We first told you about the Apple Tablet in July 2009 and the rumors are now over! Calling it “way better than a laptop and way better than a phone,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his company’s long-awaited iPad tablet-style multi-touch device today (Wednesday 27th Jan 2010).
The device weighs just 1.5 pounds — lighter than any netbook, Jobs noted — and sports a 9.7-inch display. Jobs noted that the hardware is a “dream to type on,” and demonstrated how to read, view media and content and access applications on the hardware.
It includes calendar, address book, maps and music applications built-in. It also connects to the iTunes store.
“You can discover music, you can purchase it,” Jobs said. “Movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes University — everything built right in.”
It also has access to YouTube the streaming service’s high-definition streaming content.
“Using this thing is remarkable. It’s so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone,” Jobs said.
The hardware has many of the same capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch, including an orientation sensor for switching between portrait and landscape modes, and multi-touch capabilities. The device even looks akin to a large iPhone.
Steve Jobs demonstrated sending e-mail, reading content and flipping through photos. Places that photos were taken could be viewed through the integrated maps application. It also allows a photo slideshow that works much like in iPhoto.
The touchscreen keyboard takes up half of the screen when the device is used in landscape mode.
Jobs also demonstrated a calendar application that looks much like the Calendar app available on the Mac OS X desktop. He also showed off buying and listening to iTunes content on the iPad, demonstrating high-definition clips from movies like “Up” and “Star Trek.”
Check a video of the long-awaited launch at Gizmodo.