iPad Announced

In case you didn’t hear, the much-anticipated Apple iPad was announced today.  Some notable points for me:

• New 1GHz Apple A4 processor chip
• Uses iPhone 3.0 OS
• It’s 9.7″ with a 1024×768 resolution
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Comes with 16GB, 32 or 64GB flash drive
• Choice between Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and 3G
• Starts at $499 and goes up to $829 for the full config (64GB and Wi-Fi + 3G)
• No built-in camera (would have been great for video chat)

Will I buy one? Tricky. In terms of actual use, I don’t have much need for this first version. I already have an iPhone, MacBookPro and a MacPro Tower. I’m also trying to resist buying another first generation Apple product and wait for the second.  But of course, as an interaction designer, I’ll want to test it and explore the interactions for future projects. I’m also excited to see what design applications are adapted for iPad. OmniGroup has said that they’ll be making their products, including OmniGraffle, available as an app. So, we’ll see ;)

UPDATE: Craig Villamor and Luke Wroblewski extracted 8 minutes of video about the new multi-touch interactions on the iPad that were shown of during Apple’s unveiling.