Apple iPad Specifications | Specs and Review

The moment of truth for d’ Apple-kingdom has finally arrived, like we said on our predicaments before, this will yield a half-full/half-empty approach for the investors/critiques/future buyers and to the rest of the majority.

When we said, that Apple needs to put some “insane” features if they want this tablet to become a game-changer, we couldn’t be more correct than that statement. From the unveiling of the official name, up to the disadvantages of the new tablet. Here’s a summarize Apple Tablet 101 course for you.Officials

The official name of the tablet is iPad (Huwaat?) Okay, maybe you’re one of the guys who voted for the name iSlate, iTablet, iJoy etc. But hey! It’s already here, so iThink just savor the name for it’s already imbued on the tablet.
In the Beginning…

What more good way to start the presentation than beginning it with a biblical-inspired statement from WSJ? My take? It gave me some spine-tingling goosebumps!

“Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it”
And this bragging statement protruded by our CEO of the decade, never failed to make the presentation even more exhilarating.

“Way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal.”

So let’s proceed to the good stuffs now, shall we?

On a nutshell the specs of the Apple iPad is impressive:

- SPECS: 9.7 inch IPS display, 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds in weight.

- Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768

- MEMORY SIZE: 16, 32, or 64 GB SSDs (solid state hard drives)

- CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. A new customized in-house Apple chip

- PLATFORM: Runs on iPhone OS 3.2

- Wi-Fi: 802.11n

- BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours

- Includes Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Accelerometer, and compass

- Will run all native iPhone Apps and you can even choose the resolution on how you want the apps to appear on the BIG screen of the tablet

Core Details:

Speed

The capability of the iPad Tablet in terms of speed, is pretty amazing. Try to think of the iPhone running on steroids. Although, the clamored ‘multitasking’ capability didn’t pushed-through for this one.
iBooks

Okay, this won’t be a new iDevice without some new Apps to flaunt, would it? On a nutshell the iBook is an application enabling you to carry thousands of books on your tablet making the iPad a very good contender against the Kindle device. Although there’s some caveats that we’ll introduce later why the iPad may not be able to beat the Amazon Kindle.
Pricing/Plans

If you have gotten yourself with some early dose of tablet rumors, suggesting that the new tablet will be around 1,000 USD, then its official price of 500 USD will really be an eye-opener for you. As Mr. Jobs had said, “Grab the iPad that’s in the kitchen,”.

Note: 16 GIG Tablet WiFi only @ 499 USD. 32GB and 64 GB both WiFi only @ 599 USD and 699 USD *respectively*
If you want some 3G+WiFi loving with your iPad, the price gets steeper: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB @ $629, $729, $829 *respectively*. Now, I don’t know how much you have compared WiFi and 3G before, but you should know that you have the advantage if you choose the 3G+WiFi package here.
Connectivity/Network Carrier

It seems the rumors that this will be unveiled on a carrier with 3G capability didn’t materialize that much. Actually, this will be on AT&T again! Hurray isn’t? Okay before you get red-hot, there’s a new pricing solution for the iPad tablet.

Although it’ll use AT&T as the network carrier, the plan will be prepaid-based:

$14.99 for up to 250MB, and $29.99 for Unlimited Data (iThink you know what does that means, don’t you?) and some bonus unli-wifi on AT&T hotspots, should you choose the latter deal.
Added to the statement, , Steve Jobs did mention that the iPad is unlocked and supports micro-SIMS – this means if your carrier supports micro-SIMS, there’s no real reason for the inability to connect to the Internet..
Apple iPad’s Disadvantages

Like any alpha-device presentation, those anti-hype issues will always surface. The question is, how deep is your threshold, for handling flaws for a device? Honestly, we are a bit disappointed with some of the things that didn’t push-through for the tablet.

1) Solar Powered Cells, Multi Tasking, Open for other Network Carriers.

I say it’s all mythbusted! As good as these things may have sounded, all of them are just a fig of your imagination. Gee! I’m sure some of you may have your hopes too ups for these features to happen. Sniff**

2) According to engadget: “No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn’t have an SMS app”

I don’t know what does Steve Jobs means when he said, “this will be better than your netbook, and way better than your smartphone” Certainly, these lack of features is a BIG setback for the new tablet.

