“What the heck is it for?”, they ask me …

I heard it from my wife, countless friends, and even Bill Gates. And on 1-Feb-2010, David Letterman summed up this sentiment in his “Top Ten Surprises In The $3.8 Trillion Federal Budget” with No. 2: “$1 billion research grant to figure out what the hell iPad does!“. Yeah, that was really funny, but the question still begs for an answer …

Some Cons

1. Unlike the iPhone, it is too big to carry in your pocket, so for portable use, you will need to lug it around in a backpack or something
2. It’s screen is a bit smaller than even the smallest laptops
3. Despite Apple’s touting its “unbelievable price”, it can not replace an iPhone yet costs a lot more, and can not really replace a laptop yet costs more than many laptops nowadays
4. With its maximum 64GB capacity, it does not even come close to being able to hold all my music like my iPod Classic 160GB can – not to mention all my videos either
5. It does not have the performance or resolution for playing true 1080p HD video

Some Pros (why I am buying it)

1. It will be so much nicer to use on an airplane tray table where laptops don’t cut it with lesser legroom and reclining seats
2. It will last 10 hours for long plane trips which is a whole lot longer than a typical laptop
3. It will become the best way to share large beautiful photos when you visit someone
4. It will become the best way to surf the web, since the screen is light and thin (unlike lugging around most laptops), while big enough to comfortably browse the web
5. It will be a joy to use with its touch-screen interface and a reasonable screen size that should not cause fatigue (unlike touch-screen desktops)
6. The new innovative Apple apps (e.g., Calendar and Photo) will surely delight as they always have with the iMac and the iPhone
7. Its beautiful color screen will be the perfect medium for electronic magazines as opposed to mediums like the Kindle and similar devices
8. It will definitely outperform many devices (iPhone, Kindle, many laptops, etc.) for games and video

Tell us what you think the iPad will do for you …

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