Robbe Dewilde

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, you have most definitely heard or read about Apple’s latest creation: the iPad. It might have been their most hyped up product since they first introduced the iPhone a few years ago. Maybe it is just because the success of the iPhone everyone was already so excited about Apple’s next big, game changing device. Although no one had any clue what it would look like, feel like and be able to do.

So, there we had everybody, waiting for Apple to show us this new device they had been working on. The expectations were high. No one really knew what was coming, but one thing was sure, it would the best thing mankind had known since sliced bread.

Then Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave us a first look on what from that moment we know as the iPad. Silly name? Maybe, but a pretty logic choice when you know there already is an iMac, iPod and even an iPhone (now seriously, how obvious was that?).

But the fan boys were not so happy this time, they felt like Steve and Apple had let them down this time, because..

It looks like a stretched out iPod Touch/iPhone

Yes, it does have that form-factor, but is that actually a bad thing? I’ll bet that when you put your hands on it for the first time it will just feel ‘right’, like when I first picked up my iPhone, I just wanted to start using it and never looked back ever since.

It runs the iPhone OS

Well, that can be a problem for some of the apps we are using nowadays on our iPhones and iPod Touches. Apps like Things, Tweetie or Facebook will probably not get the most out of the gorgeous screen on the iPad and I think the same goes for a lot of games.

But still, the overall look and feel of the OS will just work fine for me and most other people, the only thing we have to do is wait for some apps to come out that work exclusively on the iPad, or are ‘upgraded’ to get the most out of it.

No camera, no usb-ports..

Really.. Do you see yourself taking pictures with a device that is 20 x 15 cm? Because when you do, I guarantee you’ll look like a complete fool while doing it. Use your digital camera to take photos.

And also, what usb-device would you hook it up with? Not your printer, that’s for sure, that things is already connected to your desktop computer or laptop, or maybe you already use wifi to connect with your printer. A mouse? An external hard drive? The only thing I could think off to connect with an iPad is a digital camera but there is the “iPad Camera Connection Kit” for that occasion which looks pretty neat.

Still no Flash player

Flash sites will still not work on devices that are running the iPhone OS and stuff like video players made in Flash or those horrible Flash banners will also not be displayed on the iPad.

But with HTML5 looking around the corner I think some things will change. The new HTML 5 player made by YouTube looks really promising and things like that will be great for mobile devices. Those are just my two cents and the Flash vs. HTML debate is a completely different thing..

Now, how can it blow your mind?

If Apple play their cards right, and in some way they will, the iPad will be another big hit, just like the iPod and iPhone.

It would be great to hook your iPad up with all kinds of devices in your house. Maybe use it as an extra input device for your computer, an extra screen to give you information when you are playing games. Just imagine how awesome it could be as a remote for your television, when you would be able to get information about the show or watch a trailer from a movie that is playing on another channel right now before you change the channel, all with this one device.

Many people will use the iPad as an eBook reader (or should I say iBooks from now on) and the first thing I thought of was, “Okay, so I can put YouTube videos next to a piece of text, Wikipedia entries when I don’t quite get a word while reading or make my own notes to go along with the text”. This can be very useful when you’re a student, and like me tend to lose paper just lying around your desk.. And the ability to buy books from Amazon without having to leave your couch really speaks to me. Also, rent a movie on iTunes, connect your iPad to your TV, watch the movie. As simple as one, two, three.

Or maybe one of the best views on using devices like an iPad comes from Christopher Dawson who wrote an article on ZDNet.com with the title “Dumping my laptop for.. a server”. Where he explains some of his ideas on cloud computing and there is also the fact that most people only need a web browser to fulfill their computing needs.

And oh, for the record. I’m not an Apple fan boy.