iPad: Apple tablet announced

SAN FRANCISCO - Steve Jobs has announced iPad - a tablet PC that has built massive hype over the past few months.


Availability in New Zealand is not yet known, but Jobs says he hopes to have international deals in place by June.

At a launch in San Francisco, he promised: "We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical product today."

He then revealed what looks like a giant, touchscreen iPhone.

Jobs said the iPad will be ideal for watching video, reading newspapers, browsing photos. "It's so much more intimate than a laptop."

The large touchscreen is used an input device, with Jobs describing it as "a dream to type on".

The device ranges in price from US$499 (NZ$708) to $829 (NZ$1175).

iPad specs

The 9.7-inch screen is surrounded by a wide bezel. It will be powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, and will sport between 16GB and 64GB of solid state flash memory. It weighs 680 grams.

Like the iPhone, it has a built-in accelerometer, and has a compass like the iPhone 3GS model.

Connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n WiFi.

iPads will be available with 3G connectivity and will run on the AT&T network in the US.

Jobs said that iPad 3G versions will be unlocked, and will run on GSM micro SIMS.

He claimed battery life of 10 hours in use or one month on standby.

The device handles music in a similar way to iPhone and iPod touch, but bears similarities to the full version of iTunes.

The cheapest version is a 16GB WiFi iPad at US$499 (NZ$708) and the most expensive - a 64GB WiFi/3G version will cost US829.

Apple will start shipping Wi-Fi versions in 60 days, with 3G versions available a month after that.

The company showed several accessories, including a protective carrying case and a standard mechanical keyboard.

iTunes, apps and movies

iPad allows users to flick through photos and emails on the iPhone, and includes a full-sized calendar application.

YouTube can be watched in standard or high definition, although reports say the aspect ratio appears closer to 4:3 than 16:9.

When demonstrating the machine, Jobs started by showing Apple's Safari browser at work, visiting the New York Times website, navigating in much the same way as with a full-scaled browser.

One story wouldn't load correctly, showing a missing plug-in icon - causing some commentators to speculate that Adobe's Flash won't run on the iPad, just as it won't on the iPhone.

The iPad has shown Jobs' current location, indicating built-in GPS.

Movies were then demonstrated including Star Trek and Up, shown in widescreen mode with thick black bars above and below, showing up the lack of widescreen.

Scott Forstall, the SVP of iPhone Software, said the iPad can run content from the AppStore - either in an iPhone-sized box on the screen. This can be magnified, into a pixel-doubled low-res mode.

iPad would run "virtually every one of these apps, unmodified, right out of the box," he said.

iPhone users who have bought software from AppStore will be able to sync those applications directly to iPad rather than having to re-purchase them.

Games demonstrated at the event showed clever use of multi-touch gestures - like 'pinching' fingers together to manipulate on screen action.

Apple exec Phil Schiller showed a demonstration of a version of the company's own productivity suite, iWork, scaled to work on the device.

It includes a multi-touch controlled version of Keynote - Apple's take on presentation software like PowerPoint - just for the iPad.

He also revealed Pages, the word processor which he reportedly described as "the most beautiful word processor you've ever used."

The three applications within the iWork suite will be sold individually, for US$9.99 each.

Third device category

Jobs kicked off his keynote at the launch event by talking about Apple's key businesses - iPod, iPhone and Mac.

"Is there room for a third category of device?" Jobs asked the crowd before revealing the iPad.

"In order to create a third category of devices, these devices will have to be far better at doing some key tasks."

Jobs kicked off the launch event in San Francisco, promising: "We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical product today."

Jobs - who reportedly looks in better health after major medical issues over the past two years - has already announced that the company sold its 250 millionth iPod, and that the company now has 284 retail stores worldwide.

He again talked up the AppStore - the online retail space where iPhone and iPod Touch applications are sold - saying there are over 140,000 applications in the App Store. Three billion applications have now been downloaded from the store.

There are reports that some Apple news sites are starting to buckle under the traffic load of Mac faithful trying to find out about the much-lauded device.

e-Reader

Rumours of an Apple foray into the e-reader market have proven to be very accurate.

