So long Steve and thanks for the knowledge, experiences and all the fun.

Photo credit: mkniebes

My brother Mahmood was right. When I asked him to describe the iPad he bought 6 weeks ago he replied by saying that it’s the computer we’ve all been waiting for. Conceptually, I understood what he meant yet practically I didn’t have a clue. Until My iPad arrived. Barely a day after its arrival it’s the last thing put down at night and the first thing picked up in the morning.

I half-heartedly put my MacBook Pro up for sale a couple of weeks ago. It’s a beautiful, fast and powerful laptop and the best portable computer I had ever owned and yet it feels like a dinosaur the more I use the iPad. Yes yes I know, there’s no Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, Nuke, Shake or Smoke apps but I honestly don’t care. I have access to all of those applications and more at work and my new iPad is just so… joyous to use. I haven’t been so excited, enthused and enthralled with a new piece of tech since the iPhone appeared.

Speaking of which, the iPhone feels so cramped and claustrophobic to use now! The spacing between the apps! Constantly scrolling around! I never thought I would say this about the iPhone but the iPad makes it look inferior.

These are my impressions and it was interesting to see how others responded to the iPad at work. The reactions varied from WOW I WANT ONE to a bewildered “but this netbook does more than your expansive toy” refrain. Strangely reminiscent of the Mac-Windows war, which strikes me as completely irrelevant now.

Welcome to the future.

A friendly smiling UPS man rang our doorbell this morning with two very special packages. I just managed to switch Gillian’s iPad on and sync it with her iTunes but oh my God is it breathtaking! Can’t wait to get home tonight and dive right in!

Our iPads should arrive on Friday and this is the first thing I’m buying!

YES!

MacBook Pro, 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 15″ glossy screen, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, SD card. Bought at the end of January 2010 for £1,650 (with 3 years Apple Care), on sale for £1,250.

This is why.

Remember when I said I’d buy four iPads? Make that five.

Lovely high-resolution icons from Apple filed with the US Patents & Trademarks Office. More in this Flickr set.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

No Apple, we’re not pleased at all. Not at all.

Well, it’s simple really. Gillian, my lovely wife, is a teensy bit excited about the possibilities of the iPad. So, one for her. Laura, our 8-year-old thinks it’s COOOL and the BBC iPlayer is her homepage. So she gets one. Then there’s our 5-year-old, Dana. She’ll be annoyed if she’s left out and trouble will ensue.

And myself… I think I might wait a while until the funds replenish a bit before I buy one. After all, I have a brand new MacBook Pro. A 2.5kg laptop which I slide into a bag and take to work every day and bring back home, along with a Magic Mouse and an iPhone dock. As opposed to a 680g iPad.

That MacBook Pro might end up on eBay.