The iPad is the answer to your prayers. The funny thing is, it’s the answer to your other prayers.

You’d been hoping that the iPad would do for the niche occupied by netbooks what the iPhone did for cell phones. You were hoping for something revolutionary, something that expands and changes definitions, something that becomes the bar against which every other device is measured. The problem is, it’s just a device. A large iPod Touch. No camera, no GPS, no SD slot, no USB slot, no third-party apps that don’t go through the App Store’s hoops and hurdles. How do you play Rush Poker on Full Tilt on this damn thing? You don’t. No multi-tasking? So either you are on IM, or you are reading email, or you are browsing the web. But not at the same time.

What you’re forgetting–what I forgot–is that this isn’t for you. It’s for your grandma, who’s never owned a computer. Or your mom, who calls you every few months because she’s got another virus or spyware and she only knows this because every time she goes online a dozen ads and porn sites load in popunders. With the iPad, you can get grandma online, and stop being tech support for your mom. Buy the iPad 3G, pay AT&T the $15 a month (with her credit card), and forget about everything else. It’s easily worth $629.