The apple iPad is finally out. And it’s pretty much what we expected; a really big and hyper powered iPhone/iPod.  Anyway, all in all, that’s ok. So why am I not buying one? Well it’s because I already have an iPhone. Now, if I was a big iPhone game player, we would be having a completely different conversation right now. Gaming on the tablet is the greatest. I think the demos was proof enough of that. Reading? Kindle killer. (yes I said it). But outside of gaming and reading, there is just not enough value that I do not already have on my iPhone to validate the cost.

Now, what would I need to make the jump???

First; jailbreak on the tablet. It’s running what I call iPhone OS4, so what, 3 months till jailbreak? That will go a long way for allowing me to perform VPN, Tethering, etc…  Next; untethered this from iTunes!! And; Better google docs integration. I do not plan on writing a full doc from scratch or anything, but come on. How about Flash? I know it’s dying, but it’s not dead yet, but I know that will never happen. …

Well, there is ONE thing they could do that will have me buy it. Lower the price.  I would couch surf with this thing. Can you say CruchPad??  The low cost version is $499, and thats pretty good, but I remember writing in a post that $299 would make me buy it right now, and $399… Yea I would think about it.

As for getting it with 3G and paying the $30 a month??  I think not. I really do not see myself talking this out that often. But you may ask, should I wait and buy the 3G version and simply move my chip from the iphone to the device?  Again, drop this $100-200 and I would very seriously think about it.

So even though I know this is not a sell for me, I can easily see people dropping the $700 for this. ESP gamers and travelers, readers would most likely go for the $500 version. As for me, I’ll wait 6 months and see if I can buy one used for $350..  Yea, I can see $350 for a #CouchPad.