Use High Contrast
AAPL256.84  chart+4.67
2010-09-03 12:25

Apple Unveils Their Long Rumored Slate Computing Device

27 January, 2010 @ 4:33 pm by Lioncourt

After years of rumors, speculation, and legend, Apple has finally lifted the veil over its slate, (or tablet in you prefer), computing device. It’s called iPad, and it’s quite impressive.

The iPad runs an expanded version of the iPhone OS, and therefore includes the VoiceOver screen reader, according to its product page. It looks similar to a large iPhone or iPod touch, but with a 9.7-inch multi-touch display.

The device offers much of the power of both an iPhone and a tradition notebook computer, using the same multi-touch technology which has made the former such a runaway hit among sighted and visually impaired consumers alike. While it can be used for web browsing, email, music, video, and all the other functionality one has come to expect from an iPhone, Apple will also be offering a multi-touch version of its iWork suite via the iTunes AppStore, as well as a new store and application called iBooks, which allows users to purchase and read electronic books from leading and independent publishers.

At this time, aside from the VoiceOver, Zoom, closed-captioning, white-on-black, and mono-audio features also found on the iPhone and Mac product lines, we are not sure about specifics in terms of accessibility. iWork for the Mac is almost entirely accessible, and Apple has made it a point to have good access to its AppStore offerings. We expect iWork for the iPad to be accessible, but this is not confirmed.

To date, electronic book stores, such as Amazon’s Kindle store, have not provided books in an accessible format, owing to DRM restrictions. We hope Apple may be able to pave the way for the visually impaired and their access to content with the iBooks application and store. If VoiceOver does indeed have access to the content in these publications, it would be a tremendous step forward for access to printed media.

The iPad comes in 16, 32, and 64 GB configurations, priced at $499 USD, $599 USD, and $699 USD, respectively.

The device includes 802.11N Wi-Fi, BlueTooth 2.1, and a 30-pin iPod dock connector. Additionally, an optional hardware keyboard and dock is available if you would prefer a hardware keyboard for extensive typing.

Optional 3G connectivity is available for an additional $130, and, in the USA at least, will be available via AT&T without a contract. Prices are $14.99 USD for 250MB of data and $29.99 for unlimited data.

The iPad will be available in late March, with 3G capable units to follow a month later.

We will be continuing to cover this latest products in the Apple lineup as information becomes available, and in an upcoming episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast.

Posted in Apple Inc., Apple News, VoiceOver, iPad, iPhone, iWork | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Apple Unveils Their Long Rumored Slate Computing Device”

  1. TVSoundGuy noted:

    I’m seriou

    January 27th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
  2. TVSoundGuy commented:

    I’ve been following the rumour pages and now feel like a kid who has spoiled my Christmas present because I shook the proverbial box and tore the wrapping paper just a bit. I’m in agreement with some others out there who have felt a little underwhelmed at Apple’s offerings, however I don’t think this is the be all and end all of Apple’s iPad. By the way, isn’t it interesting that OS X doesn’t flag the word iPad as being misspelled?

    Although it may not be accessible, I think this device has some potential for anyone who is an artist and wants to take advantage of the multitouch gestures and programs like Illustrator and Photoshop. Imagine being in a creative meeting with a client and you pullout your iPad, draw a graphic with your fingers and show it to them across the table.

    where I think the device will excel is in the academic and medical fields, provided the SDK will support mission-critical enterprise apps without crashing. Imagine taking a patient’s blood pressure during your rounds and your iBloodPressure app suddenly crashes, returning you to the home screen. for students, this is great news. I’m doing my Master’s degree now and having a device like this for textbooks that are easily navigable almost eliminates the need for a DAISY player, although having a DAISY reader app on the iPad would sink the ship of any competitor to be sure.

    What I think Apple left out was some type of handwriting recognition, as scribbling something down with a finger or stylus may just be much faster than waiting for the unlock screen, the home screen and the Notes app to load.

    If the iPad can produce an onscreen keyboard, and has multitouch technology built in, would it not be a matter of programming a Braille input keyboard? This is making the assumption that multitouch can recognize up to ten fingers on the device, which I’ve heard it can.

    I’ll be testing the accessibility of the device once it hits the stores in Canada for sure.

    January 27th, 2010 at 6:01 pm

Post a Response

You must be logged in to post a comment.