Apple iPad's Highlights and Lowlights

Allow me to start this entry by showing you a bluff photo of the iPad. Obviously, the pretty girl  shown in the background drew an Apple logo onto her pads to create a literal iPad. I must say the logo looks almost perfect if without the smudges of the marker she used. But hey, she makes sense -- maybe brought by the disappointment that Steve Jobs named it as iPad instead of a better name like iTablet or Apple Tablet.

Now let's move on to the real deal. Introduced in the Apple Media Event held on January 27, 2010, I present to you the Apple iPad with its highlights and lowlights, as compiled from various websites.

Highlights:

• View pictures, sites, and videos at a bigger and clearer scale with its 9.7-inch IPS display screen with 1024x768 pixels;
• Get a better browsing and gaming experience at www.casino.com/sv/ with the use of Apple's own A4 1GHz chip, which gives  more processing power to the gadget;
• Feel no heaviness because it's just 0.5-inch thin and 1.5 pounds heavy. It's thinner and lighter than any netbook;
• It has Bluetooh 2.1, WiFi 802.11n, an optional 3G, and 10 hours battery life (or a month of standby).
• iPad is built with accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, and dock connectors; and,
• Use it to store iBooks, access iWorks/iTunes/Calendar/Contacts/Notes, or sych your music like an iPod or iPhone.
  

The price starts at $499 -- it isn't that bad.
• Wifi - $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32 GB, $699 for 64GB
• WiFi +3G - $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32 GB, $829 for 64GB

Lowlights:

• Obviously, the name wasn't well thought of. Might create confusion to store personnel in countries who aren't that good in English. Customers might ask for an iPod but may pronounce it as iPad.
  
• Multitasking is not allowed. Ideally, it will be better to have a gadget allowing its user to have  his YM open for chat and still be able to write a document.
• No back and front cameras. Laptops and even cameras have this, how come Steve Jobs' gadget doesn't?
  
• It's not widescreen to be able to watch a good Star Trek movie and the likes.
• No Flash for websites, which will obviously leave a huge area of a website empty.
  
• Absence of adapters like USB and card slots to expand its memory.
• A closed app ecosystem allowing only applications from the App Store.

In conclusion, I myself got disappointed of what I saw during the launch. People, including myself, were expecting for a tablet or perhaps a gadget that can replace a netbook. What we saw today is just a bigger scale of an iPhone or an iTouch. In my opinion, the iPad is just a cool-to-have gadget,-- it's one of those  techie stuff where you can say "I want it" instead of "I need it." Nevertheless, in the end, it'll always the preference of a person whether he sees it to be useful or not.

What can you say?