Apple iPad Launch in San Francisco!

Hundreds of people were outside the Apple Store by 9 am this morning ready to collect their pre-ordered iPads that were launched across the US today...see previous blog

Many of the avid iPad collectors were professional users and developers.

Michael and Wei, who had only queued for two hours, are developers of dishfinders.com, a food app launched in February on the iPhone and now adapted for the iPad.

Michael excitedly turned up the app, and suddenly tantalising dishes were floating across the screen.
His app is designed to encourage restaurants to send in pics of food on their menus, and also to have customers interacting, uploading live pics as the food is served, with reviews.

The app is new and Michael and Wei, who live in San Francisco, are hoping to get many users. But today, they were simply excited to see their product on the iPad.















San Franciscan blogger Justine...http//ijustine.com...emerged from the store with a whoop and a celebratory dance!

'It's beautiful!' she said. More than that, her expectations are that it will make journalistic life a lot easier.

'It's smaller and more portable,' she said, comparing it to her current laptop, the MacBookPro, but bigger and easier to use than her iPhone. Up to today, Justine said, she was waking up in bed first thing in the morning and working on her iPhone but the size of the iPad will make things much easier.

She had also tried the MacBookAir, Apple's lightest laptop, but found that was not good for editing pics. Although she won't be editing pics on the iPad, she expects to have a much more user-friendly computer to travel around with.

The size was also one of the attractive features for Greg, from San Francisco, and one of the first people to exit the Apple Store with an iPad bagged in white plastic. A frequent air traveller, Greg was looking forward to easier use on aircraft.

'What I think I like about it is the ease of the (use of) email and also being on the internet, and just the size,' he said.

How much did he know about it before trying it out?

'I've read pretty much everything they've released. I'm a big Apple fan,' he said.

pics from Chris: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisflowersmd/sets/72157623637515295/ flickr photostream of iPad launchflickr photostream iPad Launch