Apple launched its most awaited product — the tablet e-reader ‘iPad’ which will be available for purchase after late March. It is like a grown u iPod with a lot more features. So much of technology thrown into a single 10” product, it is bound to become everyone’s envy and the owner’s pride. Wifi + 3G model will be available only in April.
It is 9.56 X 7.47 inches and just 0.5 inch thick with a weight of about 0.7 kg. Starting from a reasonable 500$ price, apple technology fans would love to own one. With 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed processor it is high on performance for sure. It is available in 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB models.
The touch screen has a special fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating that prevents the screen from looking all messy after months of ‘touching’!
It is Wifi enabled and can be used to access the internet from where a WLAN network can be found. And with iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive. You can scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all the open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next (something like Mac Book).
The best thing about the iPad is that you can choose to use Apple’s new iBooks app and bookstore, or opt to run Kindle‘s iPhone app on the device instead. The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books. You can download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf and you just have to tap it to start reading.
You can stream Youtube videos, or download and watch them anytime. It works as your iPod too since you can listen to songs as well. The audio formats supported include AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.
Another interesting tool embedded within the iPad is the ‘Maps’ that lets you see more of the world with high-resolution satellite and street view images. You can even see topography with the brand new terrain view. You can also search for a nearby business type (“Restaurant,” for example), then tap the business to see the route and directions from your current location. Apart from these it contains applications such as ‘Notes’, ‘Calendar’ and ‘Contacts’.
Check out this cool new gadget at: http://www.apple.com/ipad
The writer is a Sub-Editor of Youth Ki Awaaz and also a student at NSIT.