no other brand has a Dellhell.com style website dedicated to it's incompetence

Site doesn't exist, although there is a dellhell.net with a compelling forum containing upwards of 8 posts complaining about Dell.

I don't doubt that some people have had trouble and even I have had a couple of issues with the "service" while in Australia, but I still rate them higher than a lot of the commodity brands.

Actually I think Dell had it removed a few years back through legal means. But it was very scarey how many and how bad some of the customer's treatment was

Watching a movie on the train? Laptop too big, iTouch too small.

Got too many flaws for me. I'd get a 10in notepad.

http://www.thisistrue.com/dellhell.html

has just some of the content that used to be on Dellhell.

Apparently Dell forcibly bought the domain name some years back

Or..

I think this thread says it all ...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500

The year is 2001 - the first generation iPod has been launched and the whining has begun. Nine years later, 250,000,000 iPods sold, I think it's pretty obvious who got it right.

Some of the quotes - do they sound familiar?

"All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Fieldâ„¢ is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off."

"I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional. Uuhh Steve, can I have a PDA now?"

"Steve Jobs is under terrible consuling or is under too much pot. This propusal is not realistic at all. If Apple does something like this again is going down."

Yes, even though I'm very underwhelmed, I'll be buying it and it will be amazing. It just makes me sick that Apple are so good they can release a product with mediocre technical specs, holding back on what they're capable of so they can milk the consumer for double. Yet it will still be excellent and extremely successful. I guess we're paying for the software/hardware symphony, which only Apple can do.

The iPad is so fresh, people think they don't want one at the moment because they are not sure how it fits into their lives, but by Christmas 2011 it probably be the number one selling present. Its doesn't compete with the phone, even though it has the iPhone OS and looks like a big iPhone. Apart from keeping cost down, I guess this is why Apple hasn't built in phone functionality and camera, so not to confuse. It doesn't compete with a laptop, its not powerful or productive enough. The market Apple are shooting for with the iPad is the Netbook market. Hence Apple slagging off Netbooks in their keynote, the inclusion of iWork and productivity accessories. Apple will succeed at this because the hardware form is more suitable and its the first device in this market to shoot par for performance.

The trouble is, Apple have such a smart product they can afford to leave us in the dark for the moment about the main thing the iPad is designed to do. They want to capture a good portion of the several markets without cannibalizing their own sales, before its well known the iPad is not the best in any of those markets, just decent. The iPad is great combination device but is best at just one market, the semi productivity but ultra mobile market.

I can imagine myself viewing TV guide on sofa, Book in bed, movie on plane, newspaper on loo(OK perhaps not), music by pool, Facebook on balcony, video tutorials in kitchen, photo album when visiting grandparents, digital picture frame when its not in use during the day, digital alarm clock through the night, surf cams on way to beach, traffic map/cams when in gridlock, weather radar map when in storm, shopping list at food store and ye, I ain't even started yet. Ye, you can do most of this with a laptop, but you don't because of startup times and mobility.

I agree that this device will probably be common in schools in a few years, the productivity its capable of and the price point is very well suited. Heck, Apple managed to get quite a few schools and universities with lower productivity devices, this will be a breeze, especially since they are a marketing company and already have iTunes University. Touch will be the most common form of interaction in the near future anyway.

I won't buy one. I'm buying two, because my wife will steal mine otherwise.

Seriously, I agree with Hutch. This is really a new class of product. Sure, we've seen tablets before, but nothing comes close to the seamless experience which is the apple multitouch and software. Add an Apple TV, remote speakers and so on, it would basically be my home media center and a way for me to access my digital world on my sofa in a casual way thats fun without sitting in front of my computer in the study.

Have a look at the apple video on the ipad and honestly say that its not a simply gorgeous looking device. Sure, some people are not going to find a use for it but then some people don't use ipods or don't use mobile media. That's fine, but a lot of people do and for the younger generation your digital world is a large part of your life.

I rubbished the iphone on release. I waited a long time and was stubborn about not worshipping at the temple of Apple coolness. However, I really do think that Apple, despite no company being perfect, has got it right with the product lines and intergration across all the devices. I think that this one is a game changer and will be adopted quickly.

Agreed, the pad is no longer a female only necessity.

I can't really see the point of it

Funny how a view comes along which makes something make sense.

Perhaps multi-tasking is not so important after all.

iStrain

Again, with the multi-tasking.... it's coming in June in iPhone OS 4.0