On stage just moments ago, Apple’s founder and CEO held up the device to the thunderous applause of the audience. The rumors surrounding it have been the talk of the town for months, but now Apple has put them to rest. This device is real.
Steve Jobs and his team have just begun to dive into the details of the iPad. We will be constantly updating this story with new information: keep refreshing to see our latest updates and photos of the device.
Live Updates: The Details on the Apple iPad

- He spoke specifically about creating a “third category of device” — one between the phone and the laptop. Steve rails into netbooks, specifically over their low-quality displays and “junk” software.
- It can be held in any direction you want. It looks like a giant iPod.
- It has a virtual keyboard. “A dream to type on,” according to Steve.
- It has Google Maps, and of course is web-enabled. It’s lightning fast.
- YouTube can be watched in HD. The Demo of Star Trek was pretty impressive, but it’s not widescreen, though.
- You slide to unlock
- The music player looks like a new version of iTunes.
- Take a look at this picture of the New York Times website:

- On the bottom is a photo scrubber bar with a lot of nifty settings. It has built-in slideshows, music, and transitions. This looks slick.
- Keyboard:

- Here’s the iTunes player:


- Random thought from our staff: “Do you even need a computer if you have this?
SPECS

- MEMORY SIZE: 16, 32, or 64 GB solid state hard drives
- CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. It looks like they went in-house to build this thing.
- Wi-Fi: 802.11n
- BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours
- Includes Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Accelerometer, and compass
Software and Apps

- The iPad runs iPhone apps. They are now demoing Facebook’s app.
- As we expected, gaming is a major component. They’re demoing a game, Snowcross. The apps are surprisingly clear.
- The new SDK for developers is out today.
- They provided a few developers access to the iPad to make games, but only about two weeks worth of time. Now they’re displaying a game called “Nova.” It doesn’t run perfectly, but you know, a few weeks isn’t much time to build a game.
- NYT is on stage, displaying their new tabletized NYT interface.
- Reading this thing will sync to the iPhone app. That is nice. You know they only had a few weeks to whip this up, but it’s slick.


- MLB.com is up to bat (pun intended). Speaking about MLB video games.
Ebooks
- Steve gives credit to Amazon with the Kindle. He says they’ll stand on their shoulders and build upon it.
- New app: iBooks.
- Five of the biggest publishers in the world are part of this. Harper Collins, Penguin, and more.

- It’s opening up this afternoon, iBook for the iPhone.
- You can change the fonts, tap to change the page, or just flip the page with your finger.

iWork

- They’ve been working on this for a year.
- Everything’s been reworked: Keynote especially, as we’re seeing now in a demo.
- Photo albums:

- Numbers: Phil’s showing off some of the numbers features. There’s a keyboard built specifically for the spreadsheet, and it’s almost all numbers.

More Steve Jobs

- It has a 3G plan
- COST: 250 MB of data per month: $14.99. Unlimited: $29.99. This is on AT&T. No contract, free to cancel.
- AT&T is throwing in all of their Wi-Fi hotspots for free.
- You activate this all on the iPad.
- International deal occur in June or July. All models use GSM micro-SIMS.
Price:
- Here we go, we’re leading up to the price and availability…
- It’s not $999…
- PRICE: $499 WOW.

- 64 GB with 3G: $829. That’s the most expensive. That’s it.
- WiFi only: $499 (16 GB), $599 (32 GB), $699 (64 GB)
- Wifi and 3G: $629, $729, $829
-Availability: 60 days for Wi-Fi models

Accessories and More
- Keyboard dock!!! Nice.
- Protective case
- They’re now showing a promotional video. We’ll get a copy of that ASAP for you.

