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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - – Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday revealed the culture-changing company’s latest must-have device, a touchscreen tablet computer annointed the “iPad.”
“We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product,” said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.
The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 cms) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kgs) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.
The cheapest iPad model, with Wi-Fi connectivity and 16GB of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive — which includes 3G connectivity and 64GB of memory — costs 829 dollars.
“I think it’s a home run,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker. “It becomes a viable alternative to a netbook and I get the 140,000 applications in the App Store. It is a pretty compelling value.”
Apple said it would start shipping the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also be hooked up to an external keyboard, within 60 days, making them available worldwide in late March.
The 3G version will reach the market in late April.
Dressed in his trademark blue jeans, black turtleneck and sneakers, Jobs appeared on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater to unveil a product that had been the subject of months of speculation.
Walking around the stage or sitting on a couch, he showed off iPad features which include browsing the Internet, doing email, working with spreadsheets and charts, playing videogames, listening to music or watching video.
Jobs, who appeared thin but healthy, said Apple was launching an online “iBookstore” for the iPad and touted its abilities as an electronic reader of books, newspapers and magazines.
“You can have black-and-white, color, video in your books — whatever the author wants,” he said. “We think the iPad is going to make a terrific e-book reader, not just for popular books but for textbooks as well.
“Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle,” Jobs said. “We are going to stand on their shoulders.”
The legendary Apple CEO said the iPad has support from five of the biggest publishers in the world and that Apple will “open the floodgates for the rest of the publishers starting this afternoon.”
Some technology analysts expect the iPad to pose a challenge to other e-readers while a number of publishers are counting on the device to sell digital versions of their publications.
The New York Times, Time magazine and National Geographic were among the partners whose content was displayed on the device on Wednesday.
Apple said that besides serving as an e-reader, the iPad runs all of the applications available through the Apple App Store for the iPod and iPhone.
“If you are thinking about buying a Kindle, you are probably reconsidering that decision. If you are a developer, you have one more reason to develop applications for Apple,” said Interpret analyst Michael Gartenberg.
Apple simultaneiously released a kit for software developers to tailor applications for the iPad.
Jobs said he expected the device to carve out a place between the laptop computer and the smartphone.
“Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products in between a laptop and a smartphone?” he asked. “We think we’ve done it.”
Jobs said the iPad is “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone.”
He said it has about 10 hours of battery life. “I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way on one charge,” Jobs said.
“In general it was a hit,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group, although he expressed some doubt about the inadequate wireless network of telecom carrier AT&T.
“I think this is disruptive for a lot of markets,” Enderle said.
“I have a hard time believing after seeing this that folks are going to want an e-reader that just does plain text and doesn’t do format or color,” he said.
Enderle believed iPads could “do some severe damage” to the gaming market, initially to hand-held gaming systems then eventually to videogame consoles.
“I think the iPad is going to do well for them,” said NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin. “I wouldn’t want to be a competitor in this space at this point in time.”
Apple shares closed 0.99 percent higher at 207.98 dollars.

ASUS hasn’t exactly been tight-lipped about its DR-950 e-reader — you know, with it outing photos and all — but apparently the 9-inch E Ink, touchscreen reading device will be ready for buyers in April. ASUS told the guys at Electric Pig that it’s currently in process of shopping around for content partners, but plans to have the e-reader to market by springtime with a price tag in the range of £250 (about $354). Not too bad, though it’s tough to get too jazzed about a black-and-white model with the OLED color DR-570 version on the horizon.

There’s been an immense amount of crosstalk, speculation, and just plain noise over the past 48 hours about a device allegedly called the Nexus One, or as it’s more commonly known: the Google Phone. We’ve heard all sorts of reports about the HTC-made device, and figured it might be helpful to put together a little roundup about what we know — and don’t — on one of the potentially more exciting devices we’ve seen recently. Read on for an exploration of what this device could mean, as well as a little editorial perspective on some of those “confirmed” stories of the day!

