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Now that the iPad is officially available for pre-order, the question that we want to know from our readers is: Will you pre-order? The Wi-Fi iPad will be available on April 3, 2010, and the Wi-Fi + 3G models will begin shipping at the end of April.

You can choose to either reserve a Wi-Fi model for in-store pickup on the third or opt to have it delivered to your house. If you pre-order the Wi-Fi + 3G model, it will ship directly to you once it comes out.

So, to pre-order or not to pre-order — take our poll and then let us know why you are (or are not pre-ordering) in the comments!

Will You Pre-Order the iPad?survey

Apple wouldn’t be Apple if it didn’t offer some totally hot, yet totally over-priced accessories to accompany a new product launch. If you pre-order an iPad for home delivery, you can add some accessories to your order. These include a dock (with and without keyboard, a protective case/stand, an extra power adapter and a VGA connector. Are you adding any of these items to you pre-order? Let us know!

Tags: apple, ipad, ipad pre-order, trending

On November 19, 2006, Nintendo launched its fifth home console to the world. The Nintendo Wii was both ridiculed and praised for its unique controller system — the Wiimote — which detects movements in three dimensions.

Three and a half years later, the Wii has dominated the market, shattered sales records, and put its two main rivals, Microsoft and Sony, on the defensive. Both companies are responding with motion-based controllers of their own, though.

Microsoft has generated some big buzz with the revelation of Project Natal, a new camera-based system that requires no controller, just the movement of your body to function. And yesterday, Sony officially announced PlayStation Move, a controller setup that utilizes a camera and a remote-like controller to interact with the screen.

Here’s the question we have for all of you gamers. Which next-generation controller system excites you more: Microsoft’s Natal or Sony’s Move?

Our poll for this week’s Web Faceoff ends on Sunday, March 14, at 12:00 p.m. PT. Let us know your choice, and don’t forget to leave your opinion in the comments!

What excites you more: Microsoft’s Project Natal or Sony’s PlayStation Move?polls

PlayStation Move in Action

Project Natal Announcement

Tags: microsoft, Natal, Nintendo, playstation, playstation move, project natal, sony, Wii, wiimote

In a study conducted by the BBC World Service, four in five respondents said they believe web access is a fundamental right. Ninety percent described the Internet as “a great place to learn,” and 78% considered it a source of “greater freedom.” A bit more than half said that the Internet should not be regulated by government at all.

Twenty-seven thousand people form 26 countries were surveyed, and their responses varied by location. While a large number of people from the United States, Mexico, Nigeria and South Korea said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated, many residents of China, Pakistan and Turkey disagreed; only 16% of Chinese, 12% of Pakistani and 13% of Turkish respondents said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated.

We’re always curious where our readers stand, especially since this is a hot issue right now with the recent struggle between Google and China. Where do you fall on this issue? Take part in the poll below, and feel free to elaborate in the comments.

Is Internet access a fundamental right?online surveys

Tags: News, Political, poll, rights, web

In a study conducted by the BBC World Service, four in five respondents said they believe web access is a fundamental right. 90% described the Internet as “a great place to learn,” and 78% considered it a source of “greater freedom.” A bit more than half said that the Internet should not be regulated by government at all.

27,000 people form 26 countries were surveyed, and their responses varied by location. While a large number of people from the United States, Mexico, Nigeria, and South Korea said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated, many residents of China, Pakistan and Turkey disagreed; only 16% of Chinese, 12% of Pakistani and 13% of Turkish respondents said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated.

We’re always curious where our readers stand, especially since this is a hot issue right now with the recent struggle between Google and China. Where do you fall on this issue? Take part in the poll below, and feel free to elaborate in the comments.

Is Internet access a fundamental right?online surveys

Tags: News, Political, poll, rights, web

We had a very hotly contested matchup this week in our long-running Faceoff series, with Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE going up against Sony’s PlayStation Network for favorite online console gaming service. After an astounding 35,055 votes we’re ready to declare the winner…

… and Xbox LIVE takes the win! They’ll obviously get an achievement rather than a trophy for this victory. Just a day or so ago the polls were holding steadily even so it was definitely in the home stretch here that XBLA pulled ahead. The final tally reads 19,858 for Xbox LIVE (57%) and 14,258 for PSN (41%), with a surprisingly small tie vote of only 939 (3%).

Thanks to everyone who voted this week! Were you disappointed with the results? Sound off in the comments!

