I want it. I really, really want it. I hate lugging around my 4 pound laptop to every single class, turning the brightness down to the point of squinting at the screen, and still almost running through the whole battery. I borrowed an OG iPad from the campus library, and it worked enormously well for me. I gave it a test run, whipping it out when Professor Talks Too Fast ran through his lecture, and I got every note down in perfect time, uploading it all to Evernote's servers.

Now that the second one is about to release and has an even faster processor, I'm determined to get one. If I can play my cards right, it will be my birthday/Christmas/birthday present. If I'm lucky, I will reduce it to birthday/Christmas!

They're nice and all but it's got an incredibly locked-in system, and comes with a huge price-tag for what's essentially a glorified iPod touch.

It sounds like you should just save up for a cheap new laptop. Or buy a voice recorder. Or learn to take notes. :) Most lecturers talk too fast.

I'm not keen on using a touchscreen to type for any length of time.

Fine for SMS or twitter, not okay for anything longer than that.

As much as it looks like a fun gadget, there's really nothing it does that I want. Besides, I heard there's going to be an iPad 3 announcement at the end of the year.

Yeah, who wouldn't want a locked in proprietary lobotomized laptop. For the same price you can buy a laptop that can do infinitely more, and in a nice small size that is just as portable with 7+ hours of battery life.

Why do people buy this crap?

You are thinking of the iPod Touch. The iPad is Apple's Q1 device.

from techcrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/09/ipad-3/

from cultofmac: http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-staffer-ipad-3-is-the-one-to-make-a-song-dance-about/84275

Yeeaaaah. Suck that iCock.

I'm contributing.

Im staying out of this, if your curious as to my oppinion on it search for you gotta be shittin me

Unless you are developing apps to finance your studies there is no reason to have a macBook,
or even a iPad which basically does nothing.
Seriously? do they give those away these days or why can so many students afford macBooks and such?
Students, used to be those guys that live of ramen, because they have no money for proper food.
Guess now they would but they all blown it on apple products.

Well...
Can your conciseness bare it? There was an awful lot about apple suppliers, and the conditions their workers have to endure.
I know apple isn't the only company that doesn't act human-friendly,
but it been a lot, and an ipad/phone isn't even a very useful item, apple mostly makes fashionable vanity items.
Knowing means responsibility, you know it and you got the responsibility to decide.
I wouldn't want that.

If you like the way it feels, then i'm sure that there are many comparable items,
that actually do more for the same price,
maybe you can even connect a keyboard via usb, which is great once you get tired of the spongy way touchscreen-keyboards feel.
I'm not a apple hater, i see the achievements they made for modern technology and fashion,
but i see that there are better products by now, and that they got behind in the race,
they still feel good to use, and look pleasant but that's about it.

I recommend you do some research, and look what else there is
Maybe a better netbook would be useful, some of them have pretty darn good battery life.

As someone who's actually used one for an extended period of time, I feel like I can say that there are things that work better with desktops, laptops, iPads, and phones. I feel like this is a repeat of arguing the benefits of OnLive to you guys, except even less of you have actually used an iPad before.

I like tablets but not the iPad. Sure that's where the apps are but the Xoom is way more droolworthy in my opinion. Honeycomb UI looks more intuitive as opposed to a grid of apps in your face. If the iPad were the only competitor out there today, I would probably get that, but we have the Xoom, the HP Touchpad, the Playbook, and a entire list of tablets coming out in the next quarter running any OS you can fit on an ARM chip. If anything the iPad is just one of the many that are out there, and there are some that can do what the iPad does, but even better still.

I don't know, can your consciousness bare buying 360s, PS3s, Wiis, or any other popular electronic device that all come from Foxconn? As much as I'd love to boycott American Apparel, Nike, and every electronic manufacturer in existence, it's not practical.

No other electronic tablet comes close to "the same price". Motorola Xoom? $800.

Keyboard? I prefer digital to physical. If it were in my power, I would use a touchscreen keyboard for my laptop. ThinkGeek sells the closest thing to this, but that's just a projected image onto a hard surface. Besides, if I do want a keyboard, ThinkGeek also sells a relatively inexpensive case for the iPad that gives it a Bluetooth keyboard and a laptop feel (though I don't know why you would do that, as it somewhat destroys the benefit of the angle on which you are working).

Honeycomb is pretty kickass. It's also $800.
Also, that iPad 3 rumors are nothing short of ridiculous. If you pay close attention to the keynote, they're pushing education hard. This is around the time when new and old students upgrade their gear. If iPad 3 is announced in the fall, that will rip their efforts from the root.

Besides, if you're always waiting for the next piece of technology, you'll be waiting forever.

The Xoom is $800 - it also has LTE and a better screen - but in a few months there is no doubt we will see similar Honeycomb tablets from reputable manufacturers challenging the iPad 2 price. Which I'll admit isn't a bad price.

True, but I am also rather angry at Android right now. My Droid X needs constant tweaking in order to keep it working. If I don't shut it down and turn it back on every morning, it freezes up. I need to switch Airplane Mode on and off occasionally to get the 3G working again. Sometimes the screen won't even turn on randomly, and I have to open the back, rip the battery, put it back in, and turn it on. I need an app to see if a rogue app is eating my battery and CPU, and some apps frequently crash.

I love the technophile nature of Android, but I also hate its bugs. It runs on Linux, so go figure.