I want an iPad (almost)
I am an Apple enthusiast but once in a while I need to hit them about the head and shoulders with an old tire tool. You know?
I was in the Apple Store last weekend paying the Apple tax, buying my wife an iPhone. It was time. The phone she was using had a battery that wouldn’t hold a charge. Still it was an effort to get her into the store. But once there…What to do? Buy a battery or upgrade?
Think, think, think pooh bear.
We bought an iPhone. While she was spending the better part of a half hour picking out a case I messed with the iPads.
Now the iPad is a nice, nice, nice piece of gear and everyone can and ought to covet one. But in a practical mood you have to look at the thing and ask why.
It doesn’t have a gosh darn USB port. Not one!
It also lacks a true keyboard, which I reluctantly understand, more or less.
But it’s also a 3G device, which simply doesn’t cut it these days.
Does it even have a microphone? I dunno.
The 3G bit is probably the most severe limitation in my humble….I can live with some of the other constraints, I think in my most charitable moments, but then the analyst in me gets busy.
Look, iPad is a content consumption device and that might be fine for most of the people on the planet who can plunk down the hundreds of bucks it takes to bring one home. I can’t. I am a content creator and I like that about me and I need a device that ***understands*** that. You know?
iPad strikes me as the next form factor, and maybe the right form factor, in personal digital assistants but for it to work in my life I need output AND input. Steve are you listening?
Meanwhile the MacBook Air series is here and that’s more my speed, I guess. Still there is the appeal of the form factor.