I'm not seeing it. When my father and I both played around with it in BestBuy we were both were struck with how fuzzy it was. Sure, it's not bad but the way they were advertising it made it seem like it was much more revolutionary than it actually was. The resolution wasn't bad but it was basically comparable to a netbook. I was not impressed at all.

You know, it's not that I want to trash the iPad as a piece of technology. It really isn't that bad. The media has just made it seem much more revolutionary than it actually is, it is cost prohibitive and there are much more affordable alternatives that simply have more functionality for the money.

as for easier to use then a netbook you still have the archos 9 as an alternative ...Which has usb and hdmi outputs for additional strorage and you could watch those netflicks on you tv if you wanted ...Oh did I mention it runs a complete os and doesnt rock when put on a surface and costs only 500$?  The Ipad is fine just too much money.

Lol, a partisan attack quote, and a dumb one, too. Imagine that.

Thats apples whole bisiness plan, its all brillant PR!! (i dont know of a company that can control press and press releaces anywhere near the level apple manages to achive). The software and hardware are pretty average and over priced but somehow they manage to convice a lot of people that there products are the best and everyone elses products are cheep nockoffs (apple products are generally the worst value for money compared to competing products).

I am very much impress at how apple manages to 'brainwash' buyer into beleving that iproducts are more cool, inovative, and better quality than they actually are. Also that you should buy product that is 'easyer to use' over more usable products with higher specs.

In my opinon an ereader and netbook (with a fast booting linux distrubution) totaling a similar ammout to the cost of an ipad will be able to out prefrom the ipad in all relevent areas and allow both devices to be used at the same time. (Browsing with touch screen over a touch pad is only more convenant untill you have to type something.)

You don't have to be partisan to know that reading about our one party system is a waste of time.  And that's if I'm reading a biography of Obama, Bush Sr, Reagan, Clinton, etc...

No kidding. I almost fell for the hype too. Before I even picked it up and really looked at I almost blurted "wow it's so crisp!" It was funny, PC guy that I am I really wanted to like it. It's almost like conditioning. It was my dad who pointed out how fuzzy it was, and once he pointed it out, everyone just sort of noticed that it was true. I remember one of the customers who happened to be there doing a complete doubletake. "Hey, it is a little fuzzy, isn't it?" he said. And even the salesguy was a little perturbed. "Yeah, well, that's normal for a screen like that," he said.

It's one of these things where if no one points it out no one ever notices. It has an awesome display? Sure. Say it three times and I'll believe you. You've always got to wait at least a month when the New Awesome Thing comes out, or else you might just fall for the hype and not evaluate things on their merits.

YouTube has mixed quality viewed on the iPad but that's the mixed quality of YouTube.  Also, if you have been watching hi-def big screen TV or using a large hi-def monitor, it's not the same experience.  You are right that the "revolutionary" part is indeed just a claim at present (i.e., marketing hype).  It remains to be seen what sort of acceptance and success the iPad will actually have.  It is brilliantly designed though from a simply aethetic viewpoint.

I have looked at several other tablets and so far, only the iPad looks to be a sure thing for the long haul.  The JooJoo has a lot of promise but raises a lot of questions as to reliability and long-term success.  HP's Slate and some of Acer's offerings look good (the Slate foremost among them) but but have some issues such as software freezes, loss of touch tracking, etc. andhands down, the iPad is currently the best "out of the box" product for reliability.  The support and promotion Apple has invested in it give it a long-term future.  These things are important from a business perspective.

I looked hard for a comparable alternative for the niche use I have in mind but this was it.  It is not a netbook or fully functional computer OS.  People should know that up front.  I'd suggest an iPhone or the iPod Touch as a 'test the waters" product if someone isn't sure about the iPad. 

Apple is onto something here with their latest products--they are tapping into the generation that doesn't want to "operate a computer" and that just wants to "use something cool straight from the box".  I'm not seeing anyone else do it better yet (and it hurts my years of Mac scoffing, PC tweaking and building pride to say that).

I had just got the iPod Touch for my son and he is addicted to it but I literally laughed out loud when the iPad was revelaed.  My first thought was, "Who in the heck is going to buy that!?".  The fact that I am willing to get one (I have resisted Macs from the start when the internet was still a baby) says a lot about the quality of it--flaws and limitations aside. 

Yeah, that wasn't a "partisan attack quote" as you so brightly stated.  I've read the book.  It was a waste of my time.  And money for that matter, which, hey so is the iPad.  This is, of course, my opinion and you don't have to like it.  But you do have to bear it.  Chum.

How do you figure that? It doesn't even run flash.

I would think they have just sucessfully 'brainwashed' you too. I guess if you lazy and rich enough then i guess that for you i might be currently the best product on the market for you.

If you set up a net book right and just want to use it for (30 to 45 min if you know what you are doing) it will do everything you need from a ipad and when it comes to apps actual full computer programs are better.

If you would buy an ipad over a netbook with ubuntu netbook remix (to allow for an actual comparison) you are getting faster boot time and a touch screen and giving up a lot the actual useful stuff and freedom that computers have.

You shure its not apple PR that is telling you you dont need (or should not expect) anything more than you get from an ipad and that ipad does it better than other products.

Seriouly the only industy leading part of apple products is a better GUI on the surface and better stabilty which is only achived by resticting what you can do with your 'iproduct' such as no fash or no mutitasking (they just dont let you do anything that can crash the device (or confuse a stupid coustomer) rather than comming up with inovative ideas or solid (coding) solutions to solve the problem).

Edit: though i do admire there PR its holding up the industry from coming up with ideas that are revolutionay and allow you to be more preductive with the product.

