You probably already heard about Apple's iPad. And you've probably already heard at least a couple of jokes involving its name and menstruation. And I wouldn't be surprised if you've already heard my thoughts about this newfangled tablet thing. I mean, you haven't heard them from me, but you've probably heard them before is what I mean.
My thoughts: it looks cool, like all things Apple. I want to play with it. But I don't know if I would buy one over a netbook. With a netbook I always have a physical keyboard. Though I haven't tested the iPad's touchscreen keyboard, I'm betting that it isn't as easy to write quickly on as my already not-typist-friendly netbook keyboard.
The thing that freaks me out about the iPad, though, is that the only software you can run on it comes from the App Store. Though the App Store is a wonderful thing on the iPod Touch and iPhone, I'm a little disillusioned to see it on something that is basically a computer. If Apple released a computer and said that you could only run software that it'd approved on it, you'd probably be a little freaked out. That's basically what's going on with the iPad.
However, I do understand why they're doing things this way. I think that with the iPad, Apple is trying to attract the sort of users who are scared of computers. The device looks pretty user friendly because it's incredibly simple. Though that simplicity may be a blessing for the computer confused, it could be a curse for those of us who know what we're doing.