Steve Jobs returned to the stage to introduce iBook, an application that looks like users are actually looking down on a real book.

There is an iBook store with Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette titles available for purchase.

Apple will use the ePub format, which is more open that used by devices like Amazon's locked-down Kindle reader.

Twitter reaction

'Cool" was the general instant Twitter reaction to Apple's new iPad, announced by CEO Steve Jobs this morning.

Twitter was all abuzz with excitement leading up to the announcement and some users were facing four or so minutes of delay in their tweets being sent.

On Twitter, Apple fans quickly made their mind about buying one. ""I'll buy anything shiny that's made by Apple," said one fan even before the price point had been revealed.

Not every one was sold on the name. "I think Apple could have come up with a better name than iPad. A tablet computer is not the first thing I think of when I hear that name."

Another critic said: "You would think that at a place like apple they would have an entire team of people thinking about the name." A female tweeter exclaimed:"Did Apple not test the name iPad on ANY women?"

Some felt let down, saying it was only a bigger version of the iPhone.

"Apple announces something they already sell, but with a bigger screen."

There was some criticism the event was over-huped. Said one cynic: "Apple makes great stuff. But really. iDON'T care."

Apple Tablet - Technical Specifications

Size and weight

• Height:
• 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)

• Width:
• 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)

• Depth:
• 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)

• Weight:
• 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;
• 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Wireless and cellular

Wi-Fi model

• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

 Wi-Fi + 3G model

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Data only
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology 

Location

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass
• Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

In the Box

•  iPad
• Dock Connector to USB Cable
• 10W USB Power Adapter
• Documentation

 Environmental Status Report

iPad embodies Apple’s continuing environmental progress. It is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact:

• Arsenic-free display glass
• BFR-free
• Mercury-free LCD display
• PVC-free
• Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure 

 Capacity

•  16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

 Processor

• 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

 Sensors

•  Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor

Audio playback

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit

 TV and video

•  Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable
• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats 

Mail attachment support

• Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

 Languages

•  Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian
• Keyboard support for English (U.S.) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
• Dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian

 Accessibility

•  Support for playback of closed-captioned content
• VoiceOver screen reader
• Full-screen zoom magnification
• White on black display
• Mono audio

Battery and power

• Built-in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

 Input and output

• Dock connector
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
• Built-in speakers
• Microphone
• SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

 External buttons and controls

•   On/Off, Sleep/wake
• Mute
• Volume up/down
• Home

Mac system requirements

• Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
• Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
• iTunes 9.0 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
•  iTunes Store account
• Internet access

 Windows system requirements

•  PC with USB 2.0 port
• Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
• iTunes 9.0 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
• iTunes Store account
• Internet access

 Environmental requirements

• Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
• Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
• Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
• Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Can Apple's 'tablet' save the written word?

Nowhere is next week's launch by Apple of its new tablet device more breathlessly awaited than in the executive offices of traditional publishing houses.

For the tablet n or the iSlate or the iPad as it may become known n is regarded as a possible saviour for newspapers, magazines and textbooks.

There are electronic reading devices in existence already, such as Sony's e-Reader and Amazon's Kindle. But, publishers hope the unquestioned design talents of Apple will ensure that its latest product is the vehicle that enables them to transform their business models.

After all, the iPod has converted millions to the idea of paying to download songs and, to a degree, has revived the music industry, becoming the world's largest music retailer in the process. The iPhone has created a culture of acquiring apps for "just about anything", many of them paid for.

Newspaper content is already being widely consumed on smart mobile phones but mostly for free. With a touch screen of 10-11 inches, the Apple tablet presents publishers of all kinds with the opportunity to create an entirely new reader experience, one that consumers might be persuaded to pay for.

David Rowan, editor of the UK edition of the technology magazine Wired, said that the size of the tablet screen could mean that readers enjoyed a "comparable experience" to reading a magazine.

Innovative publishers would be offered myriad opportunities, such as accompanying an article on a film director with video footage, or a recipe piece with touch screen links to ingredients.

