did the author of this article spend any time researching it at all, or did Apple just send him a cheque to pimp the iPad? "Netbooks...largely unavailable in Canada" - has he even walked into a Future shop and seen how many netbooks there are "standard laptop cost more than $1,000" - yes, for Apple notebooks, but certainly not other brands - the average price of a half decent Window 7 laptop is now sub $1000 "Add the growing cost of Internet service, the scam that is word processing programs, and perhaps soon the misguided micro-charges placed on online news and other Web services." - what about the costs involved in buying apps, media, and books on the iPad ? "For those struggling to make ends meet, being online can make the difference." & "but it certainly looks like it will take the handcuffs off those who could not previously afford an easy, functional, affordable, Internet-ready laptop" - so the $500 iPad, that can do little more than surf the web, play media and read e-books, is their ticket out of poverty? Please NOW if you are going to have someone write tech articles please find someone who can be at least a little objective - you can still be an Apple fan without being a shrill for Steve Jobs.

Erret's observations, insights, and opinions in this piece are so far off base they can only be called ignorant at best, and idiotic at worst.

I can only assume your nose has been buried so deep in your iPhone for the past 3 years that you failed to notice the rest of the world evolving around you.

I'm certainly not going to sit here and point out the several obvious errors in this article; only suggest that you, at the very least, set Google as your homepage in Safari.

Therein the truth doth lie.

Or as the above commenter suggested...spend some time in Futureshop in a department other than Apple's.

apologies for the legibility of my above comment, it wasn't supposed to post like that !

Don't want to pile on, but this article is absolutely horrible, and lacks any kind of perspective, or insight, into technology (or even the iPad). It reads as if someone randomly grabbed sentences from AppleInsider.com and TUAW.com and called it a night.

First... iTunes is free? So? The music isn't, and Apple's iTunes isn't the most inexpensive, legitimate way to buy digital music.

I know technology moves fast, but the laptop/netbook points read as if the last time the author looked at a laptop was in 2006. Netbooks can be had for $350, and thin & light laptops for in the $600s. These classes of computers are the fastest growing segment of the industry over the past couple of years, and as the other comments point out, are WIDELY available at any electronics store, that doesn't exclusively sell Apple products.

Make no doubt about it, the iPad is a device meant for CONSUMPTION not creation. Absolutely nobody being rational would opt to choose to type on a piece of glass instead of a keyboard for any period of time. The ocassional SMS or Twitter post, yes, but good luck actually typing up that resume, or even the article above.

And let's not forget that the announcement of the iPad had the effect of raising ebook prices by up to 50%, so now us consumers get the privilege of paying almost as much as the print edition, with all it's paper and printing and shipping and environment destroying pollution etc for files that would fit on a floppy disk... from 1986.

NOW might want to consider some reworking of their back end and advertisers. Neither the the iPad nor iPhone support Flash because it allows applications and utilities on the device that aren't approved by Apple.

It's also worth noting that the makers of the Stanza program were forced to remove the feature of copying books to your iPhone via the USB cable just this week. A week after Apple announces the iPad and the iBooks service. That's all good for the future and freedom though, right?

For an article that talks about 'freeing' and 'breaking shackles' and generally a device that is the great equalizer of the people, it sure seems like the author (and a lot of iPhone toting hipsters) are happy to hand over the keys to the kingdom to one old dude with a "my way or the highway" attitude.

I would call being locked into itunes only for any and ALL software and media a pretty damn honkin huge set of shackles IMO.

Also I am curious as to how they are avoiding antitrust issues for locking their users in like this in such an absolute way. Microsoft faced a hellstorm just for locking one browser program onto their OS.

was this an article or a press release? The iPad has two major achilles heels - Flash and multitasking, and thats just where you begin, and where this article never goes

parts of this article about the wonders of using the internet play like it came out of one of those cheesy 90s operating system promotional videos they got Matthew Perry to host.

