It’s been the subject of more rumour and speculation than the moon landings but this morning, tech giant Apple finally announced its long-awaited tablet computer dubbed the iPad.

While the hype machine is getting into full swing, its worth taking a look at the technical specifications of the unit and seeing what’s going on inside.

The flat-screen tablet features a 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD panel, fractionally smaller than those you see in the majority of netbooks. But unlike most netbooks, the iPad’s LCD panel has a wide 178-degree viewing angle, similar to most new LCD TVs and making the unit suitable for viewing at almost all angles. The screen resolution is rumoured to be 1024×768-pixels. The unit can output video in the same way as the iPod can however, if the rumours are correct, it can only output 480p (720×480-pixel) video, marking the first time an iPod-like device from Apple would deliver more resolution on its built-in screen than it can output to a separate device.

Behind the iPad is a new processor called the A4, Apple’s own 1GHz processor designed specifically for the iPad. Apple purchased a start-up semiconductor design firm PA Semiconductor back in April 2008. Everyone at the time was speculating just what would Apple want with a chip design company when it had only inked its deal with chip giant Intel only a couple of years before.

Now we know.

The A4 is described by Apple as a “system on a chip” designed for embedded applications like the iPad. Interestingly, it runs the iPhone 3.0 operating system rather than the full-blown Mac OS X 10.6 OS but it means straight off the bat, the iPad has over 140,000 applications ready to roll when it becomes available.

And that’s the odd thing about this announcement – it’s been a long time since Apple announced a product without it actually being available on the day. According to Apple’s announcement, the Wi-Fi version of the iPad won’t be available until March while those hankering for the 3G mobile version will have to cool their jets until April.

Battery life and tech

Despite the relatively high clock speed of 1GHz (the iPhone by comparison is said to clock along at 412MHz), the iPad is claimed to have up to 10 hours battery life. What’s interesting about the claim is how it was tested. Apple ran the iPad with wireless connectivity switched on, keeping the unit powered up and running the screen on half-brightness. No doubt if you start using the iPad to watch H.264 movies, battery life will head south at a rate of knots.

Apple is claiming its advanced chemistry and charging tech will get the battery recharging up to 1000 times without a “significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five-year lifespan”. By “significant decrease”, Apple expects that properly maintained, the battery should still hold 80% of its charge by the time it’s done 1000 charge cycles but that will obviously depend on usage and settings.

Storage & connectivity

Storage is via built-in flash memory and basically what sets the price.  The entry-level Wi-Fi model will feature 16GB at US$499, $US599 for the 32GB version and $US699 for a 64GB iPad. If you want Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, the prices start at $US629 for the 16GB, rising the $US729 for the 32GB and $US829 for the 64GB model. Apple says the Wi-Fi versions will be available “late March” while the 3G versions will appear in April.

Apple is incorporating 802.11n-class Wi-Fi wireless networking into the iPad while its 3G connectivity will have speeds of up to 7.2Mbps on HSDPA networks.

The iPad will sync with a Windows or Mac OS computer via the standard 30-pin to USB cable.

At this stage, Apple has only announced US pricing. It says international pricing will be declared at a later date.