Black Thoughts on the iPad

Yesterday, Apple announced the release of their breakthrough product called the iPad.  Go ahead and get all your maxipad and or tampon jokes out the way now.  Just let me know when you are finished.  Are you good?  Awesome!  Back to what I was saying!  Apple shook the world with the release of their much anticipated tablet.  The Wall Street Journal put out a quote that was used in Apple’s presentation yesterday saying, “The last time people were this excited about a tablet, they had commandments written on them!”  Oh those witty folks at the Wall Street Journal!  But in all seriousness though a lot of buzz and rumors were in the air prior to yesterday’s media event.  I know that I found myself periodically checking (ok I checked a lot more than periodically) MacRumors.com to hear the latest hype.

The Apple iPad in my opinion is a multimedia device more so then a computer.  This product should not be seen as a laptop replacement.  I really think critics have a hard time understanding this.  Did people think that Netbooks would serve as laptop replacements?  So why are people so quick to think the same of the iPad?  If anything Apple created this product to fuck with various products.  The first being the Netbook.  You pretty much can do most of the same tasks on the iPad.  Just without all the Windows bs.  Another product that was in Apple’s mind when designing the iPad were portable media players.  I mean how many people these days just download movies straight to their computer?  I know this black man does!  You hear that noise?  Yeah that’s the sound of portable DVD players sales plummeting.  The last product the iPad attacks are the e-readers.  Now I love Amazon.  But they could get potentially ass raped by Apple with their iBooks store.  On top of that the iPad’s graphics make the Kindle look like a a Speak & Spell.

The lovely iPad comes in 16gb, 32gb, or a 64gb version.  In addition to the size of the hard drive you also have the choice of the wi-fi or wi-fi + 3g model.  Stop scratching your head I will tell you what the difference is!  Geesh!  On the wi-fi model, you must have a wireless connection in order to browse the various stores and internet.  The wi-fi +3g model will give you access to the stores and internet virtually anywhere.  Since 3g is the network many cell phone networks use, you are required to have a data plan.  There are two data plans.  One that allows you to download up to 250/mb a month (not much at all) for $15.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99.   Wait just a minute before you get all bent out of shape! The best part of all is that you don’t have to enter into any contracts.

Lets weigh the pro’s and con’s of the iPad…

Pros

• Portable
• Beautiful display
• Fast
• Inexpensive
• No contracts
• App Store
• iTunes
• iBooks
• Battery life

Cons

• No camera
• No USB ports
• Small hard drive options
• No iLife products
• No multitasking

Overall, I am pleased with the iPad.  I think Apple has delivered another great product.  My good friend Batgeek made me realize that most of the cons of the 1st edition of the iPad can be resolved with software updates.  However, I am going to wait for the second coming of this kick ass product.  I believe the wi-fi version of the iPad will hit stores in March.  While the wi-fi + 3G will be around in April.  If you would like to check out the video of this sensational product then hit up www.apple.com.

Peace Bitches,

Black!