We looked at the Apple release of its new tablet device. The Mac public was expecting, indeed pushing for Apple to release such a device, sooner than later was really not a mean achievement. For Apple to have done what they did is a vote of confidence in its customers as well as its shareholders. It was a do or die scenario. After all, the iPhone has been essentially a tiny tablet computer. Apple has shown that it can deliver such a device like no one else does. In spite of Steve Jobs past protestations, releasing a new tablet was a not a surprise at all. All Apple had to do is scale up its dazzling interface to a bigger device and it did! This brings us to the onscreen keyboard. Many pundits wondered how text entry would work on Apple’s new tablet device. You can use an external keyboard for typing long documents if you wish. However, Apple made the right decision in not attempting to build a physical keyboard into the tablet. The goal of the iPad is to bring your data and web surfing up close for an intimate feel. A keypad would simply get between you and the screen. With such a physical Key Pad (Keyboard), this would have compromised some useful screen space. The iPad has just like the iPhone key pad, the logic is to maximise the viewable or working pad on the screen and hence the “soft key pad”. Opponents may say that, such keys are very fragile, not quite! The fragile keys are on the pirated phones and not the genuine ones. I for one have been using some phones (of the iPAQ family) and these have all used the soft pads, amazingly, I have not had any hitch with the keys. I also have owned an iPOD (Touch screen), not a problem either! The on-screen keyboard is much larger, of course, than what is possible onthe iPhone. In landscape mode, the keyboard is almost as large as hat on a standard laptop. With just a few tweaks to the word recognition and auto-correction features of the iPhone software, typing on this virtual keyboard, I suspect, could be almost as fast as using a real one. Plus, I believe that voice dictation apps could come quickly to the iPad, just as they have to the iPhone. And, of course, the iPad includes all of the same features as the iPhone, only in a larger form video, YouTube, the iPod and iTunes, interactive satellite maps, the notepad, a calendar completely redesigned from the ground up for the iPad, Contacts and Spotlight search. The iPad will be shipped in three different internal storage configurations and with the option of Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + 3G, for a total of six different models. The base model, the 16 GB Wi-Fi only, will go for as low as $499, while the top of the line 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G model will feature somewhere near the $829 mark. Apple has said that, while most new technologies are introduced at a higher price point and slowly work their way down, Apple wanted to do things differently. These wonder devices are already readily available internationally. For further information, contact your nearest Apple dealer of shop. The thinness, just 0.5 inches, the light weight, just close to half a kilogram, and the flexibility of this new device are sure to make the iPad popular with Internet marketers and anyone on the go. With its high resolution LED backlight, its larger display, it’s responsive multi-touch screen and its powerful Apple-designed processor, the new iPad will be thin and light enough to take anywhere. And it is believed that many people will choose to do exactly that. eddie@afrowebs.com
