Apple Announces iPad Today Apple announced one of their most highly anticipated devices, the iPad. Kind of like a giant iPhone (say 300% scale), the iPad features familiar controls such as the central home button, volume and power on/off, plus it runs off the new iPhone 3.2 OS, not yet to be released on the phone. The touch pads keyboard is a standard QWERTY, for easy laptop typing, no more sore thumbs. There is even word of flash support.

There will be an App Store launched for the iPad, beginning with 140,000 pre existing iPhone apps which have compatibility. Apple has also announced an SDK to get the ball rolling on further app development. The device comes with the usual lineup of apps: Safari, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, plus a new eBook feature. Furthermore, the iWorks software will be made available featuring Pages, Numbers, and Keynote at a price of $10 each.

The price is the best part, with 16 Gig models starting at $499 USD, 3G models may cost an additional $130.  Apple has announced that the iPad will be available in six weeks.

iPad specs:

9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD screen at 1024x768 (132 pixels per inch) with oleophobic coating

0.5 inches thick, 1.5 pounds

10 hours of battery life, 1 month battery standby time

16GB ($499), 32GB ($599), or 64GB ($699) flash drive

Dock connector

Accelerometer, Compass, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, 3G connectivity (3G model costs $130 extra)

Speakers, microphone, headphones jack, dock connector

1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Video out with dock connector (1024x768), or 576p/480p video with composite out adapter

iPad Pricing

16 GB - from $499 USD

32 GB - from $599 USD

64 GB - from $699 USD