It should come as little surprise, what with the well-publicized iPad preorder sale starting today, but the Apple Store has been taken down for updating.  Apple’s new tablet kicks off at $499 and is expected to go on sale at 8.30am EST; of course, Apple could surprise us and add a few more updates into the mixture as well.  Recent rumors have tipped an updated Mac Pro desktop, using Intel’s new Core i7-980 Gulftown processor.

There has also been disappointment recently regarding Apple’s apparent reluctance to put one of the newer Core i5 or i7 processors into their MacBook Pro line, which is currently still using the last-generation of Core 2 Duo chips.  Still, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple kept today’s excitement solely for the iPad.

The WiFi-only iPad models will be priced at $499 for the 16GB iPad, $599 for the 32GB iPad and $699 for the 64GB iPad.  Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until late-April for the 3G version of the tablet, which will be priced at $629, $729 and $829 respectively for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.

Apple iPad demo video:

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