Well it is finally here, the new Apple Tablet everyone has been talking about and just waiting for them to officially announce has finally come upon us. The Apple iPad is the newest gem in the sea of ridiculous technology Apple has brought to us. This iPad is basically a gigantic iPhone with higher quality display, a giant keyboard, and a book store like the kindle. On the Apple site, they claim to have over 140,000 applications at your disposal to cram into your pad. The iPad is definitely more advanced than the the iPhone; it is practically the inbetween of the iPhone and MacBook. It has programs such as Safari, KeyNote, Pages, and Numbers. It is pretty cool, but will the hype last? I mean it is cool, but with the portability of the iPhone and capacity and more options the Apple laptops have, is there really a need to have the iPad other than to show off that you are “hip” with the age?

The A4 chip inside iPad was custom-designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful, and yet extremely power efficient. So the performance is unlike anything you’ve ever seen on a touch-based device. Which makes iPad fantastic for everything from productivity apps to games. But at the same time, the A4 chip is so power efficient that it helps iPad get up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. And iPad is available with a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB flash storage. Which gives you lots of room for your photos, movies, music, apps, and more.

The Multi-Touch screen on the iPad uses the same revolutionary technology that’s in an iPhone. But for iPad, the technology has been completely reengineered for the larger surface, to make it extremely precise and responsive. So when you’re zooming in on a map, flicking through your photos, or deleting an email, iPad responds with incredible accuracy. And it does just what you want it to. The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or showing off photos. It’s also been designed to work in any orientation — portrait or landscape.And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want, and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.

One of the first things you’ll notice about the iPad is how thin and light it is. The screen is 9.7 inches, measured diagonally. So overall, it’s slightly smaller than a magazine. And at just 1.5 lbs and 0.5 inches thin, it’s easy to carry and use anywhere. There’s also a slight curve to the back. Which makes it easy to pick up and comfortable to hold.

Along with the Wi-Fi and 10 hours of battery life, it has full 3G capabilities (if you huck in an extra $130) and bluetooth. Although it does not have a phone speaker or anything, I kind of wish they put in a small video camera so you can iChat. That would have been smarter I think. It has everything that most Apple products; it is an iPod with iTunes, it can surf the web, you can watch movies, store photos, it is a book reader, brand new Map app, write notes to yourself, etc etc etc; it’s a Jesus machine. This iPad looks pretty sleek and Apple has definitely changed the game once more, but I don’t think it is as impressive as it could have been. I mean, some of the PC laptops have been coming out with screens that you can take off and turn into tablets.

Some meh moments with this announcement is the fact that it is still going to be with AT&T for their 3G coverage. Also, the fact that it is not multitasking means it is just as bad as the iPhone. Not being able to have multiple applications open at the same time is just a slap to the face with this “new” technology. Come on Apple, you could have done better. No camera is just kind of lame as well, even if it was just a picture taking camera it could have been better. I’m sure next year the price will be the same with upped storage and a forward facing camera. The system still can’t handle FLASH video support, which most websites rely on for showing content; so that is a bummer and is pretty weak on Apple’s part.

This is definitely a slight game changer in an aspect, but I’m sure Apple could have done a little better. It has no projector like rumored or hoped for. I am taking it as just a giant iPhone, without the phone and a ton of more features. For just $499, it is somewhat affordable, but you do not get the 3G coverage if you wanted it. They have six different kinds of iPads with different prices and it is just a little ridiculous when they claim its affordable. When it comes to getting a larger size and wanting 3G, you might as well cough up the extra $500 more and go with a MacBook? This will just be a good reason to look up cute cat videos on YouTube with a bigger screen that you can whip out faster than loading your laptop.