And Moses proceeded to come down from the mountain with the tablet in hand...

Or in this case, Steve Jobs did.

I watched the video of the announcement and contrasted it to Steve Balmer's announcement of a slate computer a few weeks back.  I have to say I'm more impressed with Steve Jobs.

Of course, the expectations for the iPad are various.  Some are happy with it, some have been expecting something different. There are also some jokes starting, like calling the iPhone an iPad Nano...

Let's remember this is the first iteration.  The next one will obviously add more features once Steve Jobs and Apple see the reaction to it.  Let's also remember it competes more directly against the Kindle.

When it comes to that, it's already a winner.

Of course, what sets it apart in my mind is that it will have a new iWork suite of apps ready for it.  Imagine REAL word-processing, spreadsheets and presentation software, as opposed to limited rtf variants.  Add that to the iPad and you've got a great portable tool.

The medical field will see an immediate benefit to it, since references will be more easily-readable on the iPad than on the iPhone.

I'm looking at it from an artistic perspective.  I've tried drawing apps on the iPhone and that's not the iPhone's strong suit.  You can't move your finger off a line on the iPhone, else you lose exact placing.

No, an iPad makes drawing with your finger a heck of a lot easier and more precise.

While I did favor WinMobile devices for their ease of drawing with a stylus, I hated having to draw in zoom so much on the small screen space.

So the iPad is already on my shopping list.

Will I be an early adopter?  Or will I wait till version 2?

That's already decided by my family.  The partner and the nine-year-old have already decided the issue.

Early adoption by a mile.

And besides, you need someone to play with that first iteration and tell you how it's going.

End of story.

UPDATE:  It seems there's some news of the iPad requiring a micro-sim.  More on that over at www.geehall1.com