Assuming of course you haven’t spent the last few weeks in a cave, odds are fairly probable that you’re acutely aware that tomorrow will mark the start of a new era in digital consumption courtesy of the release of Apple’s much-anticipated iPad. In a word: iWant. But, knowing full well that $499.99 is a big decision, particularly when a new iPhone release is just around the corner in these uncertain economic times, we thought we’d press pause on the hype for a moment and ask the only man we know who is immune to Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field, our friend Matt Whitlock of TechLore.com, who offered up 5 reasons why you may not want to pull a Phil Dunphy just yet.
In spite of Apple single-handedly attempting to wage a crippling war against Adobe, Flash continues to be the web’s most dominant way to deliver video online. Which means should you purchase an iPad in the not-to-distant-future, you can say goodbye to hulu.com or other popular online TV destinations until web sites start adopting Apple’s approved HTML5 standard, or go the ABC and CBS route by developing iPad specific Apps.
You know those hundreds, heck thousands of dollars you’ve spent on that incredible TV on DVD collection that’s quietly taking up space in your living room? It’s gonna take an awful lot of time to rip and re-encode those discs into an iPad friendly format. We’re just sayin’
Remember your 27″ cube-like television from 1994 that you once thought of as the pinnacle of entertainment? Apple does. And for reasons only they can explain made the decision to go with the very same 1024×768 display. A 4:3 aspect ratio which works perfectly for ‘classics’ like SEINFELD and FUTURAMA reruns, yet isn’t quite ideal for modern day shows shot in widescreen as evidence by the big ol’ helping of black bars on the top and bottom of your screen that you’ll see when you play video on widescreen. That, or be ready to lop off the sides of your shows if you expand to fill the whole screen.
Looking to twitter while you watch TV on the soon-to-be-released Slingbox App? Wish you could update your Netflix cue while streaming Netflix on Demand. Sorry, at least at launch, much like the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPad even with it’s added processor speed and screen size still does not allow multi-tasking.
They may not be as sexy, but a simple ION-based netbook or small laptop with marginal graphics capabilities is (as of this writing) better optimized to handle TV shows, and widescreen ones at that, from a wider variety of sources than the iPad. (Note: Engadget has a handy list of alternatives here.) 
Satisfy your inner geek while fueling your TV addiction… TVtechFix is a column by Matt Whitlock, editor of the TechLore.com Consumer Electronics Community (plus several other gadget- focused community websites, and lover of both technology and TV. In this column, he’ll cover a wide variety of tech topics aimed squarely at the TV addicts of the world – from tips and tricks to help you better your TV experience, to gear recommendations, to the impact technology is having on the TV shows we love.