Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months, you probably have heard of Apple’s new tablet the iPad. What you probably didn’t know is that it is going to be available on April 3, 2010 and pre-orders start on Friday March 12, 2010. The iPad combines the best features of the iPhone and an eReader like the Amazon Kindle but adds a large 10 inch touchscreen display.

Imagine being able to page through websites, write an email, flick through photos, read a book or watch a movie / TV show – with just one finger. iPad has a 9.7 inch, LED backlit IPS display with a remarkably precise Multi-Touch screen. Yet, at just 1.5 pounds and 0.5 inch thin, it’s easy to carry and use anywhere. Plus, iPad can run almost all of the 150,000 apps on the Apple App Store. It can even run the apps you have already downloaded for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Dork Stuff

• Size and weight – Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm); Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm); Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm); Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model, 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model
• Capacity – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
• Processor – 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
• Sensors – Accelerometer; Ambient light sensor
• Audio playback – Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz; Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; User-configurable maximum volume limit
• TV and video – Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable; H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
• Battery and power – Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery; Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music; Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
• Input and output – 30-pin dock connector; 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack; Built-in speaker; Microphone; SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

While I know a lot of people are just calling this an over sized iPhone, I see it as so much more. One example would be with text books. In the future why would anyone want to use the old fashioned books like we did? I have seen demos of the iPad allowing user to take snippets from a page and put the all in a central location (Good-bye highlighters), I have seen multi-page bookmarks (Good-bye ear marking), I have seen the capability of placing notes anywhere on a page (Good-bye post-it notes) – all of this and the thing still hasn’t come out.

Apple has revolutionized how we listen to music (iPod) and how we interact with and use our cellphone (iPhone) – now we just have to sit back and see what the iPad will revolutionize!

Availability: Pre-orders begin on March 12, 2010 (1 week from this post) and Wi-Fi models will be available on April 3, 2010 and the Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April.