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Online reaction to today’s iPad announcement has seemed negative in some cases. But, I don’t think that’s deserved for the most part. The high expectations many of us have for Apple and the numerous iPad details leaked before launch created a frenzy that would have been hard for any product to justify. The iPad is not revolutionary in the sense of the original Mac or the original iPhone. But, it is a major step forward.

Good

• Much bigger screen than the iPhone and iPod Touch
• Much faster processor than the iPhone and iPod Touch
• Thin and lightweight
• 802.11n wifi (up from (802.11g in the iPhone and iPod Touch)
• Really impressive iWork apps (for $9.99 each)
• iBooks looks nice and uses the ePub format
• Runs iPhone apps
• 10 hours of battery life
• Much cheaper than expected
• Much cheaper 3G networking options than expected and with no contract
• The 3G version has Assisted GPS and could offer pretty amazing car navigation
• I like the case

Bad

• No camera? We’ve gone from rumors of video chat to not even being able to shoot basic stills? (There is at least a Camera Connection Kit for importing photos.)
• No Flash support. (No, I don’t like Flash either, but it’s ubiquitous OK? Get off my back.)
• No apparent background processing of third-party apps. (Some background clipboard management would be very useful on an iPad, for instance.)
• Still syncs most things via USB rather than wifi, which is unfortunate for a faster device with 802.11n
• No option for voice calling or SMS (admittedly, few would probably use it)
• No tethering
• Would love to know if iPad Mail has a unified Inbox for multiple email accounts. Guessin’ not.
• Is there any file system access or USB mass storage access from the iPad itself? Guessin’ not.
• I want a 3G version but watching the cool kids play with their wifi versions for 30 days will be really, really hard.