Apple's New iPad - Everything You Wanted . . . and less!

Oh dear me now . . . has Apple done it again, or has Apple just released a great big iPod Touch? It looks to me like a great big iPod Touch with an 'improved' screen (LED-backlit IPS) that might just be sharp and clean enough for ebook reading but for the glare bouncing off the shiny surface. There's more (much more) at the Apple web site. The first devices won't be available until March 2010. So what do we think? Frankly, we think you don't need another gadget, especially one that's been announced at a price range of $499 (16GB, WiFi only) in increments up to $829 (gasp) for the 64GB WiFi + 3G version. It's big at 9.5" x 7.5" x 0.5" and somewhat heavy at 1.5-1.6 lbs (depending on the version). By comparison, the biggest 9.7" Amazon Kindle DX has a more readable screen, is 0.5" taller, 0.15" thinner and (most important) 7oz lighter, and $10 cheaper than the base-model iPad. Apple will need at least one more revision after the initial release to get this one right. The biggest issue we have is that of half-baked convergence. The iPad is not a good netbook (no hardware keyboard for fast text entry - typing, notes, email, etc., etc. - sorry folks, but an onscreen keyboard just doesn't spin our crank). The iPad is large and heavy in a big vest or jacket pocket, and it certainly won't fit in the big pocket of your cargo pants (or shorts) unless you don't object to the iPad banging against you with every step (at 1.5 lbs it will be felt). There's no USB or FireWire port, so forget about even that part of netbook handiness. The iPad really is a great big iPod Touch, but without the convenience of manageable size. Forget about ebooks and doing anything else made so difficult and eye-straining by the glossy LED-backlit touch screen. Ho hum. What else? Some good things. The mediocre-but-ubiquitous iPod sound is fully integrated, as is the wonderful iTunes Store. Video viewing (if Steve Jobs' demo at the product launch is anything to go by) should be smooth, color-rich, color-accurate and fast courtesy of the 1Ghz, Apple A4 System-on-a-Chip. All in all, it's not the device for which the masses seemed to have been clamoring for the past few months.