All this talk about the up coming release of the iPad has had mixed views on the internet. Some say that this is the most advanced device on the market, others have compared it to a rock. I’d say it’s somewhere in between. If you’ve been paying attention to technology news then you’ve probably seen the giant iPhone known as the iPad. No, it’s not feminine protection for Macs, it’s Apple’s new tablet PC that they announced a couple weeks ago. This device may look like a great new revolution in computing, but I assure you, it is just a giant iPhone/iPod touch.
The iPad will release at the end of March 2010 starting at $499 for the 16GB model, and a month later it will be released as a 3G device on AT&T’s network for $629. It has a 4:3 9.7 inch screen, 1024 x 768 resolution, 1GHz processor, WiFi, 3G (on later models), 10 hour battery life, and runs on the iPhone OS.
Yeah, the iPhone OS. Not OS X. Now that might not necessarily be a bad thing, but a OS X tablet would be great. I’d get one without a doubt. Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Autodesk SketchBook would be great on a tablet (that’s honestly what I think of when I think of tablet PCs) but we don’t have that kind of luck. How long have designers been waiting on a MacBook Pro tablet? Too long I’d say.
Three other short comings that really defer me from buying it that if they were there I don’t think ‘d have a real problem with the device are the lack of a camera, flash support, and input ports for USB, and SD memory cards. Mac fanboys have waged a holy war against those who speak this heresy on the lack of Flash support. I’m not a Mac user myself, but I do work with them so I know that flash is total crap on a Mac, but come on, this is something the device really needs. Sure there’s HTML 5, but that will take years to replace Flash… and that might not even happen. In the meantime we need Flash for a lot of the content on the Internet. Apple and Adobe need to put their heads together on this one, and fast.
As for the camera, I wouldn’t use it for taking photos, but for video conferencing on Skype or something. And the lack of USB or SD card support, that’s just dumb.
This isn’t the only tablet PC of its kind. We also have the upcoming HP Slate, the JooJoo Pad (formerly the Crunch Pad), and a crap load of android tablets. These things both offer some of the things that the iPad is missing, but also have their short comings, but that’s for another time — closer to when these devices see the light of day. But Apple definitely has some competition. Especially when JooJoo Pad pre-orders jumped when the iPad was released.
Will I be getting one? I still actually might. I’ll reserve my full judgment until it’s actually released. I’ll also be looking at the other tablets as well to see which one is right for me. With all the iPad’s shortcomings it’s still going to be a solid device, but I still can’t be certain if it’s right for me. As it stands I can think of a thousand uses for it, and if it had all the things I mentioned above I’d say it might actually be one of the best devices on the market.
What do you think of the iPad? Are you going to get one? Or will you be getting a different tablet? Let me know what you think in the comments.
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