Microsoft offers a FREE antivirus/anti-other-bad-stuff application called "Miscrosoft Security Essentials".
It is NOT the best thing out there, but works pretty well. It DOES "suck up some CPU cycles" - i.e. when it's running your machine will slow down a bit.
It is DEFINITELY better than running nothing - so if your subscription to Norton or Symantec or whatever is running out, and you don't have the cash, check it out.
Live Updates - original article here
Red, Bold text are things I'll highlight in class.
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10:06 PT -- Dan Moren: Jobs is on stage talking about some other topics. Talking about how well Apple is doing, including the iPhone.
10:06 PT -- DM: Apple is the #1 mobile device maker in the world.
10:06 PT -- DM: Wall Street Journal: "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it."
10:07 PT - JS: Back in time to 1991 - first PowerBooks.
10:07 PT - JS: Now today, Apple reinvented the iPhone. And the iPhone 3GS, then. So all of us use laptops and smartphones now.
10:07 PT - DM: Is there room for a third category of device in the middle?
10:07 PT - JS: New device has to do stuff better than iPhone or laptop. Better at browsing, e-mail, photos, video, music, games, eBooks.
10:07 PT -- DM: Jobs is talking: Some people have thought this is a netbook, but the problem is netbooks aren't better an anything.
10:08 PT -- DM: Slow, low quality displays, run PC software. They're not better than a laptop at anything, just cheaper. We don't think they're the 3rd device.
10:08 PT -- DM: But Apple thinks it has something that is -- it's called the iPad. And look! Steve Jobs happens to have one on hand!
10:09 PT -- DM: It's a slate that looks like a larger iPhone. There's a home button, an aluminum bezel like a MacBook, a glass screen. Your able to personalize your home screen however you want. You can browse the Web with it -- Steve says it's the best browsing experience you've had.
10:09 PT -- DM: Phenomenal to see a whole web page right in front of you. Way better than a laptop, way better than a smartphone. Turn it up down sideways, automatically adjusts to whatever orientation you want. Holding the Internet in your hands; it's an incredible experience.
10:17 PT - DM: He's showing off the attachments in the e-mail. View wineries in Napa Valley or a Paris metro map. Looks a lot like the iPhone Mail client.
10:17 PT - JS: Sorry everyone - we were waylayed by the complete destruction of the (shocker) Verizon data network.
10:17 PT - DM: To send the message, just hit the compose button. He's typing on it like a standard QWERTY keyboard, just putting the tablet in his lap. I guess that answers the text entry question. Not sure you'd want to type on it for a long time, though.
10:18 PT - JS: Jobs is sitting in the armchair doing all this, to show us how easy this is. He's typing on the pad while it's on his lap.
10:18 PT - DM: Now looking at photos. You can turn in portrait or landscape and flick through the photos, just like on the phone. Grabs metadata from PC or Mac. If you're on a Mac, you can also get events, faces, and places from iPhoto. Look inside any album just by pinching it open. Scrub through them with a little bar at the bottom.
10:19 PT - DM: Events, Faces, and places. Shows a big map with pins in it. Tap and hold on the pin and see all the photos there. Tap on it to open the photos. There are built-in slideshows, so yo can bring up slideshow options and pick your transition. Just starts playing music and then flips through the images.
10:21 PT - DM: "You get the idea. Isn't that cool?" Now on to looking at music. The iPod interface looks a lot like the album view in iTunes on the Mac mixed slightly with the Cover Flow view on the phone.
10:22 PT - JS: This interface is interesting, because unlike the iPhone, it's got panes and floating windows and lots of stuff that you can do when you've got a bunch of screen space.
10:23 PT - JS: Great calendar. week view, day view, month view, a lot like iCal, but it actually looks nicer...
10:23 PT - DM: (Sorry about the time travel!) Here's our current location in San Francisco. Typing in sushi to search and should find all the sushi places nearby. Tap on a pin. Tap Google street view and it shows you the restaurant. (How many people are going to stalk Steve at Sushi Boat?)
10:24 PT - DM: Video. Go to YouTube. Pick a clip called Wet and Woofy in HD on YouTube. IT's a surfing dog!
