So the big question going through every iPad owners mind right now is do I need unlimited internet on my iPad or is 2GB enough? If you have not purchased your iPad by midnight on June 6th than you will have the option of either the 200MB data plan for $14.99 a month or the 2GB data plan for $25.00 a month, but for iPad owners who purchased before June 6th you also have the option of unlimited internet for $29.99 a month provided that you lock that in by midnight on June 6th and you must maintain the unlimited plan in order to remain eligible.

Gone is the flexibility that AT&T touted at the iPad’s debut allowing us to go from unlimited, 25oMB or no internet at all month to month at will, with no contracts. So what to do? Do you need unlimited internet or will 2GB suffice? For many iPad users it’s too soon to tell. If you’ve only had your iPad a few days or weeks do you have a full grasp on just how much internet you’ll average per month? Probably not.

2GB is actually quite a bit of data for example I’m a very heavy data user on my iPhone and use approximately 500MB a month and after comparing with my friends I was the heaviest iPhone data user by a lot. So I think the new data plans will be good for many users. That is, until you start watching video.

According to AT&T 2GB of data will get you the following:

Sending/receiving 10,000 one-page text emails and 1,500 one-page emails with an attachment, viewing 4,000 Web pages, uploading/downloading 500 photos to social media sites, and (only) 200 minutes of standard-quality video watching a month

Gizmodo did some real life testing and came up with the following:

YouTube: When we watched a 2-minute YouTube video, 2MB was used; so if 2GB is 2048MB, one could theoretically watch 17 hours of programming on YouTube before using up all your bandwidth for the month. This assumes you do NOTHING else on your iPad that eats up bandwidth.

Netflix: When we watched an episode of Netflix (Arrested Development) running 21:54, 55MB of bandwidth was used; so, let’s say 22min is 55MB, then Netflix consumes 2.5MB for every minute of streaming video watched. Therefore:

• A half hour TV show (~22min.) on Netflix would consume 55MB of data
• An hour-long TV show (~43min.) on Netflix would consume 110MB of data
• An hour-long movie on Netflix would consume 150MB of data
• An hour and a half movie on Netflix would consume 225MB of data
• A two-hour movie on Netflix would consume 300MB of data

** In total, you could watch 13.65 hours of programming on Netflix before using up all your bandwidth. This assumes you do nothing else on your iPad that month to eat up your bandwidth.  (And remember: the average American watches over 150 hours of television per month alone.)

ABC App: We watched an episode of Better Off Ted, running 25:41 with ads used 97MB. For simplicity’s sake, let’s average it out to 26min and 100MB. That’s ~4MB/minute.

• A half hour TV Show on ABC streaming would consume an estimated 100MB
• An hour-long TV Show on ABC streaming would consume an estimated 200MB

** In total, you could watch 10.24 hours of programming on ABC Streaming App before using up all your bandwidth. Again, this assumes you do nothing else on your iPad that month.

I see the iPad as a media consumption device. Keyword: consumption. And if you also plan on using the iPad to watch videos than I suggest you get on the unlimited plan now while it’s still available. The good news is after a few months if you don’t feel like the extra $5 a month for unlimited is worth it you can always downgrade to the 2GB plan. But if you’re not on the unlimited plan in time you’ll miss out for good.

Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can’t be serious.
Rumack: I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley. – Airplane

“Ladies and gentleman you are now free to use approved electronic devices” are the sweetest words you can hear on an airplane. That’s when you can pull out your iPad. But what if you don’t have an iPad? Then you’re left staring enviously at the passengers that do.

But it seems that Jetstar, a subsidiary of Qantas, has a solution in iPads for rent on every flight.  They will begin a trial program later this month with iPad’s available pre-loaded with movies, music, TV shows, games and books for $10.

“We are really excited to commence trialing the iPads, as we’re always looking for ways to enhance our customer’s Jetstar experience. Given the demand for the iPad so far, I anticipate it will have strong appeal amongst our passengers,” said Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan as reported by Sydney Morning Herald.

And here’s the clincher they will even allow for the iPad to be used during take-off and landing, when other electronic devices have to be shut off. I think this will prove to be a popular program for sure. Not only will it provide great entertainment to passengers, but I foresee it leading to more iPad sales. If you can put an iPad in someone’s hands for a 2 hour flight you’ll likely have a future iPad customer. I’m sure many of you have experienced putting an iPad into the hands of a non-believer only to have to pry it out of their hands an hour later.

So would you like to see iPads making an appearance on your future flights?

With Federer battling it out at the French Open and the Lakers and the Celtics meeting up in the NBA playoffs it’s understanding that you might have overlooked this incredible competition, but the title of Worldest Fastest iPad Typer has been bestowed upon 28 year old Joseph Grech.

The Guinness World Records team showed up to the iPad’s debut at an Apple store in the UK where Grech was in line at 3am looking forward to being one of the first to get an iPad. Over 30 people competed with the goal of typing the alphabet from A-Z in the fastest time and Grech clocked 6.61 seconds barely beating out the second fastest time of 6.7 seconds.

Guinness World Records spokesman said,

“The new Apple iPad is such an iconic and exciting device. Today it seems only fitting that arguably the biggest launch in Apple’s long and distinguished history is also the backdrop to its iPad being involved in a Guinness World Record breaker attempt.”

The good people of Guinness were also on hand to catch a photograph of the world’s tallest married couple purchasing their iPads. Thank God that moment did not go undocumented.

