Feel Me Don't You

If you’ve been online to any of the news, gadgets, or social media sites over the past couple days, you’ve likely noticed the plethora of posts regarding Apple’s new unveiling of the iPad. The tag line for those who can’t be bothered to click the link:

Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. Starting at $499.

Most advanced? Really? Magical? Seriously? $499? Are you out of your mind?

Those are quite lofty descriptions for the Rain Man of new gadgets. Why Rain Man? Because the new iPad in its current incarnation cannot multitask. It can only do one thing at a time. Judging by the video on Engadget, it does that one thing well enough – when it does work – in the traditional Apple-pretty way. If you’re expecting an update from your favorite social media page and you want to listen to music while you wait, you’ll have to close down your iPod/iTunes and go to the web browser and then go back again when you’re ready to listen to music. Allegedly, multitasking is on the horizon for future versions, but for now, one thing at a time. It’s possible that there are people out there who don’t care about multitasking and doing one thing at a time would suit them just fine. I still think there are better options available.

Let’s dig into some of the above assertions, shall we?

Most advanced:

Safari: It comes with the Safari browser and allows you to “see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time” and to navigate the web using “the most natural pointing device there is: your finger”. So how is that different from any of the latest generation phones already on the market like the Nexus, Droid, MyTouch, Hero, or (say it with me) iPhone? Seems there’s nothing new here.

Mail: You can get email. *GASP* Will the marvels of modern technology never cease? Ok, I suppose it has one thing that my current phone (the quickly becoming antiquated T-Moile Dash) doesn’t in that it will allow you to see an emailed photo in the message and will allow you to save it to the iPhotos app. I can save any emailed image, though. I don’t know about any of the other newer smart phones, but I would assume they would allow you to also see photos in email. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

Photos: You can organize your photos into albums and do the standard pinch and expand to manipulate the size, view pictures as a slideshow, or you can use it as a digital photo frame even if it’s docked. My current phone doesn’t allow me to do anything but view a picture or watch a video, so I’m hoping someone with a more current phone can verify whether theirs has that capability. I believe that they do, but I’m not 100%.

Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, and Spotlight Search: With the exception of YouTube, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, and Spotlight Search, I have all these items on my current phone and I know that most if not all are available on newer phones. From you iPhone-philes out there, does the iPhone have the Spotlight Search that allows you to search over everything on your phone? If not, then that’s another potential new innovation.

All in all, I’m not seeing the whole “most advanced” as being too terribly accurate here since you can get these items on a tablet PC, laptop, or smart phone. So, is it advanced because you can alter the viewing orientation? No, your smart phones can do that and so can a PC tablet.

Magical:

I’m very curious what they deem magical about this device. Is it that all these features are packed into a sleek, pretty package that’s sports a high-res 178 degree viewing angle surface that measures 9.7″ diagonally – slightly smaller than a magazine – is only .5″ thin and weighs 1.5 lbs? Maybe. Unlike your phone, however, this baby isn’t fitting into your pocket or anywhere else on your person. Now if they could get it to shrink and expand into and out of your pocket, that would be magical.

Starting at $499:

There are cheaper and more expensive “tablets” on the market. Ultimately, everyone’s price point is different in what you’re willing to spend on what. I’m very curious, though, to know how many people are willing to fork out $500 for a device that will only handle things like photos or videos (or other non-online activities) or $500 plus the $30 per month for the data package to do it all. Is there truly that large of a market that craves something that fits between a laptop and a smart phone?

Anyone here feel the need to rush out an buy one of these bad boys or care to discuss your thoughts?

(continued from fo0)