Steve Jobs certainly has a way with words even through his emails. While most of his random responses to the probably large amounts of emails he receives on a normal basis are no more than a sentence, they do say a lot. Furthermore, since they are coming from the Apple CEO himself, you know they’re accurate. For one, when asked if a user would be able to send Google Docs to his iPad through iWork.com, Steve Jobs replied with a simple “Yes.” When another Apple fan emailed in regards to whether the iPhone will have a universal mailbox, Jobs also replied with a “Yes.”

However, perhaps the most interesting of his replies concerns MacBook Pros. When emailed from a worrying customer that Apple has been putting too much energy into the iPad and has forgotten about updating the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Steve Jobs urged him simply “Not to worry.” This is especially interesting considering some suppliers have noted smaller amounts of products from Apple recently. What does this mean? Well, if I were you, I’d hold off on purchasing that brand new laptop for a month or so.

Oh, and of course, Jobs’ emails ended with “Sent from my iPad.”

Via [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

At their January 27th event, Apple announced what the networking aspects of the iPad are going to be. Basically, thanks to a “breakthrough” deal with (everyone sigh with me now…) AT&T, Apple is able to offer two different prepaid accounts for the iPad. The good thing, obviously, is that no contract is required. Furthermore, 250MB of data a month will only cost $14.99, while unlimited is just $29.99, and there is also free use at any of AT&T’s wifi hotspots. Furthermore, it can just be activated straight on the iPad as you want it with no hassle required at cellular network stores.

While the wifi and 3G version of the iPad does cost more than just the wifi version, this is certainly a nice inclusion—especially considering the iPad 3G models will be unlocked and able to use new GSM micro SIMs. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t announced any international deals yet, but they promised to have them all by June/July. It will be interesting to see whether the international carriers are as willing as AT&T to bend to Apple’s demands.

One thing that does upset me is that despite the rumor, nothing was said about the iPhone carriers. Are far as I can tell, we’re still stuck there.

Though as of this writing the iPad is not yet available for preorder at the Apple Store, you can watch the introductory video at the Apple website.

The video discusses the ideas behind the iPad, its construction, and its use, focusing on the tactile nature of holding it (in any direction you like; “there’s no wrong way to hold it” being a repeated phrase), and using your fingers, rather than an intermediary device, to use it.

The video is just under 8 minutes long.

Along with the hardware announcement of the iPad, Apple also stated that the Software Development Kit (SDK) for the device will be available to developers later today. This means that developers will be able to develop for the iPad on their Mac using a simulator much like that of the iPhone.

While not many details were given out about this, I would assume it also will allow developers to make changes to their current iPhone apps so they display better for the iPad and the iPhone at the same time. That said, the iPad will allow users to run existing iPhone applications in the center of the screen currently or in portrait mode by doubling the pixels.

The announcement of this new SDK has Apple saying, “We think it’s going to be another gold rush for devs.” And I’m sure it will be. As they already did demo some applications altered specifically for the iPad, I’m sure that is only the beginning of what developers will do with this new screen real estate. It will be interesting to see what the new SDK entails more in detail once the download link is posted to the developer center.

Definitely check back with Appletell for information on this as it’s available.

It was a high possibility that Apple would release a new version of iWork for 2010, but no one really saw iWork coming to the brand new Apple iPad. Well, that’s exactly what Steve Jobs just introduced live on stage.

Apple was apparently originally worried that the iPad would not have enough processing power to handle word-processing software, but with the Apple A4 1GHz processor, it certainly appears to handle it quite well. To clarify, Pages, Numbers and Keynote will all be available on the iPad, each with its own new beautiful interface.

Each individual application will cost $9.99, although it unfortunately appears there’s no option for a free version with the desktop versions of iWork. Still, it’s quite a reasonably priced application for what you’re able to do. The bottom line, they’re just as powerful as the desktop applications, but through the power of touch, I would imagine this would bring you closer to your work (if that could be possible for you hard working lot). This means that you can simply move items to where you want them, and be in total control of your designs.

This is great news for myself. It means the iPad is more powerful than just a big iPhone. There’s much more to it. The ability to edit and create documents on the fly has been something missing from the iPhone, and so to see it on the iPad is great, especially considering Apple will also be selling a dockable keyboard/stand for desktop use.

Don’t forget to keep checking back at the Appletell live blog for even more great news.

Along with the iPad comes a new application known as iBooks. This application was created by Apple, not a third party developer, and is backed by partners such as Penguin, Macmillion, Simon & Shuster, etc. Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs did give Amazon and their Kindle credit in this category in saying, “Now Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this…we’re going to stand on their shoulders for this.”

iBooks uses the industry standard ePub format and also comes with a store right in the application that allows for the purchase of books. When it comes to viewing books for sale, there is an extremely clean bookshelf-like user interface. When it comes to reading books, it appears sort of like it would in physical media, except on a screen (imagine using a camera to view a book page through).

On top of just serving as a reader, it also allows you to edit some of the settings such as which style of text you use and how large that text is. When turning a page, the animation is much like that of a real book and looks really slick on the iPad, which we’ve already seen can render graphics for games pretty well.

Apple has announced its new tablet device, the iPad. At first glance, the device appears to be simply a large iPhone like device with the hardware consisting of only the home button we are used to. And it’s true, much of the interface is exactly like you would find it on the iPhone. That said, while Mail.app is still similar, it does have some refreshing new changes.

For one, since the screen is so much larger, the organization of the inboxes and messages on the iPad is quite a bit different. One view allows the user to have the messages listed along the left hand side with the actual selected message open on the right. While it takes an extra modal to view messages on the iPhone, this seems much better for viewing email.

Furthermore, the new interface also has drop down menus for switching messages and inboxes. Basically, the larger screen on the device allows much more real estate for the developer to plays with and thereby makes it more efficient to navigate around the interface. While the changes are somewhat subtle, they will make browsing your mail a much more pleasurable experience if you ask me.

Stay tuned with the live coverage of the event, and don’t forget to check back soon, as we’ll have more in-depth articles around the iPad and it’s software.

It’s here—it’s official. Apple has just announced the Apple iPad. Steve Jobs said on stage that the iPad will be “… way better than a laptop, way better than an phone.” It looks, as you can see, quite similar to the iPhone and iPod touch. It has the same home screen button and the same icons (albeit more spread out). The first obvious difference between the iPad and an iPhone or iPod touch is the ability to change the background; something that we’ve wanted on the iPhone and iPod touch for quite some time.

With a bigger screen (although not yet specified on stage), viewing web pages looks great. They render just like a normal browser, and with the new on-screen keyboard, text-entry appears to be a breeze too. There are some updated applications, of course, specified for the iPad, including a new Calendar and Contacts app, which both utilize the full screen.

It’s also now possible to stream high-deffinition content to the iPad, although the screen looks to be more towards 4:3, rather than 16:9. Still, from what we can see so far, it looks beautiful.

Stay tuned with the live coverage of the event, and don’t forget to check back soon, as we’ll have more in-depth articles around the iPad and it’s software.