Apple iPad - Product Spotlight

We shine the Product Spotlight on Apple's successful iPad to learn what makes it tick, what's new, and why it deserves its ranking as CNET's highest-rated tablet.

Apple iPad - Product Spotlight If there’s one new tech product that defined our year it’s this, the Apple iPad. I’m Donald Bell here to shine the product spotlight on this game changing tablet. The iPad debuted April of 2010 and immediately reset everyone’s idea of what a tablet should be. There are two main models of the iPad, one that connects to the internet using a combo of WiFi and 3G from AT&T and one that relies just on WiFi. The WiFi models are priced at 499 per 16 gigabytes, 599 for 32 and 699 for 64. Models with 3G are available in the same capacities but are priced at a $130.00 or higher. Out of the box you get the iPad, a wall adaptor and the USB cable. Headphones, cases, docks are all sold separately and are all worthwhile investments. Looking at the iPad itself the designs are instructed entirely of glass and aluminum giving it a feel that’s closer to a Macbook than to an iPhone. It’s 7.5 inches wide, 9.5 inches tall and just a half an inch thick with the diagonal screen size of 9.7 inches. On the bottom you have a dock connector and a speaker along with the home button. This side is volume button and a mute switch and at top you have a headphone jack, a little pinhole microphone and a screen lock button. Compared to a Smartphone or a dedicated eBook reader, it’s not the lightest thing at 1.5 pounds but it’s lighter and more convenient than a laptop and that oddly enough gets us to the heart of what makes the iPad great. It holds its own between the Smartphone and a laptop without making you think why am I bothering with this when I can I just be using a Smartphone or a laptop. It sounds obvious but it’s something that the competition hasn’t been able to reproduce. They go smaller or bigger but we just keep coming back to the iPad. So getting past the design what’s the iPad actually good for? Starting with the stock apps you get email, a web browser, YouTube, maps, videos, music, calendar, notes, contacts and photos all of which have been optimized to the iPad’s large screen. You’ll find similar apps on competing products but you won’t find these. Here we have links to the iTunes store and the IOS App Store and the way you can boil down success of the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod touch to these two killer apps. With iTunes you get direct access to the world’s largest and most popular digital music store along with movies and TV shows that you need to buy or rent and a great selection of podcasts, audio books and free educational content. All of this content downloads directly to your device with no need to connect to your computer. More importantly you have the App Store which gives you access to hundreds of thousands of third party applications and games. They can mold the iPad at the tons of different uses. If you want to use the iPad as an eBook reader you can download Apple’s on iBooks App or the Amazon Kindle reader, the Barnes & Noble Nook Reader or even an app for comic books. And that’s just one example but Apple really does have an app for just about every interest and that’s a big part of the iPad appeal. Now there have been a few changes to the iPad since we first showed it off in April of 2010. After the update IOS4.2 the iPad now shares most of the features found on the iPhone four including folders, multi tasking, TV show rentals, printer support and a new wireless streaming feature called Airplay. If you like staying organized the folder feature lets you group apps together under a custom label. The multitasking capability allows you to run multiple apps at the same time and quickly jump back and forth between the currently running apps. It’s great for productivity but it’s also fun just to listen to Pandora Radio while reading an EBook. TV show rentals which came to the iPhone and the iPod Touch in September are now finally on the iPad offering tons of popular shows for as little as 99 cents per episode. If you have an air print compatible printer you can now print email, photos, web pages and iWorks documents wirelessly from your iPad and if you own one of Apple’s $99.00 Apple TV’s or you’re thinking about getting one the iPad’s new Airplay feature let’s you send your videos, photos and music straight to your TV over your home network. Add it all up and you have an awesome product that just keeps getting better. It’s also one of those few tech products that we feel good about recommending across the board whether you’re a gadget fanatic or someone who typically shies away from computers. It’s worth giving the iPad a try. So that’s the iPad from Apple. It’s CNET top pick for tablets and it’s also one of the most talked about gadgets of the year and more than anything it’s a lot of fun. So for CNET.com, I’m Donald Bell.