World, meet the most anticipated hardware from Mac.  Rumors of this pad have been around for almost ten years.  There are even jokes and comics about the rumors all over the net.  My colleague that has a website about DSLRs and all things cameras even has a post.  I have to do a post about it as well!  How is it related to HTPCs?  Well, it is not, but it is the first in a wave of new products and copy cats that will be created.  There is a lot of potential in a product like this.  It can be used as a big remote for your Home Theatre room, the possibilties are endless, it has many features of the iPhone and iPod Touch and runs a modified version of the iPhone's operating system.  Just like the iPod before it, book stores hope that the iPad will revolutionize the Print industry.

Honestly, what is the big deal about this product?  I do not understand, it only has a 1ghz CPU, it does not do Adobe Flash, where is the pen functionality?  It was even the first news story last night on CTV news at 6pm!  It's not a tablet as many people expected, which is a good change IMO.  All I really see is a marketing jewel for Apple, where they will make many costly accessories for it, it will be a gold mine for them, and people are going to gobble it all up.  

I would take the Lenovo Ideapad U1 laptop hybrid over this any day.  Don't get me wrong, the idea is fantasic.  It is basically a small computer in your hands making it an easy source of media.  I just can't help but think, is it too little too late?  I am not the only one who thinks this way, Gizmodo has a post "8 Things That Suck About the iPad" and they even came up with 3 extra things.  How long till I see THIS in real life? 

On a side note: If the iPad is considered a larger iPod Touch/iPhone, what happened to making things smaller?

The Apple iPad is a new, multi-touch device marketed as “an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos”.  Here are some specifications on the Apple iPad:

• Featuring a 9.7-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• 1GHz CPU system-on-a-chip custom designed for Apple
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132ppi
• Comes with 16, 32 or 64GB of built-in storage capacity.
• Built in Wifi 802.11n (Backwards compatable to B and G)
• 3G network support
• Bluetooth 2.1 + Ehanced Data Rate (EDR).
• Up to 10 hours of Battery life when in use, 30 days on Stand by
• It can run iPhone apps as it runs on a modifed version of that operating system

A simple docking stand props it up, and accepts a hardware keyboard. Also included: digital compass, assisted GPS, the usual array of audio and video formats.

What's missing: multi-tasking, cellular voice, and support for Flash in the Safari browser.