Who would win in a fight: Xbox LIVE or PlayStation Network?opinion

Faceoff Series: Overall Results

Week 1:

- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome

- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:

- Tumblr vs. Posterous

- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:

- Pandora vs. Last.fm

- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:

- Twitter vs. Facebook

- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:

- WordPress vs. Typepad

- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:

- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard

- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:

- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop

- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:

- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs

- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:

- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android

- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:

- AT&T vs. Verizon

- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:

- Google vs. Bing

- WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:

- iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP

- WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:

- Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon

- WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:

- Old versus new Twitter retweets

- WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:

- Gmail vs. Outlook

- WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:

- Boxee vs. Hulu

- WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:

- Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS

- WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Week 18:

- Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla

- WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)

Week 19:

- AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat

- WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)

Week 20:

- Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription

- WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)

Week 21:

- Match.com vs. PlentyofFish

- WINNER: Plenty of Fish, 430 votes (Match.com: 334 votes, Tie: 187 votes)

Week 21:

- Google Buzz vs. Facebook Vs. Twitter

- WINNER: Facebook, 3353 votes (Twitter: 1828 votes, Google Buzz: 1298 votes, Tie: 651 votes)

Week 22:

- HTML5 vs. Adobe Flash

- WINNER: HTML5, 3892 votes (Adobe Flash: 1779 votes, Tie: 660 votes)

Reviews: Bing, Boxee, Chrome, Digg, Facebook, Firefox, Foursquare, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Docs, Gowalla, Gtalk, Hulu, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, Windows, WordPress, Yelp, aim

Tags: gaming, microsoft, playstation, playstation network, polls, PSN, sony, video games, web faceoff, xbla, xbox, XBox live

Happy Friday, people! Along with the venerable tradition of Follow Friday, today also marks this week’s edition of the Friday Poll.

Last week we wanted to know if location checkin services freak you out in terms of privacy concerns. Reactions were pretty mixed, although many of you felt like services gave you enough control over permissions and what to make public. Some were concerned about the “digital divide” between early adopters who probably have the experience to know how to use the tools wisely, and the more general public who may end up confronting more privacy issues due to unfamiliarity with these services.

This week there’s another hot topic on the table, thanks to a comment made by Google’s European Director of Online Sales John Herlihy, who said that Google’s focus is squarely on mobile because “in three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs.”

We definitely wanted to find out what Mashable readers thought about the future of desktops in light of the push towards mobile: Will desktops still be around? Can these form factors co-exist or will mobile rule the day in short order? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Mashable Answers

Pete Cashmore: Desktops will be a lot less relevant versus laptops and phones. Even for processor-intensive tasks, high-end laptops often suffice.

Ben Parr: No — it will take a lot more time than that. However, you will start seeing app stores replacing traditional purchasing of software in three years.

Josh Catone: “Irrelevant” is a pretty strong word. I don’t know that desktops will ever be irrelevant as long as we continue to use computers. While mainstream users will undoubtedly gravitate toward small, fast, easier-to-use machines like laptops, smart phones, video game consoles, tablets and other connected devices for most of their day-to-day computing, there will likely continue to be a need for desktops in many corporate environments and for resource-intensive tasks (like editing film or rendering computer graphics).

Brenna Ehrlich: No. While it would probably be more cost effective to have one device that caters to your every need, it still remains difficult to both read and write on mobile devices. That all speaks to the permanence of devices such as laptops, but I’m not so sure about desktops.

Matt Silverman: Not completely, but certainly less relevant as we get more processing power into laptops and tablets. If we can do gaming and audio/video production equally as well on a portable computer, then why not?

Christina Warren: No. I think the paradigm will change and that secondary and mobile devices will grow in importance, but no, I don’t see desktops becoming irrelevant in three years.

Tamar Weinberg: Nope. PC gamers will always be reliant on the type of hardware that only desktops offer. Mobile technology will become a lot more prevalent, but as desktops are usually always ahead of the game in terms of feature set and power, desktops will still have a place.

Barb Dybwad: Even mainframes are still around so, no, I don’t think desktops will totally disappear. The rise of netbooks though shows that a lot of people just need “good enough” for a lot of tasks and are willing to trade performance for mobility in lots of use cases. But I agree with Tamar that gamers will still demand the PC hardware experience, and other power-intensive tasks like video-editing and multi-track audio will keep desktops in service for some time even as some users will be doing more of that on laptops and mobile devices too.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography

Reviews: Google, Mashable, iStockphoto

Tags: computing, desktops, future, Google, laptops, lunchtime poll, Mobile 2.0, polls, predictions, smartphones