Bill Koslosky, MD

Engaget reports:

For some of us, amid all the hubbub about revolutions and whatnot yesterday, the most significant announcement on hand was Apple's supposedly custom A4 CPU. Alas, in the cold and brutal light of the morning after, we're hearing that it is in fact a system-on-a-chip driven by a Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU "identical" to the one found inside NVIDIA's Tegra 2, while besting the iPhone 3GS significantly with its 1GHz speed and multicore architecture. The chip is composed of that Cortex barnburner, an integrated memory controller, and the Mali 50-series GPU, making it an all ARM affair -- though we still don't know how much Apple and PA Semi did in terms of arranging and integrating those components within the silicon. While still not 100 percent confirmed, it would seem there were no revolutions on the iPad's processing front -- just a rebranded bit of well engineered hardware.

Nvidia's blurb on their Tegra 2.

ARM talks about its CPUs.

I was able to watch the live blogging at Gizmodo (crashed), Engadget (crashed), gdgt.com, Robert Scoble on FriendFeed, and also the Leo Laporte live video feed within the conference hall (but the slides were a little overexposed). Leo then a little chance to have a hands-on with Steve's new baby, and did some live commentary.

Leo basically said that he thought this was a household computer. You wouldn't want to take it anywhere, except maybe for airline travel. He also said that it was essentially an "iPod Touch blown up." Yes, even though it has a gigahertz processor that Leo said was notably faster than other Apple handheld devices, it basically has the iPhone/iTouch OS, which means no multi-tasking. As for reading an ebook, he said it was "far superior to the Kindle" but this is just a first impression.

The real shocker of this event was the mention of the base price of $499 (16 GB). The next surprise was the docking station/keyboard. The folding case that is used to prop up the device didn't seem too stable to me. The video playback was pretty impressive, but I'm not too concerned about watching movies with a device I have to hold in my hands or playing video games from the App Store.

It seems that there's no support for Flash, or other apps such as PDF readers/editors that you would run on a full fledged notebook (not netbook, not smartbook). So, why not stick with a notebook computer?

Obviously, part of the reason for this device is to allow Apple to sell more digital media, now with iBook. You're paying more than what Amazon.com charges, but with this you get color and again that speedier processor.

I'm very not impressed with its ability to manage calendars, contacts, etc. which is very easily and more conveniently done on a smart phone. I don't think I'd be interested in paying for a data plan from AT&T ($14.99 for 250 MB/month, and $29.99 MB/month for unlimited data [really?]).

If anything, I think today's announcement will have folks looking at the iPod Touch again.You might have a smaller screen, but most of the major Web sites have mobile sites, which work just as well for me.

I do like that Apple is the top player in the mobile device market now, and will the developers in their pocket, even in vertical markets such as healthcare. Google has to respond now with a similar device, but I hope it's not the browser based Chrome OS they've announced. Please don't try to sell us anymore crippled devices.

I think the Kindle, the Nook and the other e-ink devices are in trouble, but change is happening rapidly in the entire mobile field, and Apple doesn't have a slam dunk with the iPad. There will be competition, that's for sure.

Let's hope that the announcement of iPhone OS 4 will be more compelling.

UPDATE: Gizmodo hates the wide bezel; lack of multi-tasking, camera, Flash and HDMI out; the name; the 4:3 screen that's not widescreen; the touch keyboard without haptic feedback; the need for multiple adapters even for USB; and, non-support for T-Mobile.

Engadget shot some hands-on video that really shows the capabilities of the gigahertz processor. The speed of operation is very impressive.

The Apple iPad promo video.

I think that skepticism is a good stance to take against new tech products/services, especially when it seems that the company didn't poll its users to find out what their specific needs are. I say this at the risk of being labeled a "hater."

O all of the PDA-like devices I've owned, the iPod Touch is the most impressive as far as style and functionality are concerned. My Samsung Moment is the ugly duckling, but it has incredible functionality (I know, don't compare an iPod to a smart phone), and I tend to think the Android platform has a bright future. I was a dedicated Treo user since the first model was released, but Palm fell way behind on the power curve in development. Jobs deserves much credit for competing successfully in a market that expects innovation.

What's going on here is that eventually print media will complete the transition to a digital platform. College students will be using e-textbooks for a lot of reasons. I don't know about selling newspaper subscriptions, though. Jobs is staking his claim for his vision of the near future with an expensive starter just to show how well this can be done. The iconic theme for today's event is the paint ball color splotch banner. When e-ink bleeds, it only runs in shades of gray, at least for now.

Surprise announcements seem to be the way to go to generate the best buzz, and Apple does this better than anyone else. Pundits and prognosticators may make their arguments about practicality, but they're necessarily distanced from the realities of producing a device that will sell and continue to thrive in the days to come.

For today, just live for the moment.