iPad. Why?
Jan 28th, 2010 by Intermanaut
I just don’t get it. To me it looks like nothing more than an enormous iPod Touch with a relatively low resolution screen. It’s of no viable use in the real world. It’s just a media player, like the various flavours if iPod and iPhone*.
“Ooh, multi-touch display.” So fucking what? It can’t even display web sites properly! Google Maps as standard but no GPS! Jesus. You may as well run Google Maps through your telly.
When the 3G version rocks up in a few months nothing much changes. iPad isn’t a go-everywhere device - it’s too big. Neither is it something you can use for work. Nor can you run Spotify in the background while browsing the internet.
I’ve watched various videos, read the commentary, and all that, it seems that Steve’s dropped a bollock on this, knowing that McFanBois won’t figure that out and will buy them anyway. The dock will allow you to use it as a digital photo frame, though. Neat.
Technology for technology’s sake? Not really. Maybe if you boil-wash yours it’ll shrink to a manageable size. And you’ll still be stuck with iChoons.
* I know, I know, you can use the iPhone to make calls, but why would you? It’s rubbish at that.
It’s of no viable use to *you*. Or me, probably. But we’re geeks, and they’re not the target market.
Most people look at youbook and facetube. They forward email jokes to one another. Maybe play solitaire or something equally mindless while they watch TV. At the really extreme end of the spectrum, they might connect their camera and download some pictures. Most don’t though, they leave them on there until the card breaks and then moan about it.
They don’t care if it’s not got fifteen USB ports or a card reader or somewhere to attach your knob. They don’t want to listen to Spotify while they write PHP scripts. They just want something simple, easy, and able to do what they want. Nothing more.
The ipad is that thing. The rest of us can stick with our “proper” computers.
It’s a 4:3 screen. Jesus. Even iPhone is widescreen. It’s garbage. The more I talk to people about it the more I think it’s pointless. If there was some way to stick it to your fridge so that you could use it for recipes and shopping, I could see how it could have a US$200 price-point. As it is, it’s like a PCSO.