iPad Arrives

After an exhausting amount of speculation, denial, anti-marketing, and fanfare, Apple released the much-anticipated iPad. They say it's sixty days out, which will give developers time to tune up their apps for the new format and release new ones. It will also bring sales of competing e-Readers like Amazon's Kindle to a screeching halt.

Somewhere deep in the archives of Slashdot, circa 2006, I described what I wanted in a handheld device. It needed to be about the size of a Steno pad in all three dimensions, be able to run some basic business apps (e-mail, calendar, doc viewer, note taker, etc.). Bonus points for music and video, but they weren't that important. I didn't want a physical keyboard, but wanted the option, via Bluetooth or something, to add one. Someone responded and said, "Oh, what you want is the PADD from Star Trek: The Next Generation." Well, yes, that's it. Just like that. Four years later, here it is. I seriously doubt Mr. Ive saw my post and said, "Hey, great idea." I'm sure it had been cooking in the Apple oven for years prior to that, and my post in the deep recesses of some tech-head website didn't change the tide of technology. Rather I mean to say that I've known what I wanted for years, and I'm glad to see that it's finally here.

The $499 base model price tag is nice to see, particularly as the world doesn't really have disposable income right now. Bargains are wanted, and Apple provided. When I got my iPhone, I was sure that I needed the 16 gig model, as I was going to be doing a lot with it. Well, I've got about 1000 tracks of music on it, some video content, a bunch of apps, 500 or so photos, etc., and I just broke over 8 GB of usage after almost two years. If need be, I could delete about half of that and not be missing anything (I almost never use it as a music player, for instance). Knowing that, I can bet the 16 gig iPad model would suit me just fine, at least until the next revision comes along.

About that next revision: Gotta have a camera. Forward facing at that, so it can be used to video conference. I'm shocked that they didn't include one in the flagship model, but I'll bet it had something to do with AT&T's lack of ability to support the amount of network traffic they have now, let alone a bunch of people video conferencing on their iPads.

So, I've got two months (more like three; I rarely buy anything right out of the gate) to come up with $500. That's unlikely to happen, but I can always hope. I'll let you know what I come up with.