while yes windows 7 is doing fine and apple is nowhere near in a positional to knock ms from it's throne, i disagree about the ipad. i think that its something the pc manufacturers are going to have to face and seeing them bring a windows 7 counterpart at a price that is competitive to what apple offers is going to push them. i'm far from being an apple fan boy but it's a good product and it'll be exciting to see how mainstream pc vendors combat it.

I think the iPad is useless. It's not a tablet computer, it's a oversized iPhone running a phone based OS. From a tablet computer, people still want and need more functionality. They need to be able to add in peripherals. They want webcam support, etc. I just don't see anything revolutionary in this product and I'm trying to imagine who is going to want to lug around this 10" version of the iPhone. It just doesn't seem so practical.

true it's very limited to what it can do, thats why as nice as it looks im holding out and waiting to see what the windows counterparts are capable of. but for a simple user who needs more than a smart phone for web browsing it's an attractive alternative to netbooks. and meets the needs of most of the market, obviously that's not us, we demand computing power but the average user just needs something to get online, maybe type up a document occasionally and play a few simple games. the ipad can handle all of those tasks.

i like my kindle too.

Typing on the iPad only seems marginally better than typing on any of the blackberries that I have ever owned.

Using the device as an ebook reader is an interesting concept, but with the backlight and such the battery life won't even come close to what the kindle can provide for less cost.

My wife has an iPhone and she loves it and she loves the apps. But the thing she really likes is it's size. It's small enough to fit in your pocket and can be used easily in the car, in the line at the store, while waiting for carryout, etc. When my wife wants to post things on the net and surf the web..she prefers to use her full size laptop which provides all of these conveniences and more features. Plus, the laptop can multitask, while the iPad is stuck with a single app at one time.

To me, this is the new incarnation of Apple TV.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
exactly how do you type a document (such as a Powerpoint or EXCEL spreadsheet) on an Ipad -- once you've got the online keyboard on screen you've lost half your screen real estate and as for languages other than English -- forget it -- so how do people like me send email to colleagues in our own language.

To me it seems the only uses for this device are (apart from using it as a large Iphone)
1) Digital photo album
2) DVD viewer - although content has to be supplied by apple -- no external DVD device available so far.
3) E-book reader.

Any of these applications can be done more conveniently (and cheaper) simply by using a cheap Netbook -- you can buy decent netbooks with 10 or 11 inch screens for around 350 USD / 220 GBP/EUR.

I like reading in bed -- so Kindle's etc aren't for me but I can understand why some people like using them - and the battery life is far better than an Ipad. I also make notes in margins of books etc so I'm sure the e-book idea is not to everybody's taste.

Cheers
jimbo

true a netbook can handle all of these tasks at a much cheaper price. but people pay for style too and the ipad has that. my gf has already informed me that im buying her one as soon as they are available. and for her needs it works.