Today Apple officially announced the iPad, the Apple version of a tablet PC. It’s basically a giant iPod Touch and fits somewhere between the iPhone / iPod Touch and the MacBook. I’m happy to see the device finally become a reality, but there are some things I wasn’t happy about. Will I get one? I don’t know… I do think my wife would really like it, especially with the camera adapter to allow her to import photos to the device. She’s been wanting a computer of some type for a while now… I had considered a Netbook, but with as much as she uses her iPhone, I think she’d like this better. It’ll really depend on our hands on impression once the device actually shows up at the Apple Retail stores.
It doesn’t have a camera of any kind, which is a bummer. I really wanted to see a front facing camera so that it could be used to video chat, something that would have been very handy earlier this month when I was in Las Vegas for CES and away from my wife. Some people are complaining about the lack of a rear camera, that doesn’t really bother me since I have my iPhone and well, a regular camera.
Two versions of the device will be released. One that is WiFi only and one that is 3G + WiFi. Of course, the big deal with the 3G is that it is through AT&T which has had more than a few complaints about network performance with the iPhone. The good news is there is no contract and the iPad is unlocked, which will allow users to take it to other networks. Like the iPhone, the iPad will be able to connect up to AT&T wireless hot spots, though there wasn’t any mention weather this would be limited to the 3G model or if both could do it. I’m hoping both, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was limited.
Not much was said about the OS. Some assumed that it is based on the unreleased and unannounced iPhone OS 4.0, but it looks more like a iPhone OS 3.x. We may get more info in the coming months, but right now I don’t expect anything major. The mail, calendar, iTunes, and other default apps were obviously nicely updated for the iPad but it didn’t look like it had any really killer features. Background apps? Unlikely. Multitasking? Probably not. Adobe Flash in Safari? Nope. In fact, when Steve Jobs was demoing the web browser, there was a flash ad that displayed the missing plugin icon. Boo! Lack of Flash really sucks… and I don’t even like Flash.
iBook and the iBook store. That was a no brainer, and the next logical move for Apple as a media company. I’ve never been a big fan of eBook readers mainly because the E Ink displays are black and white and largely lack any other functions. The iPad may change my views on eReaders… oh sure, I’ve used my iPhone with Amazon’s Kindle App and Barnes & Noble’s eReader but I cannot really say there was anything fantastic about it. My wife will probably love the Apple iBookstore, but what really has my interest is newspapers and magazines. The demo New York Times iPad app was stunning, and if the magazines I like adopt the iPad, that may be the big seller for me. My wife and I have hundreds of magazines laying around the house and even more waiting to go to the dump. I’d gladly trade all that paper in. Alpha Media, Reader’s Digest, IDG I’m looking at you!
Being that the iPad runs the iPhone OS it has instant access to just about every app already. That’s a big plus for Apple and anyone who buys the iPad. You can run the apps in the standard mode (iPhone size) or double the pixels and get a full screen version of the app. Some apps that looked good with, but some (i.e. Facebook) just looked stupid. Hopefully some of the big name apps like Facebook and Tweetie (my two favorite apps) will have an iPad version.