iPAD 3G Will Go On Sale One Week Ealier - 30 April 2010 @ 5pm!

Although there has been some confusion as to exactly when the 3G model of Apple's iPad will be available to the public-at-large, we feel confident to report that the Wi-Fi + 3G models will go on sale earlier than initially reported -  5pm on Friday, 30 April - at Apple's nationwide chain of over 200 retail stores. [To locate an Apple store near you, go here.] 

Friday the 30th of April is the same day Apple had already stated that customers who placed an early pre-order for the 3G model would receive their new tablet.  That part of Apple's plan hasn't changed; it's only the retail availability for the newest iPad model , originally set for the following week on 07 May, that's seen its calendar modified.  As of this morning, Apple's website was still displaying the May availability date, despite their more recent public announcement. Apple sold 500,000 iPads after one week of availability earlier this month. 

iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G offers super-fast data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps over 3G cellular networks around the world. The tablet also seamlessly switches between 3G and even faster Wi-Fi options, automatically providing its user with the best connection available. Apple's recent deal with AT & T will offer new iPad owners the option of a month-to-month service plan with no contract. Pricing will be based on two-tiers of data usage only, and users can sign up for the plan directly from their new piece of tablet gadgetry.

In our ever-lovin' capitalist economy, Sprint's already devised an alternative to AT & T's 36 plan for new iPad owners. Sprint's new 4G iPad Case actually comes with a 4G wireless hotspot that enables the iPad to connect to Sprint's 4G network. That means complete wireless coverage -- even in areas where 4G isn’t available, as the wireless hotspot will then connect to the internet via 3G.

As if anybody would want to admit they're connected on 3G. Puh-leeze! Thank you, Sprint, for your ingenuity and elevating us and our iPad's out of the 3G gutter.  Remarkably, Sprint even tops their own fabulousness: the iPad case is currently being offered for free  -- if you buy their Overdrive mobile hotspot ($99). The place to go for this future-forward free deal is Best Buy - and we've got the link to more info right [here].

Be sure to keep a keen eye on the comicsblog for any switcheroos and updates to our coverage of all-things iPad!

You Bite! ...Or Will You? Apple's iPAD Pre-Orders Have Started

We tried to give dabblers fair warning.  As of 7am or so this morning Eastern Standard Time, the inevitable happened -- Apple made its new Tablet device, the Apple iPad, available to pre-order via the US Apple store's website. You can now order the WiFi iPad which comes in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or Special Granny Smith Edition, and it will be delivered to you on the 3rd of April. As you can read below, the 16GB WiFi iPad can be yours (our ours) for $499 - and prices escalate nicely from there.

You can also pre-order the WiFi + 3G iPad, although its baseline price-point is a smidgen more: $629 gets you the 16 gig 3G - and prices escalate nicely from there. The iPad 3G's are slated to ship in late April although no exact date has been announced.   All this and more, of course, happens at Apple, right HERE.

With iPad about to become a physical reality - and a real cash cow -  in just a few weeks, legions of products positioned to be the accessory or add-on new iPad owners can't live without are taking their places on the launch pad. Most of those we've seen so far actually appear as clever as they do useful -- like Pure Fabrication's skateboard-style iGotaBigAssPocket pants.  They pants come in either a cotton/polyester blend or a more traditional denim jeans style, and in a variety of colors, and feature a center rear pocket that's, well, Big Ass and custom-sized to fit iPad - or really anything. 

With all the skaters, gamers, and bangers who'll be cruising or kickin' it with their  (or someone else's) new iPads, we can't think of hipper way to say to Yo, check it! PF's online boutique begins its pants sale March 19th.  For more info, visit Oh No Doom -- here.

UPDATED: iPAD's Coming APRIL 03 2010

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.

iPad Goes On Sale March 26th; e-Readers Headed For e-Nnihilation

Lingering rumors to the contrary, our resident fortune teller insists that the next technological revolution from Apple - the iPad - is literally just around the corner. We'd tend not to believe her, but we've learned that she's not alone. Both the MacRumors website and the Examiner have (also) reported that the Apple iPad without 3G will be on sale at 6:00 pm on Friday 26th March.

Analysts have predicted that Apple will ship 10.5 million iPads this year alone. According to Apple's website, the company will begin pricing their newest tech at $499, with the top-priced model going for a cool $829; 3G enabled models will set you back another $130. Like the recent and rather dramatic rise in the popularity of netbooks to satisfy the computing needs of many users who no longer require the capabilities of a desktop computing system, the iPad-lead 'Tablet Revolution' will undoubtedly change the Personal Computing landscape.  And, like a bigger, stronger if not older brother, Apple's iPad will not only follow in the footsteps of the iPhone, the device credited with overlapping the PC and mobile phone industries, it and its kind will very likely - and quickly- surpass its smaller sibling.

Like a technological Tunguska, the coming iPad / Tablet event will dramatically change the ecosystems of the PC and mobile phone worlds. Suffice it to say, they won't be the only ones.  Apple Insider reported earlier that iPad's commercial campaign is expected to begin March 15th, with the emphasis being on the iPad's e-book capabilities.  E-readers, such as  market-leader Amazon.com's Kindle, Sony's digital Reader, and the Barnes & Noble Nook, have been hot commodities as recently as last Christmas; however, even as the e-Reader industry announced just yesterday that color capabilities, among many other improvements and 40 new models to come this year,  Kindle and co. seem woefully outmoded - and far less sexy - than vastly superior iPad tablet.  abbracadabbling has developed a mathematical equation to quantify and qualify exactly why iPad will dominate and quite possibly destroy the e-Reader marketplace:

Although the situation for Kindle and kin doesn't look good at this juncture, we didn't want to jump to any hasty conclusions, either. Three of us independently checked our formula (using our respective Mac Pro's, we should add), yet the answers yielded bore remarkable similarity. We sum up our conclusion like so:

For a more in-depth comparison of iPad and Kindle, hop on over to Computer World HERE.

For such a new technology, e-Readers have gone from being last Christmas' new hotness to today's old has-been in less than the blink of an eye.  (If you're wondering exactly how fast the blink of an eye actually is, there's an app for that.)  Although Sony introduced a very early digital reading device in 2004, e-Reader tech didn't really get going or get noticed until Amazon.com's Kindle hit in 2007. Three years later, very unexpectedly, it's nearly outmoded.  What other technologies and industries will also be effected, altered, otherwise drastically changed, revolutionized, or at worst, completely outmoded by the advent of Tablet?

For the comics industry, a business built upon the foundation of the monthly published pamphlet-style comic book magazine, that is the One Billion Dollar Question. As the era of motion comics, digital comics, and web comics has already dawned, and as the consumer base of the monthly comic book remains small preventing negligible sales growth, the  possibility of e-Comics supplanting traditional comic books is a very real possibility.  Some have already predicted that the Tablet is also the harbinger for the end of the traditional comics industry distribution and sales model, the Direct Market.

abbracadabbling will be taking an in-depth look at the possible changes coming to comics because of emerging technologies like the iPad over the next few weeks.  We'll also be taking a better look at how the internet and digital technologies - from digital comics in general to  devices such as the Longbox Digital comics platform - have already affected comics present  -- and future. Keep it here, dabblers!

Find Apple's official iPad website - here.