I think you’re on the right track with the non-camera-camera, but … something still doesn’t feel right about me. What’s the user experience like for a pad-style device with a camera-screen-thing? Are you supposed to hold the device at arm’s length at a right angle to your beautiful face for the duration of your conversation or video blog or whatever? Are you supposed to prop it up on a stand that you’re assumed to have lying around? Are you intended to keep the device in one of those promisingly but possibly awkward convertible cases?

The challenge with video communication and such is the fact that you have to stick a honking great camera in front of your face. If you’re sitting at a table with a traditional computer in front of you, okay, that can work. (If we assume the eye-contact problem is solved.) With a laptop it’s more of a challenge; how many of us have fired off an iChat session only to discover that because of our posture the person on the other end has a perfect view up our noses, or some other least-flattering perspective?

Making somebody look GOOD on video is an art all by itself. But short of that, merely making somebody look LIKE HIMSELF is also a heck of a challenge. The cliché is that the camera adds ten pounds, and there’s some truth to it. Cameras flatten and distort even under the best of circumstances. Change the angle of the camera just slightly and suddenly you look awful, or at least not at all like what you think you really look like.

I’m unconvinced either way. It’s possible that we just haven’t cracked the problems inherent in easy, user-friendly video communication yet. On the other hand, I think it’s also possible that video communication, like personal jetpacks and food pills, are one of those predictions that 20th-century science fiction just plain flubbed. When I reflect on the recent trend for interpersonal communication to become more and more terse and asynchronous — email, text messages, IM, twitter, whatever — I become even more convinced that this might be the case.

That is certainly what I would try to do if I could!

Another “wow” for me was the 4th accessory that was for some reason not mentioned during the Stevenote: a SD card attachment to load photos. http://gizmodo.com/5458376/apple-ipads-myriad-optional-dongles-usb-sd-ac-bbq This is great for a few scenarios including but not limited to a) traveling with your camera and just the iPad and being able to off-load pictures to it (then again 32GB SDHC cards are pretty cheap these days so this is a rather moot point) and b) if you’re at a photoshoot and want to load up the picture you just took and zoom in and see if it is blurry, etc. I also think the picture frame capability with the charging dock was underrated.. that will be neat!

Now my only other concern is that my favorite music sites ditch Flash and start using HTML5 audio embeds so I can listen on the iPad. Also, I haven’t looked too closely but I hope changing tabs in the browser is easier than it is in the iPhone, as I see myself likewise doing a bit of evening/couch Internet consumption with this.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by StephenFleming: @keithmcgreggor Me, too. http://tr.im/LSTV…