The pad is silent/backups

Couple of item from my email: a reader referred to the self-publishing article, which says how cool and quiet the iPad is.
"I wonder how they can create this thing that doesn't get hot nor need fans like that."

Yes, it's dead-quiet. Silent, actually. And never gets hot, or even warm.
Apple did a great job with fine-tuning the software so it's both fast and quiet. One of the ways they did this is the "no multi-tasking" thing.
It can be seen as a lack in some ways, for example you can't have one app downloading something while you use another app. Most of this will be corrected this summer/fall coming OS 4, but will still be done so it doesn't hurt the device's speed.

The article also makes a point about loosing the flashdrive that you have your manuscript on.
One should always have backups. Back up at home on a separate disk, and also at Dropbox or someplace like that. The guy who lost his flashdrive is careless if he did not have a backup anywhere.