But he warned against the idea of thinking that the tablet would replace glossy magazines.

"The reason there is a buzz of excitement in the publishing industry is that it has been a very scary 18 months for a lot of existing big media companies and people are looking for a golden solution," he said. "I don't think it will be that but it's an opportunity for innovative companies to find extra ways of building an audience."

One obstacle with the Apple tablet may be price - likely to be $1,000 in the US. Then there is portability. Many consumers are very happy with the petite nature of a smart phone, having paid out for a Google Android or an iPhone.

"Am I going to want to carry a delicate, solid, 10-inch screen?" wondered Rowan. "I don't see that many people with Kindles and eReaders when I'm out and about."

Neil Robinson, digital director at IPC Media, agreed there was a hope that Apple would unveil a device with a user interface of revolutionary design.

"Arguably Apple offers us the best opportunity so far for an interactive device," he said. "Hopefully it will be quite a significant step forward." He said publishers needed such a device to provide an attractive platform for advertisers, who have been reluctant to take their business to magazine websites.


In reality, Apple needs the publishers n and their journalism n as much as they need it. Taiwanese company Micro-Star launched a tablet two years ago which failed partly because it carried insufficient access to content.

Jobs and his team are in talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the New York Times Co. and magazine publishers such as Conde Nast and television networks including CBS and Disney.

The New York Times this week announced that it would be demanding payment for access to its website and industry observers say that the newspaper publisher is discussing with Apple whether it could begin charging for news through iTunes.
The Financial Times is looking at a micropayment system of paying for individual articles. The FT's publisher Pearson is also a major producer of textbooks, and it is possible that the Apple tablet could be more successful than the Kindle in providing an interactive touchscreen platform that allows students to read books while accessing related video content and information relating to their personal course work.

"We welcome innovations that allow students and other learners to access our content at any time and any place," said a company spokesman yesterday. Over to you Mr Jobs.

Google phone launch canned in China

BEIJING - Google has postponed the launch of its mobile phone in China, adding to the potential commercial fallout of its dispute with Beijing over internet censorship and email hacking.


One person briefed on Google's decision said it was linked to the company's threat that it will shut its Chinese-based search engine if restrictions aren't eased.

The company concluded it would "not be a good experience" for consumers to receive a phone right now with its applications, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Marsha Wang, a spokeswoman for Google, however, only said the planned ceremony with local carrier China Unicom - scheduled for Wednesday local time - was postponed. She declined to give a reason or say when the launch might be rescheduled.

China has the world's most-populous mobile phone market, with more than 700 million accounts and increasingly prosperous customers who readily pay for the latest technology and services.

Beijing referred to Google by name for the first time since its Jan. 12 announcement that it would no longer censor search results in China and might shut down Google.cn.

The government said the search giant must obey China's laws and traditions, suggesting it was giving no ground in talks with the company.

"Foreign enterprises in China need to adhere to China's laws and regulations, respect the interests of the general public and cultural traditions and shoulder corresponding responsibilities. Google is no exception," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu at a regular news briefing.

Beijing promotes internet use for business and education but blocks access to material deemed subversive or pornographic, including websites abroad run by dissidents and human rights groups.

Free speech groups and the White House lauded Google's stance but there was no indication other companies might follow its lead and challenge government controls.

A Google pullout would be awkward for China. Chinese and foreign businesses rely on its email, maps and other services based abroad. That could lead to disruptions if authorities try to retaliate by blocking access to Google's US site.

Google declined to comment on a report by the Chinese business magazine Caixin that the company has told manufacturers Motorola and Samsung to remove its logo, search engine and maps from phones being produced for the China Unicom venture.

Phone calls to Unicom's press office in Beijing were not answered. A Unicom spokeswoman in Hong Kong, Sophia Tso, said she had no information. Spokespeople for Motorola and Samsung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google said last week that an attack in December from China targeted the Mountain View, California-based company's infrastructure and at least 20 other major companies from the internet, financial services, technology, media and chemical industries.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China sent an email to its members warning that reporters in at least two news bureaus in Beijing had said their Gmail accounts had been broken into, with their emails surreptitiously forwarded to unfamiliar accounts. One of the accounts belonged to an Associated Press journalist.

