This all changed for me upon receipt of the iPhone. I've played with many different phone/PDA gadgets in the past and touch screen has never really 'worked'. It either required the use of a stylus making things too cumbersome or the interface simply didn't have the intuitive nature a touch screen device should have. The iPhone on the other hand was almost perfect (Jailbreaking made it perfect though ).

So the iPad had me excited about an Apple product before I'd had a chance to use it for the first time ever. Words can't explain my shock at seeing what has been unveiled.

I have the same reservations as most when it comes to issues like mulitasking, DRM, etc but I have to agree; it is the screen that is the big deal breaker for me.

4:3? 4:3?!?!? I had thought the iPhone's rotational screen was a genius way of getting widescreen content on to a handheld with minimal loss of screen real estate. Now I'm starting to suspect it was all just serendipity "because phones are meant to be that shape".

It defeats the whole purpose of the device. It is, as you say, a step backwards, not a bold step towards the future of computing. I wonder if the Apple loyalists out there will buy enough to make this a success. I hope not… I'd like Apple to do a proper job on a device such as this, not just keep pumping out iterative advances for the iPad.

What they did wrong was the technology. IPS is not a suitable panel for a portable device. What Apple should have done is offered a high resolution OLED display. It'd allow for a larger amount of real-estate for apps. Of course, this would require a powerful processor, which is where a Tegra chipset would be a strong choice. If a Zune HD can do it with a first gen Tegra, the iPad can do it too.

In addition to this OLED is a stunning technology. No need for back lights, the pixels are self eliminated. There's no view angle, and the pixels are denser.

My main gripe is the lack of Flash. Use Flashblock with Firefox and see how long you can bare its absence. It kills the device as an Internet device, which could have been its major attraction. They need to work with Adobe to get this working, ASAP.

I could go on with the bad aspects – there's a lot of them. But, to its credit, it's a very polished unit. Is it worth the $700 or so AUD for one? I personally don't think so. There's too many holes in its usability to justify the cost. Is it a failure? Probably not. Just like the iPhone, it'll improve with time and revisions.

What would I like to see? Apart from the obvious (multitasking, camera, OLED, Flash etc.) it'd have to be both capacitive and resistive. Why? Well we know it'll be at least capacitive, but what about people who want to handwrite with a stylus? You can't do that accurately with a capacitive screen. I'm sure there's many uni students who want to a tablet to be able to do this. Typing is all good and all, but you can't type equations and diagrams.

Essentially, it needs to be more than an iPod Touch to grab my attention, or money.