iPad

By Apple

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media.  It includes books, magazines, movies, music, games, various software applications and web content.  Its size stands at 9.5" x 7.31" x 0.34" with a 9.7 inch widescreen screen display and weighs in at 1.5 pounds which falls somewhere between the size & weight of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs the same operating system used on Apple’s iPod Touch and iPhone which is called iOS (previously iPhone OS); it can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications. 

Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multi-touch display; a departure from most earlier tablet computers, which generally used a pressure-triggered stylus and a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. The iPad is sold with Wi-Fi capability; the Wi-Fi connection is used to access local area networks and the Internet. 

In December of 2011 you could buy you very own iPad2 for about $399.00 with 16 GB (Gigabyte) of memory capacity. Today (August 2012) the price of the newest iPad (3rd gen) with as much as 64 GB’s runs about $699.00 but there is a 16 GB size available in the new version which is $499.00. If you only need 32 GB’s there’s a model available for $599.00.    However, you might want to visit different stores around your area to compare the prices. Keep in mind while shopping that on average most folks never use even 8 GB’s.

Apple, Inc. reportedly had a five man team working on the iPad design as early as April 3, 2008 but it wasn’t released in the United States until April 3, 2010 and released internationally on May 28, 2010. The iPad 2 was released in the United States on March 11, 2011 and the 3rd generation was released March 16, 2012. 

The new iPad is just that: The iPad updated for a new year for millions of new iPad users. It’s not smaller or lighter, but it’s got an incredible screen, a much better rear camera, plus support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. 

Current users of the iPad 2 shouldn’t worry: Their iPad investment is good for at least another year. However they probably shouldn’t look too closely at the new iPad’s screen. Arguably, once you see the capacity of the newer screen display, it may be hard to go back to anything else.

Way back when, Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1947) an American computer scientist of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, published a paper in 1972 detailing a device somewhat like Apple’s iPad. Keep in mind that back then, most people had no idea what a personal computer was. There was no Internet back then and visionaries of the time denied that “ordinary” people would ever even use a computer. For example, Ken Olson, founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation (a really big American computer development company from the 1960’s until 1998 when they were purchased by Compact), said in 1977 that “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”

Kay’s paper, you see, discussed a mythical device he called the “Dynabook.” He made a number of predictions, many of which are true of the iPad most recently released by Apple. In his paper, Kay states that “current trends in miniaturization and price reduction almost guarantee that many of the notions discussed will actually happen in the near future.” OK, so “near” didn’t happen for about 38 years, but his predictions are almost scary in how accurate they were, including his price estimate of $500.00 per PC.  In any event as of March 31, 2012 Apple has sold approximately 84.1 million units.

Sources:                                                                                                    http://chris.pirillo.com/when-was-the-ipad-really-invented/                                                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_the_iPad_invented_and_who_invented_it