First of all, I think the media did an amazing job of hyping up the speculation of the iPad into something it's not. Which is a real shame, because the expectations of the iPad are set way to high. Instead of focusing on what it can't do, I think people need to realize what it can potentially do.

A few years ago, I decided to get an iPhone. My old cell phone broke, someone stole my iPod Video, and my PalmV was way obsolete. The iPhone replaced all those and more. And, I love it.

Thinking along the same lines, could the iPad replace my MacBook? Simple answer... No. There's too much invested in software and hardware on my MacBook to consider an iPad as an upgrade.

I ask myself, "What could I do with an iPad?" Well... What do I do with my MacBook and my iPhone? I write (both fiction and games). I recently discovered the iPhone's eReader apps. I send emails. I browse the web. I play games. I work on websites.

Could I write fiction with an iPad? I'm pretty sure I could. I don't have a problem writing things in Notes with the little keypad on the iPhone. I imagine the iPad's keyboard would be better. Is there an actual word processor app on either the iPad or iPhone? I don't know. I haven't bothered to check. Supposing someone out there did write an app, could I easily export a document into something like PDF and broadcast it?

Could I design games? Board games and card games, probably not on the iPad itself. But, I think there is a lot of potential for games designed for the iPad. I read an article (don't remember where; sorry) about playing classic board games on the iPad. In fact, it had a picture of Monopoly. Sure, it would be cool to play classic board games, but what about board games that have too many moving parts to be feasible? Or, ones that would be too expensive to manufacture? When people start thinking outside the cardboard box and discover what is possible on the iPad, there might be a whole new concept of board game. I think that would be very exciting to see.

As for Urban Legions... The engine that Phil wrote and we both use to develop Urban Legions is all online. I could still enter content with the iPad. Although, on my MacBook, because of the way some of the editing pages react better to FireFox than Safari, I could develop more Urban Legions content, but it would be a better experience on the MacBook. Plus, all my notes for UL are on the MacBook, and there wouldn't be a easy way to switch back and forth between my notes and entering content.

eReaders... This is one feature that may give the Kindle a run for its money. Even if Apple has its own eReader app, the iPhone already has a Kindle app, a Barnes & Noble app, and (my favorite) Stanza, which can access the many public domain books. I know Amazon wants everyone to read their books, and sent out free Kindle apps on various platforms. The iPad can run all those platforms, because the iPhone already supports it... Only bigger! So, imagine having your whole library of all your eReaders in one device (if you go for that thing). The one thing that still slows me down on the eReaders is the cost of eBooks still seems high. Maybe when the iTunes store starts selling books (the non-audio kind), maybe the cost of eBooks might come down in price a bit. I wouldn't mind figuring out some way to trasfer my whole library of physical books into electronic form, but I don't want to pay near-double to do that.

Can iPad do email? Check. Surf the web? Check. Play games? Check. Design web pages? Ch-... I don't know. I haven't tried. I've been able to use GoDaddy's browser-based webpage editor. Since the iPad has more real estate, it'd be easier to do than the iPhone. Could I upload/download files to and from the iPad? I don't know that either.

Even though I could do most of what I do on an iPad, I'm not ready to invest in one (I know, I know... They're still a few months away from even being available). But, I'm very interested in what people will discover they can do with them.