gdgt

First I will lay out my gripes about this thing. For starters, a lot of the interface elements seem copied/pasted from the iPhone, I really hoped at least it'd have some transparency elements in the menuing system that at least mirrored that of the OS X dock, also the lack of at least selective multi-tasking kills me because I can't have for example Pandora running and reading a recipe while in the kitchen.

But none of that really matters right now. This is the first iteration of the next generation of computing. Imagine for one second that all computer manufacturers stopped production as if they all just evaporated. So then all of a sudden somebody would say, "Jesh, we still have crazy demand for computing we better get going to satisfy this market" however at that time somebody would likely stand up and speak up and say "Wait a second, right now we know how to make a computing device that uses interface elements like touchscreen for computing, why should we continue to use technology invented in 1965 to interact with our GUI?" The keyboard dates back to 1870, the Mouse - 1965, they were remedies to solve a need at the time. There's no reason to continue on this path, now I'm not saying we should switch overnight but let's give this a shot right now.

Think a year or two from now, the hardware and battery upgrades will take place and developers will have already have had a year under their belt with this SDK. Think about Photoshop as you know it today, then erase its current existance from your memory, and imagine Adobe redesigning Photoshop from the ground up to work with a touchscreen interface. Now you'll likely say "but my keyboard and mouse work just fine", and they do, but Adobe has had to develop and limit software so that it works with those input devices, there have been limitations placed because of it, you have to admit - it's less natural for you to scroll a bar up and down or left and right to zoom or move than it is for your fingers to actually do your bidding of moving an image sideways or pinching and zooming. And it doesn't stop there, the possibilities of new interactions are endless, especially with more mature SDKs.

I for one, will most definitely purchase this device, for one I've been longing for a device to use around the house that's larger than an iPhone and also I'm interested in it's future, the sample potentials provided with iWork and such are a perfect example of this device's upside.

To me the iPad is a flawed first generation brand new way of computing but that's OK right now. Our feedback to Apple shouldn't be "I don't need this" or "This is stupid", it should be "Ok, we see where you're going, we like this stuff but not all of it - here's how to make the bad part of it better."

I would have to disagree with most of what you are saying.

While i agree with the general sentiment, that the keyboard and mouse are very old concepts, and integrating new technologies such as multitouch into computing will definitely be a good idea for moving technology forward, there are fundamental flaws to the the iPad that go beyond people just needing time to develop for the device.

Most of all is PEN INPUT. While creating a device that utilizes new interactive technologies they left out the one that makes most sense for this class of product. Multitouch input was absolutely the right way to go with the iPhone because of its size, and definitely needs to have a major component in the iPad, but pen input is where you bridge the gap between the cell phone and laptop input.

As a student who also works in an office, I deal with a crap ton of paper and pens and books and notes. My life is filled with binders full of notes and books to go along with those binders. At work I fill out carbon copy forms and pass them on to other departments. I receive drawings that need to be marked up and sent back for review. All these things could be replaced with the iPad if it had pen input as part of its interface.

I think there is a bigger debate to be had about the soft keyboard, vs a physical keyboard, but not having a stylus or physical keyboard makes this device not a serious player in anything more than leisure activity. Without it, there is no way that this class of device can take on any kind of role doing actual work. The iWork demo was decent, but the idea of actually composing full length documents on a soft keyboard is not a real solution. And as an engineer, the idea of doing any real spreadsheet work is an even bigger joke. There is no comparison between a soft keyboard overlaying your screen and a physical 10-key for spreadsheets.

If there was pen input built in, the iPad would be on its way to being able to replace a huge amount of the paper that we use every day, and indeed be a revolutionary product that I could see creating a new way we think about computing in our everyday lives.

But as it stands now, the iPad does not have the capability of being anything more than exactly what apple has made it to be - a 10" iPhone. And there are certainly some nice things about that product. The one thing that interests me is being able to have a better interface for having the web as leisure reading for example.

I've noticed that people have been calling this a 1.0 device but is it really? Its really just big a iPhone so there have already been 3 versions of this device only smaller. So i don't understand why people keep up with excuses for what is missing, Apple has heard what the iPhone users really want from the iPad and iPhone yet they continue to ignore the real problems. The iPad should have had Multitasking, GPS, Widgets, USB, SD Slot, HDMI and 2 camera's. Apple have given us half baked products in the past and we just excepted it but this of all products is the most half baked product of them all.

But even with all its flaws i still may get one after all i love my gadgets and can see that there potential just not totally sure what it is

During the announcement yesterday I kept looking at the calendar to make sure it was not April 1. This thing is just a big iPod Touch. I think Apple is going to prove once again that no one wants a tablet computer. They are too much of a compromise. They are too big to be truly portable and too small to be truly useful. I will keep my iPhone and laptop and be happier. I was expecting something innovative and interesting. Unfortunately this is neither.

The other huge problem will be keeping it clean. It is enough of a pain cleaning fingerprints off my iPhone. I do not want to have to keep cleaning a 9" screen every few minutes.