ink and slide seems like an on-the-go dream, but once I am back at my desktop, I want to make tweaks and changes and fit everything together. Can the ink/slide+ipad connect to the desktop as a drawing pad and take over the role of intuous?
At this point there is no way to use Ink & Slide with iPad connected to your desktop computer as a replacement for a digitizing tablet. There is an SDK available, so it is conceivable for Adobe, or another developer, to create that bridge.