iPad soon to launch in UK

Despite recent delays to its UK release date, the iPad is still set to take British technophiles by storm in coming weeks, meaning that yet more of the world's greatest gadget-loving minds will have a chance to try working out what it's for.

Steve Jobs, the CEO of computing and electronics giant Apple, first set American audiences this puzzle in April of this year, and it immediately captured the nation's interest and provided many happy hours of diversion as they try to figure out why the hell they'd want one of these incredibly expensive things and what it's supposed to do.

From hardcore cryptographers and cryptanalysts, down to everyday consumers who'd normally give no more thought to puzzle-solving than the occasional Su Doku, millions of brains have been kept busy with this enigma.

"I just can't figure it out," said Shane McIan, a fishmonger from Detroit who spent three hours queueing to purchase an iPad on the day of its release. "Sometimes I think I'm getting close, like when I realised I can watch movies on it - but then I remembered how many other things I can watch movies on, which either look better or are far more portable. So that seems like kind of a dead-end. I'm stumped."

"It's changed my life," he added. "It's going to revolutionise the way we do business and consume media in the 21st century. Maybe. Is that it?"

Although he has been generally coy about its solution, Jobs has suggested that some of the discussions taking place on message boards set up for iPad-puzzle enthusiasts are very near to unravelling the mystery.

"Have you tried tilting it at 45 degrees and looking at its surface in a mirror?" he asked, a knowing smile playing across his lips. "Maybe that'll do something. Or maybe you'd be better off looking for something else entirely. Did you notice how shiny it is?"

Several hundred thousand new participants are expected to purchase an iPad and join the race to discover what it's for, after it goes on sale in the UK in June.

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