Liz Lemon: Hey, Frank! What do guys like?
Frank: Porn.
Liz Lemon: No, I mean if you are gonna go on a date with a woman, how would you want her to act?
Frank: Like she’s in porn.      - 30 Rock

I know what you’re thinking. Finally! We can all enjoy porn on our iPads! Or is it just me? Don’t answer that.

Although Steve Jobs listed among the iPad’s high points it’s “freedom from porn” it was only a matter of time before that changed. Let’s face it the people want their porn. The popular website YouPorn (NSFW) has recognized the huge opportunity to get in front of 2 million (and growing) iPad users and has started converting their videos to HTML5.

LIke most porn sites YouPorn had relied on Flash for their videos, but the iPad does not support Flash. And Apple has taken a PG only stance on iPad apps in the App store essentially locking down the iPad from porn just like the iPhone has been locked down for the past four years. However, it seems that the iPad is shaking things up.

So far, not all of YouPorn’s videos have been updated for the iPad yet, but plenty are available. And it’s safe to assume that other sites will follow in YouPorn’s footsteps. I’m sure all of the iPad owners in Utah will be especially happy.

This is all you’ll see if you visit Lala.com. Up until yesterday Lala was an online music store that was acquired by Apple last year. Lala had two unique features that separated it from other online music retailers. First, instead of a 30 second sample you could actually listen to an entire song one time before purchasing. This is especially good when you’re debating whether to buy a single song or the whole album. It’s so hard to get a feel for an album from 30 second clips so it’s great to be able to listen to the whole album first. The second major difference is the fact that the music you bought was stored “in the cloud” allowing you to listen to your music anywhere you had internet access.

Many thought when Apple bought Lala this signaled that iTunes would be making a move toward a cloud based system as well. Allowing users to store all of their media (music, TV shows, movies, etc) on the iTunes server to be streamed from any internet device. Making the decision to purchase Lala and then shut it down makes it seem like Apple is definitely heading in that direction, however it’s not clear how long it will take for Apple to launch a cloud based service as it would require new deals with content providers.

Think about what it would mean for us iPad users. I have more than 64 GB worth of media on my Macbook right now so it’s impossible for me to bring all of my music and video with me on an iPad. Using a cloud based service reduces the need for massive storage space on our mobile devices or the need to sync content between devices. Imagine if all of your media was in the cloud to be accessed at all times on all of your devices. Hurry it up, Apple, we’re waiting.

“I don’t know how to put this but, I’m kind of a big deal” -Anchorman

Over the weekend Apple announced they had sold over 2 million iPads in under 60 days. Impressive. Especially when you consider that up until a few days ago the iPad was only available in the US and has now been available in 9 more countries for only four days. As momentum continues to build and the iPad continues to be available in more countries it will be exciting to watch those numbers climb.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

To put this in perspective, it took over two years for Apple to sell its first two million iPods, and the original iPhone took four months to reach the two million milestone. Today these two devices dominated their categories.

Meet Pixel (one of the best dog names ever!) who loves to play Air Hockey on his iPad.

I’m totally going to teach my dog how to play Plants vs. Zombies.

Rachel: I’m sorry for calling you contemptible and deplorable.

Finn: That’s okay. I didn’t even know what those words meant. – GLEE

Dictionary.com provides a dictionary and thesaurus for the iPad and if you’ve been looking for an app like that, look no further. This free app is the best.

The user interface is clean and using the app is very simple. I particularly like how as you are typing Dictionary starts making suggestions. This is perfect if you don’t really know how to spell the word. You can just start typing and wait for the right word to come up. Once you’ve found your word the app provides a definition, pronunciation and etymology of the word.

And the app does not require an internet connection to function.

The thesaurus is great awesome dynamite exceptional fab fantastic marvelous terrific wonderful as well, providing both synonyms (same meaning) and antonyms (opposite meaning). And the list of synonyms and antonyms are clickable so you can look up their definitions or bring up a new list of words.

Features:

• English and Spanish Word of the Day
• Nearly 1,000,000 words and definitions
• Phonetic and audio pronunciation
• Word origin and history

When you’re heading to the next Yankee game make sure you leave the iPad at home. It seems the stadium has banned iPads citing safety concerns. Apparently, they are worried that if your attention is on your iPad and not the game you are likely to get hit by a foul ball. By that logic they should ban all cell phones, books, magazines, game programs, conversations with your neighbor and girls in low cut tops. Then we’re all certain to keep our attention on the game.

Fear not, New Yorkers, you can still take an iPad into the Met’s stadium. So there’s that.

If you’ve been saving up your hard earned cash to plunk down on a shiny new iPad, you’ll be happy to know that Apple will now take cash. You probably heard the story of Diane Campbell, who was denied an iPad because she didn’t have a credit card just, you know, that old paper money direct from the US Mint that serves as official US currency. Apple employees turned her away stating a credit and debit card only policy.

This policy is now overturned and Apple says “As of today, anyone can pay for an iPad with cash as long as they set up their Apple account at the store. Apple accounts are needed for the iPad anyway, so that is not putting anyone out.” Many thought the policy was in place to control how many iPad’s people purchased in the hopes of keeping the iPad’s off of the “grey” market where thousands of devices were being resold mainly overseas. Apple says that’s not the case and the purchase limits were more about making sure that the highly in demand device was evenly distributed.

And as a happy ending to this story, not only did Diane Campbell get her iPad, Apple actually gave Diane a free iPad. Good job, Apple.