10:25 PT - JS: lots of use of tabbed interface with a pane or two. Really kind of a combo of Mac UI philosophy and iPhone UI.
10:25 PT - DM: Landscape mode for videos. Movies, TV shows, music videos. Tap on Modern Family, pick an episode and watch it. Or Star Trek, go to Chapters. The aspect ratio is a little weird; there are some pretty big letterbox black bars on top and bottom. Showing off Up. Double-tap to make it full screen if you want. That's video on the iPad.
10:27 PT - DM: A little bit of an overview as to what the iPad can do. Watching it is nothing like getting one in your hands. Feeling all of that right underneath your fingertips. Back to the hardware a little bit.
10:27 PT - DM: A half inch thin. Weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7 inch IPS display. Super high quality using IPS technology so you get great angle of view. Full capacitive multi-touch. 1GHz Apple A4 chip (Gruber laughs). Most advanced chip they've ever done; processor, graphics, I/O, and everything in one chip. 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of flash solid state storage.
10:27 PT - JS: People don't like the iPad name but I think the connotations you're thinking of will drift away. iPod didn't mean anything either, but here we are.
10:29 PT - JS: That's the PA Semi chip there, Apple's own A4 chip.
10:29 PT - DM: 802.11n WI-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1. Accelerometer & compass, speaker microphone, 30-pin connector. Battery. What is the battery life of this device? 10 hours of battery life. Applause! Take a flight from SF to Tokyo and watch video the whole way on one charge. In addition, over a month of standby life. Set the iPad down, goes to sleep automatically, walk away and come back in a month and it still has a charge.
10:29 PT - JS: 10 hours of battery life - key if you're going to sit on your couch with this. Or fly somewhere with it.
10:30 PT - DM: Arsenic free, BFR-free, mercury-free, PVC-free, highly recyclable. Now back to software.
10:30 PT - DM: We've seen some great built-in applications. But now let's talk about the App Store. Here's Scott Forstall, SVP iPhone Software.
10:31 PT - DM: Forstall: App Store has been a huge success. Launched a year and a half ago. Customers have already downloaded 3 billion apps choosing from among 140,000 apps. Built the iPad to run virtually every app unmodified right out of the box. Do that in two ways. Pixel-for-pixel accuracy in a black box in the middle of screen or automatically pixel double and run apps full screen.
10:32 PT - DM: Here are a number of apps from the store unmodified. Here's Facebook. Bottom right corner of the screen shows "2x". Tap on it and it automatically scales up to full screen. It all just works. Facebook uses a lot of text, photos and videos, but what about an app that really drives graphics, like a game?
10:32 PT - JS: Good detail on the iPhone compatibility there. There's an option to run apps at one size or full screen, scaled up. (The screen is definitely not 16x9, it's closer to the 4:3 used in traditional TVs.) When you run an app on the iPad it can run at iPhone size, with a little bezel around it to indicate you're emulating an iPhone. Or hit the 2x button and it blows up to double size.
10:32 PT - DM: ESPN's XGames SnoCross. Plays a video at the beginning. Video works great on the iPad. Skip the rest of the video and get to the game. Race in Arcade mode. IT's an OpenGL ES game, so it really drives graphics hardware. Unmodified right off the App Store.
10:34 PT - DM: Steering with acelerometer. 2X it looks pretty good. Tremendous frames. Having played some games on here, they're smooth and fun. There you go. Right out of the App Store unmodified.
10:35 PT - JS: Huge move by Apple to take advantage of the apps in the app store and get them on this device. It was really a must, and it instantly makes it more valuable.
10:34 PT - DM: Sounds like you can download all your iPhone apps right on to your iPad.
10:35 PT - DM: If developer spends some time modifying, they can take full advantage of the large touch-screen display. This is what Apple did with its own apps, like Music, Photos, etc. So, to that end, they've enhanced iPhone SDK to support development for iPad. SDK is being released today at Apple.com
10:35 PT - DM: Develoepers can download today and get going. It even includes an iPad simulator so you can run your iPad apps right on your Mac as you develop them. We thinkit's going to be a whole new gold rush for developers. And of course, every iPad comes with App Store loaded up on it.
