It should be no surprise to anyone that Apple, the maker of the finest computer and cell phone hardware on the planet has decided to merge the two in what they have dubbed, the iPad. The iPad is a slick little tablet computer that does just about… everything? It does what everyone would expect an Apple product to do, movies, photos and Internet and it does it well. It also does some other, new things with a special version of iWork and even a new “store” called iBooks where you can buy books to read directly on your iPad essentially turning the iPad into an eReader.
Along with the 140,000 applications that are available on the iPhone and iPod Touch which also work on the iPad, developers are creating applications and games that will work exclusively with Apple’s newest piece of hardware. From the what 3rd parties were able to squeeze out of the iPhone, there is little doubt that they will make great use of what the iPad can do. The one thing they will not be able to change though is how the iPad’s core functionality will work.
This is where the iPad stumbles in my view and why I believe the iPad is too close to the iPhone and not close enough to a netbook. Apple has claimed that the iPad is better than a netbook, and in some cases it is; however there are certain things one might expect from a piece of hardware released in 2010. The first of those would be the ability to multitask. For a decade we have taken for granted the ability to multitask on our computers and one might expect that same functionality on a device that melds the world of smart phone and laptop together. Not the case with the iPad. Just like with the iPhone, the iPad allows only one application open at a time. I have, at minimum, my email, Twitterrific and browser open 24/7. I am not alone in this, many people have at least 2 applications opened simultaneously and to not have that on a device that is designed with the Internet in mind, is ludicrous.
Apple has also claimed that the iPad is the best way to experience the web. The simple fact that it doesn’t support Adobe Flash negates that claim. You can do a lot of great things with just HTML, but sometimes Flash is necessary, especially if you want to watch online video on sites other than YouTube, or if you want to play fun, Flash based games, or watch television on Hulu.com. Flash is required to do all these things and Apple has decided that incorporating Flash would somehow diminish your experience with the iPad, whether that involves battery life or system resources.
The biggest drawback is that it’s married to iTunes much like your iPod or iPhone. Without any sort of optical drive you are unable to load software other than software you buy through the iTunes store. It is such a closed system, that like your iPhone and iPod, Apple decides what you can and can’t load onto your iPad, ultimately limiting the functionality of the device.
The iPad doesn’t make sense to me; it’s too big to be an iPod, making it less portable, and it isn’t as powerful as a laptop that has basic functionality that the iPad doesn’t have. If all I wanted to do was watch movies, look at photos and maybe read a book or two, then the iPad is great, but I can already do all those things on both my iPhone and MacBook. I’m not sure how a severely watered down laptop or a giant iPod Touch fits in my life. Which probably means, it doesn’t.
