That's 5:30 a.m. PST and 8:30 a.m. EST, for those of you planning on staying up all night, fingers poised at the ready, just so you can be the first to click through the pre-order Website. You'll be able to order any of the configurations, though the April 3 release date only applies to The won't be available until later in April.

The iPad starts at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model, and goes up to $829 for the 64GB, 3G- and Wi-Fi-equipped model. Pre-orders will only be available

Of course, if you're looking to get a good deal on Apple's latest toy, pre-ordering is not in your best interest -- especially since Apple has already indicated that , depending on how the device sells initially. And who can forget Apple's sudden price slash on the first iPhone--when Apple dropped the price of the original iPhone by $200 (and, after complaints, ).

The Wall Street Journal's Smart Money Blog to refrain from pre-ordering the iPad--including price drops, bugs, app availability, connectivity, and competition. The Journal notes that, as is likely with the first edition of any new product, bugs haven't been fixed, a very small selection of apps will be available, there will only be Wi-Fi enabled versions (at least, initially), and other companies might step it up.

"Even the first iPhone owners were pretty unhappy," Rob Enderle of the San Jose-based Enderle Group told the Journal on Thursday.

Other companies may have something to offer--since the announcement of the iPhone we've seen a slew of touchscreen tablet announcements, including a (which runs Android, Chromium OS, or Linux), and the .

Rationally speaking, it looks like it would make sense to hold off on pre-ordering the iPad--at least for a few months, to see how Apple plays the market and to see what bugs might arise.