So…. The iPad…..

Well, I am quite a tech loving guy, and like most of my kind I keep one eye on Apple whenever they are sending out their reality warping events promoting the latest giant bump in their product portfolio.

Yesterday was finally the announcement of the worst kept secret in the industry, the iPad.  I don’t know if I would call myself an Apple fanboy, since I have never owned a Mac computer.  There have been many occasions where I would have liked to, but have gone the way of windows for one reason or another.  I am an iPod guy, and have owned a few since the first gen of the iPod mini up through my current Nano.

Also, I have wanted an iPhone for a while, but absolutely refuse to consider it as long as T-com is the only provider.  I have deep personal feelings about T-com and will not be allowing them to have any of my money.  If the iPhone moves to another provider… it will be on my radar.  But that is another story.

I watched “the Steve” do his thing yesterday, and as usual he was very compelling.  As I watched the announcement and demo, I thought it looked pretty great.  But I have learned that the presentation style of The Steve really does distort opinions of the products, so I had to think about what he showed before I allowed myself to like or dislike this new product.

After much consideration, I would say the iTab is a good, but not revolutionary product.  To me, it is basically a super size iPod touch.  Perhaps a netbook replacement, but i don’t even know if that is the case.  What I like on the iTab

• Screen looks very nice.
• the iPhone OS was already pretty easy and fun to use.
• the Kindle reading application looks well implemented.
• Pricing was far better than I thought it would be.
• Ability to store and display PDF files is great.
• It looks like something from the future.
• 10 hour battery life?  sounds too good to be true.
• Wireless access plans (for US at least) is reasonably priced.

What I don’t Like on the iTab

• No Camera/videoconferencing.
• Any widescreen media (films) will have LOTS of black bars and bezel.
• OS does not support multitasking, not that big a deal, but on a “netbook killer” it should be there.
• Too many adaptors needed for everyday connections.  You need an adaptor for USB?  come on…
• No Flash in web browser.  This is a must if it is a real web appliance.

Will I buy one? very very unlikely.  It would be an amusing toy, but I think all in all I would rather have an iPhone with a few modifications to the OS, or even an iPod touch with a couple more features.