Ipad: First Impressions

We were all given Ipads at work. I work at a very hip place, you see. My first impressions:

1. I was most curious about whether this could supplant the laptop, particularly for business trips. The answer for me, and I suspect maybe 75% of business travelers, is yes. the email system is good, and typing is fine (certainly beating the Iphone). Most importantly, you can easily view any kind of Office attachment - you can't work with them, mind you, but they look great. I think most, but not all, business travelers can get by on two-day trips using these applications passively. For real road warriors, though, the laptop is still going to be necessary.
2. The device is undeniably beautiful, and people are drawn to it. At a pound and a half, it's not as light as you might imagine, and I don't think holding it for two hours while reading a book will be terribly comfortable. A flip case to carry/protect the device and also enable you to prop it up is going to be essential.
3. Apple's not kidding when they say the battery life is ten hours.
4. The iBook store is a bit light on titles. I couldn't download "The Blind Side," which surprised me. However, you can download a Kindle reader for free and access all the Amazon books, so problem solved.
5. I think $30 a month for 3G connectivity is way too much. Mine just hooks up to WiFi.
6. No multi-tasking, which stinks, but I gather this is being fixed. No flash, which also stinks. Apple can get by on this front for the moment, but will be at a competitive disadvantage down the road if they can't figure out how to play nice with Adobe.
7. All in all, I think the IPad is a remarkable entertainment and media device, that is also "good enough" for most on the business front.

I still look forward to the Microsoft Courier, because it fills a completely different need. I love the notion of the "infinite notebook" where you can keep searchable archives of years worth of personal and meeting notes. That is something I need, and I don't think Apple is going in that direction.