I didn’t watch the Oscars last night…was too busy watching “1000 Ways to Die” on Spike TV and “The Wedding Crashers” for the third time on Comedy Central. But as soon as I heard Stevie-J (AKA; Steve Jobs) bought some air time during the Oscars to put out an iPad commercial, I made sure I posted it for you guys.

Remember, iPad preorders via apple.com start first thing this Friday!

All of the world is a buzz of the coming of Apple’s iPad. For the next month, all the blogs will be talking this thing to death. I am gonna try not to joining the ranks, but I do feel I need to say what I feel about Apple’s new Rookie (that will soon be the wise elder). So I am gonna be quick, accurate, and not-too-fanboyish in my assessment of the new Apple iPad.

The Lowdown:

Looks
I followed along virtually in real-time with all the millions of other folks via Twitter as Stevie-J and his guest of iPad hardware/software developers as the did their presentation. From the pics I saw to put it mildly, “the damn-thing is sexy.”

The exterior specs are: 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds, 9.7 inch display. I can’t confirm, but word on the street is it will come in different finishes. (White, black, chrome/silver)

The iPad runs ALL of the apps currently found in the Apple App Store, plus iBooks, a new Apple app store for (you guessed it) books that Jobs unveiled alongside of the iPad, and a full-blown iTunes store. Based on the images I saw, the apps look crisp and clear and should give your eyes a much-needed break from squinting at the iPhone and other smart phone screens.

Functionality

The iPad is multi-touch (like the iPhone), and runs on a new 1GHz Apple A4 of the company’s own design. Onboard storage ranges from 16GB to 64GB, and the whole thing runs the iPhone OS with a new, custom UI. It will come automatically with Wi-Fi and you can add 3G connectivity for extra, of course. Now I haven’t gotten my hands on one yet (I smell family Christmas gift – I’m looking at you Mrs. Tech), so I can only speak to the functionality side to say it should integrate seamlessly with all your current Apple products (iPhone, iPod touch, Mac’s, etc in addition to all of the software you can download from their stores). Additionally, Apple has tweaked iWork (Apple’s “Office Suite”) to integrate with the iPad. The biggie for me is that Apple Claims that the iPod has a usable battery life of 10 hours…and an astonishing month of standby time!

Practicality (that’s a word right?)

Like I mentioned earlier, it will come Wi-Fi ready, so out of the box, you can connect it to you home network, or if you wanna handle some ‘bidness’ on the go, you can find and connect to any Wi-Fi hotspot. If you need access anywhere, anytime, you can opt to purchase one loaded with 3G (for an extra $130 bucks) exclusively from AT&T (ugh!). The fees for 3G are $14.99/month for 250MB of data – You might as well spring for the unlimited data plan for $30.00/month. No voice plans available! So don’t think you can make a phone call while you are reading your copy of “How to Make Ba-Jillions in this jacked up Real-Estate Market”. Finally, if you own or are familiar with an iPhone or iPod Touch, you should be able to get accustomed to the iPad without hardly any learning curve due to the same type of gestures utilized to operate the iPad’s smaller predecessors.

The iPad will come in three versions:

16GB – $499
32GB – $599
64GB – $699

Again, if you want 3G, take any of those numbers and add another $130 bucks + which ever monthly plan your choose – Pretty reasonable if you ask me. Shipping will start as early as March.

My overall verdict: If you are not trying to do any heaving computing/multitasking or expect to take high-res photos of your family trip to Epcot Center, while video-conferencing Grandma who couldn’t make the trip due to her bad knee, the iPad will be a definite crowd-pleaser. If you expected the iPad to do EVERYTHING (including help Obama win a second term), you will be sadly let down by its capabilities.

I hate to say it, but it will hard to stay away from keeping close tabs on the iPad, so stay tuned, ’cause I will probably publish several more entries on the subject!

photo credit: Marco Alioli aka Marcus

I was sitting in the barbershop on Saturday morning (quite early I might add) and I couldn’t help but notice all the cool gadgets all of the customers were using. Any one of those gadgets I think would make a pretty good gift (no Zhu Zhu Pets) for the technologically literate savy member of your family.

If you don’t know by now, a brotha loves cheap (if not free) so I decided to come up with a list of five solid, yet affordable tech gifts for this holiday season. (note: these are solid tech gadgets that YOU know they will like, not those lame ones that they pray you didn’t buy at the end of last year’s shopping season, so the reciept is still good).

The Low Down:

Pretty much anything under 100 bucks from Apple.
That includes: iPod shuffle or Nano, in-ear headphones, Magic Mouse…or if you’re like me, an Apple/iTunes gift card so they can buy whatever they feel like getting (in my name, of course). (Hint: Buy Apple Certified Refurished products – You may save some money on an otherwise perfect piece of equipment that somebody just didn’t know how to operate!)

Bluetooth Headset
I think those folks who ALWAYS have the headset in their ear even when they are NOT on a call are clowns…but I must admit they do come in handy when you are on a call and need two free hands. So if you know somebody whose large “cheeseblock” phone (thanks sweetie) stays glued to the side of their face, this might be a good gift for them.

Flash/Thumb Drive
A cool item that you will never use…until you need it. Then you will thank God you have it. A great way to carry around pics, pdfs, spreadsheets and other documents with you. So if you frequent public computers and they have a “No Downloading” policy, or you need to have 100 copies of your resume printed out on fancy Kinko’s paper for the umpteenth Career Fair you’ve been to this year (keep your head up!) a Flash/Thumb Drive is the way to go.

Noise-Cancelling Earphones
You’d prefer NOT crank up your earphones until your ears bleed just so you don’t have to listen to the person in the check-out lane who doesn’t think their super smart phone can pick up their normal speaking voice when they are on a call. Well noise-cancelling earphones may just do the trick. They come in full-size or in-ear (for those of us who don’t want to be mistaken for a DJ)

Logitech Harmony Remote
Chances are, the techy you are shopping for (like myself) has researched, designed, manufactured, and implemented his “routine” for turning on the TV, turning on the Cable/Satellite box, turning on the Receiver, chaning the video input on the TV and the audio input on the receiver to ‘Video 1′, using a myriad of ATLEST three remotes. Well Logitech has taken all the fun out of only ONE person in the whole house knowing how to operate the ‘big TV’ and introducing a line a remotes that stress user-friendlyness (it’s a word now). You simply hook the remote up to your computer, find all of your components, and the software automagically (another patened word) programs the remote.

So there you have it, a brotha’s picks for solid tech gifts for this holiday season. You only have a couple more shopping days till the big day, so I suggest that you remind the ‘Mrs.’ of all the shopping she has to do hop to it and start checking off those Christmas lists.