January 27, 2010, 10:30 am
Live Blogging the iPad Product Announcement
By Brad Stone New York Times, Livbe Blog

Photo -David F. Gallagher/The New York Times - Accessories for the iPad include a keyboard dock.

Over and Out

Update | 3:15 p.m. We’re done with the live blog. Check back on Bits later for our impressions after touching the iPad, as well as more analysis of its implications.

What’s Missing

Update | 2:45 p.m. Expectations were very high for this device. Some missing features that many people were expecting:

* No ability to play Adobe Flash animations, widely used on the Web.
* No camera, still or video
* No non-Internet phone function
* Unclear whether you can bundle your AT&T iPhone plan with an iPad data plan
* No removable battery for a device that can suck a lot of power
* No removable storage

David Carr: ‘The Soul of the New Machine’
Update | 2:40 p.m. From my colleague David Carr:
Over and over, the meme is, “Hold the Internet in your hands.” It’s a seductive idea, and the promise it contains will be a nice way to draw people in. The video right now is getting into hardware, letting you seen into the soul of the new machine. The guts of it are meant to render the gadget invisible, making it a frame around hardware and aps.
Mr. Jobs’ Conclusion: It’s ‘Magical’

Update | 2:32 p.m. After a promotional video, Mr. Jobs is ready to sum things up.
“Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products?” he says. “The bar is pretty high. It has to be far better at doing some key things. We think we have the goods.”
More than 75 million people already know how to use the iPad, Mr. Jobs says — these are the owners of iPhones and iPod Touches. And there are more than 125 million customer accounts with credit cards, all enabled for one-click shopping on iTunes, the App Store and the new iBook store. “We are at scale, and we are ready for the iPad,” Mr. Jobs says.
Mr. Jobs’ summation: “Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” Leave no hyperbole behind, apparently.
We are off to play with this thing in the demo room next door. Stay tuned.

Accessories
Update | 2:25 p.m. Mr. Jobs is talking about accessories.
There’s a dock, of course, to let you turn the iPad into a nice picture frame or video viewer.
There’s also a physical keyboard dock — it charges the iPad and also makes it more functional for typing. “Just keep one of these in your den, and when you have to write ‘War and Peace,’ just plug your iPad into it,” Mr. Jobs says.

Available in 60 Days
Update | 2:25 p.m. The first iPads will ship in 60 days, with 3G models taking another month.

Price Ranges From $499 to $829
Update | 2:20 p.m. And now: price.
“When we set out to develop the iPad, we not only had specific technical goals and user interface goals, but an aggressive price goal, because we want to put this in the hands of a lot of people,”

Mr. Jobs says.
Mr. Jobs says Apple has met its cost goals: The iPad’s pricing starts at $499. (Which means, at the very least, there is little reason to buy the much more limited Amazon Kindle DX.)
For $499, you get 16 GB of storage, with WiFi built-in. For $599, you get 32 GB of storage. For $699, you get 64 GB of storage.
The 3G models cost an extra $130 each.
So all told, there are six models of the new iPad. The most expensive 64 GB model, with 3G, costs $829 plus the monthly charge.
NYT.