Yesterday, I got to play with an Apple iPad. I normally avoid playing
with devices like the iPad and the iPhone 3GS because inevitably
newer, faster devices appeal to my gadget-lust and eventually take a
chunk out of my bank account.

The negatives to the iPad are very apparent from the beginning. Pick
up the device and you’ll be surprised how hefty the thin tablet is.
Additionally, scaled up iPhone apps seem very clunky compared to iPad
native applications. The price points seem quite high if you want
anything above the most basic version.

There are a lot of positives, though. The initial shock of the weight
eventually goes away. You get used to the weight in a couple of
minutes of usage. iPad applications look fantastic on the screen.
After holding the device and playing with applications, it becomes
easy to complain that this device needs at least one camera for video
conferencing. My bet is that there will be at least one (if not
multiple cameras) in the next iteration of the iPad.

I won’t go into the closed universe of Apple. That’s for other people
to debate. The iPad reimagines what a computer can do based on how
normal people use computers. My wife made a very interesting
observation that after playing with the iPad and then using a MacBook;
she found the trackpad an odd way to interact with a computer. You
can’t misplace your pointing device on an iPad.

Last geeky point: multiple people can manipulate applications at the
same time. We did a quick search for real estate on the Zillow app and
I was able to pinch and zoom on the map while my wife scrolled the
listings on the same device.

TweetDeck can keep tabs on trending words. Alvin, Chipmunks, squeakuel
are trending. So is syphilis. Draw your own conclusions.

Use the web? Why not use some bookmarklets to enhance your browsing
experience? Here are some of my favorite and most often used
bookmarklets:

• Readability – it reformats text on sites so you can have an uncluttered reading experience.
• Instapaper – see something you want to read but don’t have the time? Grab Instapaper’s “Read Later” bookmarklet. Click the bookmarklet and Instapaper keeps track of articles for you. Then you can read it on your phone (complete with mobile-friendly formatting) or whatever device. It’s great for when you’re stuck waiting somewhere.
• Share on Posterous – makes sense if you have a Posterous blog, but lots of blogs have this kind of tool. If I see something I want to share online, a couple of clicks and I’ve got something on my blog.
• Add to Boxee – it’s like Instapaper for video. Find a video on many sites (including YouTube), click the Add to Boxee bookmarklet and you’ll have the video in a queue in Boxee. Later fire up Boxee and watch them all.