iPad surprises (updated several times)

I am gobsmacked! I got my iPad two days early!! (As you know, it was only supposed to arrive at April 3.)

Not only that... wait for it... the iPad *does* have a built-in video camera for conferencing. Apparently it's somehow sitting in the middle, looking through the screen. No wonder they kept this a secret, this is revolutionary. Finally you can look people in the eyes when you speak to them.

An amazing twist is that as soon as you start up the iPad iChat (in a brand new version 6.0), you get connected to a staff member in (Apple Headquarters) Cupercino, who congratulates you on your new purchase. I got a very pretty auburn 30-ish woman, who honestly did not know much about computers or the iPad, but wow, what nice eyes and voice she had. A pleasure.

I wish of course that I had been one of the 23 people so who got connected to Steve Jobs personally, but I understand that he simply, like Santa Clause, does not have time to see everybody.

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OK, that was an April 1 joke.
More seriously (I hope), here's a roundup of early reviews.
Quote from Pogue's:
"Speaking of video: Apple asserts that the iPad runs 10 hours on a charge of its nonremovable battery — but we all know you can’t trust the manufacturer. And sure enough, in my own test, the iPad played movies continuously from 7:30 a.m. to 7:53 p.m. — more than 12 hours. That’s four times as long as a typical laptop or portable DVD player."
"The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine.
The only question is: Do you like the concept?"

PCMag video review.

Here's another lively review.

"Dr. Mac" says:
"Reading a book on the iPad screen was a pleasant surprise for me. I wouldn't want to read an entire book on my iPhone or MacBook Pro screen, but I wouldn't mind reading one on my iPad."
[...] Speaking of my wife, prior to our iPad's arrival she said she didn't understand why anyone would want or need an iPad. Now she just keeps saying, "No, you can't have it back."

Comment from his site:
A really big Iphone that can't make phone calls.
And like the touch screen cpu's preceding it, destined to be a loss loser for Apple.

I'm a total fanboy, I can't wait to get mine. And unlike the "it's a big iPhone" geeks (who can't spell iPhone), I can see what it is: it's a publishing platform. A new one and a powerful one.

And Steve meets Steve, Fry and Jobs, that is.
"It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist's rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands. One melancholy thought occurs as my fingers glide and flow over the surface of this astonishing object: Douglas Adams is not alive to see the closest thing to his Hitchhiker's Guide that humankind has yet devised."
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