At first look, the iPad just wasn't very impressive; it's basically a giant iPod Touch with a very poorly conceived name. But then I started thinking about it's usefulness and potential and I got a little excited. It's not gonna replace your laptop but it's more useful than a Kindle. If you have a desktop it could be very useful for work or school, I think it can be invaluable for presentations, it's great for media, and it's the first run so next year's will have more bells and whistles... and hopefully enough bells and whistles to make it worth 5 bills (or more) cause this year's isn't. Do yourself a favour and wait for version 2.0 but don't close yourself off to the idea completely.