I have to say that I was thoroughly unimpressed by today's iPad event. Don't get me wrong I disliked iPod 1.0 (didn't buy one until the 3rd generation iPod), and I disliked the first iPhone (didn't buy one until the 3GS). If history is any indication I will probably like iPad 3.0 (either that or I won't care as much). So here's a rundown:


The Pros:
Nice iCal App - I gotta say, I am a sucker for design and the calendar app looks great!

Nice AddressBook App - ditto for the addresbook app. Reminds me of old school addressbooks.

iWork on the iPad - Now this IS awesome. With this you can edit any MS office documents that you receive, you can create new iWork documents, and conceivably you can attach an iPad to a data projector and run your lecture from it. COOL! (Keynote is my preferred presentation software)

It's unlocked! - You don't need to have cell service on it, but you can if you want - and it's GSM unlocked! Finally!

Price - $500 for a 16GB WiFi (or $629 for 16GB with 3G) isn't bad at all. It's actually looking like the price of a Netbook.


The So-So:
Keyboard Dock - It's a good start. I would have expected a bluetooth keyboard though.

iPhone Apps compatible - It's nice that this device already has a library that it works with. No need to wait for developers to make new apps for (yet another) platform. I would have been more excited if there weren't a ton of fart apps on the appstore ;-)


The Cons:
No Multitasking - This is a no-brainer

No Camera(s) - Missed opportunity. Especially for a front facing camera that you can use for conferencing.

No Stylus - The screen is BEAUTIFUL! Simply beautiful. It just BEGS to have a writing implement (read: stylus) be part of the package. Yes you can get a pogo-stick, but this means that the OS does not have built-in support for stili.

No Flash - Like it or not, there is a boatload of flash content on the web. Lots of it is video, and there is a great deal of it that is for web design and navigation elements. If I need a laptop to experience the full web, why would I buy an iPad?

No Tethering - While you can, if you want, throw in any SIM card you want in this device, I already have an iPhone, for which I pay $30/month and I am not using all my data (don't even come close to the 5GB). Why can't I tether my iPhone to the iPad?

No dialer, SMS, MMS - Since you can pop a SIM card into this, why is there no SMS/MMS apps and dialer so you can use a bluetooth headset for make and receive calls?

Crippled by AppStore - It's really nice that I can get apps from the AppStore for the iPad, but there are Mac apps that I would really love to see run on this device. Applications like Rapidweaver and Chrome (yes, an alternative browser) for example.

iBooks App - It brings nothing new to the table! It's just another eBook reader. Such a great big touchable display? Can't I take notes? write in the margins? Highlight text? Copy and Paste? (for research purposes or fair use commenting of course!). I think that textbooks are useless unless you can annotate, copy and paste info to and from them.

Lack of many New and Original Apps! - iChat was something that I was expecting. I was also expecting some sort of WOW factor. Nope.