The iPad

A lot of mixed feelings, enthusiastic mac-fans, sarcastic mac-haters, good vs bad reviews, “the worst name ever” jokes and wet dreams of every geeks apple-shaped heart have flooded the web since last week. I’ve seen most of it and what came to my mind is that every single person has experienced this so called “historical moment” on revealing this “magical and revolutionary device” the iPad. So I decided to tell you my story of the iPad.

There were a lot rumors and (probably very thoughtfully planed) leaks over the last year so the expectations were quite high. My initial thoughts were, that I do not need a device like this since I have a macbook, iPod and hopefully soon an iPhone. I didn’t see a reason for it (except that it would probably look really great and since it would come from the hands of my dear Stevie it would also be great). What I wouldn’t like is the fact that it would be flat, and you should hold it in your hands or put it down on a table and look at the screen down. Imagine constantly looking at the keyboard and your neck pains? I have problems with my back and my neck even with normal computers and can’t imagine what would happen with the usage of a “tablet”. My second doubt would be greasy fingers and consequently a very dirty screen. That would be very irritating. I don’t like cleaning my screens and should do it more often, but it does bother me, a lot.

And then came the-day the 27th January and the apple event in San Francisco, and like many mac fans I set the auto refresh at Engadged, but couldn’t wait that 30 seconds and refreshed the page every 5-15 seconds. I had mixed feeling throughout the whole event and at the end of it I wasn’t convinced. To be honest I expected more. To start with the OS. I expected a lighter version of the OS X, and not a modified iPhone OS. And a camera. And a GPS. And multitasking. And making phone calls in the 3G model. And USB. And SIM input not micro SIM – that’s a weird one.

On the 27th I went to bed not-that-thrilled, or rather semi-thrilled. I wanted to try it, but not buy it. That was weird it’s apple for f***’s sake. But all that changed in the morning. I watched the keynote video and my attitude towards it instantly changed. The interface is amazing, it looks very natural a lot like an iPhone but better. When I got used to the trackpad on my macbook I never needed to use a mouse, I don’t even have one (although I do want the magic mouse but not for constant use). The multitouch gestures feel very natural and very easy to use, so I believe that using the iPad could be very easy and likable. I like the iBooks and the iBooks store, it was a matter of time for apple to release an app and a store for books, but I don’t believe it’s very comfortable for the eyes to read a book from a led screen. I think e-ink still have this advantage here. The biggest surprise was the iPad version of iWork, that would be very useful.

The 10-hour battery is remarkable but it could be longer, the price is lower than I expected and actually quite affordable (for the basic model), but if you want a 3G model and a bigger memory the price quickly rises. And since 16GB is quite small I would consider 32 or 64GB, and in additon if it would be able to insert a SIM from my carrier I would also consider the 3G verison since I have 1GB of data for free in my month-plan. But that last one is a bit to optimistic.

Just came to my mind, I wonder if there will be an option for onscreen keyboard in different languages?

To conclude advantages:

• best touch screen ever made with multitouch
• big screen and very thin
• great for browsing, mail, videos, music, photos,…
• ability to run all iPhone apps
• iWork
• iBooks
• battery life
• price
• iPad case (looks great)…

and disadvantages:

• no GPS, camera, usb, flash
• no multitasking
• micro SIM
• iPhone OS…

Although it’s far from perfect it is revolutionary, and you know why? Because it is something new, a new approach and it has a huge potential. And I’m very happy to see apple use it’s potential in the future (with all that features that we all expected).

My attitude towards the iPad has changed from good to bad to confused to very good to ecstatic and than back to good. Now I quite like it, I might even buy it (depend on my account status when it comes out. And it’s gorgeous.

Stevie could sell me anything.

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