Not 24 hours after MacRumors (and our former fortune teller in residence) declared that Apple's revolutionary iPad will officially go on sale March 26th, Apple broke their silence early Friday by posting iPad's official launch date -- Saturday 3rd April 2010. The company will begin taking iPad pre-orders - either online or through their Apple retail stores - this very Friday, 12th March. And if you happen to live near one of those Apple stores, your online order can also be pick-up at that store, too. You know that's scene's going to be craaaazzyyy!Still, we're thinking that sometimes, it's good to make a scene. If there's to be any cause for cryin' eyes that day, it'll be that Apple's plans for the April 3rd date include only their $499 16 GB WiFi tablets; the more expensive -and likely the more popular - 3G model tablets are scheduled to ship later in the month. Be sure to add $130 to your intended tablet's price tag if you're considering going G.
While you're counting pennies, we thought we'd give you a 9.7 awesome reasons not to stop what you're doing. And the first is exactly that: iPad's "face" is a high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit display; the 9.7-inches is the screen's measurement diagonally, making iPad overall just slightly smaller than a standard magazine in size. The display also features Apple's IPS or in-plane switching technology, which if you own or have played with an iPhone or iTouch, is the tech that allows the device to present content in portrait or landscape orientation with every turn. IPS also gives iPad a 178° viewing angle, allowing its display screen to be viewed easily from even crazy positions. Which it can be, because iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds and is only 0.5 inch thin. iPad features built-in WiFi, optional 3G connectivity at super-fast data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.1 and EDR technology, 10 hours of battery life, enhanced speaker system, and comes in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of flash storage models.
And we haven't even started on the accessories - like the full-size wireless Apple keyboard that connects to iPad's built-in Keyboard Dock. For a run-down of iPad accessories, go HERE.
Apple's also developed several new platforms in preparation of iPad's looming launch date, and the new iBooks platform is of particular interest to the publishing industry. Doing for books what iTunes does for record albums, iBooks is an Apple App, which allows users to buy and download entire books from Apple's online iBookstore. UK publisher Penguin Books is just one of many publishers developing their slate of iBooks to be ready for Apple's April 03rd date. We're told that the iBooks will do a lot more than standard hardback books, with most of the being interactive and offering a number of features, akin to the added features found on DVD's and Blu-Rays.
Everything we've gushed about and plenty more - not to mention all the technical specs that we so casually avoided - are on Apple's iPad homepage HERE. iBooks - and other iPad features - are detailed for your learning pleasure HERE. And if you'd like to stay on top of all-things iPad, you can either keep up with abbracadabbling daily, or register with Apple for iPad updates by email - HERE.
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