The IPad: Beautifully Mediocre

now that feeling where your heart races inpaying for it. iMean, they did that with the iPod,
anticipation? It accelerates until it feels like it could runexcept they just kept making things smaller: Nano,
out of your chest. Well, Mac devotees get thatShuffle...if they could have made anything smaller,
feeling every time their fearless leader, Steve Jobs,they would have. Apple just shrinks or increases the
shows up to give the keynote address, andsize of the device. It worked for McDonalds. I guess
introduce the new product.it works for Apple.
Past announcements have lived up to the hype: OSThe thing is, I didn't want an in-between product,
X, Snow Leopard, the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBookwhich is exactly what the iPad is: not quite a
Air. When it was rumored that Mac would becomputer, not quite a dedicated movie player(no
releasing a tablet PC this year, fans of Apple designDVD support), not even an eInk based, dedicated
almost wet themselves in anticipation. They shouldbook reader like the Kindle. Nope, the iPad is the
have kept a closer eye on the cup.Labradoodle of electronic devices. It looks kind of
At any rate, what we received for all of our yearningneat, but it is just a little of this, tossed in with a little
was a 10" iPod Touch, aka the iPad. Awesome Steveof that. Not a purebred machine, but expensive and
gave us a product that couldn't quite live up to ourinteresting looking.
imaginations. Supposedly, it will be a fantastic eBookThat's not to say it won't be a commercial success. I
reader/video player/music device. It will also browseknow people who already have theirs picked
the web. That is comforting, except for the factout...although, at around $1000, I think they might be
that it won't be supporting a major component ofbetter off with a laptop. The price is what gets me
the web: Flash. Now, there are many arguments forthe most: I could buy 2 netbooks and an iPhone for
and against the inclusion of Flash. The biggestthe price of a single iPad. At some point, it becomes
problem is, not all the web will work on the iPad, andimpractical to pay extra, just for the bragging rights.
that is an issue. It doesn't support the whole web,Never in the history of electronics have people payed
just the portion that Steve Jobs is willing to put onso much, for so very little in terms of features.
the iPad.This is the trouble with the iPad: It does stuff that
While the iPad nice and all, I find myself looking forother stuff already does, except you pay more for
something a little more innovative. I guess if youthe privilege. That, my friends, is the gorgeous
have a design that works, the next option is to keepmediocrity of the iPad.
increasing the size of the device, until people stop