Everyone is talking about the iPad

No comment about the iPad name. Now onto the things I actually care about....

Contractless $30 3G

This is awesome! This is probably the #1 reason that I am going to buy an iPad. Sure is doesn't support all carriers but I really have never had that much of a problem with AT&T so that really doesn't matter to me.

My Mom things it is awesome

The iPad is the layman's computer. There are lots and lots of different things that I do with a computer so it is impossible for me to replace my computer with an iPad. My Mom however is different, she almost exclusively uses her computer for the internet and for writing documents. This makes the iPad the perfect computer for her because everything just works, I almost never need to provide technical support for my Mom's iPhone and it is going to be the same for an iPad. While this doesn't make me want to purchase an iPad it does make my Mom want to buy one (and my brother).

Books, Books, and more Books

My parents are using Kindle for the iPhone to read eBooks however I think that the iPhone screen is too small to effectively read. I also find the Kindle to be too unipurpose for my tastes. I really want to do more with eBooks and the iPad seems like a good tool for doing that.

Cheaper then I expected

That sums up this point, I was expected the lower end iPads to sell for the price that the upper end iPad is selling for. This was a pleasant surprise that means that even if it turns out that I don't like the iPad then I am not too out of pocket.

I signed an NDA

I really wish I could tell you something here, but I signed an NDA. Trust me that whatever I would put here is awesome.

iTunes App Store and Book Updates

There has been a lot of talk recently about the tablet that Apple may or may not be releasing on Jan 27th. One of the things that is speculated to be on the tablet is digital books which can be purchased like apps and music can be now. However I'm not here to speculate over what features the tablet might have, (others are doing a fine job of that) I just wanted to make a comment about benefits that digital books can have over physical ones.

One of the benefits of the App Store is what when the developer finds some bugs they can submit a patch and then the user can painlessly update their copy of the application. If digital books were sold through iTunes then they could be capable of doing the same thing. If there were errors in the text then when the author discovered them they could submit and update and all the users would then have a corrected version of the book.

Also is the books could have extras then the author would be able to submit other writings and information after the book is in the market. This would even book more useful in technical (or manuals) books which authors often try to release quickly after the product is released. Then they could add to the book and fix errors that are pointed out to them by their reader.