New Apple iPad

Many people were like me today and glued to their computers all around the world in their respective time zone looking to hear the news of the much rumored iPad. We were not confused as it really was called the iPad and it included many of the heavily rumored features that people were lusting over.. but not all.

Hype!
The hype surrounding this launch and the mystery lead to many rumors such as the ability for the device to bend time and space lead to such insanity as drinking games designed to be played around the launch which detailed out all the features and if included you had to drink.

Arrival Day
I was one of the many glued to my computer and eating at my desk as it occurred at 12:00pm CST. I was frustrated but not mad that I couldn't follow anything at all on www.apple.com or any of their subsidiary sites that I was aware of. Twitter didn't yield much more, no streaming video that I could find other than some silliness going on with the folks at Crunch Gear. I found the best source of information was the blogging which included great pictures and comments from Engadget.

The Device
I am not an Apple, Google, or Microsoft Fanboy and I consider myself omni-tech-ual? I have programing (Shell Scripting, Perl, PHP), Unix (SGI Irix, Sun Solaris), and Microsoft certifications as well as a background using and supporting Macs since 1994 not to mention that I happily own an Android phone. I am just a nerd and use the best tool available for the job at hand.

There are many sites including those names above that will cover in extreme detail what the iPad costs, contains, and promises so I won't get into that. I realize that we as a greedy never satisfied culture are never satisfied but I was not very impressed. In short I feel like this is a huge iPod Touch with a 3G upgrade if you want it. The following list of things are missing and to me are deal breakers that I expected to be fixed before I pull out my wallet (Which I was excited and ready to do).

• No Flash (really? still?)
• No Camera (Barcode reading, video conference, etc)
• No GPS (Isn't the purpose to be mobile?)
• No USB (I can't plug anything in like a GPS or Camera, or Mouse and Keyboard?)
• No SD or Memory Slots? (I can't upload anything via sneaker net?)
• No Multi-tasking? (I am way too ADHD to only be able to do 1 thing at a time)
• Still stuck with AT&T (What is the purpose of defining the iPad as unlocked if it still only works with AT&T?)
  

The Name
The most surprising thing to me was the weak name for this which is being laughed at and jokes are being told at it's expense. Twitter is now trending on several variations on the hash tags to poke fun such as #ipadjokes. My personal favorites are:

• A larger version will be available this summer called the MaxiPad
• Why did they call it the iPad? Because Sham-wow was already taken
• With AT&T and the iPad you know the network will be down at least 5 days a month

Alternatives
As I mentioned above, I am ready to put out my money for something new. I am ready to invest in something that lets me indulge more in my ever increasing content and social addictions. I am extremely interested in the rumored Microsoft Courier but it's still too good to be true and more focused on productivity than the iPad. I already have and still love my original Kindle but for now I might have to just stick with my normal laptop and my Andoid G1 handset.

My coworker Chris (@ebbynezer) wrote a pretty interesting blog post which was optimistic and very forward looking into what the iPad could have meant. After the announcement he acknowledged to me in the hall that he might have reached a bit given the outcome from the announcement.

What did you think about the announcement and will you buy an iPad?