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Introducing the TED iPad App

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Today, TED releases the new TED iPad app, an innovative way to browse and watch TEDTalk video. The app redesigns the TED experience for the touchscreen, offering some cool iPad-only features for exploring, saving and watching.

The iPad app, which is the first official mobile app released by TED, lets viewers browse our almost 800 TEDTalks, running from 3 minutes to 30 minutes long, on a wide range of topics. The app is free and can be downloaded through the App Store in iTunes.

“The iPad presents a thrilling new platform for delivering a TED experience,” said June Cohen, Executive Producer of TED Media. “We rethought the user experience to take advantage of the portability, the touchscreen and the focused media time people have when they travel or settle in for an evening. We think TED fans will particularly love the “Inspire me” button, which creates a custom playlist to fill the exact amount of time they have free.”

The TED iPad app features include:

+ “Inspire Me” button. Touching this icon reveals an elegant watch face and the question: “How much time do you have?” Dial up a time, choose the type of talk you want (Inspiring? Funny? Jaw-dropping?) and you’ll get a playlist of talks that fits your schedule.

+ “Themes” serves up curated playlists of TEDTalks around topics such as “The Power of Cities,” “How We Learn,” “A Greener Future” and “Unconventional Explanations.”

+ “Tags” breaks down TEDTalks topics into some 250 categories, from “insects” to “robots,” from “happiness” to “fish.”
“Saved Talks” allows you to download and queue up several hours of TEDTalks for viewing offline anytime.

+ “Playlist Browser” lets you browse ahead in any playlist while watching a saved talk. It’s accessible by tapping the Info button.

The TED iPad app was developed by Matt Drance, a former Application Frameworks Evangelist at Apple who worked on the first iPhone SDK. He now works with the firm BookhouseSoftware. Read TED’s Q&A with Matt Drance >>

This first generation of the app does not yet support downloadable subtitles, but support for this feature on the iPad and on TED.com is in the works. A version of this app optimized for iPhone/iPod will be released in the first quarter of 2011.

Rolex, the supporting partner for the TED iPad app, figures prominently in the app’s “Inspire Me” feature, which evokes a watch face as it asks viewers “How much time do you have?”

The TED iPad app is available in Apple’s iTunes Store today for free. Download here >>