Friday , March 29 2024
Liveblogging Apple's big announcement

Live Blogging the Big Apple Announcement

Liveblogging the big Apple announcement…

11:10 (CT)

Anticipation among the geeky folk has been stratospheric. Rumored to be a entirely new category of personal technology, the newest Apple product is said to be everything from a souped-up eReader to an "iPhone" on steroids.

Will it be called iTablet? iPad? iBook? What will it cost? What will it do? How soon can I get it? Will it be the "Kindle Killer?" Will Steve Jobs fake us all out and announce something completely different like iPhone availability for a larger neighborhood of carriers—like Verizon, perhaps?

I'll be liveblogging the announcement scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET. In the meantime, what do you think? Will be be wowed or unimpressed?  Will you be the first in line to get your hands on it? Join the conversation!

11:31 a.m.

Bob Iger from Disney has just stepped onto the podium for the big announcement. What sort of content sharing from Disney could that mean for the new device? Add to that the leaked info from McGraw-Hill regarding the likely availability of textbooks and more…

11:40 a.m.

Iger is, of course, the Disney CEO–he was responsible for bringing Pixar and Marvel to Disney. Speculation, anyone, as to why he's there?

Noon—here we go…

First 250,000,000 iPods sold.

12:05–"Apple is mobile device company. Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world."

12:06–The main event: A little history of Apple…

12:08

Better than a laptop: Better at browsing the web; watching videos, games, reading eBooks. This is a third category of device. If it's not better "it has no reason for being."

Jobs says the answer is not a Netbook.

12:10

WE think we have it's the iPad

"Best browsing experience…" Can see a whole webpage in any orientation. Manipulate and turn the display in any direction. an almost lifesize keyboard…

Built in calendar, built in address books. Maps and sattelite, music sharing…

And goes right into the iTunes Store

Can watch HD…

"More intimate than a laptop; more capable than a smart phone."

It seems to be an elegant, very high on the cool factor.

"A whole website in the palm of your hands."

In my opinion (BB's) gives a whole new meaning to "personal computer"

12:19

Keyboard looks awesome

Has immense photo album capabilities.

12:22:  The iPod is built in to the unit

 It looks like a giant iPhone.

12:23: Powerful calendar application and a contacts application.

 Nice search/mapping function

Video capability includes using YouTube in High Definiton. Can watch movies, TV shows with search ability.

 1.5lbs 1/2 inch thick and a nine-inch display

 

sorry– 9.7 inch display

(same size as the DX Kindle)

10 hours of battery life

12:31–

App Store for the iPad:

the iPad can run virtually all the iPod apps–in full screen!

12:34

So your iPod apps can run scaled up to the iPad's screen

12:40

All the live streams are completely jammed. Patience….

12:42

The big question will be the price… It's an elegant device.

The size of the display along with the multi-touch capability are a powerful combination for reading and so much more…

12:48–

Some very cool game playing possibilities. Very real time experience, it seems (would like to actually hold one of these)

12:50

This is such a far cry from anything I've seen before. Demonstrating MLB baseball. The game includes live data, player cards, video. Very interactive, "immersive"

12:52:

There will be dedicated apps for the iPad–many to come.

Standing on the Kindle's shoulders.

New app is iBooks

 12:54

iBook store will include lots of books. Can purchase right from the device. Taking Kindle and going it another level–they say…

iBook store works much like Kindle Store so far, except it's in color. 

 

Reading experience: touch/tap to turn pages. Everything's in color. Impressive.

 12:58

iWork for the iPad: presentations, documents and spreadsheets. A custom design presentation, word processing apps  — all use multitouch gestures to work elegantly.

Moving text, columns in a spread sheet all make very advanced use of the tap and touch to make it look very easy without menus, mice, etc…

iWorks for iPad being described as something very advanced for not only a micro computer, but for computing in general.

iWorks apps=$9.99

1:12–everything is backed up on the computer.

U.S. data plans–2 plans for iPad: 250 Mg/month 14.99/month; unlimited plan is 29.99 

No contract for data plan–activated right on the iPad.

Hope to have international plans in place by June/July.

1:18 p.m. The iPad will sell for $499.00

 

START shipping in 60 days.

There is also a keyboard dock–that functions as a charger. Amazing.

Signing out of this liveblog, and thanks for joining me. The discussion will continue below in the comments!

 

 

About Barbara Barnett

A Jewish mother and (young 🙃) grandmother, Barbara Barnett is an author and professional Hazzan (Cantor). A member of the Conservative Movement's Cantors Assembly and the Jewish Renewal movement's clergy association OHALAH, the clergy association of the Jewish Renewal movement. In her other life, she is a critically acclaimed fantasy/science fiction author as well as the author of a non-fiction exploration of the TV series House, M.D. and contributor to the book Spiritual Pregnancy. She Publisher/Executive Editor of Blogcritics, (blogcritics.org).

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