I got it! Finally! Thanks to the efforts of a generous coworker, who not only got me the gear on their vacation back in the U.S., but brought it even with a broken wrist (there’s a friend for you), I’ve got my iPad–a month earlier than the Japan release, a month after the U.S. release, and about two years after I started wanting one <snark>.

First impression: damn, this thing is heavy. Second impression: OK, maybe not so heavy. Third impression: damn, this screen can get bright.

Well, there are just too many impressions to number them like that, but those really were the first things that ran through my head, at least after I got it set up.

Getting it set up was not very hard, especially if you don’t need to sync much, but there were a few small quirks. First off, if you own an iPhone, get ready to sort through all your apps. And I mean all of them–they are all added to the sync list automatically, every last one of them. You have to sort through to guess which ones you’ll want to have, and in the end, it probably won’t be too many–what they say about the pixelization when you double-size them is true. That said, there are at least a few where I don’t mind–more on that later. Another small thing is that adding photos takes a long time, as each one has to be optimized (I presume resized) for the iPad.

Once you get going, though, it’s just as sweet a machine as everyone says it is. Find the right apps, and you’ll be happy as a clam. (By the way, why exactly are clams happy? That never made sense to me.)

First item on the Wish list: arrow keys. It’d be nice not to have to place the cursor with the loupe every time I want to place the cursor inside a word (tapping will always place the cursor at the end of the word you tapped on). The original Mac back in 1984 didn’t have them either, but that was eventually fixed; hopefully, it’ll get fixed in the iPad as well.

Anyway, it’s late, we’re moving the day after tomorrow, and it’s bedtime. More later. LOTS more, you betcha.