So, after watching the keynote last night, I figured I'd try to clarify this from Apple's point of view (but not necessarily defend it). Basically Apple is trying to justify this device as a 3rd category, between the iPhone and a MacBook. His point was that for a product to sit in that space, it has to be better at certain tasks then the phone or laptop. Netbooks are just cheep underpowered laptops running the same software, so they don't do anything better then a laptop, and don't create a third category. They instead cut into another category, and frustrate users who are trying to replace a laptop with a netbook.

I can see what they are trying to do, but for me, (and many of us here), that third category seems kinda pointless. We are all fine with keeping the laptop around the couch to surf, or using the iPhone in bed. The one part about the iPad that would be nice is the book reading. I can't stand reading on the iPhone, it's just too small. The laptop method is ok, but you have to deal with an L shaped device, and can't specifically curl up into comfortable reading positions like you can with a real book. So I can see the eBook angle, though I already bought a Nook for that.

Long term, what would sell me on an iPad would be better integration. It's really stupid that it has to sync over USB. I want to be able to pull media in from my desktop (or better, my home NAS) without having to go to the computer. This is already possible on the AppleTV, so it's really puzzling why the iPad can't just connect to a shared iTunes library. Beyond that, I want Avatar like computing. There was a scene where a scientist was working at a station, and transferred what he was monitoring to a pad like device. If I could do similar easily, even if the main computing was being run on the desktop, it would make the device so much more appealing. I want to take the IM conversation I'm having with me. I want to take the current game state of my SimCity on my iPhone and run it on the iPad. But neither is possible, even from a manual corded syncing route.

Apple built a really nice piece of hardware, but it needs software to really help it become a third category. It needs to allow me to move between any of the three categories and continue working. I'm already frustrated by the inability to sync my instant messenger state between computer and phone, adding a third device is just going to make it worse.