Steve Jobs keynote starts at 1:00 ET. Steve said about the Tablet: "This Will Be The Most Important Thing I've Ever Done." *Edit: This is what it looks like:



http://www.macrumors.com/2010/01/26/the-ap...-rumor-roundup/

I thought it would be bigger.

The photos of the tablet that just leaked appear to be slightly bigger.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01...ast_minute.html

I was completely skeptical about the iphone, so basically everything I'm about to say about the tablet is worthless.

That said, I just don't understand what it could be good for. Its size means it can't compete on the portability front with ipods, cell phones, iphones, etc. The lack of a real keyboard means it won't be good for extensive data entry (and the iphone is already a better portable email device). As an e-reader, while the Kindle is in black in white; its battery lasts two weeks, e-ink is very easy on the eyes, and it has free 3G wireless.

I could see the tablet being an excellent travel companion since its screen will be awesome for movies and games...but I'm not sure an excellent travel companion provides the foundation for a legendary device.

On the other hand, Apple is the master of telling me what I need, and creating products to fill voids I never knew existed until their product comes along. So going back to my original statement, these pre-criticisms could likely be worthless.

I don't get it.

I'm thinking this is a product that will be used to phase out the ipod.

yeah, that makes sense ...

I was thinking this exactly.

This is gonna change everything in consumer electronics.

Well, ipod sales are in decline since the introduction of the iphone, and the itunes store is hardly the money making machine. Steve Jobs might see the tablet as a chance to introduce a new better market to the itunes store in digital books, and also to push the revenue of tv and movie downloads since they also seems to be lacking in sales.

Really? Can you explain?

Not that I'm convinced that digital books are going to take off, but if this thing is backlit while the Kindle isn't that puts them behind the 8-ball.

as someone that has to answer alot of emails on their phone, i must say, my brief experiences with the iphone makes me never ever want to use one.

the keyboard on it is terrible. i'll just stick with a blackberry for emails/phone, and an ipod for music.

That's what she said...

Yeah, probably the most significant gamechanging paradigm shift since the introduction of movable type. Hell, the wheel.

Probably a good idea. I know you worry a lot about typos.

Oh, I see what you mean.

I thought it was apparent that ipods are getting smaller and/or being phased out and replaced by the iphone. But I guess the tabled could be seen as an ipod for publications and games.

I don't own an e-reader, but I've spent some time with one, and one of the nicest things about e-ink is that it's not backlit. Backlighting is what contributes to eye strain. Text on paper (real or e-ink) is much more pleasing to the eye, at least in my opinion.

disney and aapl are apparently gonna have some sort of agreement on this thing on content im assuming

If the rumored price range for this thing is true I don't see it being nearly as widely adopted as the ipod/iphone

I already think e-readers are grossly overpriced at $200-$300

yeah but just like the iphone it will initially be over priced and then come down a year later

The iphone only "came down" because the hardware price was then incorporated into the cell phone contract. There's a reason an 8gb ipod touch costs $199, and a 16gb iphone also costs $199.

That said, there's a good deal of speculation that the tablet may have an optional wireless through one of the cell phone providers, in which case its price may be reduced.

Maybe it has a camera too, so you can shoot/broadcast on the fly. edit: fuck me for not buying aapl when it was $88 last year.

This looks like something only Apple fanboys will purchase.

Apple fanboys and porn-obsessed shut-ins.

I resent being called an Apple fanboy.

Are you going to buy this?

I've got a 1st gen iPod touch that I use like this device. My laptop is similarly old and ready for a replacement. The laptop I also keep by my couch for instasurfing, which it is not ideal (weight, wake up time, connect to wifi time). I have sufficient disposable income to waste.

I'm there.


Brag alert, I did buy Apple shares and long term calls during the market downturn. I'll trade in 5 shares for an iPad.

Can I borrow $300, Waylon?

I'm not sure it's quite a revolutionary paradigm shift, but more of a natural progression from the iTouch. Still, seems pretty cool to me. Only things that concern me so far is there still seems to be a lack of Flash support (at least from the pictures I've seen, web pages with flash displayed a broken Flash plug-in icon--maybe Apple is still working out something with Adobe, I dunno) and I haven't seen any evidence of multitasking yet.

