I came away from yesterdays iPad news with mixed feelings. A giant iPod touch? Hmmm…. Not sure that’s something I want. After all it lacked some of the features I thought it should have. But when I thought about it, I was wanting more of a computer and what they released if much more of a reader.

With that in mind I set out to evaluate it against the Barns and Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle.

Features	Nook	Kindle	iPad
Screen	6″ E-inc/Color	6″/9.7″ E-inc	9.7″ of LED Backlit Apple Kick-ass-ness
Wireless	Wifi/3G	Wifi/3G	Wifi/3G
Wireless Plan	Free 3G	Free 3G	$15
Books Cost	Around $9	Around $9	$15?
Book Store	Barns and Noble	Amazon	Apple, and Probably Amazon and BN via their Apps
Interface	Partial Touch Screen	Buttons	Multi-touch
Email	Maybe	Extra	Oh Ya
Expandability	SD Cards	None	None
Hackability	Its running Android/Linux…	I guess it can be done	Steve Jobs is watching you
Other Things it Does	Not Much	Not Much	Various other Multi-media, Games, Apps from the Apple App store.
Lowest Price Model	$259	$259	$499

Conclusion: The iPad, although lacking free 3G, is a reader +. If you are going to buy a reader you should strongly consider the iPad. If you are looking for a small computer you should consider the MacBook Air or any one of the unwashed masses of netbooks.

I think its important to remember that Apple Steve was not looking to reinvent the laptop.