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Surfing The Web
I had a netbook with a 10" screen and I found the screen a tad too small for surfing the web. I really had to squint when viewing a lot of sites. Maybe having the ability to zoom in and out on the iPad's screen will alleviate this problem. I think I would need to see one in person to decide if it would work for me. Having 3G access to the web, wherever I am, definately has a certain appeal.
Watching Movies
This looks like a perfect application for the iPad. The only drawback appears to be the squarish aspect ratio they chose. It is a mystery to me why they didn't choose something closer to 16:9. I would think that the latter form factor would also be better for surfing the web and reading books. I really wonder why they decided to go with squarish aspect ratio.
Games
I don't play a lot of games, but the demo video that showed that racecar game really looked slick. Turning the iPad was like turning the car's wheel -- yeah I could see myself waisting some money buying games, and I'm not even a game player.
Books
This looked really slick too. I like seeing all the covers in color, and having a store in color that loads quickly would be great; even Amazon's store on my PC takes too damn long to load pages -- when I try to scroll and the page does nothing I get pissed. Having books in the ePub format is also great. HOWEVER, I'm not paying 50% more for my ebooks and I don't want to read my books on a backlit screen.
Bottom Line
I like the concept, but I don't think I will take the splurge just yet. I think I'll wait a year and see what is available at that time. I'm really hoping the Mirasol technology pans out, and that by Christmas we'll be talking about Amazon's new Apple Killer.
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