Ma, the foreign ministry spokesman, said China strictly prohibits computer hacking in any form.

The chief executive of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which operates the China arm of Google rival Yahoo, said at a conference in Taiwan that foreign companies such as Google should not pull out of China.

"It is easy to give up, but one must hang on," said Jack Ma. "China will set the rule of (the) game in the 21st century, and businesses must not go to the mainland for the profit motives only but rather to take part in setting the rules."

Yahoo turned over its China operations to Alibaba several years ago after failing to gain market share against Chinese competitors. Yahoo now owns 39 per cent of Alibaba.

China also has the world's most-populous internet market, with more than 384 million people online, bigger than the entire US population.

Google.cn, set up in 2005, trails local rival Baidu, with a 35 per cent market share to Baidu's 60 per cent.

LG picks 2010 mobile phone sales at 140 million

SEOUL, South Korea - LG Electronics expects a significant increase in mobile phone sales this year as it rolls out 20 new smartphones and aims to become one of the world's top two sellers by 2012.


The Seoul, South Korea-based Company expects to sell 140 million mobile phones in 2010, Skott Ahn, CEO of its mobile phone unit, told reporters.

That would be an increase from estimated sales of 117 million last year.

Ahn said that LG Electronics recorded global market share in the double digits in 2009 for the first time despite a five per cent contraction in the worldwide market.

"In 2010 we'll be building the foundation to become a global top two" by 2012, Ahn said.

LG Electronics currently ranks No. 3 in mobile phones behind top seller Nokia of Finland and South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, which ranks second.

The company is also a major seller of flat screen televisions, ranking No. 2 globally behind Samsung.

Booming PC sales boost Intel

SANTA CLARA: Intel said yesterday its fourth-quarter profit ballooned as a strong rebound in the personal computer market overcame a hefty payment Intel made to its biggest rival.

Intel also said its revenue and profit margin in the current quarter could be better than analysts are expecting, and its shares rose in extended trading.

Computer shipments grew more sharply than expected in the fourth quarter after the recession led to a brutal year for the industry.

With Intel supplying the vast majority of PC microprocessors, the company generated net income of US$2.3 billion ($3.1 billion), or 40c a share.

That was more than nine times as much as it earned in the year-ago quarter, when profit totalled US$234 million, or 4c a share.

Sales climbed 29 per cent to US$10.6 billion. Intel pegged the increase to brisker PC chip sales.

It also said average selling prices for chips destined for server computers were higher than a year ago.

Analysts expected a profit of 30c a share and US$10.2 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Intel's gross profit margin was 64.7 per cent of revenue - its best ever, the company said. Gross margin is a key measure for a manufacturing-intensive company because it reflects how well the company is controlling costs.

Intel shares, which gained 2.5 per cent to close regular trading at US$21.48, rose 1.8 per cent in extended trading to US$21.87.

Intel is the first big technology company to report its results for the fourth quarter.

The company is seen as a barometer for the PC market and technology spending in general.

"We're predicting that 2010 is a year of robust unit growth. I think it is continued strength in the consumer segment," said Stacy Smith, Intel's chief financial officer.

Smith said Intel had not yet seen signs that big companies were feeling freer to replace their old PCs, but he expected it to happen this year.

Intel issued an optimistic sign by saying that in the current quarter, it expects revenue from US$9.3 billion to US$10.1 billion, and a gross profit margin of 59 per cent to 63 per cent.

Analysts had been predicting first-quarter revenue of US$9.3 billion and a gross margin of 59 per cent.

In the last quarter, Intel paid US$1.25 billion to settle antitrust charges brought by Silicon Valley rival Advanced Micro Devices, the world's No 2 microprocessor maker.

That cut 22c from Intel's bottom line.

