Also, the launch of iPad 2 overseas has brought amazing scenes of people lining up in the cold winter days to get theirs. Analysts estimate about a million were sold in the first weekend in the United States alone.

On Friday, the rollout was extended to 25 countries including most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. In the midst of Apple’s rivals announcing their own tablets, there are several reasons why iPad 2 is still the best option.

1) Reasonable Pricing

The e-reader news that’s slowly but surely gaining prominence is that the iPad will not only render e-readers obsolete but is also likely to bring in revolutionary changes in the entire publishing industry. To what extent e-readers are likely to be affected by the advent of the iPad is what this article is all about.

For starters, e-readers are handheld electronic devices which has the capability to simulate a conventional text book. The story of e-reader and e-reading started with Amazon launching its Kindle in November 2007. This prompted others to join the party so that what followed next is an onslaught of e-readers. Companies like Sony or Barnes & Noble soon became major players in this segment along with numerous other vendors both with established brand names or without. But, there’s no denying the fact that the monochrome e-readers were in reality a step back from the in vogue multi color and media capable laptops. However, e-readers continued to advance with time so that the e-readers of now are capable of connecting to the net and download e-books on its own. They now have HD resolution, the facility to customize text along with so much more.

This perhaps led to the demand for gadgets which can serve both as a laptop as well as an e-reader. E-Readers changed their features to include wireless net connectivity as well as higher screen resolution. Thus came into being a new breed of a hybrid between the e-reader and Laptop.

Apple happens to be one of the pioneering companies towards this development. iPad is one of its contributions to the continuous line of gadgets that work as a mobile communication device as well as an e-reader. It has a large 9.7-inch LED backlit screen and weighs just 680 gram. For connectivity, it comes with Wi-Fi and 3G features. It has various memory options ranging from 16, 32 to 64 GB which factors the price range from $499 to $829. It has an IPS multi touch screen and can be used for browsing or emailing. It can perform as an e-reader and has stupendous multimedia capabilities. With such amazing features, it’s all but certain that with iPad in the scene, the very existence of e-readers is at stake.

Now for some statistical facts – the Amazon’s Kindle is the largest selling e-reader in the US and is the reading device of choice for reading 32% of all e-books sold in the US. Also, every 5th book sold in US happens to be an e-book. All of this means a huge market for the iPad to drive into. Another immense advantage with the iPad is that while Kindle takes books to its screen, iPad can takes even periodicals and magazines in its folds. Sure e-reader prices are coming down while governments too are keen to promote e-readers with a view to save papers and hence trees. But then, even here iPads can do a far better job with its multifunctional capabilities and touchscreen display. In fact, at the Princeton University, a recent attempt to introduce kindles as an alternative to real books did not turn out to be encouraging for Amazon.

To further improve its appeal, Apple is in the process of setting up an iBook Stores in line with the iTunes. For books Apple has co-opted with publishing houses like Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette which are all big time book publishers.

The iPad is a marker to the future of today’s print media. What is today’s print content world be the online content of the morrow for downloading and reading depending on personal choice.

Get Your Free Apple iPad – Click Here

A screen-grab from the official video of the event shows nothing but a small dot above the screen, opposite the home button. Taken alone, this isn’t much, but compare this with the picture of the iPad leaked just hours before the event (below). If you remember, these showed an iPad locked down in a security frame, and you could clearly see the camera in the bezel. I even pointed out the cutout in the frame that let us see the webcam.

Still not convinced? What about this screenshot from the iPad emulator in the new SDK (software development kit)?

That sure looks like the iPad thinks it has a camera. Up until now, this is what any good TV lawyer would call circumstantial evidence.

Get Your Free Apple iPad – Click Here

Yes, the word is out, Apple has announced it’s newest beast…the iPad! For a long time now, rumors about some kind of mysterious “Apple Tablet” have been circulating the internet. So, is this another Newton? Well let’s talk about what you can do.

So you either have an iPhone or iPod Touch, or at the very least, played with your friend’s iPhone, right? You know all the things you can do on an iPhone that are kind of annoying…that is, the capability is there, but it’s just too dang sma

ll? Things like reading. Sure you’ve got the Amazon Kindle App…very cool, but there

aren’t many situations where you wa

nt to read on such a tiny screen. Sure, you can check your email and write replies…but we all know that phone-written replies are much shorter than if you had a larger keyboard at your disposal.

So what is the iPad? It’s kind of like a gigantic iPod Touch. You can surf the web, watch movies, read books/newspapers/magazines. It’s got a touch-screen keyboard that provides a lot more room than the iPod and it’s lightweight and portable. It’s a big ol’, take it with you media machine. Very cool. You can sit back and read the NY Times, or your favorite magazine, buy a book from the newly announced Apple bookstore, watch or rent a movie through iTunes, listen to music, send email, browse the web, and do it all very comfortably and very digitally.

This device is an important step toward getting rid of wasteful print materials while at the same time, saving the print industry. Soon, the print industry will be known as the content industry, as paperless publishing gains momentum. Apple is way ahead of the curve on this one, and the iPad is a truly remarkable device.

My only concern is, will a big media tablet be worth whatever they charge for it? Probably not, and I’m a huge Apple fan. So, here’s a site that will give you one for free once they are released. You just enter your zip, and complete a few simple offers. What could be easier? Now the cost is no longer a problem.

Get Your Free Apple iPad – Click Here