And OMG – No Camera? I mean, why? Is Apple doing this for the sake of marketing the 2nd Gen of iPads? (You bet they will!)

3) Insane games at par with “WII”..?

The prediction that the new tablet will have customized games, didn’t push through that much, at least not on the presentation. Although, Apple co-developers manage to put some pretty impressive demos of the games, pretty sure, we didn’t feel the ‘insane wii experience’ here.

4) No Adobe Flash

A Big “F*ck you” to users, who are dreaming of watching flash-based videos, games, and apps on the iPad. So far, flash capability is still a fantasy. Again, this is a little bit ironic to the statement of Mr. Jobs that “That the new tablet holds the best way to browse a website”

5) What happened to the built-in GPS?

“The Wi-Fi-only versions flat out have no GPS support whatsoever. The 3G versions have Assisted GPS, which makes use of the cellular connection to help pinpoint your location.” – If you have your iPod Touch 2G, then theiPad tablet’s GPS functionality works more like that.

6) As usual, not external memory slot.

If you have been dreaming that Apple will someday create a product, that will have some micro-sd capability, then I guess you can be assure that iPad is certainly not the device for that. Seeing it shipping with the usual Small,medium,large storage capacity, makes you want to think twice before buying this gadget.

I mean, seriously? Who needs a tablet with only a 16GB of capacity? – I think it’s kind of moot in my opinion.

7) Not the most fantastic ebook reader

Okay so it has iBook, some boombastic graphic enhancers, and some fast procs to handle thousands of e-books. But comparing it to the Kindle – The iPad doesn’t have a e-ink (the one that makes the brightness of the screen, close to being like a real pages of a book)
The new tablet may have a 10 hours of battery lifespan (reduced on 3G mode), but compare it to the kindle, it can go for as long as one week!

Also the price of the Kindle, rangers from 250-300 USD, which is way less than the price of the cheapest iPad Tablet (500 USD)
Minutes to Burn?

Here’s an 8 minute video describing the availability of the apple-tablet. 60-90 days is the time-frame for this one, folks!

Wrap-up:

Beyond the doubt, the Apple tablet is one, if not the best tablet at this moment. But ‘it’, beating the high-rollers of the e-book/netbook kingdom, is still a little bit out of reach.

As I keep on saying, it depends on your preferences, if you want a tablet for your day to day life. But let me tell you, if you already have a high-end smartphone (iPhone 3GS, N1 phone, HTC high-rollers) resting on your pocket, and have a laptop at your home. My credo is, sleep over it before buying this one.

Also, there’s a chance that this first-release *just like the iPhone* will be held under scrutiny and may have the tendency to be half-baked – iPad: No camera, No flash capability, No Built-in GPS etc.

I don’t like to see you as that person who will buy this tablet, then after a couple of months you will get infuriated seeing that the 2G model will arrive fixing all these flaws. Half a grand isn’t too cheap, is it?

So the question remains, are you going to buy the iPad now, or not?

(images: engadget)

Ideas From : Pinoytutorial.com

Jet Scooter: The Next Gen Flying Machine

You can remember that Jules Vern wrote the story on “Nautilus”, that famous submarine invented by a scientist who stays in abandoned island and the submarine named against the unit of speed under water “Knot”. He wrote this about 200 years prior to the actual submarine invented. Looking to this “Jet Scooter” an excellent digital art, bring me that same impression. Jet Scooter is the most advance and superb futuristic concept created in digital art by this designer Peanuts23.

Actually I think this should be the perfect shaped individual carrier to be come up for our use in very near future, may be by next century! It should be the perfect transportation for this fast moving world, where the time would be really precious and to match the atmosphere too where pollution free to be great concern, will fly with the help of Jet fuel and take to your place with a blink of eye. Though by the name it’s my guess that it will fly with the help of fuel as nowadays the Jet planes are moving but looking to the structure it seems that it can fly based on magnetic force too and which should be the ideal for pollution free world.

