After more than a year of frenzied speculation, Apple finally unveiled its tablet computer in the form of the iPad. The company still had some surprises, most notably a starting price of just $499 {about £309}, which is cheaper than an unlocked iPhone.

‘Apple is pitching the device as the best way to surf the web, play games and read books on the go’.

The iPad is designed by Apple ‘for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, plaving games, reading eBooks, and much more’ . It will be available in US starting in March, but other markets including the UK will have to wait until later this year.

Looking somewhat like an overgrown iPod Touch, the iPad is based around a multitouch enabled, 9.7 in backlit·LED display. It’s just 0.5 in thick aand weighs only 700g. The light, compact form factor is important. as Apple is explicitty targeting the iPad as a device that, while not as portable as a phone, is still lighter arid more convenient than a laptop.

The user interface is a mix between the iPhone and the Mac. The underlying OS is essentialty the iPhone as. The iPad’s screen uses IPS (in-plane-switching), which offers a wide, 1780 viewing angle and Quick response times ‘for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, plaving games, reading ‘Apple is pitching the device as the best way to surf the web, play for video so that it displays a clear picture with consistent games and read books on the go’ colours even if you view it from the side.

This is important, as Apple is pitching the device as the best way to consume media, surf the web, play games and read books on the move. Similarly, the company emphasised the iPad’s claimed 10-hour battery life, which is longer than the typical laptop. ‘We use the e-pub format, the most popular open book format in the world,’ said Apple CEO Steve.

According to investment firm Piper Jaffray, the iTunes App Store could grow into a $1 billion business by next year. After seeing how many apps were downloaded in the App Store’s first few weeks, it’s not too difficult to believe that lofty prediction. The combination of an easy-to-use interface, over-the-air purchasing direct to the device, and low prices encourages impulse buying. But even at $5 to $10 a piece, the cost of adding applications to your iPhone or iPod touch can add up quickly. Fortunately, almost a fifth of the apps initially available at the iTunes App Store are free—and many of these are excellent applications. Here are some of our favorites.

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THE PALM PRE smartphone ($200 with a twoyear contract from Sprint) isn’t perfect, but its WebOS operating system is clean, engaging, and intuitive. The phone’s main shortcomings relate to hardware.

Hardware

The glossy-black Pre has a curved slider body that’s dominated by a 3.1-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive: touch display. At 3.9 by 2.3 by 0.7 inches, the p~ is incredibly pocketable; it even fits unobtrusively into a woman’s jeans pocket.

But the keyboard feels a bit flimsy, and some of my colleagues found the keys quite: cramped. One positive: note: I encountered no lag between my typing and the text’s appearance: on screen.

Call quality over Sprint’s 3G network was very good overall, though I heard an echo on one call to a landline phone. Parties on the other end said my voice had ample volume and sounded very clear-even when I was on a busy street corner. None of my calls dropped.

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If you are a music lover with a collection of CDs, your number one priority after you buy an iPhone or iPod touch is to get them on your device. The process of “ripping” your albums into the proper format and copying them onto your iPhone/iPod is relatively easy. But if you’ve never done it before, there are steps in the process that are not all that obvious. This step-bystep guide will help you get your beloved collection of music CDs onto your device.

The best way to rip your albums onto your device is to use the Mac or PC version of iTunes, which not only lets you purchase music from Apple’s online store, but also acts as a media player and library for your media content. The program is free to install and there are no fees for using it to rip CDs. To download and install iTunes to your Mac or PC, go to apple.com/itunes/download.

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Have you ever listened to a great tune on the radio and wished you could hear it again or even purchase it? In the past, you would have to either go to your local record store or go to your computer and fire up iTunes or some other music download service to get your own copy.

Getting music from iTunes

All that has changed with the release of the iPhone and iPod touch. Now, everything is in the palm of your hand. All you need to do is connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot and you can download and listen to almost any song you can think of.

To get started, press the iTunes icon on your Home screen. From there you can search for a specific song by tapping Search along the bottom, typing in the name of the artist, and drilling down from there. The search feature will automatically populate results as you type, so even if you’re not 100 percent sure of the name, you’ll get results. Once you find what you’re looking for, just tap on it and the results will then be grouped by Albums and Songs.

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MICROSOFT announced in late: May that its Zune HD will debut sometime this fall, setting up a battle with Apple’s iPod Touch. The touchscreen portable media player, Microsoft says, will be the first one to combine an OLED (organic lighlemitting diode) display, an HD Radio receiver, Wi-Fi, and high-def video. Microsoft didn’t announce pricing.

The OLED screen will have 480-by-272-pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The Zune HD will also play highdef video on a TV. (You’ll need a docking station and a TVwith HDMI input).

The HD Radio function will allow users to tune in to stations broadcasting in that format, which offers higher fidelity than regular FM and sometimes subchannels with additional programming.

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The iPhone and iPod touch are nearly identical in outward appearance, have the same touch screen interface, and perform many of the same functions. The key difference between the two is obvious: one has a phone and the other doesn’t. However, there are additional important differences which this article will describe. But first, the similarities.

Similarities

As you can tell by looking at the photos of the devices, they are nearly identical in size and shape. In addition, they both have a touch screen interface and built-in Wi-Fi capability. With the iPhone 2.0 software update, they share many of the same applications including the Safari Web browser, Contacts, Calendar, Photo, YouTube, Mail, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, iTunes, and App Store.

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After Apple announced the iPhone 3G at their annual WorldWide Developer Conference in June of this year, anticipation for the first 3G-capable iPhone was running high. While the original device launched in the U.S. and then spread to a handful of European countries, Apple planned to launch the iPhone 3G in 24 more nations worldwide and expected to be offering it in a whopping 73 countries by the end of 2008. On July 11th, Apple and AT&T stores started selling the 3G, and over one million consumers bought one in the first three days, making this the hottest smartphone launch ever.

The iPhone 3G brings speed, assisted GPS, and a new low price to Apple’s smartphone platform. And while the hardware has definitely been improved, it’s the iPhone 2.0 OS and software suite that is truly revolutionary.

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Rounding out the AT&T leaks is this batch from Nokia. Two are actually interesting: The odd-in-a-good-way Mako side-slider, which is an S60 phone with full QWERTY and somewhat snoozy specs. And the Thresher, which is probably the shiniest slider Nokia’s ever pooped out.

[Engadget]

Engadget apparently hit upon the motherload of AT&T powerpoints: Slides detailing the Palm Eos, a new HP iPaq and probably most thrilling, HTC Lancaster (aka the Android phone we’ve been waiting for).

I’ve always wondered what Android would be like on a Touch Pro, that’s basically Lancaster. There is the dreary little note that “Initial Lab Entry dates were based on Google Mobile Services (GMS) UI, AT&T standard UI has been requested, which puts schedule in question” meaning AT&T could muck it up with their own UI, and take longer putting out the phone in the process. Its target date is Aug. 3, and it’ll be AT&T-exclusive for six months it looks like. Update: Oops, didn’t notice at first the screen resolution is a bit too squee for our tastes (240×320). Bummer.

The Palm Eos slide basically just confirms everything from before: emaciated WebOS phone with 4GB storage and AT&T all over it.

Update: Oh look, a whole bunch of BlackBerrys are now confirmed for AT&T too—Onyx, Gemini, Magnum and a 3G Pearl.

AT&T’s fall lineup is looking pretty unassailable at this point: With iPhone 3, a WebOS phone, and a solid Android piece, all of their bases are covered, with the exception of a touchscreen BlackBerry, but um, who really wants one of those now? Good thing AT&T’s network blows, since the other carriers have their work cut out for them. [Engadget]