Ok, by now you’re probably sick of iPad news, iPad stories and iPad reviews.

So what. I am going to give you one more. This will be stripped down and free of any sort of big conclusions other than answering the question if your house needs one.

This EOT Dad was impressed with the iPad

First, let me say I bought our first iPad for my wife. A stay-at-home Mom, she primarily uses her Apple MacBook to surf the web, read email and do a little shopping. She’s not doing any word processing, number crunching or design work. Heck, she’s not even blogging. For her, it’s really a web device, or as my friend Vincent Ferrari over at the Shamable.com blog calls it: a “couch-browser.”

We eagerly anticipated the delivery of the iPad on Saturday and it came as soon as we left the house to run some errands. BTW, UPS tracking sucks.

Once the iPad arrived, I opened it for my wife (OK, I really wanted to get my hands on it even though it’s hers) and fired it up.

The first thing that struck me was, of course, the design and “WOW” factor of just holding it. It is a bit heavy at 1.5 pounds but you really don’t notice at first. And since we both use iPhones, to start poking around the devices was easy and intuitive. I can’t imagine even non-iPhone people having trouble figuring out how it works. The device was full charged from its trip from China and the first sync to our iMac went off without a hitch.

I’ll save you a longer and more in-depth review because you can get that elsewhere. Here at the EOT Blog, we just sort of bottom-line things. So here it is:

The iPad is a beautiful device worth its price if you’re a tech fan and like to have your tech on the go. It’s really the perfect “couch-browser” device to use around the house. Its ability to deliver entertainment content (games, streaming movies via Netflix, and television via ABC app), and easy access to web browsing and email make it a great piece to add to your home collection.

It’s actually the perfect device for my wife and myself around the house. You can browse the web for a recipe, check your email or Tweet your latest update in TweetDeck. It’s casual computing at its finest.

I don’t believe it’s a laptop killer as its purpose – at least in our house – is different. While its Apple Pages word processor is robust and easy to use with full on-screen keyboard, I wouldn’t use it as my main work tool. I suppose I could but I don’t look at the device in that way.

As a father of four kids, I see the potential for this to be a dynamite piece of equipment for your family both at home and on the road. Kids (and adults!) can use it on flights or in the car to watch movies or streaming content (if you have wi-fi in the air) that can help make a long trip seem much shorter. The limited games I tested were killer and the large 9″ display delivers unmatched quality in a portable device.

Don’t listen to Apple when they say iPhone apps run fine on it. The apps run as a small rectangle in the middle of the big display and it is a completely crappy experience. Also, how Apple didn’t ship it with its popular Remote application is interesting. I’d love to use the iPad to control my Airport Extreme which I use to listen to music from my iTunes library throughout the house. They should have updated that app prior to launch. Tisk, tisk.

At $499 for the wi-fi iPad, the price is a little steep for most folks. But if you’re like me and an early adopter who likes the latest gadget, this is one worth the price.

One note: I can see where this device could have some great business uses. Imagine your waiter having one or your doctor. This device could grow in adoption amongst businesses who need computing on the go. We’ll see if app developers go there.

Will the iPad change the world and how it uses computers? I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s very cool and we’ve enjoyed using it.

Now, how do I convince my wife we need a second one for Dad?

EveryOtherThursday.com iPad Review Takeaways:

Pluses:

  • Beautiful design and functionality
  • Amazing entertainment opportunities
  • The perfect household/mobile device for utilizing the Web
  • Great applications
  • A social media addicts perfect tool
  • Lean, mean

Minuses:

  • Cost
  • Doesn’t replace your laptop completely; at least for most folks
  • No camera for video chat
  • No multitasking
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