For the world to enjoy courtesy of Andy Ihnatko -

It appears that the first wave of iPad reviews are coming in and it appears the reviews are quite positve.  Check this out...

Wall Street Journal - Walter S. Mossberg

So I’ve been using my test iPad heavily day and night, instead of my trusty laptops most of the time. As I got deeper into it, I found the iPad a pleasure to use, and had less and less interest in cracking open my heavier ThinkPad or MacBook. I probably used the laptops about 20% as often as normal, reserving them mainly for writing or editing longer documents, or viewing Web videos in Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash technology, which the iPad doesn’t support, despite its wide popularity online.

PCMag.com - Tim Gideon

Kindle: I like you, but I am nervous about your future. The iPad displays books in a way that is much flashier than your black and white e-ink screen. It shows illustrations in color. Page turns actually look like page turns. And Apple gets the extras right, like being able to bookmark any word in the book you're reading and then find it on a menu of all your bookmarks, sorted by date. The Search function is also excellent. Want to reread a conversation between two characters early on in the book? Type in what you remember about it and iBooks will guide you to the closest approximations.

USAToday - Edward C. Baig

The first iPad is a winner. It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival forAmazon's Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money. At the very least, the iPad will likely drum up mass-market interest in tablet computing in ways that longtime tablet visionary and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could only dream of.

BoingBoing.com - Xeni Jardin

Flick the switch and the novelty hits. Just as the iPhone, Palm Pré and Android phones scratched an itch we didn't know we had, somewhere between cellphone and notebook, the iPad hits a completely new pleasure spot. The display is large enough to make the experience of apps and games on smaller screens stale. Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk thanks to Apple's A4 chip and solid state storage. As I browse early release iPad apps, web pages, and flip through the iBook store and books, the thought hits that this is a greater leap into a new user experience than the sum of its parts suggests.

So far so good.  I'm not surprised.

Today, Apple has announced that the Apple iPad will be available to all 221 US Apple Stores and most Best Buy stores this Saturday at 9 a.m local time.

For each customer that purchases an iPad will be offered a free Personal Setup service, which includes setting up their email, loading their favorite apps from the App Store, and more.  (What else could their be? Unless you have your laptop/desktop with you.)

Apple will be hosting special iPad workshops to help customers learn more before they are released into the wild.

Engadget states that you should get there about 15 minutes prior to opening for a good spot in line.  I'll go on record and say I bet you'd have to be there MUCH earlier than that...as in overnight.  Time will tell and we will see on Friday night how our local Apple Stores in New York are doing. 

As iPad shipments are being placed on trucks to come to many awaiting boys and girls Apple.com has posted their guided tours for the iPad.  These are new videos for just about every feature for the iPad from iBooks, to Youtube, to Safari and much much more.  Great stuff go check it out!  Apple iPad Guided Tours