After nearly ten years of rumors and tons of speculation, Apple has finally revealed the new iPad and created a lot of interest and anticipation.  Is it possible that supplies will run out before the demand?

The iPad is expected to revolutionize the way people work on the go.  The machine is a mere half-inch thick and weighs in at 1.5 pounds.  It comes with a 9.7 inch touch screen LCD display and uses a custom “A4″ chip that runs at 1GHz.  The battery is expected to last ten hours with a month of standby capacity

Other features of the iPad include:

• A 30-pin Dock connector
• A speaker,
• A microphone,
• Bluetooth,
• 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G capability,
• An accelerometer and
• A compass.
• A keyboard dock, (that connects underneath in the portrait orientation)
• Support for up to 1024×768 VGA out and 480p composite out through new dock adapter cables,
• A camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader.

The iPad is managed by iTunes, just like your iPhone and it can run the iPhone apps you are already using.  The 3G version of the iPad runs on AT&T and comes with two new data plans that are contract free.

A search for free ipad returns more than 38 million results and many people will immediately pass on an opportunity to get a free ipad as a scam.  But some companies really do send out free iPads.  Most of the offers you will find require that you sign up for something in order to get a chance to win.  After you sign up, you will get many, many offers for other products, a lot of spam and maybe even phone calls from telemarketers.

If you really want to get a free iPad here’s what I recommend you do. (You will get lots of spam and a bunch of telephone calls from telemarketers, so here’s why you need to do the following.)

1. Make a new email account on a service like yahoo or hotmail and use that to participate in the offer.

2. Get a cheap prepaid cellphone and use that as your number on the offer.

3. Get a prepaid credit card and use that as your credit card information.

4. Create an Excel file with the offers  you join and keep track of cancellation dates so that you can cancel before you get billed.

5. Enjoy your free iPad.

Research and my experience indicate that it is possible to get free stuff.  However, you have choose which trials to sign up for carefully and be careful to follow the rules.  You might have to buy 0 – 0 worth of stuff you don’t need and you will have to cancel memberships.

Most companies offering free iPads hope that the inconvenience of qualifying is enough so that most people give up after they have already given their personal information away.  But, it might be worth it to get a 0 device for around 0 plus a couple hours of time.