Apple’s first great unveiling of the new decade

At 1 p.m. EST on Jan. 27, technophiles and members of the media tuned in for confirmation about the long-rumored Apple tablet, the iPad. Those lucky enough to be at the event in Cupertino, Ca. were positively giddy with delight. Yet, a friend said it best when she asked, “What is it?”

The iPad is a new category. It’s the bridge between iPhone and netbook. Simply put, it’s a large iTouch. And there’s the crux of the matter. What are we going to use it for? I don’t have the cash to drop $499 (for the cheapest version) plus, added costs with AT&T if I actually want to get online, plus any other fees that will undoubtedly pop up when people start using it a realize they need to buy more accessories for it.

What are the positives of the iPad? As I said, it’s a new category. Don’t feel like lugging your 5 lb. laptop to work or school, especially when all you really do are simple tasks? Pick up an iPad, which is only 1.5 lbs, and which has a slate format making it incredibly thin.

The iPad is 1.5 lbs and only .5 inches.

The iPad has a multitouch screen and, like the iTouch and iPhone, can be held vertically or horizontally.

Just like Kindle and nook and whatever other e-reader you can name, the iPad will have iBooks, which can read books and magazine and newspapers (oh my) available for download from iBookstore. And the iPad has a slight edge over the two heavy-hitting e-readers: with a 9.7 inch screen, the iPad is larger than the nook and the same size as the more expensive Kindle DX.

The Kindle is the same size as the iPad, but lacks the extra features that the tablet offers.

While the Kindle DX might be $10 less and thinner at .38″ vs. the iPad’s .5″ that extra $10 and .12″ will get you Internet access, movies, music, video games and a color screen. Although, right now Apple is expecting books from the iBookstore to be $12.99-$14.99. Books through Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Nobles’ nook are mostly $9.99. Depending on how much you read, that $3 to $5 gap between book prices can become $300 to $500 if you purchase 100 books. At the high end, that’s enough to buy another iPad. But you won’t be able to get a connection without paying more for AT&T.

All three use AT&T for wireless connectivity. I’m, unfortunately, a Verizon girl.

The iPad will be simple enough to use being apps based. Meaning you want to be able to do something, you just download the app which shows up on the home screen and click on the app you want to use it. There’s no going through documents folders to find anything.

However, this leaves little to no customization. And Apple controls what apps you can and cannot download. And Steve Jobs, himself, demonstrated one of the downfalls when he accessed NYTimes.com only to see a white space with a blue Lego-looking figure: and indication that Flash was required to show the video. As on the iPhone, there will be no way to run Adobe Flash, something a large number of Web sites run, on the iPad.

Stay tuned for why the “magical and revolutionary device” (according to the iPad homepage) has such a ridiculous name.