My experience with the iPad :
My aunt (I'm French) came back from a visit to her son who lives in the USA and she was helpless because she couldn't understand why there was no way to add anything to her "computer" (she thought the iPad was an actual computing device, not a c.r.a.p.pliance) without erasing the pictures and videos of her family that was transferred to the iPad when her son synced his computer to it. She didn't ask my advice beforehand, she succumbed to the power of marketing and the novelty of getting something before its availability in France and bought it without thinking much about it.
You should have seen the look on her face when she came to understand that her device could erase all the videos and pictures of her grand-kids at a whim.
If it wasn't enough, she couldn't use the app store once she got back to France and will have to wait for general availability, even switching to the US appstore didn't let her. This is what a crappliance you don't actually own will do to you. You may have bought it but Apple still owns it.
THIS is what is supposed to be the future of computing, the device that will replace the desktop and laptop for the masses ? Job's full of it. The future of computing is a future where you can't even share your own data with your friends and where the manufacturer has a say on everything you do, even the installation of apps and what country you're in ? There is a reason why lots of people feel much stronger hate toward Apple than anyone ever did to Microsoft. I sincerely hope that the iPad will tank after the first generation and gets rolled over by Android, WebOS and whatever is in the work at MS. This device HAS to die or it will inspire a new era of madness if its model gets successful enough to be copied by everyone else. Microsoft is already joining in the crazy with the Windows Phone 7 that restricts you to its app market with no standalone app installation even though Windows Mobile used to stand for freedom.
THIS is what is supposed to be the future of computing, the device that will replace the desktop and laptop for the masses ? Job's full of it. The future of computing is a future where you can't even share your own data with your friends and where the manufacturer has a say on everything you do, even the installation of apps and what country you're in ? There is a reason why lots of people feel much stronger hate toward Apple than anyone ever did to Microsoft. I sincerely hope that the iPad will tank after the first generation and gets rolled over by Android, WebOS and whatever is in the work at MS. This device HAS to die or it will inspire a new era of madness if its model gets successful enough to be copied by everyone else. Microsoft is already joining in the crazy with the Windows Phone 7 that restricts you to its app market with no standalone app installation even though Windows Mobile used to stand for freedom.