Two weeks ago when I went in to see my pain doctor who've I been with for 9 years, the first question was the one you've got here. He knew that I'm terribly irresponsible when it comes down to toys and the delight they bring me, and he advised me that he'd been holding off on this wish list - got to have to have purchase till after he'd talked with me first because I love keeping up to date on anything tech. Here's what I told him.

"Doc, after being positive this was another must own, got to have, how can I empty out my piggy bank enough so I can have one today type purchase I did some intensive homework on these wonderful new gadgets and here's what I learned."

First, did you know that they are not flat on the bottom so if you think you can sit at the kitchen table with your morning coffee and toast while catching up on the news and reading/writing a few emails, you're wrong. Because they're curved on the backside, they constantly rolling around making them unusable/unstable except for when they're either in their stand/charger (another $60 option) or if you're holding on to in your hands? Now how can a person type with only one set of fingers when the other is hanging on to the stupid thing?

Secondly, did you know that around 20% of the people who've gone ahead and plunked down the upward of $1,000 (when loaded with the goodies you really want including a case to protect it plus wireless keyboard and charger) are returning them even though it's costing them upward of 20% of the total purchase price just so they can unload this great idea but horribly designed product and not loose all their money? Imagine paying $150 or more just so you can get back at least some of the money you accidentally wasted?

The idea is fantastic, it's just they didn't get the design right. With all the IPhone users like myself who can't live without them, we love the touch screen and since they weigh less than 2 pounds, the idea of portable computing has never looked better. Problem is, they're so darn limited in so many ways. You can't multitask very well, and about the only time they're worth much is when you're hooked up to the Internet. If you use your computer for composing the story of your life or you do things that don't necessitate you being on-line, then you'll find these gadgets rather limiting.

IPad's don't have any easy way to download photo's you've taken with your digital camera unless you either send them over the Internet back and into your IPad, or you have the IPad hooked up to your notebook/desktop computer and sync them up. There is no media/memory input so most are finding this memory lacking very frustrating. Because there's no USB port, you can't use flash RAM (which we've all grown to love since it's so easy to carry files around from computer to computer) and while they're promising multi-tasking (doing more than one thing at a time such as listening to music while cruising the Internet), at only works with some applications.

When the market came out with Netbooks a little over a year ago I was the first kid on the block to get one and I can't live without it. With a price tag of only $300, between it's less than 3 pound handiness plus the fact that I can do almost everything I can do on my everyday notebook computers, these are a gadget that make portable computing really portable.

If you're wanting a pint sized computer that will cost you less than half (or more), then go with a Netbook instead. Most Netbooks have 10 inch screens while the IPad only has a 9 1/2 inch screen. There are now tablet Netbooks out there that are still less money but you can still use your fingers to get around on like the IPad yet they have much larger memory and overall use capabilities.

Apple has had so many IPhone buyers, they knew we'd all go out and plunk down our money on a bigger size, but almost just as portable type device, yet instead this is probably the biggest boo-boo since the Cadillac Cimmeron in the early 80's. Now if they made the back of the device flat so it could lay easily on a table, add some USB ports and a card reader for uploading your photo's, they'd be on the right track. Though they advertise a wonderfully low $499 price, with only 16GB of memory, I promise you that you'll be go half banana's in no time at all after you try and load some music and photo's, not to mention the great limitations as far as software. The idea is great and there's no doubt this is the new direction computing will head, it's just this time Apple got it's ego in its way without actually considering what the end user wanted and wouldn't live without. This time, you're not really missing anything, but I'd still keep saving my nickles and dimes for when Apple or someone else does. Bob.