I wasn’t lucky enough to be in San Francisco yesterday — I bet it’s sunny — for the launch of Apple’s iPad, but lots of others from the world of tech were.

A few sites have videos up… TechCrunch has a few up, including this one:

There’s also this from Engadget:

And Slashgear has this one:

Initial reaction to the much-awaited device seems to be “meh, it’s a big iPhone,” but an early review from Engadget says the device is impressively fast, as does Gizmodo, who have a video up here.

As far as over-hyped nonsense goes, it’s a tech story that’ll make you want to pack it all in and start following an industry made up of calmer, less excitable people.

Here’s how it goes: Details of the much-hyped Apple tablet have been revealed over much-hyped Twitter, by a well-known web entrepreneur (no, I’m not going to call him hyped).

It’s almost like an Onion story, except it’s true.

To save you clicking to Jason Calacanis’ feed and having to decipher his Twitter speak, here’s the story. Calacanis was given an advanced copy of the device, so he’d be all ready to talk to media as an expert about it following the launch. His non-disclosure agreement (NDA) apparently up (seems weird, that the uber-secretive Apple would screw up dates?) he’s let a few details spill out.

The device will cost $599, $699 or $799, depending on size and memory. It has two cameras — front and back, like most smartphones — as well as built in HDTV tuner and PVR.

Thumbpads on the sides offer mouse-like controls and also read fingerprints for security. You can set up five profiles to be accessed using fingerprints.

As we all already know, it’s a slick e-book reader and is apparently “really amazing” for newspapers. It uses an OLED screen and has a solar pad for recharging, which Calacanis said was a bit gimmicky and doesn’t work that quickly.

You can connect a wireless keyboard to it — though doesn’t that kill the point? — and it has an output for TVs. It runs an iPhone-flavour OS and battery life is good in “e-book reader mode” but only offers two to three hours of life using wifi or playing games.

Calacanis seemed quite happy with the chess game, and very excited that Facebook-fave Farmville would also hit the tablet. “Farmville for Apple tablet is a huge game changer,” he tweeted. Why that’s a big deal is beyond me, but then all I know about the game is that it clogs up my Facebook feed.

To sum: “Most of all that this is best gadget ever made and NOT overhyped.” So says the guy who gets free stuff from Apple… But such a gadget would be the best ever, especially at that price, so take it all with a grain of salt, so to speak.

So is it the iPad, iTab, iSlate or something else? That’s the one thing he wouldn’t disclose. So you’ll have to wait until 6pm tonight to find out either way. I’ll be live blogging the event, so head here at 6pm to get the news first… well, first after Twitter, anyway.

Have more than 150 friends on Facebook? Well, they’re all not really your friends, according to an Oxford researcher.

According to the research, we’re only really capable of managing real, meaningful connections with 150 or so people. So whether you’ve got 151 or 999 names on your list, you’ve pretty well got the same amount of “real” friends. (If you’ve got fewer than 150, you’re clearly a loser. Sorry, not my opinion, it’s science, all right?)

While my initial response was an to think “well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?”, I think the researcher is actually missing the point. I’ve got more than 150 people on Facebook, and some of them definitely aren’t really my friends. I’m aware of this; I don’t think it makes me the most popular girl in school. In fact, I’d be surprised to think that 150 really were my “real” friends.

No, the rest are people I used to know, but don’t really speak to that much, or contacts made at events or while travelling — people I’d like to keep in touch with, but without putting any actually effort in. Friends take effort; casual acquaintances, not so much. Using Facebook to keep track of these people is sort of what the site’s about, expanding your networking options without having to keep a rolodex or whatever those flippy business card holders are called.

I wonder what would happen if they studied mobile phone contacts or email address books. A quick glance through my handset’s phone book shows I have about 170 or so phone details (not counting the random numbers that get saved every time I forget to lock my keys — apparently KJDe;ueasdfj is reachable at 09238513182, if you were wondering.)

I doubt I speak to the vast majority of my 170 or so contacts; in fact, I doubt many are even still valid. I don’t even know who some of them are, to be honest, which kind of frightens me.

My email account is much the same. I simply don’t delete contacts — sure, that guy dumped me years ago, but what if I need to email his sister three years from now? Who knows.

While it might mean I need to learn to use my delete key a bit more, it doesn’t mean I think every email, phone, Twitter or Facebook contact I’ve ever added to my many lists is my best friend forever. It’s just someone I met once.

So Lewis PR has run a funny little survey which found that 35 per cent of Britons don’t really know who Steve Jobs is — 10 per cent think he’s a union boss, five per cent think he’s a footballer and another 20 per cent admitted to not actually knowing.

Aside from the fact that this probably proves more about the validity of such surveys than it does the popularity of Mr Jobs, I’m not entirely sure why anyone thinks we should know who the head of Apple is.

Obviously being a tech journo myself, I should — and don’t worry, I didn’t have to Wiki him to find out. But I haven’t a clue who heads up the firms from which I buy my food or clothing or anything else.

According to a canned quote from Lewis:

“There is a digital divide in Britain between those who understand the importance of technology and those who are either not interested or frightened by it. This demonstrates a need for everyone involved in the industry to speak about technology and the benefits it brings clearly and succinctly, and avoid the jargon and ‘geek speak’ that deters so many from developing an interest.”

To be honest, 65 per cent of average, off-the-street people identifying him correctly out of context sounds pretty good to me. I would guess 65 per cent of people couldn’t identify the CEO of BT, H&M or Tesco — and why should they? It has nothing to do with buying or using their respective products.

There is one aspect of the survey Jobs might not like: some 88 per cent of those asked knew who Bill Gates is…