Wednesday, January 27, 2010

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The iPad: CrunchGear's Take Top
Okay, so it exists . What do your favorite tech personalities, the CrunchGear team, have to say about Apple's latest opus? Join us as we pass judgment on the device sight unseen — though of course more in-depth analysis is forthcoming.
 
Apple's Solution For The iPad's Missing SD Card Slot And USB port: Adapters Top
Don't you worry about the iPad lacking an SD card slot and USB port. Apple has you covered with adapters! How nice of Lord Jobs. Instead of building in two industry standards, users are forced to buy extra items with their new iPad. It's not like the these standards are large and would take away from the oh-so-important design. But it really is ridiculous that the iPad doesn't have an SD card slot built-in. USB port, fine. Apple is sticking with its massive dock connector, but an SD card slot -- or microSD card slot -- would actually open the iPad to some niche markets.
 
Update: Elevation To Invest As Much As $100 Million In Yelp Top
It’s official. Yelp is raising a huge chunk of change from Elevation Partners. According to a release, Elevation will invest as much as $100 million in the startup. For now, Yelp will be raising a $25 million in a Series E round from the firm. We broke the news last week here, when talk of the round was in the $50 million range. The initial infusion is half that, but Elevation could end up investing much more over time. Elevation co-founder Marc Bodnick will be joining Yelp’s Board of Directors. We originally hear that Bono, an Elevation Partners partner, was to be the board representative for Yelp but it looks like Bodnick got the seat in the end. The investment comes on the heels of dissolved buyout deal with Google. Yelp walked away from an all but signed deal to buy the startup for $550 million. The investment includes both a primary investment component as well as a secondary offering for long time employees. These deals are now being referred to as “DST deals,” since DST first invested in Facebook in May 2009 at a $10 billion valuation and later funded employee buyouts at a $6.5 billion valuation. They did a similar deal with Zynga . The release also revealed that traffic on the site increased to more than 26 million unique visitors in the month of December 2009 and the site now has 9 million reviews.
 
Investors Didn't Like The iPad Until They Heard Its $499 Price Top
The big day finally arrived, and Apple introduced the iPad this morning (yeah, you heard that already). Strangely, during the course of the much-anticipated event, Apple’s stock went down, as observed by many . And then, Apple finally got around to talking about pricing. Chief executive Steve Jobs took the stage, and wowed the crowd (and the world) by saying that the starting price for the iPad was a stunning $499 . Guess what happened next? At the time of this writing, the stock spiked +3.61 . We wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit an all-time high today.
 
Apple Teams With AT&T For The iPad's 3G Connection. Ugh. Top
Today, during the unveiling of the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that you’ll be able to get an iPad that has both Wi-Fi and 3G access, meaning you can download new content from nearly anywhere. That’s great news. The not-so-good? It’s powered by AT&T, which has been absolutely notorious for already being unable to cope with the 3G data usage of the iPhone. This sure isn’t going to help things. However, there are some upsides. For one, this internet access will not be based on a contract — you’ll sign up for the 3G access directly from the device, paying on a monthly basis. You’ll have two options for dataplans: a not-too-impressive 250 Megabytes for $15.00, or Unlimited downloads for $29.99 (though that will almost certainly have an unwritten cap as well). And you’ll be able to use AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots, free of charge. You’ll also be able to use these internationally — iPad 3G models will be unlocked, and will included GSM micro SIMS. It’s worth pointing out that most of what you’ll be doing with the iPad will consist of consuming content and surfing the web. Unlike the iPhone, where a dropped connection can result in cutting off an important phone call, a lost data connection on the iPad will probably just mean your website stops loading halfway. That said, the increased strain could make things even worse for iPhone users. Also note that while the iPad starts at $499, 3G models cost an extra $130, so the cheapest you’ll get is $629 for a 16GB model.
 
The iPad Comes With iBooks And Will Cost $500 To $830 Top
Steve Jobs revealed the Apple iPad today, its much-awaited tablet computer (see our live notes ). Jobs positions it as a third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it. An enhanced iPhone SDK released today will support both the iPhone and the iPad. Some specs : The device has a 9.7 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half-an-inch thick. It is powered by new chip made by Apple itself, a 1 GHz A4 and will come with 16Gb to 64 GB of storage. It supports WiFi, has an accelerometer, compass, and built-in speaker and microphone, just like the iPhone. The screen is a full capacitive multi-touch screen. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hours. In addition to WiFi, it will have a 3G option from AT&T. The Wifi-only version, with 16GB of memory, will cost $499. A 32GB version will be $599, 64 GB will be $699, and with 3G from AT&T it will cost $829 (for the 64GB version). AT&T will offer two data plans: $14.99a month for 250 MB of data or $29.99 for unlimited. All the 3G iPads, however, will be unlocked, meaning they can be used on other carriers as well. On-stage, Apple highlighted the iPad’s use as a digital reader. The iPad comes with a new app called iBooks and an iBooks store . Apple partnered with five publishers to make books available for sale through the iBooks store. “Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this technology,”says Jobs referring to the Kindle. “We’re gonna stand on their shoulders and go farther.” The iBooks support the ePub format, allows readers to flip through pages and supports pictures, video, and other graphics. The first book available will cost $14.99. It is clear one of the main functions of the iPad will be as a reading device. Martin Nisenholtz from the New York Times showed its own app onstage for the iPad, which looks like a larger, lusher version of the one which is now available on the iPhone. “This is the next version of digital journalism,” declares Nisenholtz. We’ll see.
 
Live From The Apple Tablet Event Top
We’re here in San Francisco for Apple’s event today where they’re expected to unveil their new tablet computer which may or may not be known as the iPad, iSlate, iBook, iTablet, the Apple Tablet or some other variation. The event starts at 10 AM PT. Below find our live blog:   More coverage can be found here .   CrunchBase Information Apple Tablet Apple Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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