The New Apple iPad

Courtesy of Apple

Apple has a new toy and it's all about being bigger and better than the last one! World, meet the Apple iPad!

New Design

This tiny powerhouse is loaded with features, but the design by itself is super cool! Apple stuffed a ton of features in to a super thin, extra light, big screen. The iPad is only 0.5 of an inch thick (it's only slightly bigger than some big story books) and weighs only 1.5 pounds! That's less than some text books.

The iPad features a touch screen that displays everything from photos to videos to the internet to books. It's kinda like a giant iPod touch or iPhone, only better.

With up to 10 hours of battery life, you can use your iPad for a full 10 hours of watching movies, surfing the web or listening to music before needing to recharge it. We've even heard that on stand-by, the iPad can last for 1 month!

Features

The iPad supports lots of cool apps like the iPhone and iPod touch, but has a few new things all its own!

• Safari - The iPad let's you surf the web with ease using Apple's Safari browser. You can easily scroll up and down pages by flicking your finger over the screen or slowly moving it up and down.
• Mail - You can now write your emails using a big onscreen keyboard instead of the teeny weeny keyboards on the iPhone and iPod! The iPad also works with all the most popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.
• Photos - The iPad makes it super easy to go through all of your photos by stacking them in photo albums. You're just one tap away from checking out all of your pictures!
• Videos - Having one big screen makes it super easy to watch your videos!
• YouTube App - This organizes videos for you so it's easy to watch and browse through all your fave vids at the same time!
• iTunes and iPod - Worried you might miss out on all of your music? Not a chance! The iPod app let's you browse through all your music with the flick of a finger. Just tap the song you want to hear and the iPad's built in speakers will do the work! But you can't have an iPod without iTunes! The iPad let's you buy songs and movies, see podcasts, TV shows and much more all with the tap of your finger.
• App Store - Who doesn't love the App store? With tons of new apps coming out everyday you won't be bored browsing through all of the cool things you can download for your iPad.
• iBooks - This cool new feature is a great way to read and buy books. Download the free app and read all your books just by flicking your finger across the screen to turn the page.

The Good and the Bad

• The Good - The iPad lasts for 10 hours!
• The Bad - The iPad uses a built-in battery. If the battery ever decides to die... UH OH!
• The Good - The iPad starts at only $499!
• The Bad - The iPad starts at $499. That's a lot of money!
• The Good - The iPad can use 3rd Party Apps. This means that it can use tons of different programs!
• The Bad - The iPad is built using the same software as the iPhone and iPod touch so you can't do two things at once. You're stuck playing a game and then quitting to go look up how to get past the evil 4th level boss. Boo!
• The Good - The iPad is really light weight and portable!
• The Bad - You can't stick the iPad in your pocket. With a big 9.7 inch screen, the iPad is great for watching videos but not so great for quickly throwing in your pocket to listen to music.
• The Good - The iPad is still super cool!
• The Bad - The iPad doesn't come out for another 2 months at least! Meanies!

Is the iPad Worth it?

It looks pretty cool, but is it cool enough to buy? Even though there are some downers to the iPad, it still has some great features that make this new electronic pretty awesome. Check out more about the iPad at www.apple.com/ipad/