I was out at Best buy and saw Mike's fav ZAGG screen protector but really, the price nearly knocked me over. Unless you have small children banging toys on your tablet like Mike does, don't waste your money. Just use the tap with the pad of your finger and you'll be fine. Mine get used several hours a day and doesn't have a scratch on it. As for the case- I really like the Apple one for $39. Seems pricey but it serves as a protector, slide resistance cover, and it can be used as a stand. If you need more than that, like my wife does because she will be carrying it to work every day get the Targus Crave. Nice carrying case and has an accessory zippered pocket for carrying the few accessories you may need, like the charger, USB adapter, SD card reader and I also have a video dongle for plugging into a bigger projector or hotel room TV. The Crave is sized perfectly for the ipad with the Apple case on it and has lots of safety padding.
I agree the start up is too much trouble for many people and it requires you have a computer so the ipad is soon discovered to be a satellite device of your computer. Later on this will be to your advantage so bear with the initial setup process. The itunes app on your computer will allow you to keep a backup of your ipad and allow you to share your ipad content with other ipads and iOS devices under one account. This is the secret to saving money on apps when you have more than one iOS device. Pay once use the app or content on 5 devices. Just register than under one account.
Does it replace your laptop? I think this depends. For us, it does for many functions, mainly those that can be classified as content use rather than content create. For reading news books, viewing photos and video, movies, surfing the internet, reading magazines, using cloud computing apps ( like my stock trading ) watching sling box Dish Network programs, reading and posting on satelliteguys, the ipad is better and more convenient than the laptop. For building large complex spreadsheets, doing complicated photo retouch and video TV show program development, use the full computer. Typing a simple letter and printing copies it's 6 of one half dozen of the other. Reading and answering e-mail, the ipad is much faster. Keeping your calendar of tasks to do and a contact list, the ipad is nice but I feel the smart phone is better for this with a copy synced on the ipad. Taking pictures... Smart phone is better camera because the ipad is too clumsy large as a camera. Video conferencing is not possible with ipad but today, the Galaxy Tab has the corner on this. Some people feel this was a mistake Apple left out the two camera capability but rumor has it it will be on the iPAD2 ( thanks Samsung for leading Apple into that.) Bottom line- there is a right tool for the job and ipad does many of the jobs better than a laptop but the laptop is certainly not replaced for complex creation work by any of these tablet devices.
If you haven't already done so, you should update your OS version to 4.2.1 as it has important features that make using the ipad much better. Multitasking, wifi printing, and folder grouping of applications.
The Apple decal is mainly for Apple heads. If you are into the cult persuasion, you'll want to stick that where others will see it, like on your forehead.
If not, stick it where the sun doesn't shine then flush it down the toilet.
