I am on a quest. I want to determine if anyone can develop the perfect tool for the social media ecosystem. As I have mentioned before, this ecosystem is evolving so rapidly that staying on top of it can be more difficult than finding a 4G iPhone in a bar. I want to know if Apple’s iPad can provide the hardware necessary to make it converge more smoothly than all the other devices I have tried.

With that in mind, I got in line and bought a 3G iPad. Tomorrow, I will begin attending the Social Media Success Summit 2010 so I thought this would be a perfect time to share some of my initial thoughts.

1) it is much more pleasant to type on that I expected. I believe I prefer typing on it in landscape mode over just about any netbook that I have tried. I have not yet clocked my speed but I would expect that with practice, I might be able to rival a physical keyboard.

2) iPad apps look amazing. IPhone apps on an iPad…not-so-much. The resolution and reaction inputs just seem to work better on the “Made for iPad” apps. I am anxious to see how all of my favorite iPod/iPhone apps evolve to the platform to use the increased real estate. I believe I actually prefer the iPad TweetDeck app to the one on my tablet PC. It is clear that they have designed it for the large touch interface of the iPad verses the other way around.

3) Battery life is great! I am getting the stated 9-10 hours. I don’t get that on any laptop or smartphone I own when stressed under heavy use.

4) Lack of Java and Flash is going to be a pain. I went to pre-test the links for the online presentations of the Summit and immediately got the “please install Java” message. I have hit the Flash one several times as well. Please Apple, work this out.

I’ll keep you posted and look forward to my posts on the latest in Social Media as I attend the Summit over the coming weeks.