foodconsumer.org: Are You Ready for the iPad?  It’s Almost Here

Are You Ready for the iPad?  It’s Almost Here
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admin on 03/17/2010 15:56:00
 
By Denise Reynolds
The Apple iPad began taking pre-sale orders on March 12, and within six hours,
it sold over 91,000.  By some estimates, approximately 25,000 sold each hour and
by the end of the weekend, about 150,000 people are set to receive the device
when it officially goes on sale April 3rd, 2010.
With sales from the first day alone, Apple has been able to generate in excess
of $75 million in revenue.
According to Apple Stores, most of the sales were for the WiFi only version. 
There was not a preference for the three flash drive configurations, available
in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, but there were slightly more of the 64 gig.
Here are some of the features of the new iPad:
Safari Web Browser:  The iPad will use the high-speed Safari web browser, just
as the iPhone.  The pages can be viewed in either portrait or landscape.  And of
course, just as the iPhone, you navigate through screen using your finger.  The
device will also offer a thumbnail view of all open pages in a grid.
Email:  Email will be viewed using a split-screen, showing both an opened email
and the messages in the inbox when held landscape.  To view a single message,
turn iPad to portrait, and the message will rotate to fill the screen.  Email
attachments, such as photos, PDF’s and Microsoft documents (ie:  Word, Excel
and PowerPoint) are easily viewed and saved.  To compose a new message, a large
onscreen keyboard close to the size as a notebook will allow easy typing.
Photos, Videos and Music:  The iPad has a 9.7-inch high-resolution screen for
photo and video viewing.  Both YouTube and iTunes are available, with thousands
of TV shows, movies, etc to watch on-the-go.  The iPad has a 10-hour
lithium-polymer battery.   According to recent news, Apple has come up with a
plan to allow users to replace the batters at a cost of $99 plus shipping.
Calendar:  Calendar for iPad offers color-coded schedules for every member of
the family.  Calendards from the iPhone, iPod Touch, Mobile Me, Google,
Microsoft Outlook and AOL can be synched with the iPad through iTunes.  Options
for viewing include the standards:  day, week, and month.
Maps:  Keep a GPS with you at all times (sort of).  The iPad gives the ability
to use Google maps to get directions anywhere you need to be.
AppStore:  The iPad will give instant access to almost all of the 150,000 apps
in every possible category:  games, lifestyle, and social networking – just to
name a few.  One of the most popular will be iBooks, a place to browse and shop
for books, magazines, etc similar to Amazon’s Kindle.  Currently, Apple
expects to be able to offer VoiceOver to allow books to be read out loud,
however, Amazon was denied this capability due to copyright restrictions.
The iPad is still available as a preorder at the online Apple Store at
www.apple.com/ipad.