Thoughts On The iPad

I wrote a speculative post on the now-announced Apple iPad here earlier, and now we can finally put to bed all the rumors, now that we have the thing itself. Isn't it glorious, the iPad? Now I'm just going to give a wall-of-text basic rundown of everything I've read in Mashable, Gizmodo, et al.



It's a ten inch, thin screen device. It has no camera. It has connectivity through Wi-Fi (and 3G, if you get a separate model). It does e-books via the new inbuilt app iBooks, but doesn't use digital ink, instead relying on a huge bright screen. It's running on the iPhone OS, and can run probably 99% of all current iPhone apps, either at native size or scaled up to the iPad's resolution. The cheapest model will go for $499 without 3G, and has a 16GB hard drive — I'm getting unconfirmed quotes saying that it will debut in Malaysia for RM1705. Multitasking is still not possible. Certain apps will be enhanced, with Mail, Photos and Calendar getting an incredible revamp. It's pretty. It has a 4:3 ratio while running at 768x1024, which means watching widescreen movies is going to look like ass. It has an amazingly bad name (Apple Slate > Apple Tablet > Apple iPad oh god why). People will buy it. "Micro-SMS" is going to be possible. Maps looks amazing, like you're a spy in a sci-fi movie. All in all, it's pretty, but not gorgeous.



Bottom line: I'm not probably going to get it; I already have an iPhone 3G S. I've got my eye on the Microsoft Courier and I think I'm going to day one get that. I don't want an entertainment device, I want a superb-looking, superb-working personal organizer. I don't want a bigger iPhone, I want something revolutionary. Something different.



(Countdown until Amirul buckles and gets an iPad starts... now! SAVE ME QUICK, MICROSOFT, SHOW ME YOUR COURIER)