In the comparable period last year, Intel's earnings were hurt by a US$1 billion charge for a reduction of the value of its investment in wireless networking company Clearwire Corp. That sliced 17c from the company's profit.

Google's Nexus One no 'super' phone

SAN FRANCISCO - Many people consider the iPhone the ultimate "smart" phone. Now Google wants you to think of its new Nexus One device as a "super" phone.


The Nexus One offers a sleek handset, the latest version of Google's easy-to-use Android operating software and compelling features such as voice recognition technology for speaking emails and tweets.

Yet, it's not as super duper as it could be.

Google is selling the Nexus One directly to consumers for $529 (NZ$712). The phone's unlocked to support multiple phone networks, but the current version is only compatible with GSM wireless technology.

That limits the device in the United States to T-Mobile or AT&T - and only T-Mobile if you want high-speed web surfing. You can also buy the Nexus One for $179 with a two-year service contract with T-Mobile.

On the surface, the phone looks sturdy and, with a thickness of 11mm and a weight of 130 grams, is slightly slimmer and lighter than the iPhone.

Made by Taiwan's HTC, which also put together the first Android phone back in 2008, the Nexus One has a crisp, responsive, 3.7-inch touch screen.

It replaces most physical buttons found on other phones with a row of touch-sensitive keys that perform such tasks as pulling up the menu, taking you to the home screen and conducting searches.

There's also a clickable trackball as you'd find on a BlackBerry - a convenient navigational tool, though it looks almost retro on the slick handset.

Under the hood, the Nexus One runs the Android 2.1 operating system, also known as Eclair.

This is a slight upgrade over what's on another recent high-profile Android phone, Motorola's Droid.

Like previous editions of Android, Eclair is responsive, easy to navigate and includes an on-screen keyboard (Unlike the Droid, the Nexus One has no physical keyboard). It keeps the cool turn-by-turn GPS navigation feature introduced with the Droid, and adds some new tricks, too.

There are some visual updates: The Nexus One has five home screens, which is at least two more than most phones. You can scroll through them one by one by swiping a finger, and unlike most phones, you can also use little dots at the bottom of the screen to jump from one to the next in line. Pressing on the dots pulls up a mini view of all five screens, and you can select one.

You have a choice of animated wallpapers to set as the phone's background, including one that shows grass swaying softly on the screen.

The coolest update is the expansion of Android's voice recognition capabilities so you can dictate Facebook status updates, Twitter posts, emails, texts and instant messages.

I quickly found myself speaking my side of instant-messaging conversations with my mom and dictating my responses to friends' emails. Sometimes I used a combination of the two to communicate with friends and family.

There are some drawbacks to all this vocalising, though. I quickly realised the Nexus One didn't really understand punctuation, so it was easiest to speak short sentences. I also found that I had to enunciate clearly, or else "what time should we meet?" might become "attention to me." Still, it was a pretty neat tool.

Fun aside, I had some network issues. The reception was often markedly worse than that on the HTC G1 phone using the same SIM card from T-Mobile.

And while surfing the web, I noticed the Nexus One was often using T-Mobile's EDGE network, rather than the speedier 3G network, and I was often unsuccessful in attempts to load YouTube videos.

Although I didn't experience any dropped phone calls, the number of bars showing the quality of the reception often dropped suddenly as I was about to make a call.

That's odd because the reception's usually good in my apartment when using another phone on T-Mobile's network. And several times while talking to friends, I felt as if the phone's volume was rising and falling.

It was also exasperating to have such a nice screen that didn't support multiple-finger touches as the iPhone does in letting you pinch your fingers together and apart to zoom in and out of images and web pages.

The Nexus One has a pretty good 5-megapixel camera - better than the iPhone's - but if you want to see your snapshots up close, you'll still have to press the little on-screen magnifying icon over and over again. That's not very advanced for a "super" phone.

And though looks aren't everything, I did wish the handset was more of an attention-grabber. The Nexus One's silvery gray and black exterior gives off a sort of industrial chic vibe. It just doesn't pack the same sexy geekiness that the iPhone has in spades, though.

A sweet phone, definitely, but super, it's not