10:36 PT - DM: We're going to highlight and feature apps specifically built for iPad. They're going to put it front and center. Really excited about the possibilities for developers. So just about two weeks ago, they invited a few developers to iPad to Apple to give them a sneak peek and see what they could develop. Inviting a few on stage.
10:37 PT - DM: Gameloft is up first. One of the largest developers of games for iPhone and iPod touch. Over 60 games on the App Store downloaded over 55 million times. Mark Hickey is going to come up and show off some games.
10:37 PT - DM: Showing off Nova, a shooter. Can move the user interface wherever you want on the big screen. Added a minimap that you can stretch out. Slide two fingers across the screen to throw grenades. Multiple target acquistion system. Drag a targetting box around a group of enemies and then fire on all simultaneously. Definitely useful when you're outgunned and outnumbered. This is what they could do in just a few short days. You'll be able to see what else is in store when this version ships later this year.
10:39 PT - DM: Next up is The New York Times. Huge readership both nationally and internationally. One of the best Web news sites in the world. Inviting up Martin Nisenholtz to talk about the iPad plans.
10:40 PT - DM: Steve showed you the Times Website and it looks great, so why develop something else? They've optimized for iPhone, now want to do the same for the iPad. The best of print and digital all rolled into one.
10:40 PT - JS: This is the part where Apple saves the newspaper industry, right?
10:41 PT - DM: Captured the essence of the reading experience. Jump to sections, look at articles. Reading experience is great, tap to change number of columns, resize text at a pinch. Jump to sports to see latest Olympic coverage. Emebedded video. Can turn on updates to get breaking news in all the sections. Been at this for three weeks, and excited to pioneer new journalism.
10:43 PT - DM: Forstall: I already find myself reading my paper on the iPad in the morning using Safari. Can't wait to try this app.
10:43 PT - DM: Next up is Brushes. (This has gotta be the perfect title to show off the iPad). Steve Sprang comes up to show it off. Artists of all skill levels have used it to produce images for all sorts of venues, including print. Gallery includes a handful of original iPhone paintings. Tap to edit any images. Tap to show up palettes or other tools. All the brushes from the iPhone are avaialble, adjust size, spacing, and opacity. Pinching lets you zoom in up to 32 times. By tapping and holding, you could actiavte eyedropper. Just drag across the screen to paint. Can undo if you need to. On the iPad, it's going to support in-app playback of your painting. Very cool. Brushes will be available at product launch.
10:45 PT - DM: Forstall: Imagine artist with a canvas this large. No paints, no easel, it's going to be incredible.
10:46 PT - JS: I was talking to someone yesterday who thought there might be a stylus component to this device. It didn't make sense to me then, and we didn't see it here -- artists using their fingers might seem like fingerpainting, but it eliminates any intermediate object between them and their art. Pretty cool.
10:46 PT - DM: Next up, Electronic Arts. Major supporter of iPhone since launch of App Store, with over 40 titles. #1 publisher of mobile games. Travis Boatman's here to show it off.
10:46 PT - DM: As gamers, the first thing we wanted to check out was performance. What better game than Need for Speed? Gorgeous 3D version of BMW displayed on huge display. Took them a very short time to get this up and running on the iPad; will be able to bring existing titles to iPad in no time. Building for the iPad is different: like holding an HDTV just inches from your face. Fully touch-enabled. Played with different interfaces. Tap on the car to see inside the car. Started adding new interface like the shifter and the mirror because there was so much real estate on the screen. Performance is really important.
10:48 PT - DM: Here's how fast this device really goes. Ramping up the speed. Okay, that's pretty fast. That's Need for Speed running on the iPad and you can expect more from EA soon.
10:49 PT - DM: Forstall: Last up is MLB.com. Official website of Major League Baseball and publisher of At Bat. That app has been downloaded nearly 2 million times, nearly 60 million videos. Here's Chad Evans to show off the iPad version.
