Every person on the Internet who has some form of bully pulpit is probably going to write about the much-ballyhooed iPad that Apple announced today, so I may as well throw in my two Abe Lincolns.

In short: I have taken an immediate disliking to this iPad.

It’s expensive, considering how little it does — $499 for the cheapest version, which is only 16GB. You can get up to 64GB, but that costs $699. And then there’s all the extra Apple-exclusive crap that they will nickel-and-dime you for: apps, iBooks, etc.

You can’t multitask with it, since it’s not running OSX, but only the stripped down iPhone OS. So you want to run iWorks and do anything else? Sorry, out of luck.

It’s an ebook reader, yes — but only if you purchase the books through the iBookstore. So if you have other DRM-free or PDF ebooks, you’re screwed.

Boing-Boing has a short summary of the iPad’s major features that is pretty good, though I disagree with them on the theory that it will kill the netbook, if simply because of the keyboard issue.

The iPad has a full on-screen QWERTY keyboard, similar to the iPhone, which is fine for typing in a quick Internet search or sending a short message, but as far as doing any real typing? No, no one who has to do any serious amount of typing is going to want to use an on-screen keyboard. The tactile dichotomy between a virtual keyboard and a physical keyboard is just too awkward for any extended use.

There’s more that I could go on about, but I think that’s good for starters. And as a small note: this post isn’t coming from some hatred of all things Apple. While admittedly I am a PC person, I do own an iPod (sadly, Microsoft’s Zune is a flawed product) and wouldn’t complain if a MacBook magically showed up on my doorstep one day.

My issue is with the annoying fervor of the hype and speculation that has been going on for the last six months regarding the announcement of the iPad, not to mention the perception of Apple in the general public.

Like I told my sister earlier: It’s not that I hate Apple; I just think that they sell overpriced products which uninformed people automatically “know” are better, simply because they cost a lot more and are shiny. People who have no idea how a computer actually works will go on and on about how their PC is slow and has nineteen hundred viruses on it, which is certainly not because they’re an idiot and click on malware links or have 900 programs running or still download music from Limewire, but because “PCs suck.” They think owning a Mac will suddenly make their computing life so much better.

So Apple: I already own two computers — a desktop and a notebook — and I like my books analog. Tell me why I need this product?