The New IPAD, a short review

[nadinbrzezinski]

First let me preface this that my review is colored by actually having owned a Tablet a while ago... before tablets were the hot stuff, and I am not going to assume they're about to become the hot stuff. By the way I loved that tablet. So yes, I have been an early adopter of technology, at times before they are even mature for prime time. That tablet, and of course PDAs before they were cool are just two examples.

So I went down to the Apple Store and I spent a good hour using the PAD. I wanted to know if this thing was truly revolutionary, and I fear that either the PAD I was using was defective, or my sad conclusion was that it lacks some oopmh. NO I am not kidding, pages was slow and not as responsive as I expected. (Of course the slew of other word processors for the platform might run better on it but I wasn't expecting them to have them on the machines)

Will this be a laptop killer? If you want this for heavy duty applications, I recommend you don't get rid of your Laptop just yet. That earlier Tablet was capable, and fast, this one not so much.

As a book reader, well I-BOOK has a serious problem (when compared to it's direct competitor) I cannot take notes. I am sure that it is coming, in a revision to the software, but given Kindle, Stanza and a few others RIGHT NOW do notes, and HIGHLIGHTS... folks that is a problem. Now the interface IS beautiful, and if you own a Kindle it runs on this sucker in full screen. So no fear about losing all those books. Now my SONY books, I will have to test if they will load on Stanza from my hard drive... I wonder where they are, and how to load them... on the IPOD touch that is.

So here is the deal. If you want this thing for consuming media... it is great. If you want this sucker to play games... I think I am in love. Hell, better than many other portable gaming devices I've used in the past. You want it to navigate the web (save me the Flash gripes) by all means. For some LIGHT computing... just like the IPOD and the IPHONE, it will serve you well, and the keyboard is ok. But if you think you want this to replace a laptop, not so much.

By the way, the place was full of people testing this sucker, and most were much younger than me, so they probably will not realize why this thing is not a true tablet. And you know what? That's ok... why I guess I'm a techie. (Yes guilty as charged)

Oh and the games they had loaded on it, yes I am definitely in love. To do that, it actually excels, much better than the IPOD.

Oh and one more thing... and this is my back speaking, it is as heavy as my Netbook... which sucks for playing games.

:-)

Me, will wait for the day this netbook dies... and see if these gripes have been corrected. (And I am sure they will, well except Flash)