So unless one has been living under a rock, everyone has heard of the new product Apple announced today - the iPad.
Apple has the keynote up online now, which can be found here. There is also now the page apple.com/ipad, which features the demo video of the iPad, as well as information about the device. You can even sign up to get notified of when the device will start shipping (60 days from today).
The base facts of the iPad (which is, by far, the worst name they could have given it-were there no focus groups for this?!?)
- 9.7 inch LED-backlit IPS display
- Capacitative multi-touch
- 1024x768 resolution at 132 PPI
- 1.5 lbs, .5 inches thin
- 10 hours battery life
- 802.11n WiFi
- Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
- Separate WiFi and 3G models
- 3G model will be supplied with AT&T 3G data ($14.99 for 250MB, $29.99 unlimited)
- Apple A4 1 GHz chip powered processor
- 16, 32, 64GB flavors
- Starting at $499, $599, $699 for WiFi models, 3G will be an additional $130 on top of starting WiFi price
- WiFi only model will start shipping in March, 3G model in April
- Accelerometer
- Syncs via USB to iTunes
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Built-in speaker
- Microphone
- SIM card tray
This is the basics, there's more that can be found at http://apple.com/ipad/specs. It will be able to run iPhone apps in regular resolution or full screen, straight out-of-the-box. You can even customize the background of it. So it's pretty much a hybrid of iPhone OS with Mac OS X. The UI for Mail and Calendar are much improved over the iPhone versions, though it looks similar. Maybe this can find its way into iPhone OS 4.0. It is also going to have the iBook app, which will allow the purchase of ebooks from Apple's own digital bookstore (Kindle killer, anyone?).
The disappointing thing is there is no multitasking (as of yet), no cameras, and the name...but that's not the point.
Like with the 1st gen iPhone, there are some things that are missing, so it would probably be better to wait til the 2nd gen. Not to mention that the iPhone 1st gen got a price drop only months after being introduced - maybe the same fate will await the iPad - we'll see.
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 4:58PM 
Ever since the acquisition of LaLa, Apple has been rolling out web-based previews for their iTunes products. Until today, there was only the web-based preview for music, leaving everyone that has an iPhone or iPod Touch behind without any web-based preview for iPhone apps.
