Apple Announces iBook App for iPad

Apple today announced the iBook app for the iPad tablet device. It will offer books and content from many big names in publishing and also an interesting note is that it uses the ePub format, which is not proprietary, so is there a possiblity of creating your own books for the device if the content isn’t available on the store?

Apple has 4 big partners with the iPad: Penguin, Macmillion, Simon & Shuster and more. This will give a good start to the release of the iPad and it’s lineup of books.

Advertisement

Apple iPad Specs

iPad
The new Apple iPad specs:

  • 16, 32 and 64GB models.
  • 802.11n WiFi
  • .5 inches thin
  • 1.5 pounds
  • 9.7 inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
  • 1024×768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
  • Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
  • Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR
  • 1GHz Apple Chip
  • Supports OpenGLS
  • Pixel Double to run app’s at double size or original.
  • Accelerometer
  • Compass
  • iBook (Apple’s eBook reader) [uses the ePub format for the iBook app, which means it’s open.]
  • 3G
  • 720p HD Video Playback
  • 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
  • $14.99 for 250MB of data
  • $29.99 for unlimited
  • Free use of AT&T WiFi Hotspots
  • No contract
  • International deals by June
  • iPad 3G models are unlocked
  • WiFi model shipping in 60 days, worldwide.
  • 3G model shipping in 90 days.

Pricing (WiFi)

  • 16GB $499 (£309)
  • 32GB $599 (£370)
  • 64GB $699 (£433)

Pricing (WiFi & 3G)

  • 16GB $629 (£389)
  • 32GB $729 (£451)
  • 64GB $829 (£513)

Note: British prices have not been released by Apple yet and they are only converted from US Dollars to give people an idea of price.

Apple iPad Officially Announced

Steve Jobs has just officially announced the iPad, the tablet device which has been leaked recently is now a reality. And due to popular rumor it is in appearance an oversized iPhone/iPod Touch.

It runs a modified version of the iPhone OS and runs Mobile Safari as shown at the event, but with no Flash.

Apple iPad

The iPad comes as follows:

  • 16, 32 and 64GB models.
  • 802.11n WiFi
  • .5 inches thin
  • 1.5 pounds
  • 9.7 inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
  • 1024×768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
  • Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
  • Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR
  • 1GHz Apple Chip
  • Supports OpenGLS
  • Pixel Double to run app’s at double size or original.
  • Accelerometer
  • Compass
  • iBook (Apple’s eBook reader) [uses the ePub format for the iBook app, which means it’s open.]
  • 3G
  • 720p HD Video Playback
  • 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
  • $14.99 for 250MB of data
  • $29.99 for unlimited
  • Free use of AT&T WiFi Hotspots
  • No contract
  • International deals by June
  • iPad 3G models are unlocked
  • WiFi model shipping in 60 days, worldwide.
  • 3G model shipping in 90 days.

Pricing (WiFi)

  • 16GB $499 (£309)
  • 32GB $599 (£370)
  • 64GB $699 (£433)

Pricing (WiFi & 3G)

  • 16GB $629 (£389)
  • 32GB $729 (£451)
  • 64GB $829 (£513)

Note: British prices have not been released by Apple yet and they are only converted from US Dollars to give people an idea of price.

iPad iWork


Live Coverage Of Apple Event 27/1/2010

All times are at GMT (London).

5:48 PM: Everyone is getting seated and the event will start in 12 minutes.

6:00 PM: The lights have gone down.

6:02 PM: “We want to kick of 2010 by introducing a magical and revolutionary product today… but first I have a few updates.”

6:05 PM: “Next update, the app store. We have over 140,000 apps, and a few weeks ago we announced a user downloaded 3 billion apps.”

6:08 PM: “SO all of us use laptops and smartphones… the question has arisen; is there room for something in the middle. We’ve wondered for years as well — in order to create that category, they have to be far better at doing some key tasks… better than the laptop, better than the smartphone.”

6:10 PM: “We think we’ve got something that is better. And we call it the iPad.”

6:28 PM: “Let’s go back to the hardware.” .5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds — 9.7 inch IPS display

6:28 PM: Full capacitive multitouch

6:29 PM: “It’s powered by our own silicon. The 1GHz Apple A4 chip. It screams.”

6:29 PM: Available in 16GB, 32 and 64GB models.

Apple iPad

6:29 PM: 802.11n WiFi, Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector and 10 hours of battery life, up to a month on standby. Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR.

