Feeling Generous?

I haven’t done a geek post in a while and there is a law in which I will lose my geek card if I don’t write about the latest Apple product. Now I am not an apple fanboi, but they do make some great products. More than that they have an incredible PR department. We want to love the look and style because they convince us we want to. Look back at the first iPod or iMac. By today’s standards it looks clunky, but when it came out we believed it looked like a curvy sexy future. Each iteration of their product convinces us we need that new sleek look.

Still, the product behind the design is pretty solid. Macs aren’t the perfect and never fail hardware we are led to believe, but since everything is proprietary things tend to work together. The user interface is the first thought, not the after though. Everything is built around the experience, and that is good planning for most people.

This brings up the latest product. The iPad. Now I get the play on the name. They have iMac, iPod, and now iPad. Each has 3 letters following “i.” I don’t know that “Pad” was the best choice though. Still the product looks amazing. It is like a giant version of the iPod touch. Slightly smaller than a sheet of paper and about half an inch thick. It weighs a mere 1.5 lbs (1.6 with 3G support). The price point feels a smidge high but I expect that will drop quick enough. I also expect a few other issues to be dealt with in the next year.

Right now it appears that you have to stand the screen vertically to use to optional keyboard accessory. I would prefer to lay it horizontally like a normal wide-screen monitor. It also seems to use the same 2-in-1 charger/proprietary connector that the iPods use. While this does mean that the iPod accessories you have might work with this unit it also means that it will be subject to cord snags and damage. I’d like to see a magnetic inductive charger. Then if the cord gets snagged it will fall off without damaging anything.

This means I likely won’t adopt for a generation or two because I know if I’ve thought of it, then Apple is probably working on it. Of course, if someone were feeling really generous and bought one for me I wouldn’t return it … hint hint.