Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The iPad: idon’t care, iThink iWillpass

Apple’s Steve Jobs announced the iPad today , the much rumored and anticipated Apple tablet device. And you know what? I could care less. I don’t care that Apple thinks that it could be a rival to the Amazon Kindle, or that it could be good for gaming, or for whatever other things a computer can do. I think the iPad is just another toy made to siphon money out of one’s pocket, in this case, $499 for the iPad.

Seriously now, how many electronic toys can a person use? Some people need to have the latest in anything having to do with Apple, but not me. I guess I am just one of those people that never drank the Apple kool-aid. The iPod is nothing more than a simple MP3 player, and MP3 players are practically given away now and are included with most cell phones. I’m not into gaming, so the iPad doesn't grab me on that feature. I do a lot of typing so I like a full size keyboard. I also like to see what I’m typing, or reading, so a full size screen that I don’t have to hold in my hand works just fine for me. Maybe I am in that demographic that is a little wiser about spending my money and am able to control myself from buying something that I may not really need. But I am sure there are some people out there who are already lining up somewhere to buy an iPad, even though they aren’t actually selling them as yet.

For me, I’m taking a wait and see approach. After all, sometime in the early 1990s I was trying to get the company that I worked for to use the GridPad, a tabled style computer. It’s nice to see that Apple has caught up to a 1990s concept, and is making it into a product that consumers, not businesses, may shell out the money to buy for entertainment purposes. But the question remains – with many people having personal computers or Macs, cell phones, netbooks, laptops, etc., does one really need a tablet too? The size also is a turn off; if I can’t fit it in my purse, I’m not going to carry it with me. And if I’m home, I’d rather be using my full size computer or laptop. I still like to read a book by actually turning the pages, and I love to page through my three daily newspapers. Sure, I still get plenty of news or do a lot of reading off the internet, but there is still something for the relaxing feeling one can get by sitting back and leafing through the newspaper or a book. It’s just not the same experience reading it on a Kindle, and I suspect it would be the same for me using an iPad - a sterile experience.

For me, I think I already have plenty of electronics toys to keep me occupied, entertained, and informed. Sorry Steve, but I think I will pass on the iPad.


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just think, magazines and newspapers where you can get content for FREE now on the internet, they will want to charge for on the iPad. Just another way yo squeeze money out of people.

I have no interest in it, either.

Rosemary said...

The Ipad doesn't even support websites with Flash, like Hulu, because Apple and Adobe just can't get along. Ridiculous. I have a netbook that I bought for less than $300 and I can surf everything on the web, watch Itunes videos, and back up all my photographs if I want. It's actually a computer.

Anonymous said...

Steve Jobs is just hoping there are a few more suckers out there that will buy this just because Apple made it. It reminds me of those giant remote controls that you find in the discount stores that are as big as your forearm. It's too big to hold for any length of time, I don't care how light it is.

Anonymous said...

There are some old jokes about the iPad you can find them at this link:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=56194

They are now calling it the iTampon!

Anonymous said...

The iPad is only good for Apple, seeing as they will get a cut ($) of every single thing you use it for, either audio, video, or text.

Run away from this ASAP as it is made to drain money from your wallet.