Typing-wise, I can see entering a few words when looking something up on the Safari browser, or even typing up an email, but lets say you’re on a plane and you want to type up something in iWork. How exactly do you do that? Do you put the iPad on your lap and look down as you tap each letter, typing like a regular keyboard? Or do you prop it up and touch each letter? I realize there’s an optional keyboard stand, but once you have that, then isn’t it essentially a laptop? Hell, it actually then becomes a 2-piece laptop instead of a 2-piece laptop with a hinge. How pissed would you be if you left the keyboard on a plane?

As for gaming, I can see games like Scrabble and FlightControl being awesome. I’m more into casual gaming anyway. But is it really ideal for involved games like those shooters? The iPhone works so well because you can easily grasp the unit and maneuver your fingers around. But it just seems like doing the same thing on a device twice as wide could make things a bit harder to use. And lets say you’re holding the iPad like a steering wheel flailing your arms around while you “drive”. Isn’t there a much better chance that a larger iPad will fly out of your hands over a firmly grasped iPhone? I could totally be wrong on that, but it just seems like it’ll be a bit awkward for that kind of thing.

Any word on the screen and glass? I take care of my purchases and have never had my screen crack on my iPhone, but I know plenty of people who had dropped and cracked their screens, and has to either find some 3rd party to fix it or buy a new iPhone from Apple. I’m anxious to see how Apple will go about insuring/fixing these, but I guess time will tell.

Design-wise, it’s Apple and Ive at their best. Sure a camera would’ve been great off the bat, but you know it’ll come eventually. It’s speedy and looks pretty.

Like some of the other commenters, I was also a bit disappointed when they revealed the iPad. Not because of what it does (or what it doesn’t), but it just seems when Apple debuts something “MAGICAL” (Steve’s repeated word) I immediately need, want and salivate over it. But this magical device didn’t do that for me. I still think it’ll be another hit from Apple eventually. I just think the initial positioning of the iPad and its magical qualities was a bit off.

I stood in line for every iPhone so far and have yet to be disappointed. But right now I don’t think I’ll be standing in line for an iPad. Will I get one? Maybe. Do I need one? Not really. Between my MacBook and iPhone, I’m pretty much covered.

But I’ll wait until I have one in my hands to really make that call.

Nobody “needs” an iPhone. Nobody “needs” a MacbookPro. For the record, this is a designer and iPhone first-adopter saying this. I wanted all of those things. So I bought them.

Apple makes high-end luxury technology. It’s what they do. This makes sense in that context.

I may end up with an iPad, because my first-gen iPhone is now 31 months old (and still going strong) and I have the opportunity to jump on a Verizon family-plan with a normal phone. A maxed out iPad and standard Verizon phone will be much cheaper than the 2-year ownership of a new iPhone… and I’ll still get the pleasure of the iPhone experience, on steroids.

No, this isn’t for everybody. But it does have a market, and as people look to replace their current tech setups in the coming months/years, this will play a role for some people. Instead of that $2500 MacbookPro? How about an iMac and iPad?

http://www.macgasm.net/2010/01/29/give-ipad-a-chance/

Theoretically this thing can stand on its own, but that means users actually have to pay for their media, which isn’t going to happen. The current generation doesn’t even realize piracy is wrong. If you can find it online, its yours.

One thing I pride myself on with my Macs is the ability to keep the desktop clean. There are hardly ever more than a half-dozen icons on the screen, and they’re always concentrated over on the right.

With just the iPhone OS 3.2 onboard, the iPad is reminding me of the myriad tablets shown at CES this year running stock Android 2.0:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/01/z0f01picture-1xiy.jpg

Sure, I’m sure it works. But it looks weird. User interfaces that were meant for 3 or 4 inch screens just don’t translate well above 7 inches. If Apple can just allow more icons into the dock, that would be a good start. As it is, though, the UI needs work. While the app ecosystem and closed OS will migrate just fine from the iPhone (and to economic success, no doubt), Apple needs to put some more work into the software’s visual appeal.

Maybe I’m being unfair, but I expect more, visually, out of Apple. When Android looks clunky, Google can get away with saying they’re coders, not designers. But Apple has no excuse. Even its packaging is a work of art.

Like many, I expect the iPhone OS 4 to solve most of these problems. At least, I hope it will.

PS– Bobby, considering the lack of Flash, would that restrain your ability to update your blog on the go? So many of the videos you share are Flash-based, and though HTML5 is coming, it’s still far far off.

With an iPad you’d definitely need another computer for sure, it’s a lot like an iPhone in that respect. You’d have to sync the iPad to the main computer through iTunes, be it a laptop or a desktop. If all of your music was in iTunes on that main computer though you could transfer it to the iPad, no problem.

As for your movies there are applications like Handbrake which allow you to make digital copies of your movies, which you could also put on your iPad.

The Blackberry would have to sync to the main computer for sure, I’m 99% sure that you couldn’t sync it onto the iPad.

But I`m not hating on Apple, I was just looking for something that would hit my personal sweet spot.

I`m in need of a new laptop but don`t need a lot of the features the laptop has. I just need to be able to browse the web, do some writing and make presentations as well as watch movies and view pictures. So obviously something that can do those things at a high-level and for a relatively cheap price (I can handle for $500 for that) is going to be something I`m be intrigued by.

But I won`t have a laptop where I can do some of the work to get things over to the iPad, like my CDs and DVDs. And I need to be able to put things over to my Blackberry using Blackberry desktop manager. And that is my only problem.

Apple is expecting me to have a laptop as well whereas I was hoping to use the iPad alone.

Maybe I`m just being stubborn. I could probably find a cheap laptop to do some of the beginning grunt work I need, hey? Afterwards I`d be willing to just buy my music on itunes instead of CDs. The only permanent problem would be with my blackberry. Maybe that can be solved too? Look! I`m talking myself into it!