The reason I love my iPhone is that it transcends the previous limitations of the smartphone factor. I am amazed at what apps let me do. Though I miss my Treo's physical keyboard, that is a price I'm prepared to pay. Frankly, I don't miss multi-tasking in something the size of an iPhone. Lack of Flash support is a pain but I wouldn't use the iPhone for serious browsing - just to get a bit of information I need immediately.

The iPad is big enough and expensive enough that there is no real reason not to resolve the iPhone's shortcomings and yet they seem to have been copied across as if Apple think they are features.

I once caught a friend using his highly specced ultraportable to browse amazon for a portable DVD player. When I asked why he was bothering since the his PC already had an optical drive and could do a billion other things on top, he had a satisfying "penny dropping" moment and saved himself the price of a player. The iPad has a similar feel to me. It's not that it's useless its just that rather than doing more than the competition it seems to do less and be proud of it.

It's the shuffle all over again. I boggled then as Steve explained to me how bizarre it was to want to be able to choose the order in which your music was played.

Will I end up with one in my mitts? Maybe. I certainly get this stuff wrong. When the Nintendo DS went up against the PSP I could not work out why anyone would want two tiny touch screens rather than the slab of shiny gorgeousness Sony was selling. However, I am just not feeling the techno-lust. Last time I did, it was looking at the vapury coverage of the Courier.