This weekend will finally see the long awaited Apple iPad go on sale and sales estimates for 2010 are in the millions…7.1 million to be exact (according to iSuppli).

This is expected to be followed by 14.4 million during 2011 and with 20.1 million sales expecting to be reached during 2012 – How I wish I was an Apple [AAPL] shareholder right now!

With estimated sales like this, Apple will have successfully introduced the first ever mainstream tablet, however, Apple are unlikely to enjoy the vast lead they enjoyed when they launched the iPhone as the tablet market has some major competition expected to be launched in the near future which will test the longevity of the iPad craze. [Read more…]

Have you been wondering what the Apple iPad looks like inside? The FCC have taken one apart to make sure it clears their tests and have posted the images on-line. One thing to note here is that this FCC teardown is no where near as in depth when compared to the one iFixit will do tomorrow, but it’s still interesting to see what’s going on in there including how much actual space there is available even though it contains a massive set of batteries.

The picture above shows the back panel (the screen rests on top of this) whereby the two large brick shaped objects are the batteries that keep it powered for 10+ hours. You can also see the dock connector running across the batteries and see that it’s slightly unfastened from the bottom edge of the iPad.

One of the images below shows the main circuit board that contains the brains that run this thing… ie the A4 chip although specific chip numbers have been covered up I guess to protect their identity before the launch… again, iFixit no doubt will reveal all chip numbers associated with the iPad. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] have announced that they have optimised their web services specifically for the Apple iPad [AAPL] that launches tomorrow.

The update to services such as GMail have been optimised to work on large screen mobile devices to give a better email experience. When visiting GMail from an iPhone for example, you just see a list of messages with buttons across the top to move around sections. The new iPad optimised version uses a two column approach where your messages can be scrolled through on the left of the screen and the message viewed on the right of the screen as pictured below.

The GMail app now uses a HTML5 web app that is also used on Android and the iPhone at the moment. [Read more…]

Flickr have announced that they have launched HTML5 video playback designed right now for those specifically who use the Apple iPad. The iPad, you’ll remember, doesn’t have flash video capabilities and from what we understand, it never will. Luckily for Apple [AAPL], unluckily for Adobe, it seems many of the major publishers are actually in the process of converting video over to the HTML5 standard that will allow the iPad to browse the news and photography sites without getting the small blue brick that indicates Flash is needed.

Flickr have designed their HTML5 videos to work on the iPad and bring the full browsing experience of flickr video and flickr photos to the iPad. [Read more…]

MobileMe is an application available for Apple [AAPL] that allows various functions to be performed such as syncing email, calendars and other information across devices to make sure all stays in sync. One of the features is called Find My iPhone which allows you to track the location of your iPhone when lost. The software remotely activates the GPS and transmits details to you so you can track it down. If you think you have no hope of finding your phone you can also perform a remote wipe ensuring that your data is not found by others.

Find My iPad is now launching on the MobileMe service which allows you to do exactly the same as a lost iPhone… track it down or remote wipe it.

Things to note with the iPad version is that the wireless version doesn’t have a GPS built in, and to find out where your iPad is, it will need to be connected successfully to a wireless network. Due to working out locations based on wireless networking, it will be nowhere near the accuracy of a GPS enabled device, so really the Wi-Fi+3G Apple iPad is really what you want here thanks to it’s built in GPS and 3G connectivity. [Read more…]

The price of a WSJ subscription on for the Apple iPad has now been revealed. The cost to get content on your Apple [AAPL] device will be $17.29/month which will include the ability to download a 7 day archive of news so you can take it along with you if you have no wireless connection available.

The subscription cost works out at $3.99/week which with the extra 2 or 3 days added on brings it up another dollar or so to the $17.29 that will be charged to your card each month.

Would you pay to access news on WSJ? You will probably admit that they do push out some great content (and award winning content at that), but with so much news around the internet is it really worth subscribing to the service? [Read more…]

In preparation for Saturday’s Apple iPad launch, Apple [AAPL] have now opened up iTunes to show applications for the iPad (link will open up iTunes).

Once loaded up you’ll see a list of all the apps available for the Apple iPad that can be purchased now. When clicking on an application you then see the option of viewing screen shots for the iPhone version or iPad version as pictured below.

A lot of the applications we have already heard about due to leaks over the past week or so, but now it’s official you can go ahead and start purchasing them. [Read more…]