The iMac in 1998 , the iPod in 2001 , the iPhone in 2007, the MacBook Air in 2008.
Steve Jobs has launched one iconic design after another since his return to Apple and today unveiled the Silicon Valley company’s latest creation – the iPad – a tablet device that promises to shake up the technology and media industries.
Preparations have been underway for the event at the Yerba Buena Center (pictured) in San Francisco all week, and we liveblogged the event.
11:34 – There’s a hands-on area outside. We’ll now try to check it out. The music starts again, and that’s it.
11:32 – “Users have downloaded more than 12bn products from our stores, we are at scale for the iPad. This is our most advanced tech at an unbelievable price in a magical and revolutionary device.”
11:31 – Steve is back to sum up, “Do we have what it takes to fill this third category? We’ve got the goods.”
11:29 – The video shows silicon for the first time – it’s its own PA Semi A4 chip inside. Apple bought the company a couple of years ago. It means longer battery life.
11:27 – Some things the iPad does not seem to have — voice capabilities, a camera on the front or back, the ability to run multiple apps at once, and notifications.
11:26 – Apple’s industrial design guru Jonathan Ive is now speaking on video about the design, it’s magical the designer says. “There’s no right way to hold it.”
11:23 – There’s also a keyboard dock.
11:21 – Three great accessories – a dock is the first.
11:21 – Shipping in 60 days.
11:19 – “I am thrilled to announce that the iPad pricing starts at $499″. That’s 16gb version. $130 extra for 3G. Top price of $829 for 3G and 64gb
11:18 – “What should we price it at?. The pundits say $999.99″
11:17 – It runs almost all the 140,000 apps on the Appstore.
11:17 – No contract, cancel anytime.
11:15 – “We think it’s a phenomenal deal,” says Jobs. “We think internationally we will have a deal by June/July”. All models are unlocked so they may work internationally.
11:14 – “We’ve got a real breakthrough, two awesome plans.” 1. 250 mb of data month for $14.99. Or 2. Unlimited for $29.99. It’s a deal with AT&T with free used if wi-fi hotspots.
11:13 – He is showing USB syncing to iTunes. He announces versions of iPad with 3G data modems.
11:12 – Steve is back: “Isn’t it great?”
11:11 – Just $9.99 each for the apps on iWork, Phil says
11:10 – This should appeal to the corporate world as well. The demo has ended.
11:09 – So this is new, you couldn’t;’t do serious work on an iPhone like this, so will this challenge the MacBook, we await news on pricing.
11:08 – Dragging cells around now in Numbers, double tapping cell brings up data entry keyboard
11:07 – He’s showing automatic text-wrap around a giraffe’s head
11:06 – Now Pages. Scrolling through text with touch, tap for keyboard on screen.
11:05 – Phil is showing off Keynote as a touch enabled presentation tool.
11:04 – New version of Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote presentation software.
11:00 – Now , iWork for the tablet – Apple’s version of Microsoft Office, but this is iWork adapted for tablet and Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP is going to demonstrate.
10:59 – Apple is using the open ePub format for its books, which further isolates Amazon with its proprietary AMZ format.
10:59 – Looks like some bestsellers are cheap – $4.99 for the likes of ‘The Lovely Bones’ and ‘Eclipse: The Twilight Saga’. That’s going to put downward pricing pressure on all eBooks – not necessarily a good thing for authors and publishers.
10:56 – Buy a book, it appears on your bookshelf, tap and it opens gracefully, quick response times, elegant page turns. Amazon will face stiff competition with the iBooks store.
10: 55 – Five publishers supported at launch, including Penguin. He gives us a demo of using it.
10:55 – a new iBooks store and app, downlaod and purchase right on your iPad
10:54 – He shows a kindle and says Amazon has done a great job but Apple will have iBooks
10:52 – Steve Jobs returns now
10:51 – We’re seeing baseball game recreated in 3D, tap on player to get his stats. And you can switch live to MLB TV. Enhanced viewing as you bring up box scores and player stats on screen with a touch.
10:49 – Last up is mlb.com, with Chad Evans
10:48 – The game is fully touch enabled, if you tap on the car, you got to drivers view inside, slide finger to change gears. Again frame rate looks very good.
10:48 – EA up now. Travis Boatman, head of mobile is showing off the Need for Speed racing game.
10:47 – That was Steve Sprang who wrote Brushes, a new artist’s canvas app that will be available for the iPad at launch
10:46 – We’re looking at Brushes, the iPad is suddenly a palette. Artists will love this.
10:43 – Next is Brushes, an iPhone painting app, let’s see how this looks on the tablet.
10:42 – Now Martin Nisenholtz from the NYT is showing off his paper on the tablet. Layout is more laike a real newspaper, superior to an eReader like the Sony Daily Edition. NYT shows slideshows that can be tapped on and embedded video on the page. Looks a great reading experience.
10:41 – Nova’s graphics looked impressive, no jerkiness
10:40 – The iPhone SDK has been updated to support development for the iPad as well, and the SDK is being released today.
10:39 – Gameloft takes the stage to show a game developed for the tablet – Nova
10:36 – So it looks as if game apps will work well without modification
10:35 – that game was right out of the app store unmodified
10:34 – We’re seeing a game using open GL, snow-biking game looks great full screen
10:33 – Jobs may have put a bit of weight on. He’s still thin, but appears energetic .
10:32 – He says he’s been able to fly to Tokyo with it on one charge
10:30 – The specs: half an inch thin 9.7 inch IPS display weight 1.5 pounds; 16gb to 64gb storage; 802.11n wifi and bluetooth, accelerometer and compass, 10 hours battery life
10:27 – He’s now showing video, a segment from Up, looks great
10:24 – The iPad looks to be GPS enabled, as Jobs is pulling up his location.
10:22 – demo continues, showing maps, calendar, YouTube
10:20 – Steve Jobs is demoing email and photos, using touch, the iPad is just an elongated touch as you might have imagined, but the extra space is used well by the software
10:19 – Jobs is browsing the web, looking at websites of NYTimes, National Geographic and others
Here’s our earlier CoverItLive coverage before the whole system crashed:
