iPad Finally Emerges With the Environment in Mind

If you're like me, you've been breathlessly awaiting this announcement for months. Maybe you didn't sleep much last night either. So many questions. What will it be called? iSlate? iTablet? Something else? Will it even be announced? If so, will it float or bring about world peace?

Well, questions are starting to be answered, as Steve Jobs has finally unveiled the iPad. At 0.5 inches thin, weighing in at 1.5 pounds and with a 9.7-inch IPS display, it's a glorious piece of machinery, meeting up to many expectations. There will be three different models, with 16, 32 and 64 GB of Flash storage, and you can find more of the specs here. You can play games on it, type on the on-screen keyboard, check out the iBook store (did I just hear Amazon's Jeff Bezos gasp?) and read newspapers, among many other features. And if you thought the App Store was flush with applications now, just you wait.

And, as we at Tonic can proudly state, it's also environmentally friendly. Jobs made sure to publicize that fact, posting an environmental checklist up on the big screen.

The miracle machine is free of arsenic, mercury and BFRs. BFR, by the way, stands for brominated flame retardants, which, according to Greenpeace, "have known toxic properties, are highly resistant to degradation in the environment and are able to bioaccumulate (build up in animals and humans)." In addition, the iPad is "highly recyclable," according to the environmental checklist, and a PVC-free system, meaning free of polyvinyl chloride, a chlorinated plastic that "presents environmental problems and human health concerns throughout its lifecycle," as per Greenpeace.

And the pricing, you ask? It will cost $499, $599 and $699 for the versions that just have WiFi, and $629, $729 and $829 for the WiFi+3G version, with WiFi versions available in 60 days and the 3G versions in 90 days, on AT&T's network (but with no contract!). Yes, that's right, time for another countdown. And whichever you end up buying, you can buy knowing Apple has done its part to make the iPad environmentally friendly. And we at Tonic salute them.

Photo courtesy of Apple