Unless you have spent the last several days on a wilderness trip or are just living under a rock then you have not heard about the Apple iPad. Well we assume our readers are all in the know. Apple has once again taken on a established market and elevated it to an all time high. Using technology and the great Apple hype machine. What you needtooknow about this machine is simple, is this device as great as they hype is making it out to be?
The short answer to the question is yes, but there are some shortcomings to this innovative product. First of all the price for this device ranges from the currently shipping $499 version that includes 
16Gigabytes of storage space for movies, music, apps, and data and Wifi connectivity, meaning you have to be near a wi-fi hotspot or in your home using your own wi-fi to access the internet, to the fully expanded but not currently shipping $829 version that has 64 Gigabytes of storage space for movies, music, apps, and data, and wi-fi as well as a cellular connection that will give you internet access anywhere you may be.
If you have an Apple iPhone you will be very familiar with this device, since it’s basically a large form factor iPhone without the phone functions and the camera phone. However the camera phone technology is expected to be added in on later versions. Will this device be able to replace your desktop computer or home computer? Well probably not but more likely to serve as an extension of your current computer or laptop. You should know the iPad does not currently support the ability to print out documents and does hot have any ports for expansion other the the single Apple connector port so expansion and connection to other devices is limited. You can however pair wireless Bluetooth keyboards and headsets to your iPad pretty easily but that’s about it currently.
You also should keep in mind that while this device can function as many things including a reference device, a book reader, a presentation device, a media player, a game machine and much much more, be advised along with apps and media there is an associated price tag, to buy music, books, movies, etc are all the same prices they are in the iTunes store. There are a number for free and cheap apps in the iTunes store as well that will cover your basic needs but the more complex the functionality the higher priced the apps tend to be.
So if you are a little flush with cash, or if your income tax refund is burning a hole in your pocket this may be a great device to have around the house for media consumption.
