Magically Disappointed

I woke up this morning and couldn’t wait for 1PM Eastern time to roll around… why? Because I knew that Apple was going to announce it’s new tabled the iPad. I have heard so many rumors about this amazing new tablet that I was pumped to see it introduced today.

I searched high and low to watch the event live on the net and on satellite and could not find it. So I was forced to read live updates from Engadget.COM and Gizmodo.COM as they were happening.

As Steve Jobs was announcing the new product I felt pride, he kept telling us how magical this device was, but by the end of the show I was asking myself the question “is that it?”

Unfortunately it was.

I was never a big fan of Apples products until a few years ago, when my bosses son William Chase showed me his new laptop, it was a Macbook Pro. I looked at it like it was a toy with the bright fun graphics and one button trackpad. He then showed me what it can do, including locading Windows and also run Linux commands from a shell prompt. As a system admin I had to have one, it was the best of all worlds in one laptop. After begging (or maybe nagging) my wife I had my own Macbook Pro laptop. I loved that laptop and in fact love it so much I still carry it around with me today. Sure its over 3 years old, but it still runs like its brand new.

I turned into a Mac fan boy.

At the time I had a Windows Mobile smart phone (a HTC 6700) and I loved that phone, then along came the iPhone. I didn’t jump on the iPhone bandwagon when they came out, instead I kept my Windows Mobile phone but noticed over time, I was trying to get the phone to emulate the iPhone. In trying to emulate the iPhone my phone would crash all the time and lock up a lot. That’s when Apple announce the iPhone 3G. I looked at my phone and the new iPhone and asked myself why am I trying to emulate something that works so good with a phone that works so bad. I went out and purchased an iPhone.

Since getting the iPhone I have been very happy with it, it does almost everything I want and what it can’t do it is because AT&T wont let AT&T do (mainly support for the Slingplayer Application over the AT&T Network.)

In hearing the rumors and hype over the iPad I was thinking to myself, I got to have one of these! But after today’s event I walked away saying “is that it?”

This device was supposed to be the next big thing, rumor have been running that the iPad will offer all your favorite shows on demand. Hell there were rumors that the president of Disney was at today’s event before it started, yet besides showing a few movie clips and YouTube videos no mention was made of video support.

In essence the iPad is like an iPhone but its bigger in size and does not make phone calls now can send text message. It seems however that everything else that the iPhone can do that the iPod can do.

The device can not multitask so if your reading an iBook, you cant also listen to music from SIRIUS/XM over the web.
There is also no video camera built in the iPad which is a surprise, I felt this would have been great for video conferencing.

And its great that it featured unlocked 3G service, however here in the USA that means we are stuck with AT&T’s 3G service, and if your a iPhone user you know how bad AT&T’s 3G network is already. I was kind of surprised that they want to sell more service on the already overcrowded AT&T Network.

Looks like if I ever get an iPad, I will be holding out until version two hits the streets, and knowing Apple, they will probably be announcing it the same time next year.

The satellite operators have nothing to worry about with the iPad, as this magical device isn’t magical at all.