My thoughts on Apple's new iPad

I know I acted blasé given the level of anticipation leading up to Apple's launch today of the iPad, but I was just as intrigued as the next geek. And now that the iPad has been revealed in all its terrifyingly world-changing glory, I'm still unimpressed.
The iPad has many of the iPhone's faults – ones that Apple stubbornly refuses to acknowledge or at the least give some indication that, yeah, there's still work to be done:
No camera. WTF? To me, this is the most serious failing of the iPad because it had all the makings of a killer interactive communications device. Yes, I know the iPhone has a camera and it sucks.
It doesn't have a removable battery. That’s a deal killer for anyone who travels a lot or travels to places where electric plugs are greeted with the same skepticism you might give the advances of a “dancer” in a dimly lit Rio nightclub. Battery life degrades over time, and after a few cross-continental trips I can assure you the iPad won’t be getting Apple’s claimed 10-hour battery life.
No removable storage. I own an 80Gb iPod and it’s nearly filled to the gills. No way can I carry around all my music, videos, podcasts plus all the apps I’d like to have without more storage.
No Flash. Let me for the record repeat my oft-said phrase, “I HATE Flash.” But the interwebs is full of pernicious Flash animation, so I have to deal with that, and you can’t on the iPhone and you can’t on the iPad. I’m sure Adobe is furiously whipping their slave elves to push out a version, but would it kill you, Apple, to at least give us an estimated time for arrival?
I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars to be part of Apple’s beta testing team. Because that’s what first-adopters who buy the iPad really will amount to.
I will not buy a first-generation iPad, just like I didn’t get a first-gen iPhone. Unless Apple addresses some of these issues, I don’t really ever see myself buying one when I can get real work done on a netbook or desktop and superior data syncing and connectivity through an Android or Palm phone. [Full disclosure: My Blackberry and I are having issues. We’re trying to work them out. But I’m not too hopeful.]
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