Apple announced their long-awaited tablet today, the iPad.  You can get details on the Apple iPad here.

There was no iPhone OS upgrade announcement today, however, as many expected there to be.  That said, the iPad clearly runs a variant of the iPhone OS, so iPhone OS 4.0 news should be coming shortly.

The iPad will begin shipping in late March and starts at $499 with 16GB of flash storage and no built-in 3G wireless.

Apple iPad Product Page

Users won’t be able to get their hands on v3.0 of the iPhone OS until the summer, but Apple will unveil the newest version of its mobile OS during a media event scheduled for 12:00PM CDT tomorrow.

Apple is calling this an advance preview (redundant?), but hasn’t said much about what’s coming; that hasn’t stopped the speculation, of course, and predictions are flying about what users can expect.

Topping the list of possible features is Push Notification Server support, a capability long-promised by Apple but as yet unavailable. Because the iPhone doesn’t run third-party programs in the background, this would allow apps to be sent notifications when new data is available. For example, a third-party messaging app could alert you of a new incoming IM even if that messaging application isn’t running at the time.

Other predictions include Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), copy-and-paste, stereo Bluetooth headphone support, tethering (this is the ability to use the iPhone as a wireless modem over USB or Bluetooth; if true this feature will almost certainly require a monthly fee from AT&T), and even voice recognition.

We’ll post full details tomorrow during the announcement.