Pre-ordered, for home delivery, the 64GB + 3G model, along with the standard dock and BT keyboard.
Interestingly, and potentially disappointing, I called Apple support to ask about the fact that no mention of key-assignability was made re: using the BT keyboard with the iPad.
Will I be able to assign keys for Home, etc as exist on the iPad keyboard-dock keyboard? Apple’s answer: We don’t know at this time. Hmmm…
As for bags, I’m holding off for the moment but still leaning toward the Tom Bihn Ristretto though one of the SF Bags/Waterfiels Designs caught my eye. Going to start with an existing sleeve and small bag I got as swag at a film festival. Same general size and shape as the Ristretto but made of cheap canvas so a sleeve is a must.
Sorry I’ve not been able to post recently on the additional and marginal new info we learned on/around the launch of pre-orders. The day job has been calling 🙂
Of all, the most disappointing gap in info so far is any word about built in support for printing. Yes there are apps for that but built in would be better methinks.
And where the 3.2/4.0 preview announcement???
The iPad Alone 
I reserved the 16gb wifi only, my reasoning is that my jailbroken 3gs will serve as a hotspot when needed (mywi). Second i am considering this purchase as kind of like the trial run, as I will be upgrading for the next generation ipad, and by then I would have a clearer picture of my use case scenarios.
Thanks for posting. Interested to hear about your experience using mywi and battery on the 3GS. In any case, I’m happy to help be part of the usage case experiment 🙂
Battery is not bad at all with mywi. I usually go to Borders work sometimes, and even though they have public wifi, it seems slow and I am paranoid of getting hacked. I would then turn on my 3gs, turn keepalive (allows you to keep the iPhone power on while display is off), launch mywi then connect my laptop to it via wifi. Battery performance is not bad at all. I would say when doing work and using VPN, 50% power for about 2 hours work while streaming Slacker radio on iPhone.
Check out this use case scenario. Usually when I do my finances, I would use my laptop to login to my bank accounts. I would then use my iPhone app pocketmoney and do a true up on my expenses. How nice would it be to replace the laptop on this role with the ipad!!
Also I read lots of whitepaper and use the iPhone to take notes, now I can replace the printed copy witht the iPhone and take notes. Or just do everything with the ipad.
The way I see it both the iPhone and ge iPad will be a very good butt buddies!!
Love it!
just added this site to my reader, and look forward to what experiences you have to share. i am looking to buy the 16GB 3G model, should suit my needs as a university student.
Thanks for posting and following David. I often wonder how amazing it would’ve been to use an iPad during college. The ubiquity of laptops was a few years late for me, so I didn’t even have that pleasure…
I’m concerned about printing, too. (In fact, this is my only significant concern about the iPad.) I’m pretty sure we’ll see a brilliant solution before too long, but I hope not to have to wait for the 4.0 firmware upgrade. I’d like to get going right away with using this for all the purposes I can now envision, and discover new uses as I go along.
After a bit of wavering, I ordered the 32GB wifi-only model.
I’m a fiction writer, a teacher, and a blogger, and I am looking at this as a genuine productivity device, as opposed to a media-consumption device. I don’t expect that my storage needs will be excessive, though I hedged a bit by bumping up one notch from the entry-level 32GB. I live on the coast of Maine where 3G coverage is, to put it kindly, uneven.
You are kind of my role model right now, in making the bold pledge to use the iPad as your primary computing device. I would love to do this as well — and fully intend to, if everything falls into place, the device proves to be both practical and pleasurable to use, and all the little mechanical chores like printing turn out to be a no-sweat deal.
I’m really looking forward to the next few months, when everything is new and we are just discovering what the iPad is capable of. I haven’t felt exactly this way about any technological gadget since the original Macintosh in 1984 (and to a lesser extent the Newton, though part of that was a strictly personal and emotional thing — I met John Scully at a party in Camden, Maine, where he has a summer home, shortly after the product launch, and I was genuinely struck by how much personal commitment he evinced for the MessagePad).
By ordering a relatively cheap model, I’m hoping not to feel too guilty about upgrading in a year to the 2nd-gen interation. I’m pretty sure this is the future of personal computing.
I also preordered an iPad, the 32GB 3G model with the Apple case and regular dock. I can not wait to play with it. It is going to be used for my living room table, bed room reading and whenever am on the toilet. lol. Can’t wait to read about your 100 percent iPad experience.
My first iPad is going to my wife whenever the 2nd generation comes. I love to get my hands on new products and enjoy them for longer period of time while everybody else stands and watches waiting for an updated device. lol.
Thanks for posting! And I’m totally with you btw. I’m still “this close” to pulling the trigger on a 16GB wifi version so I can play with one on Day 1 while I wait for my 3G version. I’m positive that *someone* in my family will want it when I’m done with it 🙂 The funny thing is that they’ll all probably want it!
Why not buy a 16gb wifi only the day it comes out, return it in 14 days (store return policy) then buy another 16gb wifi keep that for another 2 weeks, return then finally get the 3g
I could certainly do this, and I’m sure at least some will! Not my style overall to be honest. And also I’m pretty positive that by that point someone else in my household will happily take it!
I bought a 64GB, 3G, wireless KB, case, VGA, and a few others accessories: total $1064. My thinking was I bought it as a cost savings. here is my case. Wife has a regular phone, no technology kind, if you will, I have iPhone 3g, Paying $60 for first line through At&t, $30 for unlimited data, which my records show I only use about 1Gb a month. then 13 for the wifes phone. So call it 103 after discounts from the fortune 500 company I work for. Here are my givens: I don’t talk to much on the phone, 100 min a month. Wife 500 min per month on average. So We get a $30 expected on a pay as you go from T-mobile for wife phone giving about 500/600 minutes a month. Me, I see the skype on the iphone, I don’t know about the ipad, but I will do anything I can to figure out a phone through the data service. Assuming I am unsuccessful, I get a pay as you go from boost, who allows 19K/second data plan for $5.35 a month (yes it’s slow, but cool) and $10 a month in talking. Then iPad data plan for $30/month. Totaling: $30+$15+$30 = $75 Then 103 – 75 = $28 less a month, I get a the extra bonus of a black berry with full on data when the ipad is too big to take, with it’s games and utilities of a smart phone, I get the ipad, which is then paid off in 38 months. Cool. But what if I could get phone on ipad? Then pay off comes down to 24 months, which ironically is the same amount of time I will have had my iphone before shutting off the service and making it a itouch. So given the somewhat unique situation, I get a ipad for free over my iphone’s plan with AT&T. What if the next generation iPad comes out in 2 years? Cool baby, COOL!
I LOVE these kinds of justifications – the hoops we create and then jump through to sell ourselves (and our loved ones) on our gadget habits 🙂 Not that your math seems off as I read it! And in this day of cutting wherever possible (I could write an entire blog on canceling cable TV…) it’s all the more pertinent.
Re: phone on iPad, it certainly seems like Skype will be possible at the very least…