February 2, 2010--On January 27 during the Photonics West conference, Apple held a press release outside The Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA announcing the Apple iPad, an interactive display that Apple calls a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books, and much more. But during the press release, picketers from defectivebydesign.org were handing out small brochures describing “the restrictions that Apple imposes on the user.”
The brochures claim that Applies iTunes store, iPhone, iPod, and Mac OS X operating system contain what’s known as Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), a software restriction that removes rights from you that copyright law doesn’t, including being able to play your files on devices that Apple didn’t make. Apple claims it is illegal for you to install software unless you have purchased it from them. “Imagine if Microsoft did this with Windows?” says the brochure. For more information, readers should go to defectivebydesign.org to learn more.
Regardless of the controversy, Apple is betting that the iPad, which is just 0.5 inches thick, weighs just 1.5 pounds, includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store, will be a winner with consumers when it becomes available in late March at the starting price of $499.
Directly from the Apple iPad press release:
iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.
iPad’s 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.
iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours.* Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan.
Both the protest and consumer response to the Apple iPad will be interesting to follow in the coming months.
--Posted by Gail Overton; [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com