UPDATE: The music in the ad appears to be “There Goes My Love” by The Blue Van.

According the FAQ on the video, the animation was done entirely using 3Ds Max and V-Ray render and took about 10 days to complete.

Interestingly – I’ve owned or used all of the products shown, with the exception of the Newton (and the iPad – at least not yet).

No mention yet regarding data plans from Telus, Rogers, etc. Also no mention yet of pricing for Canadians – although with the dollar close to par, we would expect to see similar pricing to the US. If that’s the case, we can expect to see the WiFi models to run around $500 and the 3G versions to be in the $650 to $850 range, depending on the memory configuration.

Here’s a link the the Apple press release.

For up-to-date information about the iPad and its’ Canadian launch, check out iPadinCanada.ca

On another front, Hulu, the online television site (US based only – sorry fellow Canadians) has, according to TechCrunch, started the development of an HTML5 portal – so Flash will not be required to view. If this is true – the very fact that Hulu will be available to the iPad, will certainly make the device appealing to a wider cross-section of consumers.

It’s wonderful, awesome, gorgeous, amazing – you’ll get the idea!

We like this analogy, postulated by Jim Stogdill at O’Reilly Radar. Both the iPad and the iPhone are locked down (at least for the average computer tinkerer). There is no multi-tasking (unless authorized by Apple – for their own apps), no playing with the file system (no folder structure), no installing of shareware apps (unless they are blessed by Apple and come via the iTunes App Store), no tinkering with the interface (unless the device is jail-broken). Essentially, the casual user must can’t tinker too much with the iPad – you can adjust your drivers seat settings and mirrors, but not tune the fuel injection.

The automobile went through a similar evolution. From eminently hackable to hood essentially sealed shut. When the automobile was new, you HAD to be a mechanic to own one. Later, being a mechanic gave you the option of tinkering and adapting it to your specific interests. In fact, that’s how most people up until about 1985 learned to be mechanics. The big changes came with the catalytic converter and electronic ignition (and warranty language to match). Now the automobile has reached the point in its development where you don't even have to know whether it has a motor or an engine to use it, but to tinker at all requires highly specialized skills.

via The iPad is the iPrius: Your Computer Consumerized – O’Reilly Radar.

So is this a bad thing? Some will say it is. Certainly the initial reaction regarding any new Apple product is from the pundits – typically techno-geeks who are tinkerers at heart. By nature these are the people who are unafraid of what’s “under the hood” and want to get the wrench out to play in the engine compartment. When they can’t, they are confused and annoyed.

We don’t believe the iPad is for those tinker-prone folks. Apple is changing the paradigm – for better or for worse, if you want to play with an iPad, it’ll be under Apple’s rules.

The iPad will appeal to the average person who just wants to get some common computer related tasks done (without the tinkering). See our earlier post, Apple iPad and Real Work.

Bottom line – if you want to get the wrenches and socket-sets out to play under the hood, the Apple iPad should not be your vehicle of choice. But, if you just want to get from point A to point B, without worrying about having to adjust carburetor settings, then iPad will probably appeal to your senses – AND – we’re betting there will be a number of people in that category.

Watch as Ben Hoffman, reporter for InfoMania pesters the media crowd gathered outside.

This post via Fraser Speirs – Blog – Future Shock, stands out for us, cutting right to the heart of the matter:

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get “real work” done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the “real work”.

It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.

Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done.

The iPad will break the paradigm of complex computers. The paradigm of having to be a geek to use a computing device.

Flash or no-Flash, multi-tasking or no-multitasking, the iPad will just work – it will just be a functional tool for the everyday guy, gal, grandma, uncle and student.

What’s Included:

The new iPad features a 9.7 inch (diagonal) LED backlit screen with multi-touch capability and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. See the full iPad specifications on the Apple site.

The iPad comes in three capacity variants – a 16GB entry version as well as 32 GB and 64 GB versions. The base unit will include Wi-FI and Bluetooth, while the upgraded iPad’s will add 3G connectivity.

The iPad includes Safari Internet browsing, mail capabilities, a photo application that allows the iPad to be used as a digital photo frame, HD movie viewing capability, full iPod capability, iTunes connectivity, a new app called iBook – to buy and read eBooks, as well as calendaring – notes and contacts applications.

iPad will run existing iPhone apps unmodified (in a small screen area). We expect to see new applications developed specifically for the iPad and its larger screen – as well as, select applications being ported to take advantage of the iPad screen. (Cityhues will certainly be looking at that in-house.)

Apple will also launched a new iTunes store division called the iBookstore, which will allow iPad users to buy, download and read e-books. We suspect the iBookstore is where users will need to go to buy magazine and newspaper subscriptions for the iPad.

