Apple: The New iPad [First Impressions]

So today, just like almost everyone else on Earth, I found out about the iPad. Apparently, it's striking the middle ground between an iPhone, and a Macbook. To many, this is Apple's attack at the netbook market that is oh so lucrative right now. So now, if you are taking the time to read this post from me, you probably want to know what I think about the device. Well...

I am disappointed.

I cannot help but be disappointed by this offering. Why? Because I feel that it could have been so much more. My very first thoughts were, "Okay, looks cool. But what exactly does it do?". There were two ways that this product could have went. I asked on my Twitter was this a large iPhone, or is it a small Macbook?

There's a VERY large difference. If the iPad would've been more in line with a smaller Macbook, then I would have been satisfied. That's what many people had drawn up in their minds. But what we got was essentially a larger iPhone. It's currently running on iPhone OS 3.2, but is modified for the iPad's use. When I had an iPhone, half of the amazement was that a product so small, could do so much! I had everything I needed in my pocket: AIM, e-mail, twitter, web, games, notepad, (no camera), the list writes itself.

But now we have a larger version.

For iPhone users: Do you imagine typing on a large scale iPhone keyboard? You can see how annoying that will be right? Yeah. You STILL have no multitasking because of the software it's running (even though I can see updates coming that would implement that), which means you won't be able to switch from surfing the web, back to AIM, and watch a movie all at once. *thumbs down*

I could write a large dissection of what the iPad does, but you already probably know enough about it. Almost every gadget site has been liveblogging from the Apple Keynote today. Or I could talk about how people are still going to buy this thing even if it doesn't really do anything NEW...but you probably know that. Apple has a knack for marketing, I can say that. So I'll save you that extra reading, but one last thing.

It's called an iPad.

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