I guess I was a little premature in calling Sketchbook the killer app for the new Apple iPad. Without a pressure-sensitive screen and stylus, drawing on the iPad will be like drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch. Or maybe I don't give Etch-a-Sketch enough credit.

Jobs says the iPad will run "most" iPhone apps. That means you can run Sketchbook Mobile but, no stylus support means you'll be drawing with the the tip of your finger. And you thought your finger-painting days were behind you.

I won't wade in here with a list of what I like or don't like about the iPad (my fingers keep wanting to type "iPaq" which means Hewlett Packard should be suing Apple sometime soon). You'd have to be living in Osama's cave to not stumble on an "expert iPad review" every time you open your browser. Speaking of which, how do you write a review without ever seeing or touching a product?

Let's just say I won't be amoung the hordes of ex-Trekkies lined up in front the Apple Store in 59 days, waiting to slap down $500 for one of Steve's Tablets. I will wait for iPad Pro or iPad 2.0 or iPad Basquiat edition or whatever they call the next iteration of this device. Surely, they will launch a $1,000 version of the iPad that runs a real operating system, allows multi-tasking and pressure sensitive stylus input. Would it help if I said please?

Job's brilliance in introducing the iPad is in conjuring up a must-have device out of thin air. Like the iPod before it, hip consumers are going to have to have an iPad even though they've never needed or wanted anything like it before. Like the iPod, it will be the hot Christmas gift. At $500, it just eeks into the affordability category for immediate family. You won't buy one for your brother-in-law but you might buy one for your kid.  Just be prepared to have it crushed, stolen or lost within two weeks - just like that iPod you bought him a month ago.

Copyright 2010 Dale Stephanos