Apple has reworked it’s iWork applications to take advantage of the iPad. Keynote, Pages and Numbers will all run on the iPad. We can certainly see this being advantageous for road-warriors that do Keynote presentations on a regular basis. (The iPad is half the weight of the MacBook Air, which weighs in at 3.0 pounds, so the iPad offers a distinct advantage from the portability perspective.) We can also see the iPad being exceptionally useful for salespeople running CRM applications such as SalesForce.com.

According to John Gruber at Daring Fireball – who was lucky enough to spend 20 minutes with one of these, the iPad is fast – very fast.

What’s Not Included:

We’re disappointed to see that the iPad lacks a front facing camera and thus there is no capability for video conferencing. Perhaps we’ll see this introduced in future versions – the iPad would appear to be a natural fit for video conferencing. (Exceptionally valuable for travelling professionals.)

Unlike a laptop, the iPad is very locked-down, there is no “finder”, “desktop” or user accessible file management system – it is much like the iPod Touch. (The iPad runs on the same OS as the iPhone, rather than OS X.) While this may not appeal to some technophiles, it will appeal to many users who simply want to surf the Web, send email, read e-books, etc and not get involved with the inner workings of the computer.

What’s Optional:

An optional Keyboard Dock will be available for the iPad. The dock will allow an iPad to sync with a desktop computer, charge the iPad and includes an audio jack for connecting the iPad to a stereo or powered speakers.

Apple will also offer an optional iPad case, which serves to protect the iPad and can double as a quick stand.

We would expect to see a whole series of additional third party add-ons and peripherals to be introduced over the next few months. Companies like Belkin, Kensington and Logitech are no doubt already working on these add-ons.

Conclusions:

The first iPads are expected to arrive in March and April. Priced at as low as US$499 (No word on Canadian pricing, yet), the iPad certainly appears to be a very interesting device.

The iPad is far more than just an e-book reader and will no doubt be giving the Amazon Kindle some serious competition. (Effectively we see the Kindle as dead, certainly at it’s current price-point). The larger size (9.7 inch screen) Kindle is presently selling for US$489, so with the iPad priced at a mere $10 premium, there is no reason to buy a Kindle over an iPad.

So – is this the killer device that everyone is going to rush out to buy? Time will tell, but we suspect the answer is no. – but (and it’s a big but), there is a market out there for a device that truly “just works” (not everyone is a technophile). The iPad looks to be such a device and will likely play a big role in the sales community, in the seniors market and probably in the education community. (Oh yeah – and will we be getting one? – You bet, probably a couple!)

The iPad has set the bar for other tablet devices and integrates some very exciting features in a small, easy to use package. iPad users will be able to unbox an iPad and use it immediately, no learning curve – it just looks that intuitive.

[Follow Cityhues on Twitter for tweets when our blog is updated.]

Apple has now posted a video of the iPad launch event.

Here’s a summary video from IDG:

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Well the rumour mill is ablaze over the past few weeks in anticipation of the Special Event that Apple has scheduled for January 27 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Judging from the tagline on the official invitation from Apple – “Come see our latest creation“, it sounds like they have something pretty special to unveil. Consensus appears to be that it’s a Tablet of some fashion and there are more than a few mock-up photos online of what it will look like. See here, here and here. In all probability, the real product (if it is, in fact a tablet) will have a design that is much different than anything we’ve seen in the rumour community.

John Grubber at Daring Fireball has an excellent article speculating on what the ultimate tablet product may or may not include by way of form and factor – and perhaps even more importantly, how Apple will pitch the product.

While speculation about the Wednesday event is heavily weighted to the reveal of a tablet device, there are other possibilities, such as a new iPhone model (unlikely), the announcement of the next iPhone OS (version 4.0?), the release of iLife 2010 (boring), an iTunes streaming music service or the next best iSomething-or-other (i.e. something nobody has anticipated).

Whatever ends up being announced on Wednesday – we’re all a-tingle in anticipation.

Event coverage will be available, starting at 10AM pacific time at TwitLive, Gizmodo and GDGT-Live.

UPDATE 1: Jan 26 – The iPhone Dev Center website (site for iPhone developers) is down for updates this morning. Wondering what the significance of this may be.

UPDATE 2: Jan 26 (3PM MST) – According to Terry McGraw of McGraw-Hill Publishing, as announced during an interview on CNBC today (Jan 26) Apple will announce a Tablet tomorrow and it will be based on the iPhone OS, rather than OS X. McGraw indicated that they had been working with Apple for some time to prepare their line of e-Books for the tablet. Looks like the probability of a tablet just increased significantly. (See video, below):