The word is out officially from Apple.  The iPad pre-order begins March 12th and the actual release is April 3rd.  Slightly longer than we thought we would have to wait, but not unbearable.  See the full press release from Apple after the jump:iPad Available in US on April 3
Pre-Order on March 12

CUPERTINO, California-March 5, 2010-Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds-thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook-and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.

The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

Pricing & Availability
iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

  Previously it was pretty well thought that the upcoming Apple event would be on January 26th.  However, a new report from All Things D are saying they have inside information that an event will take place, but on the 27th of January.

Sources in a position to know tell me Apple (AAPL) is indeed planning a media event later this month at which it will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like these. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday Jan. 27, not Tuesday Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

It appears that the date is really up in the air at this point.  Until someone gets the official invite we just won’t know.

  There were some rumblings from various sites today that WebOS1.3.5 may be coming today.  The update is here and is being pushed to your device as we type this.  The update comes in at just 13MB, but has some significat fixes for those of you using WebOS.

• App limit fixed.
• App Catalog downloads continue even after leaving the app’s page.
• App purchases have been expanded to US territories (sorry Europe, Canada, etc).
• Switching between days in Calendar is now faster.
• Sprint Navigation can be launched from a Contact.
• Palm Profile app restores happen in the background, letting the user get to the phone faster.
• Future webOS updates can be downloaded over 2G wireless (1xRTT).
• Notifications now work in landscape mode (which has strangely lost the rounded corners).
• Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
• QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
• Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
• Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

This will probably be the last update before any new announcements by Palm at the upcoming CES Expo in Las Vegas shortly.  An interesting tidbit to note is that some who have scoured over the code have found pengles.ipk and opengles-omap3.ipk, which are what you need to get GPU acceleration running.  Happy updating!

  The ramp up to the next iPhone always appears to draw more near more quickly each year.  Although noone that we know has had the pleasure of laying eyes on the next iPhone, Pandev has seen the likes of it via an iPhone identifier never before gazed upon.  For example, when the iPhone 3GS was being field tested an identifier of iPhone2,1 was seen in October 2008.  This time Pandev has seen the iPhone3,1 identifier pop up since November of 2009.  Pinchmedia provides analytics data for applications and shows the iPhone 3,1 identifier as official firmware from Apple.  The time frame is about right given the past spotting prior to the 3GS launch.  We doubt we will see any annoucement until around June, but maybe we will get a glimpse before then at whatever Apple replaces MacWorld with.

[MacRumors]

  WIth the launch of a new Zune comes the update to the already excellent Zune Player software.  Microsoft is claiming some exciting new features as to which the details have been left out.  We expect an update from Apple with a new iTunes this coming week, but we would love to see more features to the great player they have now.  Zune Player is on par with iTunes and that is a hard feat to manage.  The Zune software is very different, but equal in some areas and better in others as far as music software goes.  We’ll be sure to give you a full review of the Zune software should it be a significant upgrade.

[Zune]