I took the new-user class at the Apple store yesterday, and today I was able to get everything working that I wanted as a collector's tool for chippers. Things that work as expected:

EMAIL using the built in mail application
Photo viewer built in
Web browser, using Safari application
Sync to my pc, to transfer all the scans of my collection (1.5 GB)
Off-line storage of a web site (this for Rich Hanover: I have all your Nevada chip pages in IPAD)

I was never able to get the IPAD to connect to a PC as an external disk and drag files to it, although there are Apps that say you can do this. I was not able to get the networking part of it to work. The syncing with the PC does what a want though and it automatically updates if I do a new scan to the same file on the PC.

The hi-res screen is great. I have my 30-chip pages scanned at 300 dpi and they display with the full page showing when selected on the photo viewer. You just "pinch" the touch screen to expand any chip to fill the screen. This is better than on my PC, as there it goes in steps and you have to click several times to get the full magnification.

One thing I had to learn to make the photos sync right is they must be associated with a graphics program on your PC; just having them in files won't do it. I just put them into Adobe Photoshop Album (which comes free with Photoshop Elements) and pointed the sync program to that application. You can select all photos (scans) or just pick the ones you want transferred. That means all the photos from your digital camera won't transfer unless you select them. The folders on your PC retain their names and linkages, just as on the PC.

The IPAD version with the 3G cellphone link is due to be available on Friday. I didn't need it but for those that do, the service is separate from any ATT phone service you might already have. It can be done without a subsciption, just paying as you use the air time, if that's what you want.

I say this toy is a winner for collectors! There are thousands of apps available from the Apple on line store, many free, most for 99c, with the really good stuff still at $10 or less. The app that lets you store your website on the IPAD so you can browse while not connected to the WEB is called iSaveWeb, and costs about $4. It has a problem showing your image in full screen mode while you are viewing in landscape format, but I think this is just a tweak to fix it. The app was originally written for the IPHONE, and just adapted to the PAD a couple of weeks ago.

Take the guided tours on the link below.