iPad review

Yes, Apple’s iPad was released yesterday.

I think it will sell a mas­sive amount. Basi­cally, it’s a Kin­dle, an iPod Touch, and a keyboard-less* Mac­Book, all rolled into one. It has a much pret­tier inter­face than the Kin­dle. You can do any­thing that requires the inter­net when you have a wifi con­nec­tion — or if you don’t (and spend more), you can do it cellular-ly via AT&T (in some parts of the USA). It sounds like there will be a rea­son­able deal on that too — $30 for one month’s unlim­ited data service.

Some of the apps look to be pushed even fur­ther than their Mac or iPhone equiv­a­lents. And they are rea­son­ably priced ($30 instead of $79 for the full iWork suite).

Prices range from $499 to $829, depend­ing on stor­age capac­ity (16–64 gb) and whether you add the 3G inter­net con­nec­tion capa­bil­ity. Sounds like a deal to me — for what you get! Avail­abil­ity? “Sign up here, and we’ll con­tact you when iPad is avail­able to order.” (Could be two weeks. But I’d guess a month-and-a-half.)

For me? I won’t be get­ting one any­time soon, because I can’t afford it — and because I’m too shy to be that cutting-edge. But if some­one gave me one? I’d suck up my pride and set­tle for being that cut­ting edge.

(Photo from the Apple site.) *You will be able to get an exter­nal key­board — but it will prob­a­bly cost some­thing out­ra­geous like $79.