I’m not going to repeat the entire order of the event. Instead I’ll offer an overview of what the device can do. Let’s start with the technical specifications:

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• WiFi and 3G models
• Bluetooth
• Assisted GPS
• Digital Compass
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
• 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
• Dock connector
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
• Built-in speakers
• Microphone
• SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• And one month standby

The applications:

The iPad lets you view Safari as it was meant to be seen. See and touch your email in ways you never could before. With a very large multitouch virtual keyboard it gets very easy to type. With its crisp, vibrant display, and its unique software features, iPad is an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos. The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows, to podcasts and music videos. The YouTube app organizes videos so they’re really easy to see and navigate.

With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. Just tap on the iTunes Store icon, and you can browse and buy music, TV shows, podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad. iPad will run almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. The iBooks app is a great, new way to read and buy books. See more of the world with high-resolution Satellite and Street View images.With its expansive display and large, on-screen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy.

iPad makes it easy to keep on schedule by displaying Day, Week, Month or List views of your calendar. The Contacts app on iPad makes finding names, numbers and other important information quicker and easier than ever before. The Home Screen gives you one-tap access to everything on iPad. Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad, and all of its built-in apps.

Accessories:

Apple has also shown some accessories. One of those accessories is a docking station for the iPad. There’s also an Apple Keyboard Dock. It charges the iPad but also has a keyboard attached to it so you can type on a familiar surface. It also allow for a stereo connection.

Once you’ve bought the device, you need to protect it. What better than buying the Apple iPad Case. The iPad Case not only protects the iPad, it can be used in various positions. So it’s easy to type, look at photos and slideshows, or watch movies.

Availability and Pricing:

The device will be available in 60 days from now. The Wi-Fi-only version that is. The Wi-Fi + 3G version will be available in 90 days from now. Worldwide.

Since there are two different models there are also two different prices. Actually there are 6 different models since the iPad comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations. The other difference between the models is, one of them has Wi-Fi only, the other has Wi-Fi + 3G. See the graph below.

Link to quicktime video about the iPad: Apple iPad Video
For more information take a look at Apple’s iPad pages.

Apparently Apple has been very aggressive in discussion with publishers about bringing content to Apple’s latest creation. The tablet’s software is being touted by Apple as a game changer for the e-reader market. They will attack the Kindle directly and offer publishers greater control over content and pricing.

It seems Apple has not made any deals with publishers so far, but is expected to have general agreements with the biggest publishers by Wednesday. Apple prefers to work directly with the publishers meaning Scrollmotion is being cut out of the tablet. The App Store was only filled with a couple hundreds of apps on the launch day. The same thing will happen to the availability of e-books. A large library of e-books isn’t expected until mid-2010 at the very earliest. However, that doesn’t mean the tablet will not be in stores before then.

Even though publishers have not seen the Apple Tablet, they seem to have some knowledge about the device. According to those publishers the device will have a 10-inch glass screen and is smaller but roughly equal in weigh compared to Amazon’s Kindle DX. The price of the device will not be anywhere near the $1000 mark.

Speaking about the price. A Twitter tweet (see above), which has been quickly removed, from the German electronics retailer MediaMarkt claims the device will cost €499 with a monthly data plan and €899 without it. Looking at the price conversions in Apple’s online stores this could mean the tablet will costs somewhere near $999 without a data plan and $599 with a data plan. Leaves me with one question: If the publishers are speaking the truth, were they talking about the price with a data plan or not? On the other hand, the fact that the tweet was quickly removed (but not before it was retweeted many times), may indicate a false alarm.

No matter what the tablet will cost, it seems New York Times employees have a lot of confidence in the new product. According to a new report employees from NYT have been traveling to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California to work on a new version of the newspaper’s iPhone application. The application must be prepared to offer video and an optimized resolution for a large-screen tablet device.

“Apple has been slowly amassing digital reading material for the forthcoming device. A team from the New York Times has been working in Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters in recent weeks, developing a large-screen version of the newspaper’s iPhone application that incorporates video for the yet-to-be-unveiled device, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment.”

New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. said he will not be attending Apple’s media event and only said “Stay tuned”
when asked for a comment on Apple’s involvement with the newspaper’s plan to bring the newspaper to the tablet device.

To end the summary, here are two photos of the so called iTablet. They are probably fake, but they look very good. If the tablet looks like that I think I speak for most of us when I say: “What a beauty!”

click on the pictures to see a larger version

Source: Publishers Tidbits / MediaMarkt tweet / NYT Tablet App / Leaked Tablet Pictures