The Newton Extreme - or the iPad is being unveiled by Jobs as I type. It’s an enlarged iPod Touch. No mention of 3G. It sounds pretty interesting, based on the en=gadget stream I am reading.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live ... ion-event/

Big iPod Touch combined with an e-book reader.

Being derided much on twitter for sounding like a feminine hygiene product...oops..
Plus, it is really quite ugly.

it's for your iPeriod as all owners will have to synchronise their periods to the same time as Apple dictates

It's pretty fugly, plus the border makes it look like a VERY expensive photo frame

3G is on the higher priced models.

Mark

That $130 bombshell came along later in the presentation. Interesting that they managed to get what appears to be a PAYG contract-less deal for it. But then it’s going to be more occasional web access than the kind you’d do on a phone.

It seems just too big to put in your pocket like a book, and like Finlay, I’d say that the big fat border seems a bit too much. I saw a mock-up on the web the other day where the screen went almost to the edge of the device. I liked to look of that far more.

I note with interest that it will outperform the first PowerBook G4 - which is obviously the march of technology.

I can see the border being useful to avoid fingermarks in the working area.

Slightly impressed by the thing, but nothing I'd actually want to buy. Maybe when it gets to revision four or five and does something useful.

...you mean all of them?

*ducks*

Too big to fit in your pocket, but too exposed to be carried as a laptop.
An epic fail that will be bough by millions of horde members who gravitate to Apple products like lemmings.

It depends how you look at it.

You could see it as an oversized iPhone that can't make phone calls.
Or you could see it as the first netbook sized device that isn't a compromise on speed/quality.

can it multitask?
will it have flash?
will you be able to put your own programs on it?
will you be locked into Apples ecosystem?

although I am positive it will sell by the very large bucket load.

Can't really see what market Apple are aiming at with this product?

It seems to be a cross between a laptop and a mobile.

Price is also a turn-off factor.

My guess is the netbook market, even though it's imploding as manufacturers lose sight of the original idea.
I wouldn't mind one - I don't really have the need for a laptop, but I wouldn't mind something to sit on the sofa with and be online while I ignore the family.
Time will tell if it's set to become another AppleTV, I guess.

I can see it being useful in the education market. I was on the verge of getting an iPod touch for checking emails and internet at home, for when I can't be @rsed to fire up my laptop. I might get one of these instead, but it depends on the price over here, Apple have a nasty habit of just replacing the $ sign with a £ sign! If it's more than £400 for the basic model, then I'd probably not bother, so they'll need to price it competitively to sell in truckloads.

Also, I'd wait for most of the popular games and apps to be updated to the bigger resolution of the iPad, although it will run all existing iPhone/iPod touch apps, judging from the demos they look a bit odd at their native resolution, floating in the middle of the display, and will probably be pixelated when you use the full screen zoom option.

Still, developers have got a full two months to rewrite their apps to use the larger resolution, as they're not shipping until end of March for the wifi models and April for the 3G ones.

Which surely suggests there's a vast market of people who absolutely do not give a flying fig about any of those things?

Jon