I just read an article with a great angle on the negative reaction the iPad has been generating among the geek crowd. The thesis: it's future-shock.

http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html

Here's a key quote:
 Quote:
I'm often saddened by the infantilising effect of high technology on adults. From being in control of their world, they're thrust back to a childish, mediaeval world in which gremlins appear to torment them and disappear at will and against which magic, spells, and the local witch doctor are their only refuges.

With the iPhone OS as incarnated in the iPad, Apple proposes to do something about this, and I mean really do something about it instead of just talking about doing something about it, and the world is going mental.