The Apple iPad, perhaps the most buzz word that rocked the technology world for quite some time now. And finally on Jan 27, 2010, Steve Jobs stepped on to the stage only to unleash what the world was waiting for – the Apple iPad Tablet. Given all the hype that surrounded the product, it turned out to be a disappointment. For those who don’t know what the iPad fuss is all about, iPad is a slate like device with 9.7 inches LCD IPS multitouch display. The device is capable of running all existing iPhone Apps and games on it.

Features

The screen is oleophobic, glass covered and with LED-backlit that uses in-plane switching technology facilitating above-average viewing angles. Video output is available with the aid of dock adapter. HDMI is not supported and output resolution is limited to 480p. The operating system of the iPad is iPhone OS 3.2.

The iPad operates like a scaled up iPod Touch, except that iPad is way faster and hence it can be termed as an iPod on steroids. Apple boasts that all the built-in apps on iPad are designed keeping in mind the large multi touch screen and to use it to its fullest. They work in any orientation and this brings an exclusivity factor to the iPad.

Surfing (Safari Web browser) - the large screen of the iPad displays one web page at a time with great colors and text in either of landscape or portrait mode. Scrolling can be done by the finger and one can pinch to either zoom in or out of the photo.

Mail- one gets a split screen view showing both the inbox as well as opened mail and to see just the opened mail turn the iPad to portrait. The iPad works with all the popular email providers like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MobileMe, Hotmail, and AOL.

Video- the large high resolution screen with IPS enables wide viewing angle technology making it perfect for watching any video from movies in HD to music videos. The YouTube app. makes video watching easy to see and navigate.

Photos- the photos app. in iPad displays the photos in the form of stack in an album. One has to just tap the stack and the album opens. One can manipulate the photos with stunning fluidity.

iPod- with the iPod app. the music is at the fingertips and one can browse the album, song or artiste with simple flick. Just tap it, to play the song. One can listen to songs with either built in speakers or headphones.

iTunes- the iTunes icon lets one to browse and buy music, TV shows and much more by just tapping it. One can also preview the song before you buy it.

iBooks- this app. is a great feature to read and buy books. Once a book is bought it is displayed on the book shelf. Just tap it and start reading. Penguin Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group USA have committed themselves to provide content for the iBook store. There may be some addition to the number of providers as Apple invited bids from other providers for the iBook store on the launch of the iPad.
There are Maps, calendar, contacts, notes and other features. The home screen provides a one tap access to everything in the iPad.

Technical Specifications

Size and Weight

Display

Processor

Input and Output

Memory

Battery and Power

Environment requirements

Windows Systems Requirements

Apple Ipad Review

January 27, 2010 saw the launch of a device from Apple termed as Apple iPad. The iPad is loaded with great features and is one of the most impressive devices by Apple till date.

There has been much delight among the people about the wonderful screen of the iPad and yes the screen is stunning. It feels like one has held a huge iPhone in his hand. One of the most amazing features of the iPad is its speed. The tablet is blazingly fast. It was a fun web experience as the pages loaded up at great pace and scrolling was great too. There are 140,000 apps on the iPad and the most wonderful of them is the iBook implementation. This is a completely exciting experience as one can read many books without collecting a stack on your shelf.

One of the most disappointing features of the Apple iPad is multitasking. How can Apple leave that streaming Pandora when one works on the pages. iPad is some power but you can do very little with it at once. No-multitasking is a real setback for this device. There is no Adobe Flash Support yet and absence of camera is yet another disappointment. How can one buy a device which is boasting to better than laptops and iPhone and does not facilitate video conferencing.

The title iPad- Apple wouldn’t have come up with a worse title than this. Apple’s marketing expertise should have considered women a bit more, to whom the iPad might sound as some hygiene product. The name is a complete disaster and can ruin its own chances of success. The iPad weighs 1.5 lbs which is quite heavy as compared to others. Hence, some might struggle to hold it in one hand. The keyboard which Steve Jobs demonstrated on the stage looked fast but it isn’t that way. It is not great and not that responsive as it looked in demos.

Price is yet another tricky issue. The base price of iPad is $499 whereas one can get many of the iPad features in iPhone touch for just $199 and the iPhone is ever more portable. There is no HDMI port in iPad and it is still dependent on AT&T for the 3G services as well as it is also dependent on adapters.

Still the iPad is a good deal with impressive features.
The Verdict – 4/5. Go for it!