particulars

Its pretty apparent that a large group of tech nerds are disappointed by the iPad. I had been avidly ignoring all the hype and rumors because I always thought “I won’t need one, so it doesn’t matter.” I felt a bit disappointed in Apple for creating such a thing in the first place since people (meaning myself) were already reading books on their iPhones and iPod Touches.

I’m a heavy iPod Touch user. I’ve gone weekends where I travel and just keep up with the news, Facebook, my bank account, and email through my iPod. So, as I keeping up with the iPad presentation through live blogs and webcasts, I realized it did everything my iPod could do and more.

After I declared on Facebook that I was definitely going to get one, I was confronted with the question “Why would it be worth buying?” to which I replyed with the following:

Its lightweight as a travel computer for blogging and email, I’ll be able to buy a month of ‘net access across the country and around the world. I can use my USB solar charger and recharge the 10 hour battery… and, its cheap.

oh, and i can connect my camera to it, upload photos… with the big screen, the app developers will go nuts… and with the aforementioned jqtouch javascript library, i can make all kinds of fancy internet based apps for myself…

I don’t know what you mean by flash capability. The camera can plug into a USB interface that connects on the bottom or you can use a similar interface for SD cards.

I know it will have a place for a sim card… but it seems the plans are more geared toward the iPad than mixed with iPhone. You can buy the service directly from the iPad, though, … without going to the store. I’m sure more will come out later. It would be great if ATT would offer a package that discounts the iPad rate for iPhone subscribers… esp since i’m thinking i might not want an iphone if i had this gadget.

Flash is going the way of the dodo. youtube and vimeo are using HTML5 and up and up web browsers to display video formats without the need for a flash plugin. javascript and CSS3 are fully accessible to all platforms. hulu needs an app anyway. Not to mention that apple has quite the stake in the proprietary h.264 video format required for HTML5… why would they want flash on fancy new ways to further allow our lives to be infiltrated by the internet?

In further e-mails I received in reference to the iPad, I replied with the following:

I would use the iPad in areas where my ipod touch fails (big screen, camera connection, international monthly 3G wireless options). Its not going to take the place of my laptop for web work, but it will render my ipod nearly obsolete. As long as I can read the news with my cereal and look up movie star information while I’m watching TV, I’ll be happy… Going into a wi-fi coffee shop and downloading a book to read is also appealing… not to mention that I could travel and upload photos and blog without needing to lug around my heavy and expensive laptop. iPad gets stolen, not so bad as my Macbook Pro.

I would like applications to work in the background, but, the other “issues” don’t bother me since I can upload photos to it from my camera. Flash is quickly becoming obsolete and youTube has an app all its own. Its supposed to be an entertainment and social media device that can build a presentation in a crunch. Its a color Kindle that plays movies and video games and sorts photos and connects to facebook. Its for fun!

Everyone hated the iPod when it came out almost 10 years ago. I’ll let you play with mine when it arrives.

I just hope I don’t accidentally drop my new iPad on my face as I’m reading in bed the way I tend to do with my iPod Touch.

A couple of my favorite articles on the iPad so far:

• An In-Depth Look at the Apple iPad
• Why My Mom’s Next Computer Is Going To Be An iPad
• On Flash
• iPad: Illustrators & Designers
• Quick and Informative Review on Apple’s iPad