Top 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Buying The iPad
I’m not going to beat the dead horse here – everyone knows that Apple finally put an end to all the rumours surrounding their new tablet and officially revealed the iPad. The presentation was, as far as I’m concerned, anti-climactic at best. Granted, I don’t really see a purpose for e-readers (I’m a book collector) or tablet PCs in the first place, but any new release from Apple usually gets me pretty excited.
Usually.
I had hoped Apple’s newest gadget would have totally blown my mind and convinced me of my need for a tablet. I had hoped it would have been so well designed that whether or not I needed it or had a legitimate use for it, I’d still be compelled to buy it or at least play with it at the Apple store. I had hoped it’s features would have completely revolutionized computing the way the iPhone revolutionized cell phones. I guess I was getting greedy. I guess the Apple lover in me got an ego.
Do you hear a hint of disdain in this fan-girls voice? Well, lets get to it then. Top 5 reasons I won’t buy the iPad.
1. It’s a Giant iPhone.
When I first heard about the tablet I started piecing together all the speculation, and quickly came to the conclusion that the tablet would operate and look like a giant iPhone. Of course, in my head, this tablet was pretty damn sexy and sleek. And while implementing the touch technology that Apple (and us Apple users) have come to love oh-so-much, the OS would be more sophisticated, rivalling that of a standard Mac laptop.
Well, the iPad does look like a giant iPhone. A 9 inch iPhone. But sexy and sleek it is not. A giant bevel and awkward not-quite-a-square-not-quite-a-rectangle shape make the iPad look like an iPhone that’s been put through an electro-magnetic expanding ray (similar to Wayne Szalinski’s shrinking ray) with the end result having a slight discombobulation of the iPhone’s molecular structure. This pains me. I never thought I’d see the day that Apple released something that I considered aesthetically unappealing.
The iPad pretty much runs the same OS as the iPhone, even accepting a lot of the same applications. During their presentation, them Apple guys stated that with 75 million iPhones shipped, 75 million people already know how to use the tablet. Well, that’s cool. But you know, not quite as powerful or impressive as a real OS would have been. And as great as the iPhone is, we all know it isn’t without it’s flaws: no multitasking, one browser application, no flash support (see number 5), etc. You’d think that for a machine that is supposed to enhance your ability to browse the internet via a handheld device, Apple would have tackled these limitations. Does reusing a system that already exists for a ’smaller’ machine not scream laziness to anyone else?
Also, you can use the iPad to get wireless internet, even 3G if you sign up with a provider that supports the tablet. But, this hardly appeals to me. if I want to check the internet on the go I’ll use my iPhone. If I want to check it for a bit longer and do some decent browsing or work, I’ll pull out the MacBook. Two great Apple products that do exactly what I need. Why would I want their awkward offspring who only inherited a few of their good genes?
2. Adaptation
Remember when the macbook air was released and everyone loved it but me?
I didn’t love the macbook air for a few reasons but one in particular irked me: no removable media drive. The idea of having to hook up an external dvd-drive if I needed to watch a film or screener for work seemed absolutely ridiculous to me. I realized that this notebook was not made for my type of habits, and thus neither is the tablet.
The tablet requires adapters for everything – including USB. It just seems tedious and poorly planned to require an adapter for something as friggin’ basic as a USB key. This is a fail way beyond the exclusion of a removable media drive, which, of course, the tablet is also missing (how else do you think these machines stay so thin?)
3. Gimme Gimme More
This is how I know I’m greedy, because even while I’m only using about half of my iPhone’s 16GB, hearing ‘up to 64GB of flash memory’ is enough to make me raise an eyebrow and say ‘what? that’s it?’.
But I mean really, if you’re asking people to replace their e-readers, handheld games, and portable dvd players with this tablet, then you might as well give them some space to back all that stuff up on. I mean, tablet users already have to hassle with those pesky adapters to even hook up a USB key to the damned thing. Cut them slack. Give them some legitimate space. We know you can do it too, Apple, especially with iPods holding up to 160 GB. I guess anyone who wants a half decent amount of memory on their machine will have to wait for the big second gen reveal of the iPad. Which probably won’t happen until like, August.
4. It’s Called the iPad
Enough said.
5. No Flash Support – Still
I’m not going to pretend I know why the iPhone and iPad doesn’t support flash – whether its a petty dispute over licensing or an OS problem, but I am pretty miffed that Apple would release yet another product that doesn’t display flash content. The cocksure iPad video states the tablet is the best way to surf the net – but why would I want to surf the net on a machine that doesn’t support a large portion of content? Adobe, Apple, get yourselves together and get flash support for these machines. Seriously.
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