I’m primarily a Windows user and application developer, but I do use a Mac for various things. I have used mobile computing platforms since the first Windows CE devices came out in the late 90’s.

Before the iPad was announced, I was hoping it would be a full OSX machine. As many other people, I was disappointed when the iPad was revealed as being little more than a large screen iPod Touch. I figured I would see how it was when it came out before jumping to conclusions.

Now I have one.

First let me say, it’s going to be great for what it does. It will undoubtably get more useful as new iPad specific apps come out. As I always say, “The best tool for you is the tool that works best for you.” I try not to judge a device on what I want it to do, but on what it was designed to do.

However, having used the WebOS Palm Pre phone, I am quite disappointed in the simplistic approach that Apple uses on the iPhone/iPad OS. Apple has typically been a “we hate buttons” type of company when it comes to hardware, so it’s quite surprising that that use this “home” button on the device to get back to the home screen. Why not just have it do that when I click “iPad” in the upper left of the title bar as well? That would be more like the Mac menu, and it would always be in the upper left, regardless of which way I rotated the device.

Hardware

I found the device/OS is quite responsive and quick, the screen is beautiful, and the form factor is excellent. It was a little heavier than I anticipated, but you can only do so much with the battery technology of today.

The lack of camera, built-in USB port, and SD card reader is quite disappointing. Come on apple, my Samsung phone from 2005 had a micro-SD card slot in the side of it. An SD slot would have been killer for photographers.

Software

The iPad does not come with software that you would expect, like a word processor, calculator,or drawing program. There are free ones available in the app store though.

Audio

The speaker sounds great. I’m currently listening to a podcast with the iPad sitting on my desk next to the keyboard, and it sounds excellent. It doesn’t sound like a crappy phone speaker.

Flash

Yes, the lack of Flash is a big drawback. It is my opinion that Apple has left off Flash for several possible reasons:

a. Flash isn’t quite out yet for mobile devices.

b. Maybe the iPhone isn’t able to support flash running in the browser because of multi-tasking?

c. Here’s the most likely reason: Apple is making a ton of money off of apps and iTunes.

Summary

Overall, the iPad is great at what it does do, and will be excellent for specific uses, but it’s not meant as a laptop replacement.