10:49 PT - DM: Extremely excited to make something for the iPad. Didn't just want to make their app biger, wanted to create whole new experience. Live game experience with data from last April. Navigate league scoreboard across the top. Shows you every throw. Tap any player to flip open baseball card. Show video highlights while this is going on. Across the bottom you can see box score, field, line up, summary. Watch live with your choice of home or away announceres. Enhance with live data from MLB.com while you watch.
10:51 PT - JS: Wow. I liked MLB At Bat before, but that was awesome. Amazing merging of game data and live video.
10:51 PT - DM: Forstall: I for one know that instead of carrying transistor radio, I'll be taking my iPad and this app. Very excited about the opportunities for devs to build amazing apps. Providing SDK today but while we wait for those apps to come out, can still run existing iPhone apps.
10:52 PT - DM: Steve's back. "Isn't that awesome? They only had two, two and a half weeks to work on this. Imagine what they can do with more times." Another one of Apple's apps—an e-book reader!
10:53 PT - DM: Amazon's done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle, so we're going to stand on its shoulders. Here's reading a book with our new app, "iBooks."
10:53 PT - JS: I KNEW iBook was coming back. Okay, partial credit.
10:53 PT - DM: Bookshelf of books, there's a button on upper left corner that's the Store. They've created the new iBook Store, fully integrated with the iBooks app. Download and purchase apps right on your iPad. Top chart list, NYT bestseller list. Five of the largest publisher: Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette Boook Group. (Didn't see McGraw-Hill on that list!)
10:54 PT - DM: Here's a demo. Hitting the store button is like a secret passageway. It flips around. If you've used iTunes or the App Store, you're already familiar. Prices look like they very between $7.99 and $14.99. Buying Teddy Kennedy's memoir. You can get a sample if you want, but Steve's going to tap and buy. Downloads right onto the bookshelf. "It's just so simple." Just tap if you want to read. Tap anywhere on the right fo flip forward, on the left to flip back. Drag page if you want to slowly turn the page. Go to Table of Contents and pick a chapter.
10:56 PT - DM: Photos, black and white, color, video in your books. Change the font size if you want, bigger or smaller. Change the font: Baskerville, Cochin, Palatino, Times New Roman, Verdana. That's iBooks. a
10:57 PT - JS: We didn't see any hyphenation in iBooks, and it was all force-justified text. I wonder if those will be options.
10:57 PT - DM: All in one really great app. Using epub format. Most popular open book format in the world. Very very excited. Think iPad will be a terrific e-book reader for poular books and textbooks.
10:57 PT - JS: Big announcement that they're using EPUB. That's basically the standard, so that's huge news because Apple could have gone its own way.
10:58 PT - DM: Now we're switching gears to iWork. Create a version of iWork for the iPad. Initial reaction was that they were really heavy duty apps that require a lot of horsepower. Could tablet power them? Answer was a resounding "you betcha." Could we come up with an entirely new interface for these apps? Very different from a personal computer.
10:58 PT - DM: So here's Phil Schiller to talk about iWork on the iPad.
10:59 PT - DM: Schiller: iWork is a suite of applications that millions and millions of our customers really love. Home, business, and school customers can do word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets. Can you bring this software to a multi-touch product.
10:59 PT - DM: Completely new version of Keynote designed just for the iPad. Complete new version of Pages—the most beautiful word processor that you will ever see. And Numbers: a spreadsheet that is fun and cool to use—when's the last time someone told you that? And Phil's going to give us a demo.
11:00 PT - JS: Putting a "work" suite of apps on this device is a big deal, because it says that it's not just a toy, not just for recreation, but also for people who want to get work done. That's interesting because it broadens who Apple will sell this product to.
11:00 PT - DM: Keynote first. Keynote runs in landscape because slides are designed horizontally. First thing you see is slide library. Presentations that we've created in Keynote. Tap a button to create a new presentation, access to tempates. Choose one and you get the layout. Menu items on top and slide navigator on the left. Scroll with your finger to move around the slide navigator. Go to a slide? Just tap on it. Text, tables, charts.
11:02 PT - JS: I assume that Amazon will be allowed to build its own app for iPad, as it has for iPhone. So there may be an outlet for Kindle owners.