I've never liked Apple to begin with.  Who the hell wants to buy a device that runs on three-year-old technology (The iPhone OS)? You can't even upgrade the hardware of this friggin' device, unlike PCs.  I hope that this device gets worse reception than Vista did three years ago.  And another thing, Vista wasn't all that bad.  It was a bit slow and clunky but it worked.  At least Vista could MULTITASK!!!

Hell, you can't even customize the UI of an iPad either.  (Unless if they have an "App" sort of like Windowblinds, but I don't think that they do.)

"The best web-browsing experience"? What a joke.  No Flash is a disappointment. You can't run different browsers other than Safari (You probably already knew that), and worst of all, No multitasking.  Who browses the web without tabs these days?  Nobody.  The 3G download speed is probably no faster than my broadband connection anyway.

And how many apps are available for this trash device?  Not even one million?  While PCs have access to trillions of programs for everything imaginable.

This device is the absolute worst piece of technology Apple has ever marketed.  (If it came out in say, 2006; BEFORE the iPhone existed, then it MAY of been cool.)

And lastly, what's sad is that Apple fans are already putting new hype into the "2nd Gen" version or whatever.  The 2nd Gen will still not likely run Flash, have USB ports, or even Multitask.

Newer isn't always better people.  Just stick with your dated MacBook Pros or PCs if you want "the best web-browsing experience", and I can't stress this enough, multitasking.

Okay, I'm done. 

*end rant*

Ipad + cat + Magic  Piano = entertainment galore.

I like that.

No--it's not the PR its the actual experince with it.  Will work great in sales for me--not much else I will do with it and I DO wish it was cheaper.  I do get their point though--I don't need a netbook and it would not work for what I will use the iPad for.  Two different animals.

Like a donkey and horse you mean. They are both do pretty much the same thing. One looks better to maybe 40 percent of the population the other has a lot more uses.

I will appoligise though it seems you are using the pad for presenting information where i agree with you that a net book is not useful. For somewhat specilised needs ipad would definatly be worth the money but for web photo browing and viewing vidios a netbook is cosiderably better. Reading a book is still much better done from a cheep kindle or equlivent.

Out of curosity how much hastle would it be to post here from the ipad, anyone? compared to posting from a desktop/laptop/netbook.

I posted this from the iPad simulator, which is the same thing and it works fine.

It's not if works or not (i guess its good to know its compadible), i was asking how much harder (or fustrating) it is to make a post from an ipad. Assuming you still type with keyboard the simulator does not really count.

Being able to write text is a significant part of web browsing. Im shure a touch screen can replace a mouse (or be better for somethings) but can you touch type from a chair without a flat horzontal surface for example. If you have to plug it into that keybord dock it would be considerably better to own a netbook for complete web browsing.

Edit: PurrBall you sound like you are an app maker for the ipad, if you are and want to answer: how much RAM does the iPad have and how much memory are you allowed to have a app use?

256MB.  >200MB for apps. Because it does not multitask the apps would access this for their own use.

Creates a stable but less flexible OS. 

http://www.9to5mac.com/ipad-256mb-ram-single-core-processor-4493093592 

Are you sure about that? Apple is sort of notorious for planned obsolescence. And in less than a year there will be something "better" than than iPad from Apple. I'd put money down on that.

Once Sony releases an OLED tablet PC... now that would be revolutionary.

I had to go into HTML view to get the text editor to accept input, but that's fairly trivial.  The on-screen keyboard isn't hard to use at all (I've used one for a while) and the display is a standard 1024x768, slightly larger than a netbook.

It has 256 MB RAM.

Yes, for me it is a specialized use.  Here's where for my use it surpasses netbooks and other tablet choices as a sales tool:

• No obstructing, distracting or confusing controls.
• No branding on the display or screen frame
• Balanced hand size and viewing area.
• Long battery life.
• Fluid, intuitive  and dependable touch scrolling.
• Distinctive design using no cheap plastic parts.
• Less weight than other competing tablets.
• Good image quality.
• Long product and support life (Apple, 300,000+ sold)

Much of these would not be big factors in looking at a netbook or tablet for personal use but for sales, every feature matters.  I spent an hour in the store just watching people's reactions to it and even people with no intention of buying it were fascinated. I also like that the Apple logo is on the underside and not noticable when using so it doesn't "Wave the Mac flag" in someone's face when I use it for a presentation/demo of my business.

Ironically Best Buy sold out here and I am waiting until this Wednesday (hopefully).

The sucky thing is that the more popular the iPad & iPhone becomes, the more likely it will suffer from virus attacks and hacking, just like PCs.  iPhone viruses already work on the iPad because it uses the same OS, so don't think that because the iPad is from Apple, you're automatically safe.  Do iPads even have antivirus/antispyware software anyway?

I would not think it possible, unless you jail broke it, for the ipad to be infected (well either that or apple are shit at programming). Its just too locked down the only programms that you can run on it are directly from apple.

I dont think appart from apps you could actually get any from of excicutible to run on an ipad. Virus are somthing only windows users and idiots get, UNIX based cores (Mac and Linux) is pretty hard to infect unless you intentionally run a virus.

I will get an iPad but not drink the Koolaid

The only reason I would ever get an ipad is to jailbreak and use flash.  It's a piece of crap yes, but I have internet access in nearly every room of my house (Checking my router I have over 20+ things connected, in my room alone I have 2 pcs, a netbook, a laptop, a ps3, and a ds that can connect to the internet :p) and I've been considering lately a piece of crap that will let me surf the internet on the couch without having to type things.

The ipad will do all of this better then a netbook.  All of these things being surfing the web and being a piece of crap