Apple releases iPad

The wait is over. Steve did his job! After the much hyped event, we have a new product from Apple. It’s an iPad. Yesterday, we wrote about what to expect off the event. Steve Jobs made many souls happy!

Last night, we saw people storming onto social networks – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and everything else they could to publish even the minuscule detail of the device as it got revealed by Apple. Many blogs were covering the event live via pictures and text updates. It was fascinating to see few blogs did a LIVE coverage without having a live presence at the event! All this indicates how social the brand Apple gets to be, despite their silence on the product until it was finally launched, yesterday.

Topics like Apple and iPad started to trend within minutes of the launch. Few websites had to face downtime as well. Thanks to the enormous load that the social network addicts passed on to them!

Just after the product was launched, we could see the bloggers with comments like - “No multi-tasking”, Does not have a physical keyboard”, “Expensive” and more. Something that was evident when Apple launched iPhone in 2007. With time and roll-out of this device, these bloggers would come up with posts like -“Why opt for 16 GB iPad than 64 GB iPod touch?”.

Apple is by now, used to receive appraisals and criticisms alike. Sooner or later, the fan club shall only grow.

iPad: The features

• Half inch thin, slimmest Tablet
• 1.5 pound in weight (approx 600 gm)
• 9.7 inch diagonal screen IPS type
• Capacitive multi-touch
• 1024x768 display resolution
• 16 to 64 GB Flash storage
• 1 Ghz A4 Processor
• WiFi 802.11n Wifi
• Built-in Speaker
• Built-in Microphone
• Accelerometer
• Compass
• 10 Hours Battery with One Month Standby
• iPad 3G models are unlocked
• WiFi models shall be available in 60 days worldwide
• Comes with Wifi and / or 3G
• Sync with iTunes
• New GSM micro SIM for 3G data transmission

Price

• 16GB: $499 (Wi-Fi) & $629 (Wi-fi+3G)
• 32GB: $599 (Wi-Fi) & $729 (Wi-fi+3G)
• 64GB: $699 (Wi-Fi) & $829 (Wi-fi+3G)

Verdict

iPad is undoubtedly a masterpiece when it comes to read information, watch videos and use apps. That is what it is pretty much for. Expecting everything in sync with this slick device would just be a little injustice. However, with features like addition of a keyboard dock and introduction of multi-touch word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps for $10 each would justify some needs.

It’s an iPad and not a netbook or a laptop, so let’s not expect it to do which it ain’t build for. It would be a great experience for Kindle lovers to try out this new device. We would be equally anxious to see Amazon’s take on this.

For now, it shall be to early to dig into the good-bad-ugly of an iPad. We shall wait to see one, rather use it. There is more to expect from iBookstore and iWork. Let’s not forget the App Store and the community of iPhone app developers. Let the applications developed specifically for iPad arrive. There is more to come in the ecosystem, for sure.