Computerworld - After the blood-in-the-water, Tiger shark-like frenzy leading up to the unveiling of Apple's new tablet this week, it's understandable that you might feel, well, a tad underwhelmed. Even the Apple rumor mill can't peg every nut and bolt, so there's always something that was touted by the gossip, but didn't show in the real deal.

No, the iPad -- a name that's struck some as offensive -- doesn't make popcorn. It won't recharge by setting it in a sunny spot. It won't even run Flash, for cryin' out loud.

What will it do? What's inside? And most important, what's it going to cost?

Surprisingly, there were some surprises yesterday when Apple CEO Steve Jobs -- still looking thin but no longer sickly gaunt -- showed off the iPad, beginning with its price, which was lower than most had predicted.

To get going, we've answered some of the first round of questions about what Jobs called "magical" and "revolutionary," but which a lot of pundits called much more mundane.

How much will it cost? $499 at the bottom, $829 at the top, with four more configurations in between.

Here's the deal ... the iPad comes in two models: One with WiFi connectivity only, the second with both WiFi and 3G. For each model there are three configurations based on the amount of flash RAM storage.

The WiFi-only models costs $499, $599 and $699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations, respectively. Add $130 to each of those prices for the WiFi+3G model and you get $629, $729 and $829.
How big is the thing? Can I hold it in one hand? The 9.7-in. screen sets the format of the iPad, which by Apple's measurements, is 9.6-in. high by 7.5-in. wide by 0.5-in. deep.

Since it weighs in at 1.5 pounds -- Amazon's Kindle is a 10.2-oz. device, the larger Kindle DX, which has a screen the same size as the iPad, weighs 1.2 pounds -- several of the reporters and bloggers who got some hands-on time yesterday said they thought it was too heavy to hold long in one hand.

"That's too much to hold up to your face while holding a strap when you're riding the subway," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research yesterday.

"You notice the heft as soon as you pick it up," chimed in Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub, who had the iPad in his hands Wednesday. "It feels like you've ripped the top off a MacBook Pro and added some thickness to it."

How big is the screen? Apple stuck in a 9.7-in. LCD display with LED-backlighting that uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology. The latter provides wider viewing angles, and was also used in the revamped iMacs that debuted last October.

The iPad's screen resolution is 1024-by-768 pixels, and to many's surprise, that's the standard television 4:3 aspect ratio (the width-to-height ratio), not the nearly-default widescreen format of 16:9 or 16:10 used in notebooks and computer displays today. Apple's new iMacs, for instance, offer a display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, while the company's MacBook notebooks use a 16:10 aspect ratio.

The lack of a widescreen-style display has some pundits ticking off the omission as one of the reasons why the iPad won't sell, or one of the reasons why they won't buy it. The 4:3 ratio has, in fact, made it on a number of "X Things That Suck About the iPad" posts.

How long will the battery last? Apple said 10 hours when viewing video, and a month when the iPad is on stand-by. Other than that, real-world numbers will have to wait until the tablet ships.

But one thing's certain, said Rapid Repair's Vronko: As an e-book reader, the iPad won't be able to touch the Kindle when it comes to time-between-charges.

Some experts have said the $130 surcharge for 3G is "ridiculous," noting that a 3G chipset adds less than $10 to the materials cost of the iPad. Other hardware in the model, such as GPS, would add a few more dollars.

When can I get one? Apple's saying "late March" for the WiFi-only model, "late April" for the WiFi+3G iPad. And no, you can't order one yet.

The company isn't taking pre-orders at the moment. Instead, Apple's only accepting names and e-mail addresses, which it will use to notify customers when the online store is ready to take credit card numbers.

I've heard some say the iPad is fast. What's that about? The tablet's powered by what CEO Steve Jobs yesterday called an "Apple A4" processor, which he also acknowledged was Apple-designed. Jobs didn't come out and say it, but everyone is assuming that the chip was created by P.A. Semi, the Santa Clara, Calif. boutique microprocessor design company Apple acquired in 2008.