn’t say it specifically, he meant it as opposed to a computer company–a name they dropped in 2007–and as opposed to just a hardware and software maker. With few exceptions, Apple makes portable media-centric devices, and of those, the iPad is the one that brings all of Apple’s businesses together.
With the iPad, Apple has a device that rounds out the company’s product line and also moves the company forward toward being the spoke in the wheel that is the world of media and technology. Making something that fits between a smartphone and a laptop has been a goal for the consumer technology industry for more than a decade. The most recent attempt has been the Netbook. The iPad easily makes Netbooks seem boring and staid, and too close to the same old form factor, the computer. The iPad is taking a different tack: taking tasks that were too big for an iPhone and puts them on a device that isn’t pocket-sized, but is more convenient to carry around than a 13- or 15-inch laptop.
It’s risky, of course, to try to jump start a category that has never been proven. But it’s also part of Apple’s M.O.: the company has a vision for the mobile computer and media industries, and a lot of confidence in its abilities.
One-stop shop
That extends to the company’s manufacturing and design. Apple has positioned itself so that it has to rely on very few outside sources to create the device. Plus, any sort of content you want on the iPad has to be, with few exceptions, bought through Apple as the middleman.
Looking back now, we should have seen this coming over the past few years: Apple wanted a new way of building their MacBooks, so they came up with the manufacture process where it’s cut from a single block of aluminum. They wanted to make their own chip, so they bought PA Semi and created the “A4,” which notably cuts Intel out of the equation. They also have their own battery technology and are using IPS, or in-plane-switching LCD technology, for the screen that allows quicker response times for viewing video and wider viewing angles. And all of the content for the device must pass through one of Apple’s own online retail stores: iBooks, iTunes, or the App Store. Plus, if you consider the sweet deal on the 3G wireless plans (AT&T, no contract, month-to-month), Apple clearly dictated the terms with AT&T.
iBooks iPad
The tablet comes with its own built-in e-book store, called iBooks.
The introduction of the iBooks store also snaps into place the final piece of the iTunes puzzle. Beyond music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts, games, apps, and iTunes U educational material, books was the only thing missing. Yes, newspapers and magazine content did go mostly unmentioned during Wednesday’s presentation, but it’s conceivable those deals are still getting worked out behind the scenes and could be added later to the iBooks site.
Also worth noting: Apple didn’t have to do the iBooks site itself. There are a variety of e-book apps that already exist and could have easily delivered books to the iPad. But again, Apple does things its own way, and books are very much a part of what appears to be a plan to be the gatekeeper of all media.
Secret guinea pigs
In terms of the ways users interact with the iPad, this is a culmination of stuff Apple has been working on for years. Anyone who’s ever bought from iTunes, played a game from the App Store, or gotten used to a virtual keyboard was being secretly trained for the iPad.
With the iPod, Apple got us used to purchasing media without a physical copy–no CDs, no DVDs. With the iPhone, they taught us to think in terms of touch screen interaction–pinching and zooming, swiping, and a virtual keyboard, the utility of third-party applications, and having the Web in your pocket. All of those things are the main features of the iPad. And as Jobs said Wednesday, 75 million people that own an iPod Touch or iPhone “already know how to use the iPad.”
And that’s Apple’s philosophy for all of its products, you’re supposed to “get” it, or intuitively know how to use a device the first time you pick it up. As opposed to the first iPod though or the first iPhone, the iPad is so similar to other devices we already have experience with that this really can be said to be for the average consumer with perhaps a casual interest in technology.
On that note, there’s also some subtext in the initial reactions to the iPad by the tech-savvy set, e.g. most of the people in the room today when Jobs unveiled it and the same people who thought this would be the magical device that changed everything. You may have seen the flood of negative responses on Twitter, Facebook, and at various blogs to what the device can’t do. There’s a whole separate story to be written about the hype and letdown cycle that comes from these Apple events, but more important is what the iPad’s capabilities and technical specifications illustrate: Apple is going to do what it wants.
