The design is one of the best I've ever seen. It's design looks very modern and cool, and it also features an LCD screen that stretches all the way to the edge, but the actual screen you see doesn't go all the way to the edge, if you understand what I'm saying. Starting at the top of the device is a 3.5mm headphone jack, built-in microphone (no, it's not s reset button, so don't stick anything pointy in there), and the power button. On the right is the switch to turn off the accelerometer, so the screen won't rotate if you're using it in the car and there's a bump in the road; perfect for when you're reading an ebook, and a volume rocker. And on the bottom of the device is a built-in speaker and Apple's proprietary 30-pin connector. There's nothing on the left, and on the front is the LCD capacitive screen and the "Home" button. Now what is a capacitive screen? That means it registers thermal heat instead of actual pressure on the old resistive screen; so there's no stylus with the device, and that also means that the screen can be made out of harder materials. However, I have seen capacitive styluses before, but it was so long ago that I don't remember where. If you want to learn how to navigate the iPad, Apple's website (www.apple.com) has tutorial videos on how to navigate the device and the apps included when you purchase the device. The advantage of a capacitive screen is the fact that if it is still on and hits some thing else in you bag or backpack, nothing will happen.

The iPad feels nice and sturdy, and has absolutely no flex at all. The back of the device is made of brushed aluminum (the iPhone & iPod Touch have a chrome back), but I would still buy some type of case for it, there's still a possibility of it getting scratched, but it's not as likely.

The notes application also has a new interface, which is with all of the built-in applications, except for Mail. When turned to Landscape Mode (sideways), it is made to show all of the other notes you've written, and the style has a similar look to a portfolio, and the notes can either be very long or just a couple or words. There's not that much to talk about with notes, so I'm going to continue on with this review.

The application Contacts is very different than on the iPhone or iPod Touch. It shows your list of contacts on the left, and the contact's information on the right, along with an optional picture to apply to the contact, which I find to be very nice as well. There are several things you can add to the contact, including his or her email address, home number, cell phone number, work number, a photo of course, notes about this contact, and their work address. There is also now Bluetooth available for the device, but I'm not sure if that is available on the iPod Touch or not. It still becomes very useful, until just now I paired a wireless keyboard with the iPad that was made for my PS3, and its working perfectly! I'm still planning on getting the keyboard dock designed specifically for the iPad. The email addresses are underlined and highlighted in blue, meaning if you simply tap on the email address it will open up the application Mail, and you can send that person an email. The Contacts application can also be synced with either Microsoft Outlook or the application for Contacts on your Macintosh computer (if you own one).

The Maps application is powered by Google Maps, but works much more intuitively and is faster to access than using Safari. You can type anything in the search box, such as "Apple retail stores in Oklahoma City, Ok", and it will pull up all the Apple retail stores in Oklahoma City.The Google Maps application for the iPad features multitouch capabilities; as does the application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as I've said a thousand times before in this review. Nothing's changed much on the Maps application, except for the fact that it works A LOT faster than the iPhone or iPod Touch, probably because of it has more RAM since it's a type of tablet computer, and because of Apple's new A4 chip.
 

The videos application is...simple. When you first open it up, it shows all of your TV shows, movies, and home videos in front of a plain black background. With movies and TV shows, when you first click on it it will show the cover art on the right, and a brief paragraph about the video along with who starred in it, the director, and the producers. above that it shows the rating (PG, PG-13, etc.), the companies that produced it, and whether it is in HD or in standard definition. And last but not least, at the very, very top, shows an arrow that leads you back to the video selection menu, the info button (which starts you at anyway), and the Chapters button, which lets you skip certain areas, or where you left off, but it saves where you left off when you leave the application, unless you change that in Settings. I've learned with all technology that when the video is saved on the hard drive, it saves more of the battery life, I bought the HD version of Star Trek, no glitches or the movie stopping halfway through to buffer, none of that at all, which is great!

The You Tube application is very easy to use, however, I haven't been able to see all of my subscriptions in the subscriptions tab, it only shows about 16, but I have a lot more subscriptions than that, around 40. There are 7 different tabs: Featured, Top Rated, Most Viewed, Favorites, Subscriptions, My Videos, and History. this app makes everything nice and organized, except for the minor disappointment with the subscriptions issue,l but their new videos do pop up on the right of the list, where it shows all of the new videos uploaded. The viewing isn't too good, the video is nice and crystal clear, but it doesn't load the video like in the keynote, all the way through in less than 5 seconds, I played the same video in which Steve Jobs showed to the crowd, but mine had to pause 3 times to either buffer or load more of the video, and the video ("Wet and Woofy") is only 51 seconds long. that pretty disappointing, but all companies are known to show a demo with better specs than the ones they sell. It does take quite a while for a video on Youtube to load with the iPad, so you might as well set it down on the table and watch your favorite TV show you recorded on TiVo, because I haven't been able to watch any of the new tech videos from my subscribers on my iPad at all, I still have to use my laptop for that.

The iTunes application is very nice and easy to navigate. It features on the home screen _ tabs: Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U, and My Downloads. when you first open the application when you tap on the screen. it starts you out the on then last tab you were on when you left the app, but when you open the application for the first time, it will most likely start you out on the first tab; Music. It also allows you to search any song, album, singer, band, movie, TV Show, and Podcasts, easing access to whatever you want to buy. I searched several movies that I wanted to buy, but unfortunately all but two of the 7 I searched were available to buy; the other 5 were only available for rent, which is also an option if you only want to watch the movie once, excellent for long plane rides, renting a movie ranges from around $2-5, depending when the movie came out. If you want to buy a movie, it ranges from $9.99 to $19.99, so you might as well buy it on DVD or Blue-ray, that is, if you like your TV and have a DVD player. Oh wait, I forgot, there is also a VGA adapter available also, so you CAN connect it to a larger monitor or possibly a TV that has a VGA input plug.