6:54 PM: Apple eBook reader app called iBook.

6:55 PM: Apple uses the ePub format for the iBook app, which means it’s open.

7:13 PM: It syncs just like the iPhone and comes with 3G.

7:14 PM: $14.99 for 250MB of data or $29.99 for unlimited. Free use of AT&T WiFi Hotspots. No contract. International deals by June. iPad 3G models are unlocked.

7:17 PM: “WiFI plus 3G if you want it. So iPad. It’s phenomenal. Email is fantastic, best device for photos, great for music, great for video. It runs almost all of the 140k apps on the app store, as well as a whole new generation of apps.”

iPad Pricing

7:20 PM: “So $499 for 16GB of iPad. That’s our base model. 32GB is $599, 64GB is $799. 3G models cost an extra $130. $629, 729, and 829 with 3G.”

7:20 PM: “We will be shipping these in 60 days. 3G models will ship in 90 days.”

Apple Tablet Pictures Leaked?

Engadget have received some pictures, which they cannot confirm as being real but they do look real, of the upcoming Apple Tablet. It’s only just over an hour now until the event begins so it won’t be long until we find out.

Here’s what Engadget posted:

we just got two very interesting images of what certainly looks like a prototype Apple tablet, or what could be the tablet bolted down to a table. It’s big — really big — and it’s running what clearly looks like an iPhone app, although we’ve never seen an iPhone app with that interface or at that resolution before. We also see a WiFi icon and a cell service indicator, although tragically there’s no carrier listed.

Apple Tablet Prototype w/ iPhone

So the few picture leaked do look a lot like people thought which is a large iPhone but Steve Troughton-Smith had some interesting ideas about the images.

Steve Troughton-Smith's TweetsTweet #1
Tweet #2
Tweet #3

So from what we have seen we’re guessing the resolution might be around 640×1024, that the picture shows a non-OLED device, however this doesn’t rule one out. And that Apple are still using Google Maps for the device.

The images show an interesting case around the side, this could be for security or just to disguise the device, as some people over at iPhone Alley spotted a device running a modified version of Mac OS X on a device which was thought to be the new tablet.

McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw Confirms Apple Tablet?

McGraw-Hill’s CEO, Terry McGraw, yesterday confirmed that the Apple tablet would be announced today. In the video he was very excited about working with Apple and spoke of how the announcement would be today and how it’s “based on the iPhone operating system” and that it will be “transferable”, which I’m assuming means everything in iTunes.

He also says that they’ve got 95% of their materials up and ready to run as e-books, and it’s not a stretch to think that Apple has made similar deals with other major publishers as well. This still isn’t official confirmation of the tablet but it’s pretty obvious now that it’ll be coming.

iPhone OS 4.0 Only For 3G and 3GS?

According to a source, the new iPhone OS 4.0, which is rumored to be shown at the upcoming Apple event; will include multitasking, which has been wanted for a long time but many iPhone users but only those who jailbreak the device can use this feature. The source also says there will be a new UI, “to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient” and also OS-wise mutli-touch gestures. However I see it unlikely that Apple will majorly change the UI of the OS as they like to keep things familiar.

The source also says how they will also be “some brand new syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications” but that the new OS will only be available for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, this makes sense for the multitasking as the iPhone 2G doesn’t have enough RAM to be able to multitask properly.

Apple Event Invites Sent Out

The invites have now been sent to all those invited to the Apple event on January 27th. The invite has a spray painted look, a time of 10 am Pacific and a place of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The invite says ‘Come see our latest creation’ hence confirming we are going to be seeing something new from Apple, so at the point everything is pointing to a tablet, but as before we could be completely wrong.

iPhone OS 4.0 To Have Contacts On The Home Screen?

Apple recently applied for a patent to put contacts on the iPhone home screen. The patent gives pretty solid evidence that the next iPhone OS iteration will include this feature.

The patent shows that the custom icons for contacts won’t just be for speed dialing but will be able to perform wide range of things, such as launching any app you specify that is personalized to the contact or display information about the contact.

One of the options has the icon for the contact that shows up on your home screen based on the persons proximity to you, so if someone gets within a certain range to you then they will show up on your home screen, however this will probably only work on iPhones or possibly phones that have GPS.

The icon can also be used to invoke one or more applications that are personalized to the contact. The icon can be modified to display information related to the contact. In one aspect, an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity.