Obligatory iPad Post

I sort of want one.

Because:

I have an Eee PC 701, so I know a device that falls between a ‘phone and a proper laptop is useful, and something I would use all the time.
The Mail and iCal apps look like they’re better than their desktop equivalents.
iBook. Assuming you can load it up with ePub texts from Project Gutenburg, and can read on the thing for three hours straight without getting a headache.
It’s not absurdly expensive.

But:

I should be able to use my nice Apple-made Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad. Don’t make me Jailbreak it and install BTStack Keyboard.
No multitasking. Don’t make me Jailbreak it &c., &c..
Micro SIM. I can’t just whack the SIM from my iPhone in it when I’m on the train? Bums.
It looks like you’d really need to shell out for that case, if you wanted to do much telly watching or typing. And that Camera Connection Kit, if you wanted to take it on your hols.

Update: The iPad does have support for Bluetooth keyboards after all. So that particular ‘But’ just became a ‘Because’.

Update 02/02/10: And it may support handwriting recognition at some point in the future. Anything that makes the iPad more like the Newton counts as a definite ‘Because’.

I still think it'll be a great thing for music makers, though as a control device above all. Using TouchOSC on it would be a blast.

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