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Apple have unveiled the iPad, their long-awaited and much-rumored tablet.  A half-inch thick slate, the iPad has a 9.7-inch LCD IPS 1024 x 768 display with multitouch, , WiFi 802.11n and – optionally – integrated 3G, the iPad is based 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. Best of all, pricing will start at $499 when the Apple iPad begins shipping in around 60 days time, with $130 on top for adding integrated 3G. More details after the cut.

The iPad battery is apparently good for up to 10hrs use, or a month of standby, and it recharges via a 30-pin dock connector that’s also used to sync with iTunes. Elsewhere there’s a digital compass and accelerometer, and the iPad can be used in both portrait and landscape orientations; in the latter, the on-screen keyboard is, Apple reckon, almost as large as a MacBook keyboard. Hooking up your regular Mac or PC triggers an iTunes sync of all multimedia, apps, bookmarks, calendar entries and other data, just as it does on an iPhone.

Fresh to the iPad is a new ebook reading app, iBooks, complete with an ebook store for wireless downloads. Apple have partnered with Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan and Hachett Book Group, and ebooks can include color and B&W content, together with images and video. Samples and reviews will be available, and there are page animations for reading. Fonts are interchangeable and resizable, and there will be a range of fiction and textbook content to purchase at launch.

Meanwhile Apple have also developed a new iWork suite for the iPad, with three new apps: Numbers (spreadsheet), Keynote (presentations) and Pages (word processor) which will each be available for $9.99. All have been specially reworked for the iPad’s 1GHz processor and to suit its UI, and support presentation animations and transitions, spreadsheet graphs and tables, and in-app image editing.

Apple have pushed out a new version of the iPhone SDK today, with support for the iPad – and a simulator – in the hope that developers will jump on board.  However all of the original iPhone apps will run on the tablet, either at their standard resolution in the center of the display or at 2x zoom resolution for full-screen use.  The App Store is available on the iPad, obviously, and iPad-specific titles will be prioritized.  There’s still no support for multitasking, however.

There will be three versions of iPad, a 16GB model for $499, a 32GB model for $599 and a 64GB model for $699. Adding 3G will be $130 on top of that (the 3G models won’t ship for 90 days or so), and Apple will offer two data plans – $14.99 for 250MB or $29.99 for unlimited data – which will be pre-paid, managed from the iPad itself and contract-free. As with the iPhone 3GS, Apple have partnered with AT&T for their data service, and subscribers will also get unlimited AT&T WiFi hotspot access included. The 3G modem itself will be unlocked and use a GSM “micro-SIM” for international use, which could present issues as relatively few carriers currently offer them; official international data plans are expected to be finalized in the June/July timeframe.