There have been much discussion about the Apple’s new Product – iPad.
Apple introduced its iPad as the most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.
In a sense, it is very honest and accurate as speculators expected their iPad would be somewhere around $999 but it’s officially announced to be selling from $499 only. Well, $499 is for the lowest specifications, and it’s priced between $499 to $829. So in some way, it’s pricing could be unbelievable.
And in case you did not know, the name iPad selection was also a popular joke in the cyberworld and among geeks once it was announced. News on that can be found on yahoo, msn and gizmodo as well.
To be fair, it’s like a notepad, so with products like iPhone, and iPod, the name iPad is actually quite suitable, probably better then iTablet.
I wasn’t particularly amazed by it’s features though. The slimness and design of it, as much as has been expected, is just like a bigger size of iPhone.
If you go through the iPad’s features page (and check out the Specs too, I wouldn’t need to reproduce them here), things like Safari, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, iPod, App Store, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen and Spotlight Search are not something that surprises me.
It’s just the form factor, a larger screen for use, a bigger iPhone screen, without the phone capability.
A few things that I think would be fun and interesting, is playing games that uses accelerometer, which is small on the phone, now gets bigger and better on the iPad. Now that YouTube provides video in High Definition, watching HD videos on a bigger screen will definitely beat the 480-by-320-pixel on the phone too.
Have you seen the accessories yet? I am particularly interested with the Keyboard dock and the iPad case. They seems to make typing (that supports wireless keyboard) and watching video easier, and does it looked like it multifunction like a iMac too?
Which then brings me to the question: What is the target market of this device? Who would actually want to buy them?
Due to the fact that Apple has been very successful with products like iPhone, iPod, iMac etc, and now iPad (which is the most revolutionary product as introduced), I am a bit interested to know.
Of course, there are so many Apple fan boys and fan girls.
How about its usability?
Until I see an actual iPad, which probably would really amaze me, but from what I have seen and read up until now, I can’t help but wonder on these features:
Battery
Sure, the battery can last 10 hours, which is a good one, but why built-in battery again? Taking iPhone for an example is my best guess, but if it’s suppose to take the lead like a tablet computer, most, if not all tablet computers have removable batteries, like a laptop.
Flash Player
After the many years of iPhones without Flash Player, this revolutionary device also does not incorporate Flash Player support. It’s no more a 480-by-320-pixel screen, but still no Flash.
No multi-tasking
Again, just like iPhone, this iPad doesn’t multi-task, probably also the reason why the battery can last 10 hours because you can only run one task at a time. If you’re reading ebook means you can only read, no listening to songs, and while watching video, do not do anything else?
No HDMI output
Not a major problem that I see, but if you are selling it as HD device, it would be better to be able to output the device screen to a HD TV, right? Well, probably Apple leave this as room for improvement for the future generations of iPad.
Operating system
Now, I think this is the main problem that I see in this iPad. Why would Apple make a new OS for iPad, and not use Mac OS? Ok, maybe not exactly a new OS but iPhone OS, since currently iPhone developers can start to make apps with the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta today.
I mean all tablet PC are using Operating system that is the super set of their PC compatible OS. Like Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is actually the superset of Windows XP Professional, the difference being tablet functionality, including alternate text input (Tablet PC Input Panel) and basic drivers for support of tablet PC specific hardware.
But Apple chose to use iPhone OS. Fine… but?
No Phone capability
If you’re using iPhone OS or getting your developers to use iPhone SDK, why don’t Apple just make the iPad runs like a phone too?
I know, i know it’s sickening to start seeing people sticking their ears to the iPad screen to make phone calls.
iPad comes with 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker and microphone, wouldn’t those work?
Now some iPhone developers might need to make two versions of their apps if they uses camera and phone. Why? Because iPad has got no camera and phone capability. Now you know why iPad will run almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. iPad will work with almost all of the apps designed for the iPhone.
I might be offending many Apple fans with this post. Somehow, I just couldn’t get pass it, why a bigger iPhone without phone functions and not a smaller iMac instead?
Just so you know, there already exists an iMac after-market device which is an iMac in tablet form. It’s called the Axiotron Modbook. The iPad with Mac OS.
Maybe it’s the pricing factor, but to me the Axiotron Modbook might be more appealing than the iPad now.
What do you think?
Gadgets, Hardware, Technology
Apple, Apple App Store, HD, HDTV, High Definition, iMac, iPad, iPhone, iPhone SDK, iPod, Mac OS, Tablet PC, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
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