The iPad. It’s no the iPhone or the Macbook, but a cross between the two, like a mutated 3rd twin! Behind the reality distortion feild that was ever so present, i took some time to think about the iPad and it’s future:
Quite simply, the only difference between the iPhone/ iPod Touch and the new iPad is the Apple A4 processor. (Apple bought chip manufacturer PA Semi a little while ago and its interesting that they made their one chip instead of Intel.
Besides the hardware, the iPad is running an exact replica of the iPhone software, with only minor changes to key apps, such as the Calendar, Mail, iWork suite (Apple’s answer to Microsoft Office: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) and of course the iBook app.
I happen to love what Apple did to the key apps, especially the Calendar app, but what interests me the most is the iBooks app. I think that the ebook market is where Apple wants to really focus on. The hardware itself isn’t what Apple is selling, their selling they key to a bigger picture, reading on the device. (This is similar to the iPod using iTunes). It’s not just books: think magazines and newspapers, things the Kindle or the B&N Nook can’t handle. With the color screen and the touch screen interface, the possibilities are endless. Imagine this: Resultants using it as an interactive menu (pictures and video of the food, nutritional info, calorie calculator, food pairings) With this new platform for developers to work with, i cant wait to see what the smart people of the dev. community come out with.
Last night I was thinking and it hit me; I really don’t need this. I have an iPhone and an iMac. I also have a laptop (my next one will be a Macbook). This is just an oversized iPhone. There is NO new technology. A laptop can do everything this can do and MORE.
You have to start to think, what demographic is this being marketed to? I thought, “Well, it reads textbooks, so college students!” but after talking to some of the Seniors in my school, they all agree that it doesn’t make sense to carry around this device, the laptop is so much more fitting. We’ll have to see when the numbers come out who is actually going to buy this, besides the Apple faithful who are still hypnotized by seeing Steve himself.
What about the future? Apple is starting to move into the cloud computing space with Mobile Me (me.com) and we can all see more and more integration with that service into all of Apple’s products. However I think we as consumers are a long way from adopting that technology. And even when we do, I don’t think AT&T will be 
(And yes, without opening another can of worms; AT&T has the power not to suck, they have the capitol to fix the problem. Their just a bunch of greedy…. /*cue tangent*/)
(And yes, without opening another can of worms; AT&T has the power not to suck, they have the capitol to fix the problem. Their just a bunch of greedy…. /*cue tangent*/)So we move to cloud computing. Sadly, Free Public Wifi, let alone OPEN wifi, will never happen, at least city wide. We’ve seen projects fail for many reasons. It’s not just monetary but technological. WiFi is not meant to span a city, let alone a small mansion.
The solution: WiMAX (A new technology from Sprint and Clearwire) They have a new WiMAX network in Las Vegas and Seattle. WiMAX would be the solution to city wide internet and could enable a cloud based computing society, but you still face monetary problems.
That’s my wrap up, a long one in deed (heres a great collection of links for more info)
Tags: Apple, AT&T, clearwire, ebook, FAIL, ibook, iPad, Iphone, islate, mac, reader, Steve JObs, tablet, wimax
January 29, 2010 at 3:32 am
Steve Jobs announces the iPad, except you can access half the (flash) internet – WTF?
January 29, 2010 at 3:52 am
Alot of bloggers are not too pleased with this new iPad.There was too much hoopla over it and alot blogers got turned off.Thing is, I can actually see some of the cool potential of the gizmo. Third-party apps for playing tunes, games, papers and magazines and books, all kinds of awesome stuff, but they failed to sell it very well (excluding the books). It looks kind of unfinished
January 29, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I agree with both of you. The thing I was look forward to though was touch screen Mac OS X, not an oversized iPod Touch. While it can do a lot of things, as of now it is not a computer replacement, which is a disappointment.