by my mesurements of the free ones i got sent from AOL (yey they came in handy) its every so slightly shorter and about 1.5 dvd cases thick, but yeah very intresting.... sounds more like someone having a laugh or a conn but giving the benifit of the doubt (maybe cause i would like to see one of these things) it gives some uintresting posibilities. If it could be used a la tivo as some people hoped then i always thought it would look odd shaped on top of your hi-fi/dvd stack or n top of the tv but if its dvd case shaped then you could stand it in your dvd rack if you keep your dvd's near the tv and it will fit in. also it will be easilly carried with a stack of dvd's in a bag or whatever.
I quite like the idea of it being a part of the digital hub that links all the consumer electronics and computers in the house by being a universal remote control and viewer. I suppose a iPod could do this but the lacl of size for input may have been a drawback as if anything complex had to be entered you'd have to return to the mac. I like the idea of being able to control the lights, cetral heating etc from the sofa, access the mac's files/contacts, possibly include some sort of remote desktop software so if i leave the computer cause the films on then i can use the iPad(or whatever to continue my work while the breaks are on or to look something up without moving. send a IM to the girl friend in the kitchen to put the kettle on (ok ok only joking....) Of course when you leave the house it becomes a souped up pda where you can take class notes, record lectures (if it has that speach patent thing), administer the work network (especially the headless nodes like the xServes), play dvd's on the move (though ripped ones i guess due to size weight of a dvd/cd player, but mainly the cost). I quite like the id of it being a slave to the iPop as someone mentioned cause it'd lower the cost to those with an iPod, though of corse probably increase it to people like me without one.
Graphics profs could also use one i guess like a wacom tablet with thier power Macs. Maybe its a bit small for this but it could be used in slave mode where the screen mirrows a part of your main screen and what is drawn on to the iPads screen is also shown on your cinema screen or it could be set to use its own screen where you can move all the pallets onto the pad and just use it to select each tool, but that would work better if the actual cinema screen was touch sensitive. That would make it so the mose doesnt have to be used as much. .....of course you can always have the option to put a screen saver on it and use it as the fabled iFrame...
