Speaking as someone old and crotchety myself, I respectfully suggest that it's not an either/or question.

Objective-C is a comfortably simple, straightforward language; it's a superset of C, and that superset is fairly thin, so if you already know C you're almost there now.

What you will spend all of your time learning are the Cocoa (and Cocoa Touch) frameworks. While there are multiple language bindings for the Cocoa framework, all reference materials and sample code assume that you're using Objective-C. A lazy weekend's investment in learning Obj C will pay for itself many times over, when you can simply read (as opposed to "read and mentally translate") all tutorials, reference docs, and sample code.

Here is the link to Apple's Objective-C primer.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/Learning_Objective-C_A_Primer/index.html%23//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007594

just think how muscular those pinkies would be if you were writing your Obj-C using Emacs!

"Eventually, the iPad will have equivalents for [Photoshop, Apache, PHP, a compiler]..."

Wow, I sure hope not. Thumbs up to to anyone who wants to undertake esoteric engineering challenges just for the joy of it, but there's no VALUE to using an iPad as a development server or a graphics workstation.

The iPad is a consumer appliance. It's optimized for consuming information, rather than creating it. I would no more want to run a compiler or web server on my iPad than I would want to use my bicycle to help three other people get to work in the morning. Need to take others with you to the office? Use a car. Want a casual afternoon out in the sun with the wind in your hair? Ride your bike. Trying to make your bike behave like a car gives you a rickshaw. You get the worst of both worlds, not the best.

It doesn't bother me that an iPad can't do everything that a netbook can because what the iPad does, it does very well. I don't feel any need to run productivity apps or server software on the thing, because I have desktops and servers for that. I'd hate for the iPad to become less friendly, less nimble, less comfortable in an attempt to be all things to all users. Like you said, use the right tool for the right job.

I look forward to the follow-up post that you write on your laptop while sitting outside during the next downpour.