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I’m writing down some of my initial reaction to the new Apple iPad for posterity.

- I liken the iPad to the 1st Gen iPhone.  If you think back to how the 1st Gen iPhone was and what the 3GS is now, there was a ton of growth both from Apple and from 3rd party developers.  I think the iPad has a ton of room to grow as far as productivity and usability.

- They hit it right on with the price.  $499 entry for this device silenced a lot of the haters.  Usually it’s the innovation and design that drives Apple to sell units but this time it’s going to be the price.

- The iPad won’t replace your computer.  Hell it won’t even replace a laptop.  Unless you own a desktop and have no laptop, I can’t see the iPad replacing my Macbook Pro.  You still have to sync this to a computer to get the full functionality of it.

- The iPad would be amazing for photographers and videographers to bring around to client meetings.  Being able to show your portfolio on this beautiful device would add to the selling of your services.

- I think the hackintosh community will end up making the OS even better for techies to use.  Let the competition begin for who can make the best 3rd party iPad OS.

- The iPad would make a great travel companion.  If you’re going on a trip you can just activate the $30/month 3G plan just for that month then deactivate it when you’re done traveling.  They even offer a SD card reader to dock connector adapter so you can upload your camera’s photos onto your iPad and then onto Flickr.  Probably won’t be able to read RAW files just yet though.

- The Amazon Kindle is in a world of hurt right now.  $260 for a monocrome E-book reader?  Or $499 for something that can do infinitely more.