Basically the iPad is a piece of shit, and so is this review

Having re-read this thread it's obvious the students know more about the subject than the teacher in this case.

re. "Add the growing cost of Internet service, the scam that is word processing programs, and perhaps soon the misguided micro-charges placed on online news and other Web services" -

Web Service is pricey, sure, but this statement implies that you can avoid it with the iPad's WiFi, and that the iPad is the only device shipping with WiFi. I can only assume you mean "MOBILE internet service", too, since as this statement currently reads, it also implies the iPad gets free internet through some kind of magic. WordPro programs like OpenOffice and Google Docs on real computers are free, plentiful, and universally compatible with all major formats including .DOCX, so that argument is just stupid. And yes, monetizing up-till-now-free media is lame, especially news media designed for mass consumption, but it's all speculation and rumour at this point and is highly unlikely to ever happen. Last.fm is a prime example of why that model fails, and Hulu sits ready to corraborate it.

Doug is right; this is a device designed for consumption, not creation, meaning the longer you own it, the more it will cost you. And that's by design; you may listen to every Apple keynote as though it's a sermon on the mount, but you are not seen as the helpless unwashed masses; you're seen as a credit card number, nothing more.

One would really have to have read hardly a thing written regarding the iPad by any of the leading lights of technology, in order to write an article *so* naive and unaware of the prevailing debate over this device, (a debate which has been raging for weeks on the controversially and unprecedented closed and controlled architecture of the iPad).

Where do you guys get your technology columnists? Are you hiring?

Go back to writing about drum circles and dive bars - leave writing about compruters to people who have actually used one.

I think this article (as well as Alan Cross' reent iPad article) show me that there are way too many iChurch members in it for the cool factor who really dont know shit about what they're using.

What exactly does the author mean by "productivity-powering" gadgets? Exactly which productivity does an iPod power? It is a gadget of the purest water, meeting the most fundamental requirement for gadgets: uselessness. iTunes is free? How wonderful, but isn't that like claiming that Canadian Tire is heaven itself because they don't ask you to buy the door? And which is the productivity powered by a Shuffle?

Yes, it is true that even the most standard laptop cost more than $1,000 for years. Years ago. The past few years, more than decent laptops can be had for substantially less. Just walk into any Futureshop or Best Buy or any other store.

Many word processing programmes can be had for free. How is that a scam? Better still, with any version of Windows, you get WordPad for free and that little utility does most everything most office workers will ever need, let alone private users who send a letter to grandma once a year.

The iPad may well be no more complicated than a child's toy, and it has all the elements. The cheapest one has 16 GB of storage space and, according to the specifications, it has no slots for CompactFlash or SD(HC) cards.

As for netbooks, I suggest that the author make the effort of descending from the clouds and having a look around. Netbooks start at less than $300.00 and they can be found everywhere.

Netbooks didn't actually do much, says the author. How can that be? With most having 1GB RAM or more, harddisks of 80 GB or more and a full-blown operating system in the form of Windows XP, these netbooks are just as powerful as the laptops of no more than a year or two ago.

Compare that to the iPad: no multitasking, no keyboard and the virtual on-screen one takes up 25% of the screen, unusable as a productivity tool.

It is also not an ebook reader. Just try taking it to the Toronto Islands on a sunny afternoon, and fill some nice hours staring at the shiny black screen, for that's all you will see.

The iPad is just as useful as the iPhone: it is for shallow, superficial people who think that they need to show off the same "cool" gadget as all their peers in order to stick out from the crowd. As such, it is probably great for children and executives. For those of us who actually want to accomplish things, there are far better options.

Oh, and not even the name is original. Fujitsu's has been marketing ipads for years, and Awajitec is well-known for its adult ipad diapers.

I pity the author of this article. Obviously, he has been asked to rewrite Apple's sales pamphlets, nothing more. No person could be so ignorant as to write such obvious nonsense of their own free will.

