Which leads to the obvious question: Is browsing on the iPad really good enough to let you forgo a laptop or netbook in favor of an iPad--or at least good enough that you could leave your laptop at home for many trips? Or is it more like browsing on the iPhone: good enough for casual, on-the-go use, but not your first choice for general browsing?

After a day of iPad use, the answer is an authoritative "it depends." For some sites, iPad browsing is an incredible experience; for others, you'll find yourself saving URLs to visit later on your Mac. The good news is that, compared to the iPhone, the balance has shifted significantly towards the former and away from the latter.

Let's get this out of the way at the outset: Like the iPhone, the iPad's browser doesn't support Flash. If a particular site has Flash content and no iPhone/iPad-friendly alternative, you won't be able to view that content on the iPad. Period. (This includes that are entirely Flash.) In this respect, the iPad is firmly in the iPhone column in the desktop vs. mobile debate.

That being said, a funny thing has happened over the past year or so, and especially over the past few months: Because of the success of the iPhone and other mobile (read: Flash-unfriendly) devices, many Web sites that previously used Flash--especially sites that used Flash predominantly for video--have transitioned to formats these mobile devices could handle. YouTube, for example, started nearly three years ago to dual-encode many videos in Flash and H.264 formats, and now has a version of the site that uses Mobile Safari-friendly HTML5 and H.264. And Apple is currently that includes heavy hitters such as CNN, The New York Times, Vimeo, Major League Baseball, Flickr, and Sports Illustrated. Oh, and don't forget that many sites that use Flash to stream media--including --are either already offering native iPad apps or are working on them.