Actually the headline promises more than I can deliver.  I don’t really know why I returned my iPad after 3 hours.  I guess it just didn’t deliver $600+ worth of smiles.  But here are a few things that contributed to the decision…

• I couldn’t figure out how to get my password-minding application (1Password) to work on the iPad, so the killer-long passwords I maintain were impossible to use.
• What?  No plugins for Safari-mobile?  I saw web-page ads for the first time in 5 years.  Ugh.
• Picture-intense web-pages like Marcie’s tour of the farm would only load about half the pictures and then would stall.  Maybe due to the WiFi problems.
• I had a really tough time getting used to running one application at a time — it kinda took me back to my Apple II days.
• The whole iTunes/Marketplace sandbox weirded me out.  Cory Doctorow’s piece spoke pretty loudly on this front.
• The whole Flash thing and how it breaks so many web sites.  Aside from the conspiracy theories, here’s a Flash developer talking about why Flash is a problem on any tablet computer — the inability to mimic the “mouse over” behavior.

But mostly it just wasn’t fun.  So I returned it and took the 10% “restocking fee” haircut.  60 bux,  for 3 hours, so 20 bux an hour…

I think I’ll wait for the boatload of Android tablets that seem to be just around the corner.  Maybe they’ll make me smile more.  Take a look at this one, featured today on Engadget.  Not one but two cameras, SD slot, USB ports, etc. etc.

UPDATE:

My goodness what a difference a year or so makes.  I now own an iPad 2, think Google is evil and completely disavow any responsibility for this article.  🙂