Apple iPad

Posted Thu Jan 28, 2010 in

If Steve Jobs is good at anything, it’s creating a great deal of buzz about something that Apple is doing. So enters the new Apple iPad.

I haven’t had the chance to handle one, yet. I will have sometime soon, I’m sure. I will go to the Apple store in Reno and handle the iPad.

However, I don’t think that will make me want one. And, as I always do, I’ll explain what I’m thinking.

The iPad looks like a steriod-infused iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s bigger. I’m sure it’s faster and more responsive. But it doesn’t have very much storage — the largest model advertised on Apple’s site is 64GB. That’s the same amount of storage as their largest iPod Touch.

This is not the device I’m looking for. What I want Apple to build (and I will buy) is a tablet-Mac with equivalent power to my MacBook Pro, a reasonably-sized screen (say about 12–13 inches), touch or stylus (or both) operation, and the capability of adding external devices, to include keyboard and mouse, external drives, and such.

The tablet-Mac would not have to do video processing; desktop machines are for that. But I would like to be able to download images from my camera and process them.

I want to be able to do 90 percent of my work on my tablet-Mac (to be). That would include using the machine as a note-taking device in meetings (with handwriting recognition that works).

We didn’t get that. My response to the introduction of the iPad is somewhere between mild interest and “yawn.” Sorry, Apple, you failed to generate an extreme degree of want in me. Try again.

My opinion might change when I handle one. But, I think not. I read the features list and what I’m really looking for is not there.