(A blog post from Ramon, our resident iPhone developer, also known among the nerd herd as “filjedi.”)
iPad on an invisible table in Steve Job's home ;p
So, the iPad is the rumored tablet that Apple finally unveiled to the public last 27 January. Some people were amazed, more were disappointed, others even told themselves, “Why the hell would I buy this?” Me? I would buy the 16GB version today for 2 reasons.
Firstly, as an iPhone developer, I’d definitely need to test my current app on an actual iPad. I’d want to use it to see how I can take advantage of the added screen real estate & the better specs if I were to release DeskWhiz & WalletWhiz as “native” iPad apps.
Secondly, I definitely see this as something I can use when I don’t want to fire up my Macbook in the SOHO just to check my e-mail, browse the web, play games, watch videos, or other casual activities. The iPhone is great for these things, but the iPad can arguably do them better. In short, this is the netbook I’ve been waiting for.
However, there has been a lot of negative feedback regarding the iPad. It doesn’t allow third party app multi-tasking. It doesn’t run Flash. It doesn’t have a real keyboard. It doesn’t have a camera. It still needs a separate computer to function properly. It doesn’t have an optical drive. It doesn’t have a real desktop/laptop/netbook OS.
Instead of offering my two-cents about what the iPad can or can’t do, I’d rather go into a discussion into what the iPad means for the future of personal computing & why Apple may have actually left out a lot of things on purpose in it’s goal to redefine a netbook.
