[tptacek]

I took a moment to break down all the individual criticisms of the iPad in the article:

1. The OS's interface is "linear".

2. There's no multitasking

3. There's no accessible filesystem.

4. There's no camera.

5. The screen gets smudgey.

6. It doesn't come with a screen cleaner.

7. The speakers aren't loud enough.

8. It's "not portable".

9. It's hard to read in direct sunlight.

10. You can't get it wet.

11. It has too many book suppliers and no unified book reading interface.

12. It costs $30 to turn it into a picture frame.

13. It has no USB port.

14. You can't replace the battery.

15. There's "no ability to create content".

16. It costs $100 too much.

I found this to be a distinctively superficial and unhelpful review, but it was at least mercifully free of moral judgements.

Since (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (10), (12), (13), (14), and (16) were clearly evident before he bought the device, and (8) and (15) are... dubious... at best, I find it especially amusing that he opted to pay for it.

[oostevo]

I have an Apple store right next to my house, so I stopped by today to play with an iPad.

He's right about the smudgey screen -- though supposedly both the iPad and iPhone have oleophobic screens, the iPad was noticeably worse than the iPhone.

Granted, several thousand fingers running over it for 16 hours a day probably wasn't the intended use case.

[tptacek]

It's true that you'd only know about (5) if you'd ever owned, used, or read much about an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Every iPhone I've ever seen has been smudgey.

[adamkmiec]

I think you're missing my biggest gripe: it isn't game changing and solves no consumer problem.