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Knowlton Knows
Apple iPad an industry all-star with a bargain bin name

 

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price to its release date and software
specialties. Finally the moment of
truth came in late January, and it was
born... the iPad.

Unfortunately, that is not a typo
for Apple’s famous music device,
nor is it an interpretation of a thickly
accented American’s exaggerated
mispronunciation. It is, in fact, the
latest creation from Apple; a multi-
touch screen tablet that serves as an
app-based Internet surfer.

The name is a tragic distraction
from the device’s intended
impression. About an hour after the
official announcement of the tablet’s
release, “iTampon” was a trending

The latest Apple product is hailed as “magical” and “a revolution.” But who the hell none this saad Knowiton Thomas

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Apple; never had one of their —_—identified as magical. “When

products garnered so much tO aaiillaas cxceok: Yeas Uillity %
attention prior to its unveiling. Not understand how it works,” says Jony
the Macbook Air, nor the Apple Ive, Senior Vice President of Design
TV. Not even the iPhone. The at Apple, “it sort of becomes magical.
rumour mill spun constantly and _ And that’s exactly what the iPad is.”
consistently, spouting out predictions If there is any magical quality
on everything from its size and attached to this device, it’s the

multi-touch sensors— with well over
a thousand of them dispersed grid-
style on the screen, the precision

and accuracy with which the iPad
responds to your one or many fingers
is no doubt the finest consumer-ready
touch technology available on the
market today. And if there is anything
revolutionary about the device, it has
to be the iBookstore. Coming off the
success of the iTunes store and App
Store, iTab’s new bookstore makes
thousands of eBooks (or iBooks, as
Apple prefers to label them) readily
available for instant purchase and
download. You can then read them
right on the tablet with the same

“Are there any women on the Apple team? It seems as
though the iPad was named by a group of men clearly
oblivious to the implications such a name could have.”

topic on Twitter. Are there any
women on the Apple team? It seems
as though the iPad was named by a
group of men clearly oblivious to
the implications such a name could
have. It’s not as though they were
tight on choices: iTab and iTablet
come to mind in an instant, and either
would serve better. Hopefully they
recognize the criticism and give the
next generation a name change like
they did with the eMac and iMac.
That aside, it’s a strong product
telease for Apple. With a screen
nearly 10 inches in diagonal length,
the iPad closely resembles a stately,
oversized iPhone or iPod Touch.
Apple claims to have recreated all of
their core apps to function especially
well for the tablet, with improved
multi-touch interaction and more
features that a larger screen has now
enabled. And all third party apps that
function on the iPhone will function
on the iTab fresh out of the box, a

tremendous feat considering there are
__ iPhone, will you want this? Probably
" not, at least not immediately. But it

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more than 140,000 apps.
Steve Jobs and co. had no_

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quality as an Amazon Kindle.

This raises an interesting point.
The iPad starts at a reasonable $500
US for the 16GB, Wi-Fi model. And
although it reaches a hefty $800 for
the 64GB model with 3G capabilities,
that is irrelevant to other eBook
readers. Amazon's comparative
10-inch Kindle costs just 10 dollars
less than the base model iPad. And
the Kindle doesn’t boast rich video
and game-ready graphics and tens
of thousands of interactive apps that
stretch the vast expanse of the entire
apposphere. Apple has effectively
disarmed Amazon from any grip it
held on the eBook reading market
without bearing any actual focus on
eBook reading. Checkmate Apple.

All in all, it’s a pretty device
with the potential for amazing
functionality — both for business and
for casual hobbyists. It also won’t
empty your wallet, which is generally
the main concern with Apple products
for most consumers. If you possess an