The iPad is a cool idea... but it's usefulness could be limited for the common user. It could see broader usefulness in the enterprise market. But the iPad certainly has some downfalls. Limited ports, no multi-tasking like the iPod touch and iPhone, no webcam. Still, despite some of it's downfalls, it seems to be an impressive device. From some reviewers, who say that it is amazingly fast. There are a couple of things that it would need to do before I would want to purchase one:
1) I would want to be able to use it like a Wacom Tablet - with a pen, not your finger. With this functionality, it would kick butt over any other Wacom Tablet out there. - And much cheaper.
2) Networking with other computers. I don't know if it can do this or not, but some reviews question it's ability to do so.
I am looking forward to perhaps a Google pad counterpart running the Android OS...
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html-n-beyond wrote:I generally despise Macintrash
[...]
but they'll always straggle behind when it comes to computing
Spoken like a true PC Fanboy with no facts to backup such statements.

Perhaps you missed the Mac computer marketshare rapidly gaining on it's competitors?
Okay, not everyone want's the Ferrari of computers, I get that. Most people buy Toyotas, Fords, etc. Nothing wrong with those cars. It's just that some of us wouldn't settle for anything less than the Ferrari of Computers.

- Although ironically, I do not own iPhone, iPod, or iPod Touch. I'd rather get the Google Nexus (and plan to as soon as it’s released to Verizon), but it has nothing to do with it being cheaper than the iPhone, I know it's slower than the iPhone, less elegant, but it appears to be more useful. For me, the Mac is a more useful computer as well.