I think flash is too much of a resource hog to run on an iphone. I'm not sure if this is still an issue with the pad.

So far it just seems like an oversized touch with better processing power. The biggest advances seem like they are for games, and it sounds like there's pretty decent developer support for those games.

I'm kind of surprised that there's no mobile-wireless support (I've only heard of 802.11n compatibility). Maybe it has a usb slot so it can accept one of those mobie carrier wireless devices (or do those devices operate on a bluetooth frequency?)

I still have to see what the price is before knowing whether I'd be interested. $500.00 would seem like a decent price-point for its functionality, but that's probably way lower than what it will cost.

Just announced that some models will include wireless, $30/m unlimited data no contract from AT&T.

Wifi only models 16/32/64G at $499/$599/$699

3G models at $629/$729/$829

60 day availability for 3G models.

Nailed it.

"So $499 for 16GB of iPad. That's our base model. 32GB is $599, 64GB is $799. 3G models cost an extra $130. $629, 729, and 829 with 3G."

That's pretty cool, and pretty cheap.

at work we speculated around 1500...but 500 geesh....looks like i found my new toy

Sounds pretty much like the Archos media tablet I have in my pocket tbh.

It's pretty damn nifty, but I don't have a use for it. I don't need the functionality at home because I have a computer, and my cellphone and ipod already handle all the functions I could use while i'm out of the house. If I were commuting via train or took a lot of business trips I'd prolly be all over this but for now it's just a nifty gadget that I can't justify for the price.

So why wouldn't I just buy a new laptop?

It's up on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Size and battery life would be the two selling points VS a laptop. But yeah for 500+ you are definitly in laptop territory price wise.

And I'm a little pissed because I just bought a touch for train/travel purposes...although not that pissed because I can't see taking the ipad with me on the train (I almost never carry a bag), which I frequent a lot more than planes...and the 32 gb touch, at $265.00 was less than half the cost of the 32gb ipad.

Anyway, there might be an ipad in my future, but I'm not running out to buy one right away.

Those guys in the video are hilarious, with watery eyes like they're gonna cry talking about how the device is "magical," and how "it just feels right to hold the Internet in your hands as you surf it."

"You don't even think about it. You just... DOOoo."

Extraordinary looking product. $500 is dirt cheap for this thing.

Will wait for 3g/wifi enabled versions. But this is what notebooks will be going forward.

What a game changer.

Did he say unlimited 3G data for $30 per month prepaid? Huhwhat?! That cuts currently available costs by more than half. If it's a usb input device that'll work on laptops, I'll buy ASAP.

Also, looks like a REALLY capable gaming device, as soon as great developers start putting out product, that will be the major selling point here.

Interested to see how the screen performs video under different lighting conditions, if it's good then I'm sold. Storage capacity is somewhat disappointing though. I'd be interested in a $300 addition to the price if it meant a 200 GB model.

Seems like they're missing a HUUUUGE amount of the tablet market here by not allowing for precision input devices. Maybe this can be developed 3rd party, but everybody I know who uses a tablet PC is a musician, or an artist, and the inability to use a stylus to draw with would absolutely kill them.

This is the way I feel. Thanks for saving me time writing it out.

The below is true. This really *is* a flattened iPhone poorly named. Game changer maybe one day, but not today.

At least, it won't get in Kindle's long reading comfort. Actually, if anything, the iPad is yet another part of the culture prompting us into shorter attention spans. Light reading only. Everything eventually only 140 characters or fewer.

Give it the option to switch back and forth between an eInk display and colored LCD, and have the option to roll it up (ie. 10 years) and you have a game changer.

Also, horrible name. Immediatelt, the least initially exciting Apple product, in my mind.

If colleges & universities are supplying students w/ iPod touches for lectures I'll be curious to see if they start using this for text books, lectures & presentations going forward.

For as much as they are touting the browsing experience, having a 3G-less version seems kinda stupid. Or, pricing it at $500 and then charging an additional $130 for 3G is stupid, I guess. Either way, who would get this and NOT get the 3G. Unless I'm missing something?