To iPad or Not, That is the Question! Apple Reveals it Finally!

It’s offi­cial. Apple announced their tablet device today and it’s called the

iPad

I’m not really thrilled about the name. I can hear all the jokes already, but Apple likes the i with one syl­la­ble words so it doesn’t sur­prise me. But enough about my opin­ion, let’s get to the details first.

The iPad will have

• iBook — ereader
• iWork for iPad — down­load­able apps priced at $9.99 each (pages, keynote, Numbers)
• Con­tacts & Calendar
• Video
• Inter­net browser
• Apps — all apps from iPhone/iTouch will work on iPad
• Pic­tures — slideshows, upload
• 10 hrs bat­tery life
• 9.7 in wide, .5 in thick
• Syncs same as iPhone with a USB cord and iTunes

Let’s talk about prices of the ser­vice. $29 per month for unlim­ited 3G and $14.99 for up to 250 mb per month. AT&T is offer­ing wifi hotspots for free.

No con­tracts and you can acti­vate it right on the iPad.

And now for the prices of the iPad:

Starts at $499 for the 16 GB wifi up to $820 for the 64 GB wi+3G.

• wifi is 16 GB — $499, 32 GB — $599, 64 GB — $699
• wifi + 3G is 16 GB — $629, 32 GB — $729, 64 GB — $829

That pric­ing starts much cheaper than what I thought, but for the one I’d want, the price is right about where I thought it would be. In my opin­ion, they are offer­ing enough options so that most can afford it if they want it.

My first impres­sion is that I’m in love with it. I haven’t seen it in per­son and really seen it in action, so I’ll reserve my final opin­ion until I see it. I’m curi­ous about using the key­board. I’m lis­ten­ing to Leo Laporte talk about it (he was at the event) and he men­tions that it takes the com­puter out of the equa­tion. You don’t feel like you are using a com­puter. He is now hold­ing one and says it’s very respon­sive and light­weight. It rotates por­trait to land­scape very quickly. He said typ­ing feels good (although it was typ­ing in Chi­nese). He was impressed and said it was a very beau­ti­ful device.

I like how real many of the things look. For exam­ple, the iBook soft­ware looks like a book­shelf with books on it. When you read a book, it looks like a real book and you can see the pages behind even. Apple always takes the time to add lit­tle things that make the whole user expe­ri­ence excep­tional and very real.

I know I will get one and I would even stand in line for this. When can we get our hands on one? Apple said 60 days for the wifi ver­sion and 90 days for the wifi+3G version.

Will you get an iPad? What are your thoughts?

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