Ok I can't front. Now that I have seen in the wild, the iPad is kinda sexy.
Is it capable of being a full replacement for a laptop/netbook?
Depends on what you'd want to do, but probably no. Email and surf the web? Yes. Writing or word processing? Not really, though there Are the apple office apps available (pp, word, excel alts). There is a hulu app, but you gotta have a subscription to use it, hulu plus. If you had a desktop and just wanted portable email and stuff, it's ok.