The Apple iPad was officially announced to the public on January 27 2010. It will be available for purchase late March 2010 and there will be 6 models available.

Pricing starts off at $499 for a 16GB WiFi only model. If you would like 3G included you will need to fork over another $130. Other capacities include 32GB and 64GB adding $100 for each upgrade. The most expensive model which includes 64GB of space and 3G access will set you back $829.

The iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds and is a half-inch think. It running a custom 1Ghz Apple chip that is very fast on a 9.7″ touchscreen LCD. This is basically a large iPod Touch on steroids. It is running on a modified version of the iPhone OS, so all of your iPhone apps will run and you will also be able to download iPad optimized applications.

The 3G models will be unlocked so you will be able to use your iPad overseas unlike Apple’s iPhone with AT&T. AT&T will also be supplying unlimited web access for $29.99 a month or $14.99 a month for 250MB of data.