* The phone doesn’t really have an official name, though it’s obviously being referred to as the Google Phone, and both its user agent string (browser identifier) and EXIF data on pictures taken on the device identify it as the “Nexus One,” which we take to be a code name for the phone (it’s also a reference to a line of replicants in the film Blade Runner). Some shots identify the device as “Phone 88,” apparently an earlier code name. It is highly unlikely it will be released to the public as the Nexus One, in our opinion.
* The phone was given to Google employees at an all-hands meeting on Friday, December 10th. The story broke when a number of Googlers tweeted about the phone.
* Google posted on its blog that it was experimenting with “eating its own dogfood” on the Android front by giving employees “around the globe” a device to test. There have been zero — zero — official statements about Google selling the device to retailers or directly to consumers. There is a Wall Street Journal article which claims that this is the strategy Google is headed in, but the post contains a number of poorly sourced and suspect facts, so we say take it with a major grain of salt. Other reports say “what if” and “could.” That doesn’t make it so. As of right now, the only way to get this phone is to work for Google.
* The phone itself appears to be the HTC Dragon / Passion (with at least the specs of the Bravo, which looks to be a variant of the other models). All are Snapdragon-based phones with a 3.7-inch AMOLED displays, 5 megapixel cameras, and no physical keyboards.
* There have been rumors (or fact, as stated in the aforementioned WSJ report) that this phone runs a “real” or different version of Android. Based on the pictures we’ve seen, this is inaccurate. It appears to run a version of Android that looks nearly identical to the version currently found on the Droid (2.0.1) — Google’s latest, most official device. The version number we’ve heard is Android 2.1, which would not be a drastic departure from 2.0.
* There are rumors that if sold, the device will be available unlocked and able to function on both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G bands. A source tells us that they have spoken with someone with first-hand knowledge, and this is the case, despite earlier rumors that it would only function using T-Mobile’s 3G network.
And now, some philosophical perspective on what this device could mean, depending on how it ends up coming to market.

As we said, there is currently a theory floating around that the Google Phone will be sold directly by Google to consumers, or by the company to retailers and carriers. If that is the case, it should cause a real splintering of the Open Handset Alliance, and could also be a sign that Google is moving away from its “all in” mentality demonstrated at the birth of Android. Positioning itself as the purveyor of the “real” Google Phone, while controlling distribution of both hardware and software for that device could be hugely disruptive to its current strategy of ‘one platform, many devices’ (clearly taken from the Windows Mobile handbook). A move to full control over its ecosystem and hardware in this way certainly calls to mind something closer to Apple’s strategy, though it is still confusing as to why Google would make this move given the relative success and growth of Android worldwide. Our guess would be the pressures to homogenize the experience and give developers a single path to app creation may now seem more logical to the company; it’s worked beautifully for their biggest rival.

What everyone seems to be ignoring is the fact that Google has created two other “Google Phones” in the past; the Dev Phone 1 (shock, an unlocked phone that Google sold online!), and the Ion. Both were “Google” phones, both were given out to employees early on, and both were built by HTC. They also both went on to become “with Google” devices, and it’s entirely possible that the Nexus One is the next generation of those phones. Given the fact that there is currently no developer device with specs similar to Android’s current high water mark (the Droid), seeing a new dev phone with a faster CPU, newer version of Android, and higher resolution screen actually makes perfect sense. If we were the betting type, we’d say you were going to see this phone come to market much in the way the myTouch and G1 did — as official, Google branded devices. Google Phones, if you will.

Regardless, all we know of this phone and Google’s strategy behind it has been built largely atop rumors. The phone clearly exists, and some employees clearly have it, but as to what the long term positioning will be, Google has been 100 percent silent — a point to note when reading articles claiming that this device is “confirmed” as being sold by Google. There is no evidence of that. For now, stay tuned — we’ll have more info as we get it!

Update: Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital says that T-Mobile is now on-board to sell this device as an unsubsidized, unlocked phone through its retail channels (he claims the big G first went to Verizon, but was turned down). That doesn’t really make a lot of sense if the phone does indeed work on both T-Mobile and AT&T 3G networks. We can’t see what’s in it for T-Mobile in that scenario, unless this were 3G only on its network, like… previous Google dev phones. We can’t help but feel there’s a crucial piece of this puzzle still missing — here’s hoping we get that info soon.

Update 2: A tipster who has played with phone has some interesting tidbits about the new version of Android. Our source says that the app tray has been changed, and that instead of scrolling through icons, it now “flips” to a new page with a “3D tinge.” We’re also told that it’s fast — faster than the Droid. One disappointing note: our tipster says there’s no multitouch to be found in the browser… AKA, no pinch to zoom.

Movies delivered on memory cards isn’t an entirely new development (Sony did it back in the early days of the PSP), but it looks like Paramount and Kingston think the idea is prime for a comeback, and have today announced a partnership that’ll see some of the studio’s movies delivered on SD cards and USB drives. That gets started with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on a (presumably reusable) 4GB Kingston DataTraveler I USB drive that’s available right now for $29.99, and will apparently continue with additional movies offered across Kingston’s full line of memory cards and USB drives, although both parties are staying mum on any further specifics. There’s also no word from any other studios or memory companies just yet, but we can only presume this means slotMovies are right around the corner.

