The Revolutionary New Product from Apple: The iPad

As most of you may know, Apple released their most advanced technology in a revolutionary device a couple days ago, the iPad. Claimed to be the “third category device” the iPad is a tablet or a “touch screen computer”. Apparently, this tablet is supposed to be better than a laptop at browsing the internet, reading email, looking at photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, and reading eBooks. So, let’s start with browsing the internet. You can see the whole page with this tablet in bigger print. However, many websites use Adobe Flash for their media, none of Apple’s devices use Flash and since they never did, why start now? Yes, the iPad does not support Flash. Big surprise? You shouldn’t be. Apple has their reason. If they add Flash to any mobile device of theirs, there would be less of a point in the AppStore. Why? People could just go on websites and play any game they wanted to. Not just that, with Flash, you could watch videos online such as ones from Hulu. If they had Flash, no one would bother buying videos from iTunes, they would just go on sites like Hulu and watch their TV episodes. Apple would lose A LOT of money and no large company like Apple wants to lose money right? Right. Now, let’s see this misleading quote. Steve Jobs himself said: “It is the best browsing experience you’ve ever had” Wrong. Here’s proof: This was taken directly from the Apple keynotes videoMillions of sites use Flash. Get used to the blue legos.

Next, reading email. Reading email from an iPhone to an iPad differs a bit. You can now see all your inboxes from the side if you are reading in landscape mode. Quality is boosted a bit. You can also view PDF files. Not too much of a difference besides that.

Looking at photos. Your albums are now in stacks and you can pinch them open to take a peek. Different slideshows for you to look at them. The bigger screen does make looking at photos more enjoyable. However, I am not one to watch photos in slideshows. I look at a photo, done, home button, simple. It’s not much of a difference from the iPhone unless you are one who takes a lot of time in enjoying photos.

Watching videos. This is a great pro of the iPad. Watching videos on the iPad is enjoyable because it’s lightweight, easy to hold, yet the large screen provides enjoyable watching. Quality is better. Each video description is more detailed. This was probably the best thing from the iPad.

Listening to music. Here’s where it all goes downhill. So, when you listen to music from your iPod or iPhone, you turn it on, then you put the device in your pocket right? So, the iPad is at least 7 inches in width. Unless Apple tells me that they’re gonna ship a pair of custom iPad pants with pockets that are 7 inches wide, you’re gonna have to carry a backpack everywhere you go if you wanna listen to music. What a waste. Such a light product, yet the simplest functions, listening to music requires a backpack. Now of course you don’t have to carry a backpack. You can hold the iPad in your hands listening to music, walking down the streets waiting to get mugged. Listening to music while walking is an extremely weak point. Definitely a HUGE con. It’s bad enough to knock watching videos right off the pro list.

Playing games. So, the iPhone. It’s a business phone and an entertainment phone. Over 140,000 apps to use. Lots of them are games. Now, with the iPad, I would say you would have difficulty playing games. Why? Let’s say you’re playing Tap Tap, a popular and great game. You’re gonna have to reach over to tap. Here’s an example.

The picture looks small here but it’s actually quite wide. I’m not sure I would like to reach all the way over to the middle to tap. They say that it’s not reformatted but I think reformatting is desperately needed. These games are made FOR the iPhone and iPod Touch. I would appreciate it if Apple didn’t resize the game and pass it as playable. Maybe only the puzzle games and racing games would work out right but there’s still a lot of games on the AppStore not made for the iPad.

Now, reading eBooks. The only new addition to the iPad, iBook. iBook comes with some samples but you can buy more from the iBook store. Reading on the iPad is a pretty enjoyable experience due to it’s weight. You can turn to landscape and read two pages at a time or portrait and read one page at a time. You can also turn your book over (virtually), buy a book and immediately start reading. HOWEVER, I will warn you right now, I definitely wouldn’t want to read books on the iPad. Why? It’s a freaking LED screen. You’re gonna burn your eyes out reading a book. Sure, probably much lighter than a real book but I’d rather keep my eyes working normally thank you very much.

Although Apple hasn’t released all the technical aspects of the device, we do know that the iPad is running on a 1Ghtz processor, which is amazing, for such a lightweight device, that runs a OS similar to the iPhone and iPod touch. We do not know how much ram is included in the iPad, as well as bluetooth and all inside items. The iPad sports a 10-inch, tempered glass touchscreen. Basically, it’s just a sized up version of the iPhone’s screen.

When asked what our fans thought about the iPad, this was what some of them said:

“I believe that the iPad has a negative impact on society. I have many reasons to support this stand. For example, is this original? It looks like an iPod Touch/iPhone, which a majority of society already have. Because of its large size, one can easily damage it while doing everyday activities. In addition, its larger size may make it more difficult to carry in ones backpack, pocketbook, man-purse, or any other particular carrying item. It seems like greedy bastards just want to make more money, which is not a good thing considering economy issues…” – Jordan R.

“To me, the iPad is another version of the iTouch; greater in size, graphics further developed, and slimer in size, though, longer. I think it’s way TOO big, and there’s not much of a difference than the iTouch. Safari, e-mailing, photos, and watching HD videos on YouTube are the pros of the iPad. However, I don’t understand why Apple decided to make this. If I would rate this out of 10, I’d give the iPad a 3. Yes, a 3! No way near the iPhone though.” – Doug Mo

“As you all know a few days ago the Apple released a new product a couple of days ago called the iPad. Right off the bat you would think that it’s a waste of money mostly because it looks like an oversized iPod Touch. Overall I say fail device.” – Kiyo F.

If you have $500 to spend, don’t waste your money on the iPad, get the Droid.

Our overall rating? 3.5 out of 10 stars!

Credits:

David Lohle: Specs

Steven Tso: Overall Review

Douglas Mo: Research

Christopher Konecnik: Research, Photos

Kiyo Fortune: Research