1- No Mobile Me support. I can't access text files nor spreadsheets stored in the iDisk. The iDisk app (still for iPhone) can do just a preview, and Pages & Numbers have no link to the iDisk. The Mobile Me website does not work either in Safari for iPad.
2- The device is nice but too heavy to use as a reader. I have several Macs and an iPhone and buy and read iBooks was the main use I had in mind for the iPad.
3- There's no Finder nor any kind of access to the file system. There's not even a Documents folder.
I think the iPad is the future: a closed clamshell computer with which you can't do anything without a credit card and the permission of the big brother Apple and the control of their big cyclops eye called iTunes. Probably I'm too old to accept that.
Let's see here...
1) I have no problem seeing my files stored on iDisk then emailing them to my iPad if I need to edit. Of course it's even easier w/ dropbox since I can access the file directly and open in Pages, Numbers, Goodreader, etc.
2) The iPad is 1.5lbs. A new hardcover book avgs twice that so seems to be a hollow argument. Also, when I read it's usually on the sofa or bed...I have a place on or near to rest the iPad, just like a book, so I'm not bearing 100% of the weight.
3) No file system to access, no. But you should have known that before you bought. It was quite obvious what the iPad is and is not on Day One. And you say you are just figuring this out. Hmmm...
4) The iPad is a closed system. Yes. Again, very much advertised since the start. You rail against this, but you bought one anyway. Beee Essss.
5) It's hyperbole to say you can't do anything w/o a CC. You can load your own non-DRM movies, music, books, PDFs., etc. Most of the Apps I have are freebies. Sure Apple has a grip on which Apps make it to the store, but that is reality since App Store started two years ago.
All this adds up to you either being a pretty lazy consumer or a hackneyed troll. Which is it?