We’ve all heard the jokes: Apple just announced a much-hyped product named more appropriately for monthly use by women than for the average Joe’s daily computing. And we’ve all heard the complaints: no Flash, no physical keyboard, no multitasking, no camera. Sound familiar?

It should, because the same things were said about the iPhone when it was first released in 2007. Or, if you’ve been listening to the ramblings of your techie friends, you might think that the iPad’s limited set of features is dooming it to failure — something said about another Apple product upon its 2001 introduction. It was called the iPod. Heard of it?

Let’s break it down. True, the iPad does not have Flash. This means two things: you will not be able to play Bloons (at least until the author makes an App Store version), and your battery will last more than two hours. Ten, to be precise.

Adobe’s Flash is notorious for using a great deal of processing power when used on the Mac, slowing down your computer and significantly draining its battery. On a computer plugged into a wall, this isn’t really a problem; on a battery-constrained smartphone or tablet, it’s huge.

Most people use Flash for the top two video sites on the Web: YouTube and Hulu. YouTube is already moving away from Flash, delivering its content via the newer and much better HTML 5 standard (which the iPad fully supports), along with its native YouTube app. And according to a report from www.TechCrunch.com, Hulu is working on its own iPad app to deliver video to Apple’s newest device. Not only will these media giants have better, customized experiences on the iPad, but they won’t suffer the crashes and performance problems that Flash does.

Based on data gathered by Web metrics firm Net Applications, nearly 40 percent of mobile web browsing in 2009 was done from an iPhone or iPod touch, neither of which have ever supported the plugin. Still think not having Flash kills the Web?

The iPad also does not offer a widescreen resolution, something that definitely comes as a disappointment to movie enthusiasts, myself included. But nobody wants to hold a screen almost twice as tall as it is wide in their lap for everyday use; that’s just awkward. Nor will most projectors support a widescreen resolution when you want to bring your iPad to class to show off that sexy new Keynote presentation you’ve been working on.

True enough, there is no camera (look for one in future models) and there’s no physical keyboard included (though any Bluetooth keyboard or the $69 keyboard dock can be used), but these are the compromises necessary to provide the iPad’s greatest feature: its $499 selling price. While it may not run a full desktop operating system, and consequently will not have the problems that have plagued netbooks for years, the iPad can perform all the most common computer tasks.

Think about it: An iPod touch does almost everything you could want already, but it’s just too cramped for extended use. The iPad fixes that.

And if we normal human beings can pay $500 to leave the aging black box to collect dust under the desk while we surf the Internet at our fingertips, isn’t that worth it?