Stuff editor's take: Apple iPad not so hot, but I want it!

The year's most anticipated boy-toy was unveiled by a scrawny man dressed in a uniform of blue jeans and a black polo neck tee.

Steve Jobs hogged the limelight, holding in his hand, the Apple iPad. The Cupertino-based company's take on a tablet computer has been the subject for intense speculation and prediction since 2008 and the iPad is surprisingly close to the putative impressions drawn up by tech experts. That is perhaps one of the reasons why it doesn't shock like the original iPhone did in 2007.

The form factor is a magnified replica of the iPhone featuring a 9.7inch multi-touch screen, running a hybrid version of the iPhone OS. Tuned for web-browsing and e-book reading, the iPad also comes with Apple's traditional strengths of excellent software support and user interface.

Apple has ensured that the image and document editing experience is second to none with special "made for iPad" versions of popular Mac softwares iWork and iPhoto. It will also run all the iPhone compatible applications right out of the box, without any modifications in native resolution or 2x resolution that expands a typical iPhone app to fill up the increased screen real estate of the iPad.

Similarly, the new iBook store which allows you to buy books from major publishers like Penguin, Harper-Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette will provide a unique reading experience with an interface like no other eBook reader in the market today. That makes the iPad an ideal web-browsing, photo-sharing, music and movie consumption, eBook reading, YouTube and Facebooking toy that seems almost too hard to resist.

But before you're tempted to swipe that card, take only a moment to consider what it DOES'NT do.

No support for webcam, so video chatting can be shunned. No support for multi-tasking so you can say goodbye to streaming music while working on a word document too. No support for SD card, which means you can't expand its internal memory and will need to shell out extra for an Apple dock adapter for a simple photo transfer. No support for Flash so your favourite websites could have gaping holes appear right in the middle of them.

Yet, it's attractive entry price point of $499 does strike an emotional chord and does what Apple does best - fry the neurons that connect the heart to the brain forcing you into a momentary lapse of reason.

You know you don't need it. But you want it!