11:01 PT - DM: How do you move a slide around in the navigator without a keyboard or mouse? Tap and hold, drag it wherever you want and now you've rearranged your slide. Can select multiple slides by tapping and holding and then tapping additional slides. Here's a slide with images: how do you get those in? Grab them from your photo albums with a media navigator. Drag your photo where you want. To resize, grab a handle and start resizing. Want to match size? While resizing tap another photo and it matches. Want to do a mask? Just tap and pan around.
11:03 PT - DM: What else? Animations. Tap the animation mode. Tap an animation, and you can choose one and it previews it. With just a finger you're doing very advanced slide animation techniques. Hit the play button and we're presenting. Tap or swipe to go forward.
11:04 PT - JS: The more I see about this device, the more I start to think that Apple really does want you to replace your laptop with this thing. At least for some tasks that people currently use laptops for because there's been no other option.
11:04 PT - DM: So that's Keynote. Let's look at Pages. Same sort of set up at the beginning: a library of documents, and access to templates. Scroll through the text. Tap anywhere and up comes a keyboard. And there's a ruler—The most beautiful ruler you've ever seen! says Phil. New tool called Page Navigator. Hold finger on the right and it brings up a loupe that lets you skim through your pages. Automatic text wrap around a graphic. Tap and drag an image around and it automatically reflows text. Tap the info button to bring down control panel to change text styles.
11:06 PT - DM: And last, Numbers. Library of spreadsheets, templates. Tabs along the top: one doc can hold many spreadsheets. Here's what you can do without a keyboard and mouse. Rearrange columns by tapping and and dragging. Move the columns to the end of the table and it auomatically updates linked chart.
11:08 PT - JS: Okay, some questions. Where do all these documents get saved, how do you view and open, and more importantly, how does it sync? Over a wire? Over the network? To a computer, or the cloud?
11:07 PT - DM: What about adding new rows of data and adding a subtotal? Tap button bottom left to add column and then double tap to bring up specific keyboard for data entry. Access to numbers, forumulas and functions, and text. Just want to add a sum on the coumn. Tap the SUM button and it automatically figures out the formula needed. Then just tap the green checkbox and we're done. If you want to fill that across all of them. You could copy and paste, but it's faster to just fill (uses same pop-up style menu as Copy/passte on the iPhone I note). Change style of graphs.
11:09 PT - JS: All this entry does make us ask the question, are you expected to type only on this device, or is there some sort of external keyboard option from Apple? Because if I could take iWork with me on the road, I might not want to type that entire Pages document by touchscreen.
11:09 PT - DM: Drag a slice out of the pie chart to just highlight part of a chart. Create a form from a spreadsheet with just a tap. So that's a quick look at iWork on the iPad.
11:10 PT - JS: That form view is very Bento-like. Interesting.
11:10 PT - DM: Shows the power of the iPad to take difficult and advanced applications. So what are we going to charge? Just $9.99 each for applications. Three completely new apps, with new user interfaces, compatible with iWork on the Mac. Easily connect to projectors (aha!). Buy on the App Store, right from the App Store.
11:11 PT - DM: Steve's back. The iPad syncs with iTunes on your Mac/PC just like the iPhone or iPod touch. Sync Photos, Music, Movies, TV shows, Contacts, Claendars, Bookmarks, Applications. Backups are synced back. Ever lose your iPad and get another one, restore it right from the backup.
11:12 PT - DM: Let's talk about wireless networking. Every iPad has Wi-Fi, but we're also going to have models with 3G cellular wireless data built in as well. Now, what does it cost for the data plans? In the US, telecoms charge about $60 a month for data plans for laptop. We got a real breakthrough here, two awesome plans for iPad owners. First one gives you up to 250MB a month. Most people will get by on that: just $14.99. Unlimited data if you feel you need more, for just $29.99. Breakthrough deal with AT&T. (Yes, it's AT&T people.) And free use of Wi-Fi hotpots all throughout US.
11:14 PT - DM: Now how do you turn this on and manage it? Don't have to go to store, just activate it on iPad. No contract: it's pre-pay (somebody seriously just gave a whistle to that). Cancel anytime. We think it's phenomenal.
