The iPad

I couldn't not really could I? I won't bother going into detail about the specs because if you don't already know then you probably don't care much and if you do then pretty much every technology or news website out there has the details on there. As a technology enthusiast it is my business to know about the latest up and coming gadgets and gizmos and I sometimes feel that it is my duty to learn how to use them so that I can give an intelligent and helpful response when the inevitable questions come my way. I can't see that happening this time though because frankly we have nothing really that new. I can understand where people are coming from when they say that Apple have done marvellous things with their launches and indeed they have, the iPod and iPhones have been a huge success but the thing is that they were developing an already existing product and making it better, at the same time encouraging other manufacturers to innovate.

The iPod was by no means the first portable audio device - I hesitate to call it an mp3 player because I'm not sure it does actually play mp3s at least not in their original form. Before that we had CD players and before that cassette players first commercialised by Sony in 1979! Admittedly, in the HDD and flash media market, Apple were (and still are) the kings but they were simply building on existing technology and making it look pretty.

With this new iPad as they have decided to call it, there isn't really a prior product - at least not a successful one and there are other devices that perform virtually the same functions i.e. netbooks and smartphones. People have played about with the tablet form factor before and it has been a resounding flop - admittedly the technology has come on leaps and bounds since then and with the latest touchscreen technology, as a product it is much more usable. I will say however, like many others out there, I cannot see a need for such a device. We already have netbooks to perform the higher end functions of the tablet and they are much more usable than that appears to be. I can quite happily sit a netbook on my knee and type away on the sofa without fear of it falling off. A nice shiny flat tablet however is almost certainly going to slide off my knee in seconds without the balance given by the weight of the keyboard over the screen on a netbook.

Next thing, typing. Most of us nowadays are used to looking forward whilst typing, not looking at the keyboard (assuming most people touch type to some degree) and two hand typing seems a little difficult on the screen without using the optional dockable keyboard - in which case, congratulations you have a very small netbook. That leaves one handed typing unless you have a giant hand span and are able to reach your thumbs to type as you would on a touchscreen phone. This means that typing will likely be less efficient than on a phone and the only benefit I can now see is a slightly bigger screen.

The last and probably most disappointing thing about it is that it isn't capable of multi-tasking which has been available in computers since the 1970s. If I am paying that much for something, I would at least like to be able to listen to music and browse the net and I'd probably want to use a couple of tabs at least in the browser window. I think it all boils down to not wanting the device to seem slow in any way. If multitasking was enabled then the device could quickly become overloaded and start making the user frustrated. Not a particularly good idea with a device like this. With computers, I could somehow forgive them because most of the time I have lots of programs open at the same time - I may not be using them all at once but keeping them open in the background makes it quicker when I do want to chop and change. As I write this I have ten windows open and three browser tabs and this was one of the reasons why I bought a new laptop, my old one simply couldn't handle it all. If all this tablet is is a giant pretty iPhone with substantially fewer features than a netbook for a similar price then I cannot see it's place in the market. Had it been introduced before the netbook then yes, I could imagine it catching on but as far as I'm concerned it is without enough benefits to warrant buying one or a tablet from anyone else for that matter until such a time when I can see the benefit of touchscreens over keyboard and mouse for something that size. I'm still not convinced I like them on phones!

If technology keeps on progressing at the speed it is at the moment then in a couple of years time, phones will be better than what this is now, netbooks will probably have gone the way of the dinosaurs as they are already in decline after their initial "new product" boom. The thin and light laptop is where the future is in the netbook market and I'm putting my money on a new sort of tablet which comprises of a foldable keyboard and flexible display to bridge the gap needed for quick portable computers. In fact, they may even invent a wireless flexible display that can connect to your phone for things like internet browsing although that could be as many as ten years off I reckon. For the meantime, I suppose they will make some money out of it from the Apple disciples who will buy anything Mr. Jobs tells them to and I can see a few of the early adopters jumping on board with some of the offerings from other companies. Other than that I don't think it will get the success these companies seem to think it will but hey, what do I know?