I know I'll get scoffed at for this but, in a way, that 'magical' tag is justified.
The trick the iPad does, and does incredibly well, is remove a layer of abstraction (in this case keyboard and, more importantly, mouse) from what we commonly think of as a computer. It's the same trick, in many ways, that the iPhone did when compared to the traditional smartphone but it was always (and will always) be compromised by the smaller screen which add another, albeit different, layer of abstraction to proceedings (in this case the need to pan, zoom, and scan through content).
It sounds stupid but that bigger screen REALLY makes all the difference in the world. Whatever your doing is (usually) right there in front of you, no need to zoom in or move around to get to the bit you want beyond a bit of scrolling. The on-screen keyboard is a natural extension of what you're doing to navigate the device and the need to form a link between moving the chunk of plastic in your hand and the movement of an on-screen cursor is removed.
That sounds stupid and trivial to a lot of people here I know but when you see how much people struggle with that using regular PC's (windows, mac, linux, doesn't matter) you start to realise just how big of a step this could potentialy be. That adds on to the incredibly simple OS design (again, seen as a negative by many geeks but Keep It Simple is essential for this sort of device and the mass market) and the ease of finding, installing and using new software to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.
Or that could all be complete bollocks, depends on your point of view really
I agree with this in its entirety. It's something I didn't start to grasp until a few weeks after the iPad started selling.
When I picked one up for myself, it was even better than I had imagined it would be.
One interesting side effect of my iPad - both my Macs seem more like tools for work than they ever have. I only want to be at my desk or on my laptop if I have to be.
