Apple releases iPad

Apple recently announced the release of it's IPad which is going to be on sale in about 2 months. The IPad is basically an itouch on steroids.

Size and buttons: The iPad measures 7.47 inches wide by 9.56 inches tall by 0.5 inch thick, and weighs 1.5 pounds. A 30-pin dock connector sits on the bottom, along with a small integrated speaker; a volume rocker button and mute switch sit on the right side, and a screen lock, a headphone jack, and a pinhole microphone sit up top.

Battery life is rated 10 hours. The IPad has pretty much the same apps that have been on the itouch and iphone, except that they have been changed a bit to make full use of the larger screen of the IPad. The IPad photo app is very impressive as it has miniature stacks of images that you can unfold, browse, and manipulate very easily. Also it turns the IPad into a digital photo phrame when its docked in a charging station. Another interesting app is the Apple iBook app which turns your iPad into a real looking normal sized book.

Basically the iPad is a bigger verison of an iTouch but not bigger than a Mac. Its a portable mini touchscreen computer.

The price? The Ipad is available in 16GB ($499), 32GB ($599), and 64GB ($699). A line of iPads with 3G wireless data support (microSIM) are due out in May with the same capacity range, only it will cost $130 extra for each respective model (i.e., $629, $729, and $829). If you go the 3G route, you'll also need to pay for an additional data plan (currently provided by AT&T with no contract), setting you back $14.99 a month for 250MB of data, or $29 for "unlimited" usage. As data plans go, those prices are very reasonable, but they are tied to the device and can't be shared with your phone or other Internet-capable devices.