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So far, the reaction to Apple's iPad has been very mixed. For some, the absence of a camera is a deal breaker, while others bemoan that Apple still doesn't allow multitasking on its iPhone OS and that Safari still doesn't support Flash. Others, however, are excited about the iPad's potential as an e-book reader and gaming device. Here at ReadWriteWeb, opinions are still mixed as well. Reactions among our writers range from advising people to wait for the iPad 2.0 to giddy excitement about the prospect of a better couch-surfing device.

Been living under a rock these days? There's this hip new tablet device from Apple called the iPad. Most are in agreement that the new toy is pretty slick, but they also agree on where the iPad fails - there's no camera. iPod Touch fans were disappointed last year when Apple announced that the iPod Nano would be getting the much coveted camera, and now fans of a different sort are feeling the same dejected feelings.

Augmented reality is a technology that allows 2D and 3D objects to be placed onto a live video feed, creating unique user experiences. AR applications entered the mainstream with a few advertisements and installations for automobiles in 2008. Since then the technology has found its way onto our home computers with things like the GE Smart Grid campaign, and onto our cell phones with mobile AR browsers like Layar and Wikitude.

With yesterday's reveal of the iPad now past, we can finally put myth and speculation behind us and focus on the reality that is Apple's entry into the tablet PC business. Whether the iPad is revolutionary or evolutionary is still hotly debated, but what we do know is that the computer, despite its elegance and blazing fast speed, is a decidedly first-generation device. Although one day after the product's announcement may be too soon to discuss what's coming in the next version of the iPad, we've already come across several reasons to wait... and some of those reasons are hidden away in the new iPad SDK (software development kit) itself.

UPDATE, March 2, 2011. Version 2 of the iPad arrived just over 13 months after we published this post. Click here to check it out: All the Details on Apple's iPad 2: Specs, Pricing, Release Date

Judging from what we have seen so far, Apple's new iPad will be a great device for reading e-books. The iPad will obviously come with Apple's own e-reader software - but that's only half the story. Users will also be able to read their Kindle and B&N e-book purchases on Apple's new device. After all, nobody is going to stop Amazon, B&N and any of the independent e-book publishers from creating their own applications. That is, of course, unless Apple decides that these apps now "duplicate" a core feature of its own apps and decides to ban all other e-reader apps from the devices.

While there are a million rumors over what Apple's new tablet will do, from having a built-in Web cam to doing your laundry (not really), we can be sure that it will at least have a color display and show pictures, right? These simple features would put it well ahead of the Kindle in the newspaper industry's hopes of finding a savior in new technology.

A study out of the University of Georgia took a look at whether or not the Kindle would be a viable substitute for the traditional newspaper and it found the device lacking in a few key areas.