Apple iPad tablet has underwhelming specs

Apple has finally announced its web tablet and its not called the iSlate or the iTablet. Called the Apple iPad, Apple’s web tablet seems to be like a large smartphone at first glance, based on the specs that are trickling in.

Photo: Apple iPad web tablet

At the official announcement, Steve Jobs said that Apple has been looking at developing a product this is in the middle of a smartphone and a laptop. The specifications that have been unveiled puts the Apple iPad closer to the smartphone end.

Update: Prices have also been announced. The 16 GB WiFi version would cost $ 499, the 32 GB version with Wifi is at $ 599, and the 64 GB version is at $ 699.

The 3G+WiFi versions start at $ 629 for the 16 GB version, $ 729 for the 32 GB version and $ 829 for the 64 GB version.

The Apple iPad will go on sale in March 2010, with accessories such as keyboard docks with USB cable, and cases.

Customers can choose between two plans. The first one offers up to 250MB of data per month at a price of $14.99, while the second offers unlimited data via AT&T for $29.99 per month. Also bundled in is free use of WiFi hotspots in the US, without the need for wireless contracts.

Apple iPad Specifications

Photo: Apple iPad web tablet via engadget

The Apple iPad web tablet has a 9.7-inch diagonal capacitive IPS multi-touch screen, with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels,and a fingerprint-resistant oleographic coating.

It can be viewed in Portrait and Landscape view.

The Wifi model weighs 1.5 pounds while the WiFi + 3G model weighs 1.6 pounds. The device has a thickness of 5 inches and a large onscreen QWERTY keyboard that is easy to type on.

The Apple iPad is powered by Apple’s proprietary1GHz Apple A4 chip. The web tablet will be available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Again,  1 GHz is the processing power of most high end smartphones, and Qualcomm has already announced 1.5 Ghz chips for 2010-end.

Coming to the software, the operating system is the same on which the Apple iPhone is based.

Other specifications of the Apple iPad include Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and WiFi with specifications of 802.11n, accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, and 30-pin connector. There is no 3G. Update: Yes, there is. They did not mention it for a while, so everyone assumed there was no 3G.

The Apple iPad can run iPhone applications and comes with iTunes pre-installed. Apps can be run either pixel-by-pixel in a window or pixel-doubled to scale up to fullscreen.

Photo: Apple iPad YouTube app

Users can listen to and order songs. The Apple iPad also allows users to watch videos in HD using an YouTube app.

The Photos app displays photo like an album, tapping which opens up all the photos in the album.

At the media conference, Martin Nisenholtz of The New York Times said that the Apple iPad brings together the best of print and the best of digital. Readers can select stories and save them for later reading that even syncs to the iPhone. They can manipulate content by pinching text to resize as required and change the number of columns for ease of reading.

Photo: Apple ipad

The device’s e-reader allows customers to download e-books through an application called iBooks. This app offers access to a store from where readers can buy books from top publishers.

Photo: Apple iPad iBook application

Apple unveiled a new version of its business productivity application, iWork, that include Keynote presentation manager, Numbers spreadsheet, and Pages word processor.

With Keynote users will be available to create presentations with multi-touch gestures and make use of animation transitions.

The Pages app offers a large onscreen keyboard and multi-touch capabilities to create and import documents.

The Numbers spreadsheet app will offer new text, table, photo templates and a choice of keyboards.

Each of these apps will be available at a price of $9.99.

The there is the Maps application that shows satellite and street view images and topography with the Terrain view feature.

The Apple iPad tablet has a battery life of ten hours and provides standby time of a month.

Sp far, there is no announcement of the actual price of theApple  iPad. There is no 3G – which means that there might be no carrier subsidies. There is also no much anticipated well-integrated content that could save the print media being demonstrated so far.