iPad - One Month In

My iPad's cousin, the iPad with 3G was released yesterday to a significant amount of demand. No sales figures are available yet, but it's clear that a lot of people either wanted connection insurance or the ability to enjoy all the joys of the 'Pad anywhere.

So I thought I should update my ownership report since it's now been a month since I got my grubby little hands on mine. 

• I'm still surprised at how much interested there is when folks see the iPad or find out I have one. There's a lot of curiosity about the device, how it works, if I like it, etc. I'm very cautious when it comes to recommending technology to people, and the iPad is no exception. It's a great device for what it does, but it isn't, in most cases, a replacement for another device. It really does live in its own category.
• People are entranced at how smoothly the device rotates. I guess that's not something that most people focus on, but when they pick up the device and rotate it from portrait to landscape, they're impressed. I guess it's the little things. 
• It has been very stable. The one exception is that I do see issues every so often where it drops off my WiFi network at home or work. Turning WiFi on and then off usually does the trick, but it's a bit annoying.  Nonetheless, I have shut it down/powered it back up a few times and it does it MUCH faster than my iPhone 3G.
• I have not yet traveled with my iPad, but will do so later this month and it will be interesting to see how friendly of a traveling companion it is. I suspect it will be wonderful and it's great that I can take my own personal device with me even when I travel with my work laptop.
• I finally bought a few apps and I have an eye on a few more, but I'm waiting for them to become more mature. I've dropped about 20 bucks on apps and that probably is more than the total spend I've done on the iPhone over almost two years. This does not bode well for my wallet.
• Lastly, the iPad experience is better without the case. I've had the Apple iPad case on it since almost day one since I was very concerned about the safety of this $700 device. (Incidentally, this case has been on massive back orders since launch and now is selling for way more than the $40 I paid.) However, this weekend I removed the sleeve and found it a lot nicer to handle the device with the curved aluminum back rather than stuck inside the case. Try it and you'll see. However, most of the time, I still will have it inside the case, to protect the screen and be able to prop it up with the built in tilt.

So that's the summary. Would I buy it again? You bet? Am I wishing I waited for the 3G version? Maybe. The thing is that I don't really want to pay for another data plan - I already pay almost $80/month for the iPhone. So, I'll make do with a somewhat restricted device. And quite honestly, that's no different than if I would have bought a laptop.