By now, the world has already seen the tablet that Steve "Moses" Jobs has shown off and we can finally get on with our lives.
It is essentially an oversized iPod Touch (or oversized iPhone without the phone calls).
The nice things? Very thin, has iBooks (Kindle ain't the only game in town now), has long battery life (10 hours, one month standby, but probably a lot less if you use the 3G version), and some cool accessories like the keyboard dock above. Also all your iPhone apps work on it (until you cannot take it any more, cave in and buy iPad-resolution apps).
The not-so-nice things? Still no multitasking, no Flash support, no camera, no phone calls, no USB port, and no GPS.
I think most of us were a little underwhelmed. Pricing is US$499 for 16GB iPad. 32GB is US$599, 64GB is $799. 3G models costs US$130 more. Not quite netbook prices, since you can get one for less than 500 Singapore dollars these days.
iFixit has this shot of the new Apple A4 chip inside the iPad:
In America, Land of the Expensive Data Plan and Locked Phones, AT&T will sell a special iPad prepaid plan, unlimited 3G data for US$29.99, which I am told is a Very Big Deal.
I think the iPad will spur a big spike in oversized iPhone cases and XXL screen protectors.
My advice? Save your moolah and get a 13-inch Macbook Pro. Or stand by for the sudden surge in used Kindles.
Or better yet. Wait for iPad 2.0. I hear it comes with Wings.
