Today, Apple [AAPL] finally made their tablet device official and gave it the name Apple iPad. The iPad has a 9.7 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen with IPS technology. The full device measures 9.56 inches tall, 7.47 inches wide and 0.5 inches thick and weighs 1.5 or 1.6 pounds depending on if you choose the 3G model or not.

Back on to the display, it has a high resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels at 132 pixels per inch. The glossy screen is covered in a fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating.

Two different versions of the iPad will be made available. The first is a Wi-Fi version that is compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n networks. The second iPad model has an integrated 3G connection built in allowing it to connect to a number of networks which includes UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) as well as GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz) networks. The 3G model also has the same wireless functionality built in as well as Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR that is included on both models.

Location based services are also available on the iPad and a built in digital compass can be found along with Assisted GPS, Cellular tracking and Wi-Fi tracking.

Of the two versions listed above, each also comes in three sizes (referring to storage capacity) which includes 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of flash memory. Powering the Apple iPad is a new custom built 1GHz Apple A4 processor from which reports have said it’s super quick and provides some very smooth usage.

An accelerometer senses movement such as rotation to landscape as well as in game controlling. An ambient light sensor is also provided on the iPad.

The iPad is also a giant iPod to put it simply and can play back all common music and video formats as well as output to VGA through a Dock Connector. Up to 720p HD is supported at 30 frames per second although there is no mention of 1080p unfortunately. However, if you are using an iPad to watch films on the 9.7 inch screen then 720p is ample for the small screen size.

The email services have had a revamp vs the iPhone and allows you to view emails fully with a slide in list of emails as they arrive. The email software supports various attachment types from all the common image files to Word documents, web pages, PDF, Power Point, Text, Contact information and Excel spreadsheets.

The battery on the device is better than expected with surf time (using Wi-fi) capable of achieving 10 hours on a single charge. The battery has a 25Whr capacity.

If you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch with apps installed then you can simply log in from your iPad and download all those apps to the iPad. The applications when loaded on to the iPad can either be used in the center of the screen, or zoomed to fill the screen. Apple have just launched the SDK that will allow app developers to edit their apps to make them work on the iPad and make use of the larger screen.

Overall a very impressive gadget although it has been met with some criticism from people saying it’s just a large iPod touch. I personally think it looks great although we still have 60 – 90 days to decide if it’s worth it or not as that’s the time to launch for the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/3G iPad to launch.

One surprise is the price. Some were stating that it would cost up near $1000 on contract. What we found out today is that it will cost $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model which is not bad at all. Other pricing is below…

Wi-Fi iPad Pricing…
16GB – $499
32GB – $599
64GB – $699

Wi-Fi/3G iPad Pricing
16GB – $629
32GB – $729
64GB – $829

The 3G pricing also is not “on-contract” meaning that you buy the iPad for the price above and insert your own SIM with dataplan to use it. All the official pictures can be found below with more details found over at Apple.