iPad: The Microwave Oven of Computing

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Matthew Guay at techinch writes:

And then customers bought them, took them home, and something special happened. They realized that reading eBooks or browsing the internet from their couch was nice on a tablet. They found things they would have never thought to do on a computer were fun and simple. Apps that never made sense on computers with keyboards and mice, like GarageBand and finger paint apps and eReaders, suddenly found life on a 9.7″ slate of glass and metal. Flipboard would have never become as popular on a desktop, and who would have thought of Twitter for iPad’s interface without an iPad? People that would have never touched a computer suddenly found ways a computing device could help their lives, and techies that spent 10+ hours a day in front of their glaring monitors could now break away from their hefty PCs easier. Not doing the same old stuff, but new, innovative things that you would have never thought of on a traditional PC with a screen, keyboard, and mouse on a desk. As Marco Arment said, it’s time to move on from office productivity apps; the iPad opens the window for all types of creative, interactive, personal programs. Finally, the term Personal Computer actually makes sense.

Steve Jobs Takes Stage To Unveil iPad 2

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ipad2_title_20110302 Surprising many people with his appearance, Steve Jobs took the stage today at Apple's iPad 2 event to talk about the success of the first iPad and to announce the iPad 2. Rumors that started yesterday had suggested he might make an appearance at the event, but few thought he would do the whole presentation himself. Jobs' first bit of news was to announce that Random House was coming to the iBook store, and that to date, Apple had sold over 100 million books in the iBooks store during the first year. During this same narrative, he announced that iTunes now has over 200 million user accounts tied to credit cards. It goes without saying this is their way of saying they have 200 million potential customers in their ecosystem for developers and content providers to sell to. Job also announced that, to date, the iTunes Store has paid over over 2 billion dollars to iPhone app developers in profits. He also highlighted the stat of having sold over 100 million iPhones to date. All of this these business updates came before the big announcement of the day, iPad 2. He began his reveal of the iPad 2 by reciting a few iPad stats in its first year. Apple has sold over 15 million iPads in its first 9 months, which was more than every Tablet PC ever sold. Apple generated $9.5 billion in revenue for Apple during its first 9 month - again - April through December folks. Less than 1 year of time. Jobs was quoted to say, "and our competitors were just flummoxed." Jobs next showed a slide on screen showing the App Store has over 65,000 apps for the iPad at the time of this writing. He then displayed a slide poking fun at the Android Honeycomb tablets with the number 100 on the slide saying, "and I think we're being a little generous here." After a quick video that chronicled the first year of the iPad and is worth watching, Steve moved on to the reveal of the iPad 2. The key features are as follows: overview_gyro_20110302iPad 2 * All new design * Dramatically thinner - 33% thinner, 8.8mm down from 13.4mm (the new iPad 2 is thinner than the iPhone 4 which is 9.3mm) * Lighter - 1.3 pounds (down from 1.5 for iPad 1) * New curved sides * Comes in White or Black overview_performance_20110302* Faster - A5 Dual-core Processors * 2X faster CPU * 9X faster graphics * Same power consumption as A4 * First dual core tablet to ship in volume * Video Cameras * Front-facing camera, captures VGA * Rear-facing camera, captures 720p HD image_chip_20110302* Gyroscope * Verzion & AT&T Models Available (separate devices) * Same 10 hour battery life * Same price points as the first iPad (Wifi: $499, $599 and, $699 & 3G: $629, $729, and $829) * Ships March 11 in US * Ships March 25 internationally After finishing his list of features, he moved straight on two discuss two new accessories Apple would be releasing along-side iPad 2. The first accessory was a new HDMI adapter. This adapter is tailored for the iPad 2 but is also backwards compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPad 1. It, however, only does mirrored video output for the iPad 2. It's full feature list is as follows: overview_mirroring_20110302HDMI video out adapter * HDMI mirrored video output * Up to 1080p * Works with all apps * Supports rotation * No setup or configuration * Charge iPad 2 while using it * Priced at $39 Steve then revealed their new Smart Covers which thoroughly impressed me. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out the demo video of Smart Covers. These new covers are designed to be ultra-light weight and very utilitarian. Using magnets, Apple insures the covers align up perfectly on the device and snap into place perfectly. If they work as well as the demo video shows, I think that they will be a treat to use. It seems as if Apple spent more time designing these covers than most iPad competitors did the exterior of their devices. Smart Cover details are as follows: overview_smartcover_gallery1_20110302 image_smartcover_20110302Smart Covers * Multi-colored * Two types of material, leather and polyurethane * Magnets grasp and auto-align it * Adds minimal weight and thickness * Micro-fiber lining cleans screen * Wake on open - sleep on close * Easy to remove or change * Polyurethane priced at $39, leather priced at $69 Next, Steve introduced Scott Forstall on stage to overview the next version of iOS, 4.3. Scott wasted no time in listing the new features of iOS 4.3: iOS 4.3 * Safari performance * Nitro JavaScript engine * iTunes home sharing * AirPlay improvements * Preference for iPad switch * Mute for rotation lock * Personal hotspot * iPhone 4 only * New apps * Photobooth (universal - free) * Facetime (universal - free) * iMovie (coming to iPad - $4.99) * Precision editor * Multitrack audio recording * New themes * AirPlay to Apple TV * Share your videos in HD * Universal app * Garageband (coming to iPad - $4.99) * Touch instruments (Grand piano, organ, guitars, drums, bass) * Guitar amps and effects * 8 track recording and mixing * 250+ Loops * Email ACC file of your song * Compatible with Mac version overview_chicklet_garageband_20110302overview_chicklet_imovie_20110302overview_facetime_icon_20110302overview_photobooth_icon_20110302Scott, Steve, Randy Ubillos (Chief Architect, Video Applications), and Xander Soren (Director of Music Marketing) showed off demos of each of these apps in succession. Again, if you want to see them in action, check out their demos during the Keynote itself. I think the improvements to iPad are killer. One of my problems with editing videos on iPhone 4 was due to the fact that the screen was so small it made video editing difficult. iMove on iPad 2 looks absolutely killer. I'm more of a still photography enthusiast myself, however I have the urge to try to make a nice movie on the iPad. Am I going to buy one? Because my wife will likely read this, probably not.[^1] [^1]: Is she gone now? Okay, good...yeah, I'll probably get one.