With an excellent color combination, the day this jet scooter hits the road or sky, people will watch it with their jaws dropped on the floor. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a ride of this killer scooter which has taken the aesthetic features of a normal scooter to a new level. A perfect blend of old scooters and side wings which are there to keep the balance of this scooter in the air with a front round plane like shape to help it to give it enough speed to cut through the wind.

This is the most exotic popular design created which should be desirable for all but sad part its just design now and we can hope to get the dream materialize very soon.

Light Touch Holographic Laser Projector

This holographic laser projector (HLP) projects images onto curved and tilted surfaces. Its Holographic Laser Projection(HLP) technology inside which creates a bright, high-quality video images in WVGA resolution – 10.1? virtual touch screen, so the user can use projected image as a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and touching the image.
Via: DVICE and
Light Blue Optics

How Kids Could Have Prevented the California Wildfires

As the California wildfires ravaged the Golden State, inhabitants of America’s west coast saw their property engulfed and homes annihilated, while also suffering hundreds of casualties. Just last August, two firefighters died after their vehicle was overrun by flames north of Los Angeles. Yet in the scorched and blackened aftermath of the forest fires, the startling truth is that all this damage, loss and destruction could have been prevented by a group of kids.
The key to combating wildfires ripping through bone dry forests and bringing about untold harm is detection. Where there’s smoke there’s fire is a saying that trips easily off the tongue, but with wildfires the tough reality is that the smoke itself is often out of sight. Detecting these potentially deadly blazes while they are still smouldering can help stop them reaching catastrophic proportions.
It was this basic principle of detection that got a team of young people in California thinking about how to reduce the soaring numbers of wildfires that have become an issue not just in their neck of the woods but around the globe – especially given the massive amount of CO2 that gets released into the air. In an age of web cams and camera phones, it’s perhaps small wonder that the answer was surveillance.
Named the FIRST Lego League Forest Guards, the youngsters, in partnership with Sony Europe, came up with the concept of an early wildfire detection system. The idea was to identify large forest fires more quickly using a network of solar powered CCTV cameras mounted on poles, linked to citizen fire watchers over the web, to offer a picture of the warning signs of wildfires before they manage to spread.
Testing
for the idea is already underway at the Forestry Commission’s site at Alice Holt, Surrey, UK and near the children’s home at Tahoe, California. The kids have first-hand experience of being evacuated from their homes because of wildfires, so were well placed to see the need for a fast and effective system of detection, where more eyes keeping watch would be better equipped to foresee future infernos.
For their efforts, the fresh-faced Forest Guards won an International Children’s Climate Call competition in Copenhagen earlier this year organised by LEGO and FIRST, a non-profit organisation that inspires students in science. Since then, their idea has since been realised by Sony Europe, with the upshot that the prototype – complete with R2D2-esque camera domes – is now being developed and tested.
Although there is an interest in using satellite technology as well as other digital imaging technology to detect fires, none of it is generally used. This new idea is also the first to include solar-powered CCTV cameras dispersed throughout the forest that allow the pictures of this environment to be broadcast over the Internet and from there be downloaded by anyone in the form of a website or screensaver.
Morgan David, Director of Research and Development for Sony Europe, who led the development team, explained some of the difficulties involved: “With image analysis, the smoke is difficult to differentiate from steam or clouds. But as a result of a lot of long hours put in, we have a pragmatic solution. And the real magic is the hundreds of thousands of eyes out there on the Net attracted by nice imagery.”
Yet it was more than just a case of visualising wildfires over the web. Working with the forestry people in Tahoe, the kids gained an understanding of how important it is to see not just in certain places but many – hence the idea of a network. And Sony Europe has further combined the network and camera technology with imaging software written by them. “Innovation isn’t easy,” concedes David. But it is possible.
The technology was presented at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last week, with the princes of Sweden and Denmark among those who dropped by the Forest Guard stand. If such interest is maintained, the wildfire detection system will let fire fighters know immediately when a wildfire is breaking out in their area – and so prevent future wildfires in California and elsewhere in the world.