The iPad has spent so much time as a rumour that nobody actually knew what to expect. On first view the iPad looks like an enormous iPhone. What is this mysterious gadget from Apple? What exactly does the Apple iPad do? Below are seven things that the iPad does really well.

1.It looks fantastic. Like just about all that Apple makes, the iPad looks great. Its shiny 9.7 inch screen is fantastic and extremely receptive.

2.It goes without saying that it runs apps. And not iPad apps, it will also run all the iPhone apps with ease meaning there is already a massive market place.

3.The battery life is astonishing. On standby you will get one month! Four weeks on standby and 10 hours of continuous use. If you use a laptop often then you'll know that this is great.

4.Development kits are already available for download on the iStore. This is an important feature because without the developers there would be no apps so the early release of the development kit means more future apps.

5.Watch movies in widescreen on the 9.7 inch screen. Films look great on the iPad. Still no flash support though!

6.Instantly familiar operating system. All right, its almost exactly like the iPhone so if you own an iPhone you will almost instantly have the ability to use the iPad.

7.It's a very light and versatile web browser and ebook reader. A laptop can be quite a pain to store and setup every time you fancy a quick browse online. The iPad is more like a book that you can just slide away somewhere and grab whenever it ought to be. No need for keyboards and mice and all that business.

The iPad is a fantastic piece of kit that anybody would track down useful. Check the full specification for more info.