About 10 days after getting my iPad, it's hardly been turned on in the past few days. I think the ergonomics of it suck - it's heavy, and it gives me a crick in the neck when I use it.
This is one thing I really don't get about the iPad. I learned a bit of ergonomics in college, and the iPad doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
If you are sitting on your couch with your feet up dicking around on the internet (apparently the iPad primary use case), and you want to look at the screen at the proper viewing angle, either it needs to be tilted up by you holding it at an angle with your wrist (ergonomic no-no) or you need to tilt your head down (ergonomic no-no).
Considering that you probably want to use your hands to tap on it, that means it is likely resting in your lap and your head is tilted down putting strain on your neck.
Color me sensitive (broke my neck rock climbing about a year ago and still get some pains) but that doesn't sound fun over a long period of time.
I really think the amazing thing about the iPad is the screen no the form factor. Give me a macbook pro with a multi-touch screen and dual boot Mac OS X and iPad OS. Tell me you wouldn't prefer that. When you want multitouch, you have it, when you want a keyboard, you have it. When you want to sit back and watch a movie you have a built in stand .
When I want a keyboard, I have it with the external iPad keyboard.
What I don't want is a half-assed multitouch implementation in OSX, and a half-assed mouse+keyboard implementation in iPhone OS, which is most likely what you'd get if Apple did such a thing. It's two different kinds of user interfaces, and they simply don't translate very well between each other.
Then again, Microsoft may pull something magical out of its hat after 10 years of trying with their combo tablet laptops.
A magazine is a lot lighter than the iPad, so that makes a huge difference. Also you don't have to continuously touch the pages of a magazine while using it, which is another significant difference. Finally a magazine is bendy meaning you can change it's size and shape if and when the need arises.
I'm in roughly the same boat. The only person here who likes it is my 3 year old daughter - the rest of us just find it painful to use. Safari is so cumbersome and slow, it's just tedious compared to a real browser. Email seems to get overwhelming quickly (maybe I have too much of it). Any time you have to type things it's exasperating.
Things it is good for: games, watching videos solo (as long as you have somewhere to prop it up - holding it is a pain). The instant-on is handy for extremely brief uses. Showing photos is great (except it ruins the quality of them with stupid downsampling and having to sync them with iTunes is unbearably annoying).
Out of curiosity, do you have the Apple iPad case, or a similar carrying case that allows you to prop it up at an angle?
I found the iPad awkward to use without a case that does this, but after using the Apple case for the few weeks I've had it, I can't imagine using an iPad without it. It props up the iPad in landscape mode at the perfect angle for browsing/reading/typing, whether it's on a table, desk, or your lap. It also can prop it up at a more vertical angle for watching video.
I agree, the iPad by itself is awkward. Get a case for it and see how you like it then.
YMMV.