I drank the Apple Kool Aid and bought an iPad the day they were released. I went to the store late in the afternoon, checked it out for about 20 minutes and was impressed enough to get it.

What will I use the iPad for? READING …to read RSS feeds, books, and surf the web. I figured it would be good for digesting emails rather than just a quick read on my phone.

The screen is GREAT, and the speed is AMAZING. I haven’t done any heavy lifting yet, but the battery seems like it’s going to be REALLY GOOD. Typing ISNT BAD, it’ll take some getting used to, but I don’t know how to type and spend most of my time looking at the keyboard anyhow. Having a computer that has INSTANT ON is a nice thing.

Right now I’m creating this blog on the iPad, using the WordPress APP. I have a small bluetooth keyboard connected, so I’m writing on a full sized keyboard…very cool.

It’s all about the APPS, so here’s the breakdown:

WEB–GREAT. Fast and big…you can see everything you need to see. Facebook looks great, so do all of the Google APPS (gmail, reader, picasa, and voice). It would be nice to have the CHROME browser (to have my bookmarks synced), but I’m not holding my breath.

CALENDAR–GREAT. The screen is so big, I can actually look at a whole week and feel like I can plan.

NOTES–Just OK. It would be better if I could scribble with my finger and not be confined to using the keyboard.

MAPS, YOU TUBE, ITUNES all work as they do with the iPhone…great.

iBOOKS–GOOD. I LOVE the kindle, and their APP on the iPAD. iBOOKS has some fancy effects, but it’s about the same as kindle.

NETFLIX, ABC, MARVEL comics–AMAZING. Videos (images) fly onto the iPAD, flash across a glorious screen, and lodge their images into deep into your brain in seconds.

EVERNOTE–perfect (well, close)

Dropbox–they haven’t created an iPAD version yet…when it runs it looks exactly like the iPhone version…

BIBLE HD and LOGOS–GREAT. Love reading on the iPAD.

TWEETDECK and TWITTERIFIC–POOR and AWESOME. Both apps are made for the iPAD, but it looks like tweetdeck didn’t finish their app. TWITTERIFIC lives up their name, hands down the best twitter app for iPAD.

The apps cost more for the iPad, so that’s no fun. It would be good if Apple turned on multi tasking (if you’re running pandora, that’s all you’re running), but who knows if/when that’ll happen…

All in all, I’m really loving the iPad. The first version is great, and it’s only going to get better.