Tada! So now we have the iPad. The next magical thing marketed by the wizard called Jobs, promising to create a niche of its own in the market, reign it, revolutionarize all of us. Wow!
And Tada! I think i need two of them, here is my 'much awaited' (why, it is - I've been eagerly looking forward to the day I post this) iPad review. 'So what?' Is that what you are raising your eyebrow for? How is this one different from a hundred others, written by nerds around the world? Well, it is different actually. I'll tell you how.
Primarily because: I haven't touched the iPad. Not even seen it for real. Infact I have no hope that I might actually get to see one in the next 2 years. That's precisely why I write this review - without delving into the specs or rambling about how smooth the interface is, I'll just tell you what I think about the product from what I hear. Simply put, this review is not about what the iPad is for a customer/user and should you buy it - its more about what it means to casual onlooker, like me - who's just interested with what's hot on the tech-sphere. Less a product review and more a 'buzz-review'. I think I need some credits for coining that cool term!
Till the day of launch, things seemed to be colourful enough to most people. Somehow, I remained skeptical. The idea of a 'blown-up iPhone' remained just that to me - a blown up phone. Ugh! And then, last saturday it happened. Like I anticipated, the sales figures didn't quite match the amazing figures that Apple gets normally with it product launches. A few points lost there.
Sunday afternoon, I checked out the top technology news sites again. And guess what I saw, hordes after hordes of complaints. Heating issues, battery life, battery charging issues, and more freqently, issues with WiFi. Oh, Apple, I think that's a lot of points you lose there.
Lets now look at a few things iPad promised to be and where it ended up.
'The bridging device between your netbook and your phone' - do people really need a bridge there? The netbook itself is a bridge device, in fact.
Gaming: Neither here do I see a point too. For motion-sensing kind of casual games, I think iPad is slightly too bulky and iPhone might do a better job. For the slightly more serious genre, the presence of hardware peripherals, and better powered insides of a regular laptop is indeed better.
Web and Applications: Web browsing, I admit, is one arena that the iPad will shine in. Touch interface will be a boon, especially with many sites launching special touch-optimized versions. About apps, I have mixed feelings. True, the App Store is a wonderful place that sells wonderful apps. Anyway, I don't really like the idea of running productivity apps on a platform that was primarily designed for phones.
And some other things - e-book - no, the sunlight readability is poor and display is less paperlike. Digital photo frame - yes, it makes a really cool one. Movies and entertainment - maybe, but I'll pass.
So what does this all come down to? Time for the verdict for 'should we really be fans'? I think the iPad is just an okay-okay kind of stuff, and doesn't deserve accolades that the iPhone got. Maybe it won't be as bad a product like the Macbook Air, but still doesn't manage to hit the 'great' spot. Sure, it's gonna get a lot more better in the coming days with upgrades, incremental updates and all that. But somehow, I'm left with the feeling that the iPad will remain just a non-essential device that neither isn't revolutionary enough.
Bottomline: I don't like the iPad.
COMING UP NEXT: Where do emotions come from? Are we the ones who choose how we feel?
i don't care much for it either
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i guess from the behaviourist stance (or maybe not), emotions are learned. we are born blank slates and the environment teaches us how to feel, but i think the environment only teaches us how to define what we feel and it is possible that my 'happy' is not the same as your 'happy' but we use the same word because that's what we've learnt from society...
i think emotions r innate. we r hot wired to feel... and there are biological explanations for the process behind some emotions too...
hmm
Reading this post 54 months later, I see the fundamental point that I, like many others, missed - the iPad is really the bridge device between a laptop and the phone, rendering the netbook obsolete, rather the netbook rendering tablets superfluous. Basically, tablets did the same thing to netbooks that touchscreen smartphones did to ones with keyboards.
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