The newest Apple toy to be revealed this morning must had been one of industry’s worst kept secrets. Funnily, when the specifications of the new tablet device was presented, it didn’t get the unanimous and unreserved approval online the company might had been hoping for, though that hasn’t stopped the usual Apple Faithful from gushing all over the device and shouting down anyone who’s questioned the new device’s real usefulness and design compromises.
In the last year the Cupertino boys have got my business for their iPhone and MacBook – which are alright devices but still long ways from being the nirvana devices fanboys rate them to be – the iPad won’t this time after looking at its specifications, never mind that the name is uncomfortably similar to a sanitary object. Why?
As a portable music playback device – it’s too big. My Cowon D2 works just fine, and runs for 40 hours compared to the iPad’s reported 10.
As a productivity device – Never mind that you can’t multitask on the iPad. But I don’t care to use a touch screen to create or edit a word-processed document. OK, so there’s going to be keyboard options, but it’s a separate peripheral… which means more $$$ and having to bring along more devices just to get the same level of productivity you get already with a netbook.
As a portable game device – for iPhone-esque games only. Anything more complex or visual that’s commensurate with the screen size requires the kind of processing that won’t be possible with iPad’s weak processor.
iPad’s 10 hours battery life? Some of the netbooks are already dishing out 8 battery hours, and it’s still improving with newer models and low power processors.
As a communication device. Er, no onboard camera – which means you can forget about video calls.
As an e-book reader. iPad is rated at 10 hours battery. Amazon’s Kindle is rated at 7 days.
So I don’t get it. Just what exactly is this device really for. Is it supposed to be superior to netbooks when the latter can dish out more for less money? It’s too big to be truly portable, and too small and missing integrated I/O peripherals to be useful for anything more than what you already can do on the iPhone.
But that’s Apple for you. The iPad will likely sell millions of units to Apple fans, if nothing else because it’s a fashion statement to own one, never mind its real utility and that it seems neither here nor there. Well, I won’t be one of them this time. I’ll rather just save my money for the next iPhone which hopefully won’t be the same size of this brick!
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