Apple’s new iPad
So on Wednesday, Apple unveiled their much anticipated iPad. Yes, there are a variety of limitations (the name, flash incompatibility, sticking with AT&T’s 3G network, no stylus, limited ability to multitask), but there are so many things about this device that seem right. In many ways, it’s a glorified iPhone, larger and without the ability to make calls. Some have expressed concerns that this machine is too read-only—a machine for consumption rather than production—but I think it’s more accurately a machine for production that occurs in new media settings. Nothing too complicated perhaps, but with Keynote and Pages, browsers, and a variety of apps that would allow for blogging, etc., I think it’s going to be the device between the personal computer and the e-reader that people are expecting. As soon as I get the email notification that they can be ordered, I’m ordering one. At the very minimum, it’s an experiment with a new cool device—a somewhat expensive one, perhaps, but cool nonetheless.
EDIT: Cole makes a good point:
The iMac killed the floppy and all the other legacy ports we *had to have* only to introduce a brand new way of thinking about connectivity. The iPhone destroyed my own notion of what I needed in a platform and the iPad is currently destroying (that is in the present progressive tense for a reason) the idea of the “desktop metaphor.”
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You’re the first person I know who likes the iPad. Definitely the first person I know who wants one.
For me, the limitations you outline make it not worth it.
I know a number of people who want one, but are going to wait until the second generation, because there is a (rightfully so) general rule about Apple products to wait until the second generation.
Do you think a 2nd-gen iPad will have any of the features the first does not?
Flash compatibility, I would hope. 4G instead of 3G, I bet.
Otherwise, it’s looking like the limit to AT&T is probably going to be long-term, and I doubt there’ll be a stylus — though perhaps that’s not necessary.