First hook the iPad to the computer, and highlight the iPad on the left side. You should see a number of tabs up top. Go to the info tab and click it. You will now see options about synching. Check the box "Synch your Contacts". You probably will want to press the radio button "All Contacts". You will then need to decide in the dropdown what you want to synch them to. It does not really matter.
Go ahead and "apply" or synch your iPad.
Disconnect the iPad, and now hook up the iTouch.
When you hook your iTouch up, highlight the iTouch on the left side of iTunes. Go to the info tab and click it. You can check the same box, and just make sure that your source is the same as the one you specified for the iPad.
Just be aware that the information you change on one, will synch to the computer and change it, and then will synch to the other, so if you want differences, this method won't work. But I think that this is what you are wanting. Good luck!
Oh, the notes is a little further down under the "Other" heading and so is the bookmarks that I mention further down - sorry, was editing...
Lastly, ignore the advanced area. Be careful about synching calendars too... sometimes they are awfully huge, but again, a lot of people use this method for synching those as well.
Oh, and some people start thinking about synching their e-mail - careful about that. If you are like me, you have tons of things in your email that you never got rid of, and it will try and synch all those hundreds, or thousands of e-mails to your iTouch, or iPad... better to use a virtual e-mail account, or make a different e-mail account, just for the iPad / iTouch through your ISP. Be aware though that you won't be saving tons of e-mail on these accounts though, and you have to be able to delete them. If you really need the e-mail then just forward to your regular computer, or virtual e-mail.
The other handy little tabs there are to synch your favorites, which is nice, as you find a site that you bookmark on either the computer, or iDevice, and it will then show up on all of them... Pretty sweet...
