@ Jim
So your laptop "just works" out the box does it? So you don't have to:
- charge the battery
- activate windows
- remove all the junk apps and services
- import all your email accounts, favourites, calendars, docs etc (hint: have a look at mobileme)
- install the 36 security updates for windows, including 15 millions restarts
- install an AV tool, update it, and run a full scan
- enable firewall, and spec the rules
- defrag the disk which you *know* it will need straight after an OS install
wow...you can browse your photo's via SMB...woopie. I can achieve the same effect for my photo's with Apple's Gallery app (my photo's are on mobileme) in 3 minutes flat. 6 mins if you include ipad activation via itunes. And I get the added benefit of showing off the novelty touch interface which is amusing for all of 2 minutes to non-techs. If you can do all the above then get your photos quicker than that, then kudos to you.
Besides...which serious techy has friends (and therefore guests) anyway? And wouldn't you stream the pics via a media server to your tellie, given the social setting and the amount of people wanting to view them? And why on earth are you trying to unpacking and activate an ipad in the middle of a social setting? You certainly wouldn't do it with your laptop (for the setup reasons above), so why is the ipad any different?
Please...if the ipad is not for you, then so be it, as the above AC alluded too. It's *not* the "perfect device". Just don't assume your process is better until you've actually tried "the dark side" first. Perhaps you should dump the superiority complex, and perhaps conceed that the ipad may actually be better at some things/situations/tasks than a laptop is? There's not many, but it's not a clean sweep for the laptop that you allude to.
3 million user so far obviously think it's better at something, enough to make it worth buying even at the crazy price Apple charges.
And to think I'm actually defending the ipad. I feel dirty.