Best post yet.

You are using more text to explain to the people who didn't read in the 1st place. Watch this

LOOK HERE
iPAD= Consume Content with mobility, fun web stuff

For example
e-mail
twitter
facebook
youtube
wikipedia

QUESTIONS (Brad wants to know, please answer)
1- Would you consider an iPad (or 'Droid based device) for doing the "fun" web stuff?
2- If you only do all this fun stuff on a PC now, would you consider replacing/supplimenting your PC with an iPad?

Ask yourself that question the next time you are doing free tech support/configuration for grandma and grandpa's PC

iPad doesn't need support?

The interesting battle that is about to take place is HTML5's SVG vs Flash. This is where apple is positioing itself.

SVG has been released as standalone since around 2002 (requiring a plug-in), so it really didn't get any inertia vs Flash even though it had more features then flash 3/4 when it was 1st put out there.

Now, with HTML5 supporting SVG as part of the spec, and all upcoming browsers supporting HTML5, everyone is going to have access to an open, vector animation format. Developers can choose not to use flash and adobe's tools, and still have the same capabilities and compatabilities for vector animation.

I'm thinking this is the way most companies are going to go for embedded devices... dump flash, use HTML 5 so they aren't beholden to Adobe alone.

No.  My 3 year old can use it without a problem.

Even my mom could use it without bugging me.

As is, I get calls from her constantly about this or that for the Thinkpad.  Why isn't Bluetooth working right today? Where did the network icon go? My window is launching off screen.  My laptop won't connect to the internet. When I rebooted it gets stuck on checking the disk. Is my disk broken? All my pictures are on there!  Where are my pictures? My computer won't come out of sleep. On and on and on.  

Sometimes she brings her laptop to the office to have me look at it.

I wish I'd gotten her an iPad but they didn't exist then.

The iPad, and devices like it yet to reach the market, will have great utility not only in serving up consumer content, but also as terminal-like devices for delivering commercial/professional content as well as accessing and creating documentation.

The thing is pretty amazing in its initial iteration.  Imagine where things will be with iPad 3.0.

lol... ditto.

It looks like you're claiming that "tablet-type" OSes will replace Windows for your average content-consuming layperson on the basis of ~6 seconds of waiting time (the time it takes my netbook to go from lid closed to opening gmail, youtube, and the elemental forums), and a store full of cheap casual games. I'd disagree.

Yeah, all you need to do when grandma and grandpa's iPad isn't working is tell them to send their iPad with this months social security check to Apple to have it fixed or replaced. If old people fall a lot, you can bet their iPad will too. I guess you could mighty putty it to their desk, but that kind of defeats the "mobility" feature. 

I don't mind fixing their PC problems, which are rare. It's the least I could do for the people that brought me into the world. Besides these days everyone wants free this and free that, but nobody wants to provide the "free". Here's your chance!

BTW do those come with the Game Boy type screen magnifier for the old folks? I recently bought my parents each a 22" monitor, both for less than the price of one iPad. Of course my parents, while they do spend a lot of time on the Internet, are not slaves (yet) to instant electronic gratification.

One other drawback. How long before we see someone driving down the road with one of these in their hand, ala cell phone style? It will be in the news before the year is out, I feel safe to say. There are always those that will abuse connivance for the sake of connivance. Not hardly a reason to reject the tech, just a consideration. Then again I cringe when I see 8 year olds, with their family present, and a cell phone glued to their ear.

These things have existed for 15 years(ATM machines, Point Of Sale machines and medical applications) and haven't gotten rid of the windows desktop yet. 

Of course the biggest problem with the ipad isn't its functionality but what it costs compared to products(including existing tablets) with more functionality.

Also my Grandmother and mother both use a pc quite well. My grandmother even does video editing on hers.  Most people who don't know how to use their pc's are mostly do to intimidation rather than actual difficulty.  Not to mention windows 7 has made great improvements to eliminate all those pesky errors anyway.

Then the startup time only makes a difference when it's a short time using the iPad. As soon as it is a longer period the "instant boot time" comes to a second plane for more important concerns.

So it just works to see the pictures I did with my digital camera from my last trip? Or to see the PPT chain joke that 20 of my friends are forwarding like crazy to my email? Or check the latest idiotic flash animation that is running wild on the web? Or to chat in Facebook/MSN with my family?

While you play inside iPad limitations, it's a nice gadget (although with a lot of overlap with new smartphones). And if you try to play outside its limitations, well, welcome to pain/pay world.

Don't believe I wrote anything about the iPad 'getting rid of the Windows desktop'.  Wasn't the point.

We'll just have to see which is really more 'functional' where the rubber meets the road.  'Functional' is a subjective term in this context, anyway, and a value judgment will be involved.  I don't own an iPad, and I work in a strictly Windows world, but I'm definitely interested in the iPad's potential for a specific purpose for which I think it would be well-suited & worth the money.  YMMV.

I was thinking of getting into the Mac scene in a few weeks/months. I had gotten the entry level 999. macbook for Xmas but had to return it to upgrade my gaming desktop. Now that that is upgraded, I want to get the Macbook or iPad soon enough. I liked what I saw with the Macbook, OS and apps were great!

How does the iPad compare to the reg. macbook? I know its a different OS and I already have the ipod touch 64gb so I'm familiar with that. But what I mean is, what apps/features would I be missing on the iPad? The macbook had some cool stuff like music and web page creation. I'm guessing I can't use these on an iPad right?

This would be just for additional everyday use I could use outside my office.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated

Forgot to mention - the specific purpose I'm referring to involves running a remote Windows desktop environment on the iPad.  So...  Win/win?

Then they could call you over wifi issues.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/05/trouble-in-paradise-ipad-users-complain-of-wifi-issues/

If pcs didn't have a bios you could have instant boot (combined with ssd).  The problem is, if you have issues, you need a bios.

As someone else said, ADHD wins.

I wonder if Facebook, where I use apps that run in flash, will change to the new format.

I can't run ANY of the programs I use every single day on an iPad.  

I can't even run the OS X programs I run every so often on an iPad.

My iPod Touch makes a great music player for my car, and the iPhone would be great if it wasn't for AT&T, but...

Except for web browsing, and honestly, the screen is too small to be a serious web browser, there isn't any reason for me to upgrade from my handy dandy pocket-sized iPod Touch to a much larger one with the exact same programs and no increased data storage, camera, etc. etc. etc.

Give me a Touch tablet running Windows 7 and I'll care.  Hell, give me an OS X version of the same thing and I'll pay a premium to dual boot the thing.  Otherwise, I'm not interested.

I was a big Mac fan, and got a SE30 in '89 when it came out.  My next computer was a PC and have been since then.  I really liked apple's OS and all -- I didn't care how computers worked, just what you could do with them -- but it failed in the most important aspect of computers -- games!  Mac games were crap then and things haven't much improved.

So my question to the iPad backers -- how's it for games?  How will Elemental run on it?

Don't matter how fast it starts up if I can't play Elemental on it 

Then you might be interested in the Archos 9 PC tablet : http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/index.html?country=us&lang=en

Relatively expensive ($550), W7 SE (can it join a domain?), very questionable battery life even with WiFi off.  Doesn't look too bad O/W.

How is it relatively expensive when the Ipad wifi is $850? Especially since the archos has twice the storage capacity, usb ports, webcam, built in stand, and streams to your hdtv etc.

As much as I enjoy Windows 7, it's not an OS for a touch tablet.  That is why HP dumped the Slate and will be using WebOS for it's future tablet.  I don't believe people want a full-fledged PC in tablet form, which is why the iPad has taken off.  As others have said, it's a consumption device.