Trying to find the positives in the iPad

My students absolutely love my iPad...

Despite my constant whinging about it's lack of functionality...
And crippled usability.

As I write this on the iPad, it's not the touchscreen keyboard that is frustrating. I've already got quite proficient at using 2 fingers to touch type, instead of my standard 10 fingers.

And it's not the lack of a camera, because I have a camcorder, a camera and a phone with gigapixel camera in it.

I'm trying to not just see the iPad as a toy. And it's been two weeks now that I've been trying to use it productively. It is great as a toy, as a web browser, as a video viewer and as a babysitter.

It hasn't been very productive though. For starters, where are my files? I downloaded goodreader and usbdisk which allow a way of transferring files. I have emailed files to myself and that then duplicates it in multiple places when I 'open with' so I now have 4 copies of a PDF I wanted to view. Help me if I was trying to edit it. I know some cloud solutions exist, but even within the iPad, why can't I just have a my documents or home drive. Of course you can't save a PDF directly from the web - obviously the ipad wouldn't know where to store it. Goodreader has a reasonable solution to this, but still doesn't work if the page requires authentication, ie. Moodle.

And why can't I have an arrow key? There are situations, even typing this, where the select magnifying glass just can't go where you require- to the very left of this input box in safari. Multiple backspaces later I fix my error.

And why is the USB input crippled? I got the camera connection kit, but it won't let you open anything other than camera files. It will let you connect a USB keyboard (after an error) but one has to figure they just couldn't disable this basic unix functionality or I think they would have.

Speaking of reducing functionality, why has Bluetooth been crippled so much that I can't even send a file via bluetooth? No photos or files can be sent or received via Bluetooth, and with USB crippled it leaves syncing via iTunes or a cloud solution the only way.

But even then, I am still struggling to find a way of getting a video file into reeldirector, which looks to be an adequate video editor and creator if only I could get a video into the file to edit it. Apparantely you need to transfer then via the iTunes photo album but even converting them into formats which the iPad is meant to play (h264) they still won't sync.

Why can't I sync over wifi? It appears the only thing I can do over USB and am forced into it. No chance of using Bluetooth here either.

Gps on the iPad is awesome. Picks up signal quickly and very functional apps. I think it's a rather overpriced tom-tom though.

Ok enough of a rant here. I bought the iPad to explore the possibilities, given that it is a valid device for the government's 1-2-1 program. The possibility of it ending up on ebay is quite strong.

I would love if someone can correct some of these thing, but I haven't even got on to the lack of multitasking...