So one week later here are my observations:

Battery Life:

It's amazing.  I haven't run out of juice yet, not even close.  Unlike the iPhone where you have to constantly carry a charger and worry that you'll run out of juice, the iPad battery life is great.  You can keep the screen cranked

Data usage

The iPad is known as a media consumption device.  That means it makes watching videos and listening to music so easy.   I often put it in the kitchen while I"m preparing meals so I can look up recipes and watch local news clips on the Yahoo iPad app.

All this to say that the media consumption facilities on the iPad translates into heavy bandwidth usage.  Simply turning this device on and doing a search or using an twitter app translates into a dozen or so MB of usage very quickly.  What does that mean? It means if you're going for the 3G model and not opting for the unlimited data plan, you may have a rude surprise ahead of you!

Screen

The screen is super sharp and very easy on the eyes.  It's much easier to use this device for long periods over say, the iPhone :-)  The only thing that makes me nuts is the oleophobic [is that even a word?!] screen. I'm assuming oleophobic means not liking oil but damn this screen loves to collect smudges, prints, and stains.   

The daily routine for me now is to clean the screen daily so that the screen isn't mocking me with the stains of usage.  Could you imagine cleaning your mac or pc monitor every day?!?!

Apps

iPad versions of apps [HD] usually cost more than the iPhone apps. No surprise there.  What is surprising is that some of the heavy hitting apps on the iPhone either aren't available or don't work as well on the iPad.  Apps like Facebook, Tweetie [I know I know], Tumblr aren't ready yet for iPad, therefore my app usage patterns on the iPad are quite different from the iPhone.

Also surprising is that some apps that are clunky and unattractive on iPhone really shine on the iPad.  Evernote is an example of one that falls into this category.

Keyboard

I know Apple is selling the new aluminum keyboard dock as an accessory.  I was _very_ disappointed to find out that my white Apple bluetooth keyboard won't pair with the iPad though the iPad supports bluetooth keyboard profiles.  :-(

In summary, I find the iPad a great alternative to the macbook or a pc.  In reality, I haven't sat at my macbook workstation for anything other than xCoding since I got the iPad.  It's a capable addition to a tech toolset and offers a more unique set of capabilities [with less duplication] than a netbook.