Thursday 8th July 2010

Apple iPad 16GB Wifi + 3G

The iPad, one of the most desribable pieces of consumer technology has been launched upon the world for a few months now, but Ireland is still waiting for its arrival.

In our Consumer Technology slot, Ciaran O'Byrne got his hands on one and talked us through it...

Well, by now, thanks to Apple's fantastic marketing campaign and media geeks like me, there have been plenty of images of the iPad, but to recap, it's a slab or tablet device.

It is most simply a cross between an iPhone and a laptop or netbook. It measures 7.5 x 9.6 inches and is only half an inch thick. It weighs a pound and a half. It has a 9.7-inch multi-touch screen with 1024 x 768 resolution.

Users can browse the web, read and send email, keep photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks to name a few of the uses.

The Pros

Beautiful design as you would expect from Apple.

It is a very nice bit of kit for surfing the web with - You Tube looks great on it and is still very easy to navigate.

Reading books and newspapers on it is very easy to do, especially when tilted to landscape view, probably magazine style formats are the best for it.

The battery life is rather good - Steve Jobs claims up to 10 hours while watching video, but then he claims people were holding the iPhone 4 the wrong way. But I was surfing the web with it, watching You Tube etc, and even on 3G rather than WiFi which would have been using more battery strength, it still held up very well, and I wasn't worried about it dying on me.

The accelerometer works very fast as well and re-orientates the screen as you swivel it.

Cons

There is no Flash player on it, as Apple and Adobe don't see eye to eye...and this means that you don't have a full web experience, no matter what Apple says.

But the iPad has been so successful that it has forced other massive instituions to move with it. The BBC iPlayer will not work with the iPad so they are working on a version that will work with the iPad, RTE say they are considering doing this also, but they are currently developing a "RTE News Now" app and a "RTE Guide" app for the iPad.

It doesn't automatically come with 3G, and if you need that for communications, then you are going to have to stump up extra cash.

It has no camera, but then again, could you really see yourself hold something the size of a dinner placemat up to your face to take a picture.

It doesn't have external memory slots or have a standard USB port - it sticks with Apple's massive dock connector, so limiting the peripheral gear you can easily attach to it.

And you cannot multitask apps. You can open up a number of webpages and jump from one to another very easily, but that's as far as it goes.

Costs and dates

All the main carriers here are hoping to carry it, but it still remains unclear what the price plans will be, and where exactly you will buy the iPad - whether that will be directly from one of the mobile companies stores, or whether you order it from the Apple store online. But Vodafone, O2 and 3 Mobile will be offering price plans - in effect you can buy the micro sim from them if you are getting the 3G version.

Some Vodafone stores have been taking pre-orders already.

The price in the UK starts at £429 Sterling for the 16GB WiFi model. The 32GB WiFi iPad will set you back £499 while the 64GB comes in at £599.

The iPad WiFi + 3G models will set you back £529 for the 16GB, £599 for the 32GB and £699 for the 64GB.

Overall, it is a mixed bag - but then Apple have invented a new product aimed at a new sector - they've spotted not just a gap in the market, but a market in the gap!

As "mixed bags" go, it's a very desirable one, and Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.

But consider what you need it for, as there are other tablet devices out there, such as HP Slate, and the Archos 9, which can offer more functions and lower costs, but the user interfaces may not be as generic and natural as the iPad.

It's not a do-it-all piece of technology. People are not going to leave their phones and laptops or netbooks at home, if they need constant connectivity, but it's a desirable item, that won't have any trouble selling itself...whenever that is!