Another Take on Apple’s New Toy

By in Entertainment,

When Apple introduced its much anticipated tablet computing device called iPad, it immediately got mixed reviews from blogs and the general public who have not yet gotten their hands on the device. Where this device will win with consumers isn’t in the enhancements to the iPod/iPhone model, it’s the company’s breakthrough agreements with publishers.

Here’s where the iPad falls short—for me, the geek, not the potential buying audience: first of all, it lacks the multitasking ability that users of computers know well. Even just the ability to listen to a song on a streaming application such as Last.fm or Pandora while checking e-mail is really all I would use it for. As it stands now, to listen to a song and be productive on the device would be to use the valuable, limited space on the iPad’s music player.

The appeal of getting 10 hours of use from the device’s battery cannot be ignored. Likely these two decisions were made in an effort to make the battery last the longest amount of time.

In more direct competition with Amazon’s Kindle e-reading device, Apple has announced deals with many publishing companies to bring books available to its new iBook store. Reading is going digital, but it remains to be seen how good iPads are at reducing eye-strain from looking at an electronic display for extended periods of time.

The other thing is that devices like Kindle and the Kindle DX, made for textbook reading, currently only display in black-and-white. The iPad will display rich colors, so for textbook reading, the device will perform very well.

So the device, just from initial impressions, turns out to be a mixed bag of very good and disappointing. The good is the crisp, large display; the intuitive, familiar navigation of an iPhone and its enhancements to that formula. The unfortunate downsides are that Apple chose not to listen to some of the biggest complaints with their other iDevices.

The price is the most compelling. Although it’s out of my price range (between $499-829) it is set up in order to best move large quantities.

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