I’ll be the first to admit it: When the iPad first came out almost a year ago, I wasn’t quite sure what all the buzz was about. Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple products just as much as the next person, and sometimes I even feel like my MacBook is my child. But I did not comprehend the iPad’s full appeal. First off, the name “iPad” turned me off. For some reason it made me really uncomfortable. The iPhone and iPod Touch had the same amazing features as this new iPad, except the iPad was bigger. Not big enough to be a computer but not small enough to be a phone, the iPad did not seem to be something that I could not resist.

Pretty soon, I started seeing people happily gaming/chatting/working on their iPads; I started to wonder what all was the fuss was about. But it was not until my first experience with an iPad that I understood the hype.

Over the summer I went with a friend to the Apple store, where she was getting her computer checked. I walked around, drooling over the iPhones, MacBooks and iPods, and finally reached the iPad section. And let me tell you: It.was.beautiful. I fell in love with the large, shiny display instantly. And although I initially thought typing on the iPad would be a challenge, I was amazed by the ease of typing.

Then I understood what the hubbub was about. The iPad is small enough to be an easily portable, cheaper alternative to the laptop, yet it still functions like a real computer. It everything you’d expect from an Apple product: efficient and easy to operate, yet technologically ahead of its time. Even my dad became obsessed with wanting and iPad, and as much as I love him, my father is not a very technologically-savvy person.

So with all that being said, I look forward to Apple’s probable announcement of the iPad 2, rumored to happen tomorrow morning. I can only imagine what groundbreaking tricks Apple has up its sleeves this time.