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When Apple announced their latest product, the iPad, I scoffed at the name (which quickly became the bunt of so many jokes) but decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and watch the Keynote address to find out more about this revolutionary device. To be honest, it left me feeling disappointed.  Revolutionary?  It’s basically just an over sized iPod Touch!  I was convinced that it’d be a major flop and had no desire whatsoever to purchase it.  I already owned a Sony eBook reader for my eBooks, along with 2 iPhones, an iMac, Apple TV and a Macbook Air.  I saw no place for the iPad.  I figured that Apple would have a really hard time convincing people to replace their Kindles and eReaders for the iPad.  I was wrong.  As always, the magical Steve Jobs has somehow done it again.  He’s created yet another must have product.  As time went on, the more I learned about iPad along with the positive reviews flowing in from those using it, I became convinced that I needed one!  But I still had a couple of doubts.  When they advertised a battery life of 10 hours I thought ”yeah right! Under lab conditions while in a fridge with the contrast all the way down and WiFi turned off!”  Actually, people are reporting getting 11-12 hours of use on a single charge!  And they claim to be continuously using the device for apps, web surfing and reading books.  That’s 1 for Apple, 0 for the critics!  But won’t using the device for extended reading cause eye strain compared to the eInk on the Kindle and other readers?  Nope!  Independant tests have shown no conclusive evidence of reduced eye strain reading on an eInk screen.  Turns out that it’s more of a sales pitch than a reality!  In addition, iPad has a sensor that automatically adjusts the screens brightness based on the surrounding ambient light!   iPad 2, critics 0!  Then I saw how I could still read my existing eBooks and Kindle books from my iPhone on the iPad, along with downloading any other eBook (say from my local library) in the ePub format.   My biggest beef with the Sony eBook reader is the crappy and buggy software that comes with it.  Plus the fact that I have to plug it in via a USB cord to transfer books.  With the iPad, I could do this through the familiar and easy to use iTunes interface and do it wirelessly!  As I explored the other possibilities with iPad, I decided that I could likely sell my MacBook Air as well!  I could eliminate 2 devices and replace them with the iPad!  Not only that, I’d get a longer battery life using my iPad over the Macbook Air!  I didn’t see a need to wait for the 3G version to come out as I can tether via WiFi to my iPhone and use my existing 6GB/mo 3G data plan instead (my phone’s always with me anyhow!)  So I went onto eBay and placed a bid on a 16GB iPad with the case and a 2 year Apple care plan.  Brand new.  I won!  I ended up paying $20.00 more than I would have paid in the store, but still cheaper than what they’ll likely charge in Canada when you consider most other apple products in Canada have a 10% premium plus 12% tax on top of the sale price.  It should arrive next week and I must say I’m more than a little excited.  Will I be able to get by without my laptop?  I think so but time will tell.  The windows Remote Desktop app will allow me to access our company servers so I can use all of the software I currently need.  Most of my documents are stored in the cloud so the storage capacity doesn’t concern me either.  No camera or USB, but I don’t need them on this device anyway!  I’ve got an iMac for that! 

What are your thoughts on the iPad?  Do you plan on buying one?