Now that the iPad has been officially released, I can say with certainty: I want one. I haven’t wanted a piece of technology so bad ever since the Playstation 1 was released over a decade ago. The funny thing is, I’m not exactly sure why.
Part of the reason may be due to the fact that the iPhone is what I consider to be one of the best pieces of technology I have ever used. Call out Apple all you want on their locked down approach to this device, but the result is a nearly perfectly functioning piece of equipment. This was clear to me after jailbreaking the phone: While some of the new capabilities were nice, the phone just wasn’t as stable or fast as it used to be, so I reset it.
So if the iPad is just a bigger version of the incredible iPhone, then I want it. My new TV is just a bigger version of my old one, and guess what? It’s much better. My 27″ monitor at work is bigger than the 19″ monitor I used to use, and guess what? It’s better. Bigger is indeed better in this case, at least in several regards – web browsing, reading books, watching movies. All things I plan to do a lot on the iPad.
iBooks would be a pretty big deal for me. I read solely on my iPhone now. I love having all my books accessible in one place, and I personally love holding an iPhone instead of a paper book. Of course, I’d want to make sure that holding an iPad to read is comfortable as well.
There is certainly a lot of negativity about the iPad. You’re not being forced to buy this thing! The two major negatives I hear both seem close to inconsequential to me.
No Flash? I have a plugin to disable Flash from all websites I visit. I never enable a piece of Flash, besides Youtube. Flash is buggy, slow, and is mainly used from ads. The fact that iPad doesn’t support it is a huge plus to me.
No multitasking? First, that isn’t true of course, since Mail and Calendar both run in the background. Second, I honestly can’t think of a time I’ve felt the need for it on my iPhone. Push notifications make up for it anyway.
I’m not too worried about a huge price reduction ala the iPhone (as John Gruber said, Apple doesn’t make the same mistake twice). I don’t care about a camera, as my iPhone does all the portable photography I need and I have an actual camera for better photos.
One of my biggest hesitations isn’t necessarily a fault with the iPad, but more with myself: I’m worried about dropping the thing. I’m worried about leaving it on my ottoman and then having my 11 month old son take it for a ride when I’m not looking. I’m worried that the iPad is meant to be carried, and that with all that carrying, I’m going to drop it sooner or later. I already paid $200 to fix a broken iPhone screen, and I’d really like to avoid the same thing with the iPad, which is probably more likely to break completely if dropped.
