Apple Tablet: Live analysis of Apple's "Come See Our Latest Creation" event
Apple is going to hold its “Come See Our Latest Creation” event on January 27th 10.00 AM at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. The Apple event is invitation but rather than travel there I'm going to be in my bunker, watch the live feed and keeping an eye on dozens of sources (including a selection of pundits doing "liveblogs" as well Twitter) to bring you live analysis of what's coming out of the event as it happens.
Live analysis:
10:05: Cover It Live seems to have gone down ... going back to the backup mechanism ...
10:07: History lesson ... yawn
10:08: "better than a laptop, better than a smartphone! ... Hmmmm ....
10:10 "Problem is, netbook's aren't better at anything" ... hmmm, telling us how to feel
10:10: It's called an iPad folks. Basically a big iPhone/iPod touch
10:12: On-screen keyboard, see a whole web page ... no stylus
10:13: "it's a dream to type on" ... more telling us how to feel
10:15: Jobs now demonstrating the iPad ... sitting on a couch ... YouTube with HD ... seems cool
10:18: Seems to me like pretty much what we've seen before .. a big HD iPod touch
10:19: AAPL stock down 2.3%
10:20: Navigating albums ... hmmm ... where's the beef?
10:21: No Flash support ...
10:22: Built-in iPod ... again, nothing new
10:23: Movies, TV shows, podcast - UI seems familiar but different ...
10:23; How's anyone going to carry this thing about? OK in-home, outdoors, hmmm
10:23: Calendar looks like a normal planner, neat but retro
10:28: Movies look good on it, screen an odd wide-screen
10:29: 9.7in IPS display, multi-touch (same size as Kindle DX), 0.5in thin, 1.5lb
10:30: 1GHz Apple A4 chip, 16 - 64GB flash storage
10:31: 10 hour battery life, over a month of standby
10:32: Should run all existing apps "out of the box" ... internal pixel doubling
10:42: Gaming ... but just iPhone/iPod touch gaming ...
10:43: NYT on the iPad ... this is what it's really about
10:45: AAPL shares still down -1.31%
10:45: Cool brushes app for drawing ... but how much would you pay for that???
10:45: EA on stage ... Need for Speed Shift ... looks really cool
10:48: Lots more questions - price, 3G connectivity, availability
10:52: Comparing it to the Kindle. Jobs: "Going to stand on Amazon's shoulders." New app called iBook
10:53: Created a new iBook Store on iTunes
10:55: Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster plus more
10:56: Ted Kennedy's memoirs ... $14.99 .. downloads direct to iPad
10:59: iWorks for the iPad
11:01: iWorks for the iPad is going to put pressure on Microsoft to raise its game on mobile apps ... seriously
11:03: Price! Price! Price! Price! It's all building up to price ...
11:06: Emphasis on iWorks for iPad shows that Apple isn't about hardware and software, but products
11:08: This revamped iWork relies on the keyboard being "really" usable - that's a real unknown. Fanboys will say it's great, but every large keyboard without tactile feedback before has been a nightmare to use. Will this be different????
11:11: $9.99 for each iWork app
11:12: Jobs back on stage
11:13: OK, so it has USB syncing ... yawn
11:13: Wireless networking ... 3G
11:14: 250MB data per month -$14.99, unlimited $29.99
11:15: 3G provided by AT&T (audible "boooo" there) ... ugh ... do get free access to AT&T WiFi hotspots ... no contract, cancel any time
11:17: iPad 3G models are unlocked and use new GSM micro SIM cards
11:18: Price: $499 (I overshot with $599)
11:20: OK, but there's a catch - $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB ... 3G costs an extra $130 extra
11:21: Available in 60 days worldwide
11:22: There's a dock with a full-size keyboard ... OK, that's a solid selling point
11:23: Did the promo piece just say "change the way we think and do everything" ... didn't the Simpsons use that line in the "Mapple" episode
11:23: In Twitter-land people seem quite pleased with the price
11:25: AAPL shares up 1%, AMZN just fallen into negative territory ...
11:32: 125 million people have iTunes accunts with credit cards stored, 12 billion products sold ... Cha-ching!
11:34: And it's over!