As much as I love Apple's products, I rarely become a first generation Apple technology adopter. Waiting for a generation for Apple to put the "polish" on the product and get the little issues out of the products usually seems prudent. I've made two exceptions to this rule - first generation iPhone and most recently, the iPad.

Now even with the iPhone, I waited 3 months before getting one. I lasted about a week before breaking down and getting a 64GB iPad WiFi (no 3G). After 3 weeks, I've really gotten quite used to the iPad and really appreciate what it can do.

So first, my iPad is *not* going to replace my MacBook Pro. I still can't do database queries, write presentations, or a whole myriad of other things on the iPad. That said, surfing the web, reading, watching a movie, email, Facebook no longer requires me to sit with a warm computer in my lap. I can do it from my iPad.

What I had originally wanted from my iPad was a book and newspaper reader which could also do movies and music. This it does exceedingly well. I've got both Kindle reader and iBook on my iPad for reading books. iBook is nicer, but Amazon still has more competitive prices on books and more selection. I think it's fair to have competition in this area now. I bet Apple's library and pricing get more aggressive eventually. Movies and music are also excellent. Star Trek is more fun to watch on the bigger screen. Newspaper - I've given up the print edition of the WSJ and now read it electronically on the excellent WSJ iPad app. It allows me to download the paper for offline reading (so I can read on a plane). It's also about 1/3 the cost of the print edition, and, it arrives on time and never gets wet when it rains.

There's a few things that my iPad is now doing that I hadn't originally intended for it to do. The biggest thing is that it's replacing my paper engineering notebook. An excellent app called NotesToStore allows me to take notes and allows me to type, draw, and annotate pictures. I also love looking at maps and the weather on the iPad. The bigger display and faster graphics are just cool and useful.

The iPad has no problems hooking up to any available WiFi network. When WiFI isn't available, I chose not to wait for (and pay extra for) the 3G version. Instead, I got a Verizon MiFi unit which is like a cellular data card, except self contained (no USB required) and capable of being a portable WiFi base station. I decided this solution was better (albeit a little more expensive per month) than the AT&T 3G enabled iPad because it allowed me to use it with both my iPad and my laptop. And I didn't have to worry about AT&T's oversubscribed 3G network. The MiFi unit is about the size of a credit card, and about twice the thickness of a credit card. Easy to carry around.

Of course, there are some things that have bugged me about the iPad. First is the case. I have a wonderful case from Apple which also can double as a stand. It bugs me that it took 3 weeks for Apple to get me one. Come on - you can build enough iPads, but not enough cases? Something is wrong with someone's supply management chain here....

Fingerprints. The iPad collects fingerprints. And they don't even give you a wipe cloth with the iPad. Don't care what they say about the coating, this things still collects fingerprints. Annoying!

Charger - the iPad uses a special 10W charger. Which looks just like an old iPod charger. I have to label it specially so I know which one it is. Yes, you can use any iPod charger on this thing, but doing so makes the charging take a very long time....

WiFi stability - I've noticed that the WiFi can sometimes go offline and then back online very quickly. Wonder what's up with that?

In summary though, I'm quite happy with my iPad and can't wait until Apple works out the first generation issues. If the unit does so well with the current issues, I can't wait to see it get better, and when there are even more iPad specific apps available.