Well, the Missus and I just bought an iPad, and although I have yet to get it out of first gear, I have a feeling I’m going to like this content-consuming (vs. content-creating) machine.

I certainly liked the experience we had at the Apple store on Boylston Street, where our Apple Genius – hey, Matt – spent an inordinate amount of time giving us a personal iPad For Dummies tutorial.

That’s how a company builds brand loyalty, here most likely in the hope that my next cell will be an iPhone.

On the other hand, there’s that pesky stranglehold Apple has put on its content providers. In his blog post I Don’t Like the iPad Because . . . Searchblog’s John Battelle says this:

[T]he iPad, just like the iPhone, is designed for vertical integration and distribution lock in. Apple is building its own distribution channel, just as it did with iTunes, and media companies are falling over themselves to make an app for that. Why? Well sure, for once, it’s sexy and cool and hip. That’s why everyone loved the Wired demo.

But the real reason media companies love the iPad is the same reason I don’t: It’s an old school, locked in distribution channel that doesn’t want to play by the new rules of search+social. Sure, you can watch a movie on it. Sure, you can read a book on it. And sure, you can read a publication on it. But if you want to use the web natively, with all the promise that the web brings to media? Not so much. Apple will include a browser, of course. But will media you find through that browser be able to interact with the iPad platform so as to bring full value to you, the consumer? Nope. Not unless that same media is approved by Apple and makes it into the iPad app store.

What’s definitely not approved in the iPad app store: iPorn.

As CEO Steve Jobs has made abundantly clear in his insistence that Apple offers “freedom from porn.”

“Porn” being defined as anything even remotely prurient.

Sports Illustrated Bathrobe Edition, anyone?

I didn’t think so.

The Missus and I will keep you posted on the iPadlock.