11:15 PT - DM: Hope to have international deals in place by June/July. Gonna start on that tomorrow. All iPad 3G models are unlocked and use new GSM micro SIMs. So if carriers use micro SIMs, the existing iPad will just work.
11:18 PT - JS: It's interesting, the flexibility they've built in here, and that's a very good deal that they've struck with AT&T. But what will it mean for possibly doing carrier-subsidized prices?
11:16 PT - DM: So, iPad. Review time. Internet, e-mail, best device for photos. Great for enjoying music. Video is phenomenal. Runs almost all 140,000 apps on the App Store as well as a whole new generation of apps. And it has a new iBooks application with iBook Store. Carry literally thousands of books around on your iPad. And the iWork suite for doing productivity.
11:17 PT - DM: What should we price it at? If you listen to the pundits we're going to price it at $999. When we set out to develop the iPad we not only had very ambitious technical goals and user interface goals, but we had a very aggressive price goal. We want to put this in the hands of lots of people. And just like we were able to meet or exceed our technical goals, we have met our pricing goals. Starts at $499!
11:19 PT - JS: That's huge. Did anyone expect it to start at $499? I am starting to think they will sell a ton of these at that price.
11:18 PT - DM: At $499 a lot of people can afford an iPad. $499 for 16GB is the base model. For 32GB it's $100 more, for another $100 you get 64GB of storage. The 3G models cost an extra $130 to build in radios. $629, $729, $829. These are the six models. The most expensive model is just $829. Unbelievable price.
11:20 PT - DM: When can you get your hands on one? 60 days, worldwide availability. Another 30 days to get 3G models through approval process, so about 90 days for 3G models. Soon you will be able to get an iPad in your hands for just $499.
11:20 PT - DM: Really great accessories as well. There's a dock! Why is that so interesting? When you're in lock screen, it puts you in the slideshow, so you have a great picture frame. Another dock WITH A KEYBOARD. Just slide your iPad into it. Charge your iPad and if you need to do a lot of typing, this is the way to go. Third accessory is a really nice case, doubles as a stand for typing, or watching video.
11:22 PT - DM: We made a video to put on the Web, here it is on the big screen.
11:22 PT - DM: Jony Ive!
11:22 PT - JS: Jason faints at seeing the keyboard dock. (Also, yes, it's hardware and not bluetooth. But you'd need to prop up the device to type anyway. The hardware dock serves as your iPad-holder for typing. It makes a lot of sense.)
11:27 PT - JS: Monitoring The Twitter, I see a lot of people blown away by the price here, and also a bunch of people sold on the keyboard. Fraser Spiers, a Mac developer and a schoolteacher, says the 16GB wi-fi only model with keyboard extra makes it an amazing product for education.
11:30 PT - DM: Steve's back. Do we have what it takes to establish a 3rd product? The bar's pretty high. It's got to be far better at doing some key things like browsing, email, photos, etc. We think we got the goods. We think we've done it. We're so excited about this product. Another thing we're so excited about is because we've shipped over 75 million iPhones/iPod touches, all those people already know how to use the iPad.
11:31 PT - JS: Interesting that there was no mention of magazines or newspapers in the iBookstore segment. That suggests to me that for publishers of periodicals, app development is going to be the way to go.
11:31 PT - DM: We have the iTunes Store, App Store, and now the iBookstore. Over 125 million accounts with credit cards. All enabled for one-click shopping on all these stores. Over 12 billion downloads from these stores. Ready for the iPad. Now the iPad, to sum up "Our most advanced technology in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." We think this is going to be a really great combination.
11:32 PT - DM: The reason Apple is able to create products like the iPad is because we've always tried to be at the interesection of technology and liberal arts. To get the best of both, to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use. Fit the users, rather than having users come to them. The combination of these two things has let us make the kind of creative products like the iPad. We've got a hands-on area next door. (Woot!) When you feel this much fun in your hands, you'll never want to go back!
On special for $55 by clicking the link. This is for the Mac people who want to run Windows - but would like to be able to quickly switch back and forth between Mac and Windows.
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