Unfortunate that this reviewer (does he work for Apple?) missed the mark in a HUGE way. Sure, the iPad is a cool piece of tech ( and I will probably get one, but not the first generation) and consumers will eat them up, but in the end, Apples 'closed ecosystem' vision of the web will only benefit Apple, NOT consumers. Doc Searles has a much more insightful review in his article titled 'Up the Creek without an iPaddle' http://bit.ly/bkDX2Q

Thank goodness for these online comments because I know that I'm not crazy. I was absolutely insulted after reading the print version of this article.

Did the author of this article do ANY research?

"it certainly looks like it will take the handcuffs off those who could not previously afford an easy, functional, affordable, Internet-ready laptop."

3 words: WHAT THE F***!!!!!

I can walk half a block to an e-outlet store and buy an Asus Eee PC for the regular-price of $379.99. I can go online to dell.ca and get a Dell Mini 10 for $299.

The iPad is $499 USD -- which means that by the time it reaches the Canadian stores, it will most definitely be higher in price, let's say $550 CAD.

And the iPad is "functional"?? And you quote "building resumés" as a task? Sorry, no.

It's a media consumption toy for movies and tv shows that you BUY from iTunes. And books that you BUY from iTunes. Oh and games that you BUY from iTunes.

If you're planning on using it to get a job by working on your resume, you better plan on BUYING the docking station with keyboard (I'll guess that's another $100) in order to peck out emails to potential employers and updating your resume because it's certainly not going to be quick on the on-screen keyboard.

And then how are you going to print out this resume? You have to BUY an adapter (another $50) to even get USB support to hook up a printer. And even if you could, would the iPad support the printer drivers???

You could get a netbook AND a printer for the price of an iPad! And if you're really set on the Mac OS, get someone to make you a hackintosh.

And finally: "Apple's admirable endgame here: getting the world online."

What kind of Apple pill did you eat? The iPad is not evangelizing any sort of "freedom of online information" to anyone. It's already a closed system that denies Flash content and any other plugins.

Did you get the iPad confused with the One Laptop Per Child program? Because THAT is a mini computer that's trying to do the world some good. (http://laptop.org/en/laptop/index.shtml)

Apple's not trying to lift the world out of information poverty... it's just trying to sell you another shiny hardware device. And then next year, they will add on one small feature that should have been there the first year, and ask that you get rid of your current iPad and buy the newest one.

If apple built the Segway and called it the iWalk the fanboys would call it revolutionary and it would have been a success. just because Apple can do no wrong... ever... right?

well, i bet the iWalk would be sleeker and cooler looking, with something that shows photos while you use it and plays music. but at the same time it probably wouldnt allow you to go backwards, and they'd spin it as 'freeing yourself from regression' or some bullshit.

I am of the technologically impaired yet my attention was drawn to this article due to the (cringe) reference to Rousseau in the first line. After reading the article I was like, oh, hum, ok, so here's someone who obviously likes apple a LOT. But it wasn't until I read the comments below that I actually learnt something/felt nourished by informed people. I am in total agreement with the above sentiments - ditch your reporter!

I am an iPhone owner and a fan of Apple but even i can see that this article is nothing more than a shreiking advertisement for the iPad which spins like crazy and has no substance. Seriously, i would want to believe that NOW does not have writers who are paid by corporations to plant advertisements in the place of real journalism, but what the **** is this????

What about the fact that you will need another computer running Windows or a recent version of OSX to even use the frigging iPad?

I hope that the author of this article is not a member of your staff. If not, please do not waste you reader's time and your money on him again. If he is staff, perhaps he has some area of expertise, but it is most certainly not technology - computers in particular.

As other commentators have mentioned above, this article reads like a poorly disguised press release. Ill thought and poorly reasoned (if reasoned at all).

For shame!

Wow! I just wanted to know if the guy that wrote this shameles add for Apple is still employed with Now? This is the worst article on technology I think I ever saw. It just insults anyone who has a bit of brain and some common sense. Sir, I don't want to be rude but I don't know how to put it else. You are either paid by Apple, or you are an idiot.