iPad Mountain Home AR

Apple answered a lot of questions Wednesday about its fabled tablet, now known as the iPad. We know it has a 9.7-inch screen, weighs 1.5 pounds, has Wi-Fi with a 3G option, and Apple claims it has up to 10 hours of battery life. The iPad runs the iPhone OS and "almost all" iPhone apps and uses the ePub format for books. We know a lot about this device, but there are still so many unanswered questions, not to mention a few mysteries, to keep you guessing:

Ten hours of battery life, Really?

Apple is claiming you can watch 10 hours of video on the iPad and that the device can sit in standby mode for one month on one charge. Don't believe the hype, folks. Computer makers love to exaggerate battery life claims, and Apple is no exception. So don't take this one to the bank until PC World's test center checks out the iPad's battery life.

Mobile Me, why no cloud syncing?

What about Mobile Me, Apple's cloud syncing app for your contacts, email and calendars? Apple says you will be able to sync the iPad with your Mac or PC through the iPad's 30-pin connector, but why no cloud syncing ? Apple has had trouble in the past with Mobile Me, so perhaps the company is not ready to bring the iPad into the mix just yet. But you've got to assume this is coming — unless Apple plans on killing the Mobile Me service, that is.

"Almost all" iPhone apps?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the iPad works with "almost all" iPhone apps you can find in the App Store. So which iPhone apps won't work with the iPad, Steve?

Magazines on the iPad?

We saw The New York Times on the iPad, but what about all that talk we heard about new magazine formats? GQ is experimenting with iPhone apps; will other publishers follow suit, or is there something else in the pipeline for magazines on the iPad?

AT&T? Really?

PC World spent the summer testing 3G connections across the U.S., and AT&T achieved some of the lowest reliability scores compared with Verizon and Sprint. AT&T has a bad reputation when it comes to delivering data to the iPhone, and yet, Apple is relying on this carrier for another data-intensive device. The unlimited data plan pricing is pretty good at $30 per month, but can AT&T's network handle the iPad?

How much for those accessories?

Apple has yet to release pricing on the iPad's accessories like the keyboard dock, iPad case and camera connector. The keyboard dock is especially important, since its price may be a deciding factor for people who want to travel with the iPad instead of a netbook.

Is the iPad a threat to netbooks?

You can buy an external keyboard (price unknown), and the price for the iPad is right at $499. You can buy iWork, a suite of productivity apps for the device, so why not replace a netbook with the iPad? One concern might be Microsoft Office compatibility, but the standard version of iWork allows you to save files as Office documents, and presumably ...