iPad: Game-Changer or Who Needs It?

The first reviews of the much-vaunted iPad are out. In The New York Times, David Pogue does some serious fence-sitting, deciding to write two reviews: one for techies and one for regular folks. Techies aren't going to love it, he says. As an e-reader device, it has poor visibility in sunlight, is too heavy, and right now has tiny selection of titles. "If you’ve already got a laptop and a smart phone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?" he asks. For the layman, Pogue says, the new Apple tablet will be a revelation. "The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget," he writes. The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg is an even bigger fan. The iPad, he says, "could be a game changer the way Apple's iPhone has been." As an e-reader, Mossberg finds the device better than the Kindle.