Apple's new iPad, is it really just a big iPhone?

The iPad was initially introduced during the year of 1993 as the Newton MessagePad 100, obviously technology wise it was 17 years behind what is on sale today, but it was the foundations of the future. Apple continued to develop the Newton MessagePad until 1998 when they finally discontinued them. The next appearance of a touchscreen computer for Apple would be the iPod Touch and the iPhone; the operating system for these were highly advanced and completely pioneered the touchscreen world.

It wasn't until late 2009 that speculation was occurring that a new Apple touchscreen device was about to reach the shelves. According to Apple, it was simply referred to "Apple's tablet" although iTablet and iSlate were suggested names. Finally the wait was over and by January 27th 2010 Steve Job's CEO of Apple had introduced the worlds first iPad to the general public.

Apple were in no rush to release the iPad, and began taking pre-orders for the USA only on March 12th 2010, followed by the general release of the Wi-Fi version on the 3rd April 2010, and 27 days later the Wi-Fi + 3G version was released in the US. The iPad is still yet to be available elsewhere in the world and will take to the shops in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom from May 28th and then Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July, 2010.

"Developer Apple Inc.
Manufacturer Foxconn (on contract)
Type Tablet media player/PC
Release date Wi-Fi model (US): April 3, 2010
Wi-Fi + 3G Model (US): April 30, 2010
Both Models (International): May 28, 2010
Units sold 1 million (as of May 3, 2010)
Operating system iPhone OS (modified)
3.2 (build 7B367)
Released April 3, 2010; 41 days ago
Power Internal rechargeable non-removable 25 W·h (90 kJ) lithium-polymer battery
CPU 1 GHz Apple A4
PowerVR SGX 535 GPU
Storage capacity Flash memory
16, 32, and 64 GB
Memory 256 MB DRAM built into Apple A4 package (top package of PoP contains two 128 MB dies)
Display 1024 × 768 px (aspect ratio 4:3), 9.7 in (25 cm) diagonal, appr. 45 in2 (290 cm2), 132 PPI, XGA, LED-backlit IPS LCD
Input Multi-touch touch screen, headset controls, proximity and ambient light sensors, 3-axis accelerometer, magnetometer
Camera None
Connectivity Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0/Dock connector
Wi-Fi + 3G model also includes: A-GPS, micro-SIM slot, Quad-band GSM 850 900 1800 1900 MHz GPRS/EDGE, Tri-band UMTS 850 1900 2100 MHz HSDPA
Online services iTunes Store, App Store, MobileMe, iBookstore
Dimensions 242.8 mm (9.56 in) (h)
189.7 mm (7.47 in) (w)
13.4 mm (0.53 in) (d)
Weight Wi-Fi model: 680 g (1.5 lb)
Wi-Fi + 3G model: 730 g (1.6 lb)"

The general pricing in the UK is as low as £429 in the UK and $499 in the US, making the iPad an affordable piece of equipment, but a luxury for most.