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Yesterday, Apple pulled off the wraps from the new iPad - yes,that's the official name - and spent more than an hour on a SanFrancisco stage touting what's changed, like the screen, and whathasn't, like the price (in the US). Prices quoted are in for the USmarket. The tablet, which was called "a great package" by one analyst,looks likely to continue Apple's dominance of the tablet marketthrough 2012, according to another. As with any of its product introductions, Apple tossed out a lot ofinformation. But what do you really need to know now? We've tried to anticipate your most-pressing questions .. withanswers we think cover the bases -- for now. When can I get one? The new iPad goes on sale at Apple's retail stores next Friday,March 16. But you can pre-order the tablet now at Apple's onlinestore for delivery on or before that date. While the store had trouble yesterday handling the volume of customers, it's now running smoothly. Supplies of some models,however, are already short: As of 3 p.m. ET, the white iPad 4G forthe AT&T network was showing a delayed delivery date of March19. How much do they cost? Same as it ever was (in the US) .... In other words, the Wi-Fimodels run $499, $599 and $699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB tablets,respectively; the 4G device is priced at $629, $729 and $829. Can I still buy the older iPad 2? What's that going to cost me? Yes, yes you can. For the first time, Apple is officially retaining an older iPad,copying moves it's made in the past with the iPhone, notably lastfall when, at the launch of the iPhone 4S, it dropped the price of2010's iPhone 4 and gave away the even-older iPhone 3GS. A 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 will run you $399, or $100 less than thejust-announced upgrade. Want a 3G tablet? You'll pony up $529 forthe 16GB model. You'll also notice that, just as it's done with older iPhones,Apple is limiting the iPad 2 to a single SKU, or "stock-keepingunit" -- the 16GB model. Not coincidentally, that's the cheapest ofthe former three storage configurations. Is it faster? Apple says so, at least when rendering graphics. The newsystem-on-a-chip, or SoC, dubbed the A5X, has double the graphicsperformance of the A5 chip in the iPad 2, Apple claimed yesterday during its launch presentation . While the A5X remains a dual-core processor, Apple's boosted thegraphics component to four cores -- calling it "quad-core graphics"in the tablet's technical specifications -- to, it said, handle theincreased pixels of the higher-resolution screen. On non-graphics computational tasks, the new iPad should be asfast, though no faster, than the iPad 2. Like the A5, the A5X is Apple-designed, and based on the ARMlow-power processor architecture. You mentioned the screen.... What's special about it? Apple quadrupled the number of pixels in the 9.7-in. display,which now sports a resolution of 2,048-by-1,536 pixels. (The firsttwo iterations of the iPad used a 9.7-in. screen with a resolutionof 1,024-by-768 pixels.) Apple slapped its "Retina" label on the new iPad's screen -- thesame term it's long used for the iPhone's display -- to describe apixel density sufficient "that the human eye is unable todistinguish individual pixels when [the tablet is] held at a normaldistance." While that may be somewhat of a stretch -- the new iPad's pixeldensity of 264 pixels-per-inch, or ppi, is about 20% less than theiPhone 4S' 326 ppi -- analysts have said it's not worth quibblingover. So, four times the number of pixels, but only twice the graphicsperformance? What does that mean in the end? Sadly, we won't know until the newiPad is in the hands of testers who can put it through itsbenchmark paces. What about a faster connection to the Internet? The new iPad has that covered. Unlike last year's model, the 2012version supports the faster LTE - also dubbed "4G" - networks manycarriers, including Verizon and AT&T in the U.S., have eitherdeployed or are in the process of rolling out. The new tablet supports LTE, as well as 3G standards such as HSPA+and DC-HSDPA. LTE's throughput maxes out at 72Mbps(megabits-per-second), but as always, your mileage will definitelyvary. Coverage is the issue, of course, as well as the additionalcost of a data plan. Verizon has rolled out LTE in about eight times as many markets inthe U.S. as rival AT&T, for instance, but it still isn'tavailable everywhere. (For Verizon's coverage, check out this map or fill in your address in the on-screen form. AT&T's is here ; click on "Coverage" on that page.) As far as what a data plan costs and its rules and regulations,check with your mobile carrier. Verizon and AT&T, for example,will retain their current data plan pricing for the new iPad.