Apple's Maxi iPad with Wings For Extra Protection - Shelly Palmer - MediaBizBloggers

As a Jobsian supplicant and an Apple acolyte I really really want to love the iPad No one on Earth has made me buy more stuff I don39t need with money I don39t have than Steve Jobs He39s my hero One writer who came to visit me in my home office looked around and observed quotIt looks like Steve Jobs threw up in herequot It does There are three MacBooks two MacBook Pros one Mac Pro several 30quot Apple monitors an Airport dozens of iPods from every generation a couple of iPod Touches plus my old and my new iPhone 3Gs Apple Apple everywhere and only one lonely PC in sight I use the PC so I can feel the pain and suffering of the other 92 of the computing world keep up on the latest virus issues and bash the crap out of Windows which is a full contact sport in my worldSo with this insane fanboy intro you should be expecting a serious love letter to Cupertino about their latest offering the iPad Not going to happenBehold the iPad Obviously no female staffers were consulted while the Csuite was approving the name iTampon was a huge trending topic on the day the device was introduced along with quotTampadquot which is also funny but a little gross Moving past the name I am trying to understand what the iPad is and why it needs to existIt is beautiful sexy Applesque remarkable aweinspiring extraordinary and every other adjective Apple management could find in the thesaurus I agree It39s all those things But beauty is only skin deep Let39s have a quick look at what it is and what it isn39tThe iPad is a very big iPod Touch If you have extra money to spend you can add the spotty woefully inadequate ATampampT 3G network That would make it a cloudconnected device with quotanytimequot minutes As in quotany time you can get a signalquot If not it39s a very big iPod TouchLike the iPod Touch it is a consumption device not a creation device It has no camera This doesn39t seem to be a big deal except that Video chatting is one of the fastest growing behaviors and the iPad39s quotintimatequot approach to computing Steve Jobs39s own words not mine so no snickers about feminine protection and intimacy would seem to leave you wanting for that capabilityIt has no USB support So you are locked into the convention of connecting to the iTunesApp StoreiBookstore software on your computer to move files to and from the iPad There will be a huge issue with converting HD video files and many other types of files for use on the device There are some annoying dongles that can be used to read an SD card from your camera or output video to an external monitor like your TV Knowing Apple they will be 30 bucks a pop and if you39re like me you39ll lose them constantlyThe screen is 1024x768 This is a 4x3 aspect ratio VGA display It is not HD compatible You cannot play HD video on the device And 16x9 HD formatted video will have to be viewed in a letterbox Astoundingly it outputs composite video It is very possible that your new HDTV does not have a composite video input However there is some good news video from the iPad will look smoking hot on anything with a Cathode Ray Tube display So don39t throw out your old Sony Trinitron color tube TV may be coming backLike the iPhone family of devices you cannot play Flash video on an iPad Apple hates Adobe this is unlikely to change So you are going to see a lot of blue boxes where streaming video and Flash applications appear on websites Since 98 of computers with web browsers are Flash enabled your multimedia web browsing experience will be somewhat suboptimal and I39m being kindI could go on but the lack of USB support is the deal breaker This is not a computer not an iPod not a netbook not a notebook it is an extension of the Apple ecosystemIf you need to drink the proverbial KoolAid to have an iPhone or even quotbequot a Mac Person you39ll need a gallon jug of the stuff to get you to buy into the iPadWould it have killed them to put a working USB port in the thing How about a little iSight camera facing you And what were they thinking with the OS You can only run one app at a time Like an iPhone or iPod Touch the OS can only run one app at a time I39m writing this article on my MacBook Pro let39s see how many apps I have open MS Word Mac Mail Firefox Address Book Daylite Omnifocus Adobe Bridge Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Keynote PowerPoint Lightroom Soundtrack Pro iTunes and the allimportantly Text Expander running in the background Text Expander from Smile On My Mac Software is the single most useful app on a Mac and it would be 100 times more useful running on an iPhone or iPod Touch while other programs are running so you could um expand your text One app at a time You must be kidding meThe iPad is an extension of the Apple ecosystem Once you enter you will be trapped lovingly beautifully thrillingly inside They will give you all of the software for free a word processer Pages a spreadsheet Numbers presentation software Keynote photo software iPhoto email Mac Mail etc all part of the ecosystem You will buy books magazines music movies all neatly presented inside a prison of such striking beauty you may not realize that you are being held captive This model will be awesome for content creators and publishers They will be able to charge you and know you paid Except for the recorded music industry which is circling the drain and is not responding to treatmentWill the iPad capture the minds of consumers Will it start new industries Is it a paradigm shift or a parlor trick I don39t know Being a Kindle owner and lover and looking at the iPad ereader app the iPad wins no contest oh wait no it doesn39t The backlit screen is not eink and your eyes will fatigue like they do on a computer The battery won39t last anywhere near as long it39s double to four times the price before you add the data plan All true but the iPad is beautiful and the apps are magnificent looking and hold on I39ve spilled some blue liquid out of my KoolAid cup Thankfully the iPad is Maxisized and has wings for extra protectionShelly Palmer is the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer a daily show featuring news you can use about technology media ampamp entertainment He is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2008 New York House Press and the upcoming Get Digital Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21st Century Economy 2009 Lake House Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy Awards For information about Get Digital Classes visit httpwwwshellypalmercomseminars Watch Digital Life with Shelly Palmer Tuesdays at 10p ET on WNBC39s NY Nonstop httpwwwshellypalmercomdigitallifeRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Apple's Maxi iPad with Wings For Extra Protection - Shelly Palmer - MediaBizBloggers

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