Hey, we knew this was coming — but we’re hearing murmurs that actual AT&T BlackBerry Bold owners are starting to get their visual voicemail updates rolling out to them. The voicemail features allow you to store up to 40 messages at a time, and add numbers to contacts from voicemail. We’ll let you know all ot the perks of software update v4.6.0.508 when we get it up and running on our own Bold, but hit the read link for AT&T’s rundown (warning: it’s a PDF).
[Via Boy Genius Report]

MIT’s electric vehicle prototype may be a long way off from being completed, but if we let that stop us from discussing EVs, we might never talk about them. The headline ambition of this project is a full recharge within 10 minutes, which would eliminate somewhere between four and ten hours of waiting. Speedwise, the Electric Vehicle Team is aiming for a 100 mph top speed from a 250-horsepower / 187 kilowatt AC induction motor, and a not unheard of 200-mile cruising range. To achieve their rapid juicing ambition, the students will strap 7,905 lithium iron-phosphate cell batteries from A123Systems to a gutted 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid body. The batteries’ low internal resistance is what makes things possible, but further hurdles, such as finding a sufficiently powerful energy source, would have to be overcome before any sort of widespread use may occur.

When it comes to claims of being the world’s first or fastest, there’s a big difference between announcing product and actually delivering it for retail. So let’s be clear, SanDisk might be announcing the world’s fastest 32GB SDHC card today, but it won’t be shipping until August. It’s not even the first 32GB class 10 SDHC card announced since Panasonic did its unveiling more than a month ago — and this is where SanDisk’s speed claims get confusing. That “class 10″ logo is supposed to be a standard means of identify the card’s speed as rated by the SD Association. Yet SanDisk claims a max read/write speed of 30MBps whereas Panasonic claims a max of just 22MBps. Guess we’ll have to see head-to-head benchmarks to know the truth. Regardless, it is fast and that makes it suitable for capturing 160 minutes of full HD (1920×1080 pixels) video recorded at 24Mbps.

When we brought you those exclusive Storm 2 pics and details just a short while ago, we touched upon the “new approach to text entry,” but unfortunately didn’t have any details. However, lightning has struck again, and our source has gotten back to let us know that the Storm 2 does indeed have a stationary screen “just like the iPhone’s,” which lines up with what Boy Genius Report is hearing. That’s right, it looks like RIM is axing its SurePress technology in favor of a more conventional touchscreen, though our tipster says the model he has may allow for some type of haptic feedback to be enabled. This should be great news for all you folks having dust-under-screen issues on your first-gen Storms, but obviously, we’ll have to wait and see until this thing gets, you know, legit.

Amazon’s Kindle DX includes a few tweaks such as automatically rotating the orientation of the screen when it is placed in landscape mode and adjustable page margins because… well, CEO Jeff Bezos seems to like the feature. Literally, though, the biggest change is the new 9.7-inch electronic ink screen, which displays two and a half times more content than the 6-inch screen on the Kindle 2 and Sony Reader. The expanded display allows more detailed graphics to be seen without zooming or panning, and is better suited to a wide range of source material including maps, technical diagrams, and sheet music. But textbooks and newspapers were singled out as two printed sources that are particularly significant for the forthcoming device.
These publications both benefit from the larger Kindle screen size, but each face different challenges in finding success on the Kindle DX. For newspapers, the Kindle DX cuts down on the costs of printing. Newspapers, though, are already struggling against competitors that did away with that expense years ago, including blogs that break stories and online entities such as Craigslist, eBay and Google that have siphoned away advertising revenue. Textbooks, on the other hand, have no major electronic competition, and print still retains advantages such as better readability and color. But digital textbooks must compete with used textbooks, a major market on college campuses, and likely will not be able to be resold if other digital content is a predecessor.
At the Kindle DX launch, representatives from The New York Times Company and Case Western Reserve University both characterized their involvement with the Kindle DX as a trial or experimentation. What’s behind the arm’s length embrace?

It’s crazy, we know. Just hours after hearing shockingly believable whispers that Apple’s white-hot iPhone 3G could be sashaying over to Verizon Wireless, in flies a Wall Street Journal report asserting that the suits in Redmond are (also?) in talks with America’s largest carrier. ‘Course, we’ve heard rumors that Microsoft was banging out a smartphone behind closed doors for centuries now, but much to our chagrin, there’s no mention of “Zune” in “Project Pink.” Instead, we’re told that said handset is a touchscreen-based multimedia phone that will aim to extend the Windows Mobile OS while “adding new software capabilities.” Not surprisingly, the article also mentions that Windows Marketplace would be front and center on the phone, and potentially most interesting is this tidbit: “a third-party is expected to make the device.” Hey HTC — seen any strange calls originating from the 425?