The company likely doesn’t care that some very vocal people want it to have an HDMI out port, or support Flash, or allow multiple apps to run at the same time. Just like it’s going to go its own way on having a removable battery in the iPhone, removing FireWire from MacBooks, and making glossy screens standard. Apple’s target is not the geek set who care about browser standards; with this iPad, the target is your mom, who probably just wants to read e-books in color, check her e-mail, and watch some episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” next time she’s on an airplane.
While we can leave it to the hardware experts at CNET Reviews to tell us whether this device is worth buying, it’s clear in any case that this device is both a beginning and an end for Apple. With a new product category and a new part of the business, it’s also closed the circle on its media ambitions.
The reaction to the iPad has been far less positive than what we’ve become used to when new Apple products debut.
Many took to Twitter, Facebook, and tech blogs, including here at CNET, to voice dissatisfaction with everything from the size, the price, the specs, and the content available, to the usage model–what do we use this for and what does it replace?
Here at CNET, we saw something similar in the reader response to a poll we ran immediately after Apple’s event Wednesday. Though it’s far from being scientific, it does illustrate a consensus among our readers. We asked “Would you buy the iPad?,” and more than 22,000 people chimed in.
Just over half, or 11,649 respondents, said “No way. It’s not what I hoped/expected.” A quarter of respondents, or 5,741, said “Haven’t decided yet,” while 20 percent or 4,653 said “Definitely! My credit card is already out.” Three percent said “Other,” and left comments, which you can read here.
Many serious lovers of technology sound disappointed that Apple did not surpass or even meet the outsized expectations they placed on this new device. The thinking goes: The iPad is not quite a computer, and doesn’t make phone calls, and costs more than an iPod Touch. So why should I buy it?
True, the device does seem a bit mysterious from that perspective. But it’s less so if you step back and look at where Apple has come from and where it wants to go.
If you look at it from the perspective of someone who’s not super technical, but does enjoy consuming media, the iPad could actually work. As previously mentioned, I keep thinking of my mom as the perfect use case for this device. She knows how to use an iPod, and really only uses her laptop to check her e-mail and go online to read the news. And it’s not her first choice to take her laptop anywhere because it’s “too heavy” for what she would actually use it for.
However, she does travel fairly often and is an avid reader. Having what is essentially a color e-book reader with the ability to quickly check e-mail and download some movies and TV shows from iTunes is probably good enough. She could care less that there’s no Flash support, in other words.
That will not be compelling enough for everyone to spend $500 to $830 for one, and this may not be a huge hit the way the iPhone has been. However, I really don’t think the example of my mom is unique. John Gruber made an excellent point Wednesday: “Apple doesn’t talk much about the technical details of the iPhone. They never talk about CPU speed or the name of the chip being used. They don’t tell you how much RAM is in there. Part of their vision for moving computers from technical culture to popular culture is about getting away from defining these things by their technical specs.”
There’s much more that could be done with the iPad, and it’s not hard to imagine there’s more to come with subsequent product updates. But Apple’s not being upfront with the technical details and having the latest and greatest technology, while it seems to infuriate/disappoint people with technical chops, might mean this device is not for them. At least not yet.
The manner in which Steve Jobs demonstrated the iPad Wednesday illustrated this. I don’t think it was because he was feeling like kicking back during an exhausting presentation that he walked us through how to use the iPad while seated in a cushy low-slung chair. He was not seated at a desk or table the way you would use a computer. And he wasn’t standing up the way he’s demonstrated the iPod or iPhone, which is meant to be used on the go. He was using it in the way he envisions people using it: in a casual setting, like a living room, a bedroom, or perhaps an airport lounge. If you watch the person using the iPad in Apple’s marketing video, they too are casually dressed and reclining while using the device. Apple clearly wants potential buyers to think of the iPad as a casual entertainment device.
But who will Apple market this to? It’s not a laptop and it’s not a phone or a music player. So what is it, and how exactly will they explain it to potential buyers? We’ll find out in less than 60 days.
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