Apple Inc.will sell the newly unveiled tablet-style iPad starting at $499, a price tag far below the $1,000 that some analysts were expecting.
The iPad, which is larger in size but similar in design to Apple’s popular iPhone, was billed by CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday as “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.”
Jobs, 54, a pancreatic cancer survivor who got a liver transplant during a 5 1/2-month medical leave last year, looked thin as he introduced the highly anticipated gadget, though he seemed to have more energy than he did at Apple’s last event in September.
The iPad has a 9.7-inch touch screen, is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds and comes with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage. It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built in. Jobs said the device has a battery that lasts 10 hours and can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge.
The basic iPad models will cost $499, $599 and $699, depending on the storage size, when it comes out worldwide in March.
Apple will also sell a version with data plans from AT&T Inc. in the U.S.: $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited usage. Neither will require a long-term service contract.
Those 3G iPad models will cost more — $629, $729 and $829, depending on the amount of memory — and will be out in April. International cellular data details have not yet been announced.
Apple had kept its “latest creation” tightly under wraps until Wednesday’s unveiling, though many analysts had correctly speculated that it would be a one-piece tablet computer with a big touch screen, larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop.
Raven Zachary, a contributing analyst with mobile researchers The 451 Group, considered the iPad a laptop replacement, especially because Apple is also selling a dock with a built-in keyboard.
Sitting on stage in a cozy leather chair, Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple’s Safari browser. The CEO typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen. He also showed off a new electronic book store and a book-reading interface that emulates the look of a paper book, putting the iPad in competition with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and other e-book readers.
Like iPods and the iPhone, the iPad can sync with Apple’s Macintosh and Microsoft’s Windows computers. Jobs said the iPad will also be better for playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone. Software coming with the iPad includes a calendar, maps, a video player and iPod software for playing music. All seem to have been slightly redesigned to take advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen.
Tablet computers have existed for a decade, with little success. Jobs acknowledged Apple will have to work to convince consumers who already have smart phones and laptops that they need this gadget.
“In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks,” Jobs said. “We think we’ve got the goods. We think we’ve done it.”
Specifications
Apat from the content backing news, an industry analyst has previosuly reported to Apple Tablet the possible specification sheet for the Apple Tablet to be launched very soon:
Display:
9.6? widescreen multi-touch display (by WinTek)
1440-by-1050-pixel resolution at 489 ppi
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz
Memory: DDR2 2 GB @ 667 MHz
Video: nVidia GeForce 9400M
Storage: 64 GB flash drive
Optical drive: Apple SuperDrive with DVD±RW and CD-RW
Open YAST Control Center->Software->Installation Sources
You will be provided with a list of repositories, more than likely though, you will only have one. We need to add one to get MPlayer out of that repository.
Click on Add, then HTTP.
Now Fill it in as shown:
Server Name: packman.iu-bremen.de It is suggested that you try a mirror, essecially if it is down. Use this one if you cannot access the first one:
Now in the YAST Control Center, click on Software Management.
You may notice that it will take longer to refresh, this is good. It is refreshing the list of software it has available on that repository you added earlier.
Once it’s done, look for the Filter field, click on search on the drop down box. Search for “mplayer”. More than likely you will get three parts returned. They should be something like this:
libpostproc
MPlayer
mplayerplug-in
If you got those three, check them all. If you didn’t please go back and check your repository again. The repository may be down, in which case try a mirror, then complete the installation.
You can now play movies using mplayer (try it in the commandline or from the KMenu).
Tip:Mozilla-based browsers will also have a plugin that will play items using mplayer.
Troubleshooting Solution :-
Mplayer Fails owing to a libdirectfb failure.
Open up a console such as xterm or konsole, and type:
$ su
Password: <type your root password>
# ln -s /usr/lib/libdirectfb-0.9.so.24 /usr/lib/libdirectfb-0.9.so.22
“Ever get tired of Windows people proclaiming how their operating system has device support for this, that, and the other thing and Linux doesn’t? Well, now you have a perfect come-back. The newest, fast interface, USB 3.0 is out and only Linux has native support for it.
“Linux started supporting USB 3.0 in the September 2009 release of the 2.6.31 Linux kernel. Neither Windows 7 nor Snow Leopard currently supports USB 3. Windows support? That will have to wait for Windows 7 SP1 —whenever that shows up.
“Long before then, many USB 3.0 devices will have arrived. Some will doubtlessly have Windows drivers, but only Linux is USB 3.0 ready. USB 3.0, aka SuperSpeed USB, reaches new highs in PC peripheral speeds. USB 2.0 has a maximum throughput of 480Mbps (Megabits per second), which is fast — but these days, when you might want to move gigabytes of movies from one your PC to an external hard drive, it’s not fast enough. USB 3.0, by comparison, has a maximum throughput of 5 Gbps (Gigabits per second) .”
