iPad. And There It Is...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 3:03PM 
Hmm...
That just about sums up my initial reaction to the iPad. First, the form factor is far more square than expected. The iPhone has a better ratio for content than the iPad. Second, the bezel around the screen is much wider, and looks, as much as I hate to say it, like a knockoff of an Apple product.
Obviously Apple wanted to be able to say this device started at under $500 with the low-end $499 model, but six different models to choose from seems like a lot. Why would you buy a wifi-only model with 64GB of storage? At the same time, the idea of unlimited data at $30/mo with no contract is quite appealing. Could this bargain basement data pricing be the real reason the device lacks a camera? When you can't take photos or shoot video, your bandwidth requirements shrink pretty quickly.
Most disappointing to me though, was most of the content looked similar to how we can find it now on the iPhone, or in iTunes. Movies with chapter selections are great, but I don't know that I need another device to watch that on a 9.7" screen.
Maybe we in the Mac community blow expectations way beyond reality, but it really feels, with the exception of data pricing, that this really is more or less, just a large iPhone, with a keyboard accessory, and lacking a camera, or phone.