We already knew from Apple's announcement that 300,000 iPads were sold on the iPad launch day but many were wondering afterwards if the sales would keep pace.  It appears they are.  

Yesterday Steve Jobs told the world that 450,000 Apple iPads have been sold to date at the "Sneak peek into the future" media event.  

 It looks like Apple has another hit on their hands.  They announced today that they have sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of sales.  This number included pre-sales delivered to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales from Apple's retail stores. 

 Usually it takes at least a day or so before we start seeing the geeky gadget sites tearing open new devices to see what is inside.  With the iPad though, it is a 3G device so must be tested and certified by the FCC.  The FCC then puts it through several tests.  The FCC had detailed pictures of inside the iPad for some time but they have been held private and confidential.  Until now.  

David Letterman isn't the only funny man to get a "free iPad" this week before the official launch.  Stephen Colbert also gets one and features a short iPad segment on his show this week.  

It is only a couple minutes long so we won't spoil the punchlines for you...enjoy.

 David Letterman has got an iPad before the Official launch and made it the subject of one of his famous top ten lists.

Or is it a paid placement by Apple?  This is our bet and more likely judging by Letterman's inability to understand and operate it on stage.  It looks like Apple is going for a mass audience and non-geeks on this launch.  

With under three days left until launch of the iPad, the Apple PR and marketing machine is at it again.  Smartly, Apple has provided iPad to and allowed several key people to do reviews starting yesterday.  

Here are two of them.

The first one is a 2 minute news segment from ABC News.  It is a good general overview with a couple of interesting tidbits.

The next is a 5 minute hands on video with the actual iPad.  It is very well done and gets lots of real usage and features close up footage. 

We expect that most users of the iPad will be heavy users of photos on the device.  We thought it would be capable for sure but didn't really think there would be anything revolutionary. 

After reviewing Apple's hands on demo, a few things stood out.  The first is that photos is going to be a hugely useful feature on the iPad.  

 While not terribly exciting (maybe even depressing for some), email is an essential task for most people.  If you are buying or thinking of buying an iPad, you are going to want to be sure it takes care of your email needs. 

For the most part it should, it is based on the iPhone mail app which is average to ok for most users.  For power email users it is livable to check some mails but by no means good enough for all mail duties. 

 Here is a video of what the iPad iTunes App store will look like.  Federico Viticci from Italy has somehow got into the new app store and has posted this video.

 It is expected that the iPad app store will be separate to the iPhone app store but until launch on April 3 we can not be 100% certain. 

We will update as more information on the iPad app store becomes available.