@ Voxe
Steve would disagree with you, cos that's what works. even for the average car or TV owner, they don't care what picture tube or what engine is inside.

@ Voxe
did you read the linked posts? Steve obviously threw out the past prototypes cos he (and the executive team at Apple) saw more potential in this product.

Let me quote from the keynote itself
"Netbooks aren't better at anything, they're just cheaper".

Do you really think its a lazy execution? instead of focusing on all the things it can't do for *you* and *I* ... who are admittedly geekier than most, perhaps Steve is trying to get our non-geek friends, who otherwise would never even consider carrying around a netbook / tablet Mac OR PC ... if they would get one, I'd count the iPad a success.

If Steve and the Apple crew find a way to build a tablet Mac, I'd be overjoyed too. I do find the keyboard a hassle to carry around, and I don't need the performance of a  2.4 GHz Mac all the time. Most of the time, I can do my computing just fine with a 2.0

They DON'T do 'scale-down' Mac. They DON'T cater for the low budget group. as simple as that. Steve mentioned it some time back.

I've decided, iPad should be same as Kindle category; eBook Reader. 

It's like the iPod, which can use for web browsing, download app and gaming though it's part of Music Player category.

Video support up to 720p

http://www.apple.com/asia/ipad/specs/
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Can't believe the negavity of people here, we have people who would spend thousands on a device that only plays games, or on device that only plays videos / music, or even one that only plays slideshows of photos, or just to surf the web, but here we have something that does all of them, though not to perfection, and it's getting all sorts of bad comments. Anyone thinks positive anymore?

Before someone else comes back to you, I'll say it right upfront. Keyword:barely usable. 90 minutes boot-up, snailpaced cursors. Apple dont roll that way.

Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish?
By Michael Gartenberg posted Dec 28th 2009 6:30PM

Quote "A larger iPod touch or a small MacBook with a touch screen is simply not the next big thing for Apple -- the goal is to appeal to 50 million customers, not 50 thousand."

Michael Gartenberg said in the above article...

Here's a little snippet from the iPad Human Interface Guidelines document:
And out of curiosity, which are the apps that you've read that cannot change their orientation views? And besides, have you forgotten about where your hands and fingers will be at when you hold the device? on the bezel of course. And where can the camera be located at? On the bezel of course. I can already imagine the cries of: 'Arrgghh. my hands are blocking the camera... grr.. which direction should I be holding it in so I don't block it??'.

Furthermore, whatever makes you think that this is a device aimed at the casual users? The fact of the matter is that you're just making assumptions here. This is actually a device capable of quite a number of purposes, and of which there's plenty of developers right now puzzling over the HCI aspect of things in order to plan their own apps for it.

Yes, a camera will indeed be useful. But it won't kill not to have one right now, considering the current constaint to deal with. Like I said, if its a choice between the multi orientation capability or the cam, I'll go with the multi orientation capability.

10 Reasons Why Apple iPad'sonna fail

And this is according to gadgetophilia. Whilst the dust settles on Apple's recently announced iPad, it seems the hype has died down and everyone has an opinion on Apple's latest creation. In short, there is nothing that deserved the hype and the device simply sucks if said politely. Here are some reasons why this device fails:

1. No Multitasking
2. Uncomfortable Keyboard
3. No WebCam
4. No Flash Support
5. Ugly Adapters
6. Go to Apple Store for Apps
7. No HDMI
8. Battery
9. MicroSIM
10. Too Big Bezel

i dont get why people are complaining about the bezel. if the screen is right til the edge, how to hold the thing without ur thumb interacting with what u're doing? unless u prefer a handle lah, which is much much much uglier ;p

same goes to HDMI. yes i really want hdmi on my MBP, but for something like an iPad i dont see any reason to want one. what i think would be neat is miniDP IN port, so it can act as 2nd monitor for my MBP. well i can dream hehe