Any thoughts or experience wtih the new ipad?

[khort]

Was thinking of upgrading my laptop or getting a e-reader but now curious about the ipad. Anyone used or have one? Seems like this may be the way to have both access to the internet plus the capability to use as an ereader.

[fletchtb]

I have used an iPad and I think they are great. I think it would be fine as an ereader, but I don't think it would make a great laptop replacement. My next thought is that if you truly want an ereader, then a Kindle is the way to go. The $189 price ($139 for wifi only) make it significantly more affordable. In reality, you can get a pretty nice laptop for what an iPad will end up costing you.

Personally, I prefer the Android OS to Apple's iOS and I am hopeful that there will be some nice Android tablets on the market soon that will cost less than the iPad.

So do you want an ereader (for less than $200 shipped)? Do you want a iPad for $500 - $1000 which is light, very portable, easy to use, but limited in functionality, or do you want a laptop for $500-$1000 that will be a little less portable but more powerful. Amazon provides their Kindle app for Macs, PCs, smart phones, etc... for free, so you can use just about any device to buy and read books from Amazon.

[Mike Raburn]

I-Pad is a neat device but not a laptop replacement.
No usb ports, no mini usb, and no FLASH support I think either.

Apple is so proprietary. But they can be. That is their niche.

I-Pad is no replacement for a laptop or netbook for functionality.

[MSKelly]

A friend has the iPad and while it's really fun, I don't think it could replace a laptop. I also think if you like to read for long stretches at a time, you might prefer an eReader: the iPad is a bit heavy to read comfortably after a while and the back-lighting is nice but made my eyes tired. My friend and my sis (who reads on an iPhone/iPod Touch) both read on-the-go so it works well for them. I read very frequently so I've enjoyed my Kindle very much for the past couple of years and would recommend it to any avid reader.