...is a truly amazing piece of technology. I had somewhat low expectations of it- even as a loyal Apple customer, the first thing I thought was "Oh good, a huge, less portable iPod Touch." But I was so wrong. Surfing the web is a dream. The Internet is very fast, and it feels like you are "in" the website with the control the iPad gives you. No flash support, you say? Apple doesn't like flash, claiming it causes a lot of glitches. Instead, it supports the increasingly popular HTML5. Want to make a presentation? Keynote. Word Processing? Pages. Hoping movie editing comes, but it's not meant to replace laptops, so I'm not going to get my hopes up for that. Battery life? Fantastic. Storage? Plenty. Expandable memory? Yep. Weight? Only 1.5 lbs. Price? A very reasonable $500 dollars. Reliability? Great- way better then a netbook, which I suspect will go extinct in the wake of tablets. So far, I've had no problems. DEFINITELY worth it. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm excited about it :)

$500 is a good deal, imo. It's like a really portable computer. If I had $500, that's what I'd spend it on. Personally, I think it's an amazing deal. Especially compared to what laptops cost.

What is this, an objective review or a sales advertisement? :P

I'd get a netbook before I got an iPad.

As an opposition force to the iPad, I'll be the downer here. HTML5 will never be comparable to Adobe Flash, and nearly every browser supports it to some extent. It has no USB ports. Battery life will expand or withdraw based on what application is running and how long you've owned it. There is no possibility of multitasking. In short, to quote my friend, "You know what they're calling the iPod Touch now, right? iPad Nano."

While the iPad does open new possibilities, the first generation is too limited, to be honest. They could have easily done much more with it.

First off, I don't think we'll ever see the tablet replace the netbook. It's two completely different markets. Tablets used to cost more than laptops, now they've scaled them back and are comparable in price, but do a lot less. Nathan beat me, but I was gonna say, inability to multitask is a dealbreaker to me. I mean, I can multitask on my phone. i would also rather spend $200 on a netbook that will multitask and has USBs, instead of $500 for that, personally. But what I kinda want is one of these handheld PCs. They have like 500mhz cpu, and can emulate all kinds of old game systems, in addition to wifi web surfing and all. And yes, they're linux, so they multiask.

Personally, I can't afford an iPad or anything hand-held. What I'm saying is that $500 was way out of my reach back then and everything's gone up so high now, that it's super way out of my reach now.

Truth is, the only Apple product I actually prefer is iTunes. Windows Media Player has gotten out of my grasp. Other than that, I prefer anything over Apple, and would get a netbook over an iPad any day of the freaking week. My Reasons why I prefer anything over Apple?: -Apple overprices everything. If you can't produce enough (Propably can, just being cheap about everything and don't want to drop the price) then why buy it? Which leads to the second point v -Anything by Apple is more likely to get stolen, and I like being able to leave my Mp3 Player in my bookbag without checking it every few minutes to make sure it is still there. -Accessories aren't what everyone wants to hear. They want to hear that it is already installed and that you don't have to go back to the store after figuring out that what you wanted originally doesn't exist without an attachment/upgrade. -I like something reliable. After seeing many of my friend's iPods, I really don't think that they are reliable. It may be the operator, but with so many of them that way, I highly doubt it. (What I am referring to is, of course, the screen. I have seen SO MANY screens that are broken, it is unbelievable.) -Most Apple products are touch screen, and although that may be nice, I personally don't like it. When you screen is too touchy, or not as touchy as you would want it, it really gets in the way. Another thing is, I like walking around with my MP3 Player in my pocket, and I really don't like locking the thing everytime in the case that I want to change the song quickly. The reason why I don't like it being touch screen and in my pocket is: it is touch screen and will change the song when I don't want it too. Those are just some of the reasons why I don't like Apple, and Apple Products.