It's lights, camera, and almost "action" for Apple's iPad tablet. During Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony Apple trotted its iPad down the Hollywood red carpet (so to speak) launching a television advertising campaign. According to reports Steve Jobs himself joined the roster of stars attending Sunday night's event in person.

According to the commercial Apple's iPad device will launch on April 3rd. Pre-orders for the iPad will start on March 12th for the Wi-Fi only version in the US, and 3G enabled versions will come out later in April.

The iPad ad (embedded below) uses an upbeat song in the background (The Blue Van - There Goes My Love) and was aired immediately after the motion picture "Up" from Disney/Pixar won the Best Animated Film award. Jobs is on Disney's board of directors and used to be Pixar's Chairman before Disney bought it in 2006.

via http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/338822/apple_rolls_tv_ad_ipad/?fp=16&fpid=1