Great little gizmo!

I took the plunge and purchased from the US. I couldn't wait for Apple to decide when they are going to launch in the UK. I don't regret it. The iPad hardware is amazing: light, slimline and with a high quality screen. Make sure you purchase a case and screen protector though to lengthen the life of your iPad (particularly if you have kids like I do). The iPad software is pretty much as expected if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch as I do. That is the beauty of this - switch it on and bang . . . you're immediately on the web or writing emails or reading documents (great for the train journey to meetings) or listening to music or watching a film (Avatar looks great) or playing a game or showing your photos to relatives etc. The ehnanced screen size makes all the difference to me. I can do ebay, online grocery shopping and much more that I couldn't do on the iPod. Some of the iPad apps (like Scrabble) are awesome. All the iPod Touch apps I transferred across work well - just a slight degradation in resolution. If you want your kids to do some education, there are some great learning apps - some with handwriting recognition so it makes learning more fun. The bigger screen also accommodates a decent keyboard - fine for writing emails, To Dos etc. Not designed for writing War & Peace. The downsides? Well, no Flash support means I can't watch some TV / video (such as 4OD, BBC iPlayer). However, I understand a BBC iPlayer app will be released soon like the one we use on our Nintendo Wii? Also, since document viewing is so good, a USB drive would be a better way to upload my PDFs and Powerpoint docs but we all know about Apple's closed architecture. In summary - as long as you see this device as a really quick and fun way to consume content (not designed for creating it), then you'll love this. It does not replace my laptop (e.g. no multi tasking) or my iPod Touch (too big for my pocket) but it is the nearest thing to the best of all worlds. What it does, it does very well.Read full review