Thanks for bringing this up. My aunt and uncle were in town this weekend. They're in their 60's and are simply rabid about reading. Right up until the time we brought out the Kindle to show it to them, my uncle, who's a writer himself, was still balking at the idea of a digital reading experience. Once we showed him the Kindle, he was blown away, and my aunt especially now expects one from him for Christmas. Neither could see spending $500 for the iPad (and this was before I said anything about it, so I didn't poison their minds ).

To be completely fair, I have never held an iPad, so it's not entirely fair for me to criticize it. But I'm not criticizing it for what it IS. I don't really care about the flash stuff, and in the end I don't really care about the multitasking stuff, because my expectations were that it would be a big Touch. What I keep arguing is that it has a place in SOME homes, but not all. It doesn't have a place in ours, so we won't be getting one.