Credit: Gawker/Gizmodo
Let’s face it, it’s only just been announced, so not every single fact is set in concrete (except the Kotaku link, because they were at the announcement). But here’s my personal pull-no-punches take on the new Apple iPad.
First things first, it’s an iPod Touch the size of an A4 refill pad. Hence iPad I suppose. The biggest size capacity you can get them in is 64GB. Which is alright I suppose when you consider the size of the thing, but compared to other laptops that you can get for the same price, not enough. That same 64GB is the same capacity of the most high-end iPod Touch. It’s built-in web browser (Apple Safari, obviously) won’t be supporting Flash. There’s no USB support. There’s no CD support. There’s no webcam. There isn’t even multi-tasking.
Wow, talk about Captain Negativity! There’s a vast myriad of reasons already that I won’t be dropping dimes on this, and that’s before I even mention the prices. As seen on Kotaku:
WiFi only models are:
$499 – 16GB
$599 – 32GB
$699 – 64 GB
3G models are:
$629 – 16GB
$729 – 32GB
$829 – 64 GB
For what you get back out of it, it seems somewhat extortionate. I suppose there is a market in there somewhere, but lack of built-in camera’s also already killed the Skype market, and with the iPod Touch/iPhone comparisons in size and capabilities still ringing from earlier, I’m not too sure who this is supposed to appeal to. A lot of the sites I go on, the same people hyping it up are the same people that are now uninterested because all it is is the same as what they have, only for people with bigger hands.
I think the hype train really outdid itself on this one.
I wrote this under both categories because, well, I’m pretty sure there’ll be more than games on this machine.
1. Everyone knows it takes 2 Generations for an apple product to come to a sort of standard.
2. You don’t need a usb port.
3. Camera isn’t something you want in a device that size, imagine holding it up to make a video call, your arms would be dead. I know there will be stands and docks etc for it but sure a computer will do the same thing and oh wait its already standing
4. this device’s biggest flaw is the lack of multi-tasking, a firmware/os updatemay fix that i’m not sure.
5. The apps will make this device, the iphone it self is not great its the apps that make it such a success.
To be honest, now that it’s all settled down a bit and the iPad joke meme has jumped the shark (thanks @the404!) I suppose you do have good points.
Talking about it with Alan there now, he raised a good point that wifi’d be a lot faster for syncing files over and back rather than using the USB anyway.
The multitasking will probably be a dead issue after a few firmware updates, but considering that most of the apps could be derided from Flash, that’s where the money grab’s happening here.
Most of the games and smaller apps and whatnot would be found for free elsewhere on the web, where, if you had Flash, you wouldn’t need to buy them, thus developers wouldn’t make money, and Apple wouldn’t get their cut. So it’s obviously a business decision leaving it out.
I still do kinda feel sorry for Adobe though. It was their Creative Suite of programs that helped make Macs what they are today, and made them the go-to machines for anyone with a half an ounce of creativity in them, whether it’s in Creative Suite, GarageBand or whatever. And to get kicked to the curb like this is just kinda lame.
Anyway as the title did say, it was without reading all the facts, so I guess I could be excused hor jumping to conclusions on stuff. Still not pleased about the camera, but if it brings regular iPod Touches down in price (because I’m in the market for one) then I’m all-for it.