During class time, I use it to take notes. Being able to search and organize notes digitally is fantastic, as is the ability to quickly email them to someone who has missed a particular lecture.
During my off time--and occasionally at work--I use it, along with Inkseine* from MS Research, for iterative design of user interfaces.
I have an HP tablet laptop (model tx251cl) with a swivel touch screen.
One application I found that fits it perfectly is learning to write Chinese characters.
Of course drawing is another application (if only I could draw).
I think it could be used in some games, too.
Using it for control operations (moving windows around etc) feels awkward.
Oh, one other thing I forgot. It's a dual boot, and my Ubuntu does not recognize the pen. Vista does (it came in as a pure Windows box). But it does not generate a middle mouse click without an external device: pressing both trackpad buttons does not do it, nor anything else. So I set the pen click as the middle mouse click and use it mostly for that. (Lame, I know.)
It sounds good in theory to me. I'm currently reading/writing this on my iPhone, in bed. A ten inch version would seem to be pretty awesome to me. However, you never know until you try it.
I already have an HP tx2500-series Tablet PC, and I adore it even given some of the manufacturing oversights I've noticed.
That said, it's actually a pretty valuable tool for presentations and tutoring sessions with several people, and reading digital-format maths and physics texts is not that bad either.
... but that's assuming I have a stylus and a touch panel and the whole nine yards. Apple's probably going to use only the capacitive touch panel and not include stylus input capability.
To me it has to be thin, light, yet robust just like the iPhone/iPod. I want to be able to read magazines on it, with as close to the same experience as reading a real magazine - flipping pages, ripping bits out, post-it noting pages. I hope Conde Nast or other major publishers are listening. Perhaps this type of device will bring some relief to the magazine industry, but they have to be early adopters.
i just have to assume that apple has a plan with this... it'd be shocking for them to come out with a dud. i suppose it has to happen eventually, but jobs seems to err on the the far side of sure-ity. the questions really is what unique attribute is this thing gonna have that makes it unlike all tablets b4 it....?
I've always just imagined it as the ultimate concession that Macs are designed to run Photoshop. Might not be good for a regular user, but I could imagine a graphics/arts/illustration department buying them by the hundreds to complement their current tonnage of desktop and notebook Macs.
I continue to eschew a mouse in favor of the keyboard (hell, that's why I use vim), but I am a programmer. Oh, and that doesn't mean that you can still ship a computer without a good trackpad. (I'm talking to you IBM. That pointer-thing is not suitable)
