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

US Launch of Apple iPad Greeted with Great Excitement in San Francisco!

'This is beautiful! It's awesome!' said app developer Andreas Schobeo, almost moved to tears outside the Apple Store this morning as he held two iPads gently in his hands.

Andreas was seeing both the iPad and his app in action for the first time as the iPad was launched across the US today. By 9 am crowds who had  pre-ordered the iPad or were walk-ins were queuing around the block from the Apple Store.

Andreas had been one of three people to start queuing from about 11 pm last night. He spent the night- hours outside the store just above Market Street with about 12 others until 4 am when the crowds slowly began arriving.

But Andreas' emotional reaction was tangible. The first thing, he said, he was going to do with it was play Planet of the Zombies, which he'd already uploaded.

'What else, other than making out, are you going to do with it?!!' asked Brian Tong of c.net.com in a fun, quirky interview but capturing the emotion.

'Cuddle it!' he said, bantering back. But no, he wouldn't do it for the cameras, that was for a private moment!!!

Andreas' app is '3banana'. It is like a notepad that collects texts, photos and location and is described on his site as: “If you’re looking for a simple way to take, store, and share notes in the cloud, 3banana makes organizing your notes easy with notes based on in-text hashtags.” - Lifehacker

Andreas, who is aged 30 years and from Zurich, Switzerland, living in San Fran, gave a demonstration of his app. 

Awestruck, he said of the iPad, 'I'm touching the future.' 

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