Why I’m excited about the iPad

As many of you know, the Apple iPad is going to be released on April 3rd (my birthday) and I’m incredibly excited about it.  The thing is incredibly thin, sexy, and just looks really nice.  If the iPad meets the bar set by Apple, this is definitely going to be the best device they’ve created.  Though things weren’t exactly all great for me and the iPad, I initially hated it!  So what made me change my mind from hating the iPad to being really excited about it?  Plenty of things to be honest.  But first I’d like to go over the details as to why I hated the iPad from the get go.

The iPad was unveiled by Apple on January 27th 2010 after years of speculation that Apple would release a tablet.  I waited patently at Engadget as the keynote went on, viewing every update as it came, but I was ultimate disappointed in the device as a whole.  The first thing that upset me, was the bezel was too large, I mean look at all that black there, they could have done a little better on that aspect.  I like to have as much screen as I can.  Next, they decided to use iPhone OS 3.2 instead of skipping to 4.0.  While this is ok in the fact that they used 3.2 instead of 4.0, they however didn’t really do anything to the interface except adding the ability to use your own wallpaper on the homescreen (something jailbreakers have been doing for ages).  They still have the same 4×4 icon set, they still use the same icons, though they did update the dock to look more the Leopard/Snow Leopard.  They didn’t do anything revolutionary to the homescreen.  I guess I just expect more out of a new device, especially when iPhone OS is becoming a little stale in comparison to Android/WebOS.  They did however make some nice changes to the interface of everything else.  Settings has an all new look, as well as Mail, Calendar, YouTube, Photos, etc…  The software aspect is pretty nice (except the lackluster homescreen).  Hardware wise they decided to use a 9.7″ IPS LCD screen, coupled with a 1Ghz “Apple A4 chip”, which is nothing more than an ARM Cortex-A8 chip, no word on actual memory of the device yet, but I’d hoped it’d be at least 512MB since the iPhone 3GS already  has 256.  There is a 3G version of the iPad, but comes at a higher price AND you had to pay an additional $30 for the Unlimited (read: 5GB) data plan.  Since this is still iPhone OS, it still has the same gripes I talked about in my previous post (no Flash, no multitasking, etc…), so I’m not going to get into that at all.  Let’s get into why I’m really excited about it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a netbook as my only computer right now, a netbook I use to watch video on, which causes the crappy Atom processor to choke on and heat up.  Since my iPhone screen is way too small to enjoy a TV episode/movie, I can’t wait to watch a show/movie on this screen.  yeah it’s only 1024×768 resolution, but it’s so much better than the iPhone’s 480×320, and definitely better than my netbook’s 1024×600.  This also means that I can watch a movie/show on the iPad and be able to browse the web at the same time.  If I tried to do that on my netbook, I wouldn’t be able to, the movie would freeze and the CPU would jump to 100% (which it seems to do no matter what I do).  That means I can watch my 720p TV shows and movies on a 9.7″ screen and not worry about overheating my notebook.  I’m also incredibly excited about web browsing on this screen; the iPhone’s screen is just too small to be able to do any real web browsing, without scrolling for days.  Since the iPad will run most, if not all of the iPhone’s apps, this means that games will be so much better, it’ll also make SSH applications actually worthwhile, thanks to the bigger screen.  Though it makes me wonder if games designed for the iPad will run worse on the iPad than on the iPhone, since the iPad uses the same graphics processor as the iPhone, or will the extra horsepower from the “A4″ pick up the slack?  One thing that I don’t get is, why would anyone want to put their music on this thing?  Isn’t that what your iPhone/iPod is for?  I’d rather have that space available for apps/movies.  I guess if you’re lazy and don’t want to get your iPhone/iPod out.

I’ve already pre-ordered the WiFi version as a birthday present to myself, as I did not want to wait for the 3G version, nor did I want to pay an additional $30 to AT&T when I already do that for my iPhone.  Another reason for not getting the 3G version is that where am I going to take the iPad?  I have WiFi at home, and I’m sure as hell not going to take this device anywhere only to have it stolen, so I’m going to keep this baby at home thank you!  Since the iPad runs on iPhone OS, it’ll only be a matter of time until it’s jailbroken.  I really can’t wait until this thing is jailbroken as that will truly open up everything, themes, additional programs.  As excited as I am for the iPad, being a hardware enthusiast, I want more.  I want a 10″ HD screen, 1.5Ghz processor, 512MB/1GB of RAM, front facing camera for Skype, and a dedicated GPS for the WiFi version.  Hey, a guy can dream can’t he? .  All I know is that I’m going to be extremely happy with the device, but I will certainly write up a review after I get it in less than 3 weeks.