(Apple's posted some of the data plans for those two carriers onits iPad ordering site .) What if I can't connect to an LTE network? In that case, the new iPad downshifts to 3G. Is the new iPad the same size as the iPad 2? Not quite. It's a tad heavier -- just under two ounces heavier --and about a quarter-inch thicker. The width and height of the newtablet are identical to its predecessor. Can I use my iPad 2 case with the new model? Depends. Apple's SmartCover works equally well on both tablets, asdoes OtterBox's Defender total-surround case. Closer-fittingsleeves or covers, however, like those produced by Case-Mate,won't: That Atlanta-based company will start shipping newiPad-suitable accessories March 15. Where's Siri on the iPad? Missing..., put out an all-points bulletin! While the full-featured Siri is famous -- or depending on yourtake, infamous -- on the iPhone 4S, it didn't made the trip to theiPad. Instead, Apple dropped in the dictation portion of thattechnology via iOS 5.1, the upgrade that shipped yesterday forolder mobile devices and that powers the new iPad. By touching a new icon beside the space bar on the on-screenkeyboard, you can talk in English, French, German and Japanese, andthe iPad will type. And no, we don't know how accurate it will be.We assume, however, that there will be at least one or two blogposts citing side-splitting mistakes. Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, calledthe missing Siri his biggest disappointment, but rationalized thenon-move by speculating that Apple didn't want a second deviceusing Siri, which remains in beta. Once Apple's worked out thekinks, he was confident the company would offer Siri to the newiPad through an iOS update. That seems reasonable, if only because a new tablet won't showuntil a year from now, and one would expect Apple would want totout the technology on its tablet before then. Is the new iPad camera the same one Apple uses in the iPhone 4S? No. Even though Apple tags both with the 'iSight' moniker, the newiPad's primary camera is a 5-megapixel camera; the iPhone 4S sportsan 8-megapixel camera. Actually, the new tablet's camera is closer in quality to the5-megapixel one in the 2010 iPhone 4, which Apple still sells. TheiPad's camera features a five-element lens, while the iPhone 4'shas a four-element lens, like the iPhone 4S. Video recording specs on the iPad's and iPhone 4S' cameras,however, are identical, boasting HD quality (1080p) at up to 30frames a second. Should I order now or wait? Your call, as always. But unless Apple really turns around its past production history,be warned: There will probably be delays between ordering andshipping as the days fly by. Analysts who closely follow thedisplay space, for example, have bet that Apple will have afive-to-six-month stretch during which it's unable to make enoughtablets. In part, that will be due to production bottlenecks around the new,higher-resolution display, but other exacerbating factors includethe faster roll-out of the new iPad: Apple's launching the tableton March 16 in 10 countries -- including the U.S. and the U.K. --with another 25 markets following on March 23, just a week later. Last year, Apple rolled out the iPad 2 only in the U.S., and waited14 days before adding 26 other countries. Even then, it wasn'tuntil the middle of 2011's third July-September quarter thatApple's inventory matched demand. What's with "the new iPad" as Apple's name for the thing? We don't know. But it struck us, and most others, as odd. Analyst Gottheil, however, saw some logic to the departure of anumbering system, or the alternative, which would have been tolabel it something like "iPad HD," one of the several names trottedout by speculators before Wednesday. Apple doesn't number or name its Mac lines, Gottheil pointed out --it's the "MacBook Air," not the "MacBook Air 2012" -- nor does itassign names to its iPod Touch family, simply describing them withan "X-generation" label only when necessary, as when it listssupport for specific apps or versions of iOS. Apple's doing the same with the iPad, foregoing yearly names infavor of a single brand, said Gottheil. It's possible Apple will follow suit with the next iPhone , calling it simply "the new iPhone," not the, say, "iPhone 5." I'm happy with the iPad I have.... Isn't there anything for me? iOS 5.1, which was released yesterday, is an upgrade available toowners of the original iPad and the iPad 2. Along with a slew ofsecurity patches, iOS 5.1 also fixes some other bugs -- Applecalled out one related to battery life -- and features improvementsto the Camera app, better face detection while shooting picturesand more. For the full list of changes, check out this page on Apple's support site. Also yesterday, Apple launched the $4.99 iPhoto app , which runs on the iPad 2. Last question: When's the NEXT iPad going to be ready? You people, you're incorrigible. Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsersand general technology breaking news for Computerworld. FollowGregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His email address is . See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com . Read more about macintosh in Computerworld's Macintosh Topic Center. 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