Okay, I know you’ve probably heard the news by now that yesterday Apple announced the device which bloggers and Apple fans (and even a fair few Apple haters) have been talking about for a while now. While I’m not sure how much useful info there is that I can add to all the blathering that’s already going on about this device, I thought this a momentous enough occasion to warrant at least a brief post. 
It looks like some of the leaks about the product were virtually spot on. The device is similar to an iPhone/iPod, just a lot larger (about 10″ by 7.5″). It’s extremely light at 1.5 pounds (approx .7 kgs) and with it’s large screen will likely become a reasonable laptop replacement. Some people are saying it looks more like a TV than a laptop, to me it just looks bloody cool.
Apple have a great video on their site about it. Check it out at www.apple.com/ipad. So what have we learned, it looks like the iPad is going to have many of the same features and applications as the iPhone, but that the apps have been re-written to work on the new device. Okay, kinda cool. Certainly the calendar interface looks groovy, I like the idea of using Apple mail on a touch device (for a change) and the reverse pinch action for expanding photo albums looks awesome.
Also there’s going to be a modified SDK (development environment and library) for the developing apps on the iPad. Existing iPhone apps will all work but will have to be either run in the normal size or expanded (which will probably look shit). Apple may also be releasing iPad based versions of Pages and Numbers (i.e. Word and Excel for 2 Windows peeps).
If you want to know more techy stuff and read another decent post (see what I did there) about the iPad you might want to check out David Pogue’s (from the NY Times) blog post on it. Oh and if you want to see what he’s talking about (with regard to negative press) you just have to take one look at google news where you see stuff low brow pieces like this. But seriously, don’t waste your time unless somehow you have room in your life for more negative bullshit.
Wow, he’s pretty passionate about this Apple stuff, I bet you’re thinking. Nah, it’s not so much that even. I just don’t have time for crap. Which means, I have more time for the good stuff, maybe even the iPad when it actually gets released.