iPad

I finally went to look at the iPad. It was very...meh.

Nothing really new there. I had high hopes, but it pretty much does what the Touch does, only bigger.

Moving through a book as slow, and as an eBook reading I would place it write in the "It's OK" status. The kindle is a lot easier on the eyes.

At no point would I have used the word 'Magical'. It's known tech.

Not to say it doesn't have an use, or wouldn't be interesting to have, just that nothing about it makes me want to jump right out and get one.

The only reason I wouldn't want to ge one is Apple's obsession with control on their appliances.

What I can read, what I can put on it, and planned obsolesce is all a little much for me.

It's always a trade off. If it was substantial cheaper, then the trade off would be worth the risk. If it did something mind blowing, maybe it would be worth the risk of not being able to do what I want with it.

As it stand, meh.

To put technology that's being used in perspective:

http://xkcd.com/728/

Not so magical now, is it?

People are going way too nuts over this thing.I understood the iPod. It was a revolutionary mp3 player. The iPhone was pretty nice.

I can only think the people who call it 'magical' are either getting paid my Apple to use the as a buzzword, using it to justify not actual having a reason to spend that money, or have been brought here from 1989.

WePad

The tablet/eReader I am looking forward to is the WePad.

It has what Apple lacks. Open platform, a web cam, and a better sized screen.

Open Platform:

There is plenty of talk about how Apple likes to be the dictator of what you can do with the device you buy, so I'm not going to rehash that here. I will say that it looks like the WePad doesn't suffer from one person delusions of grandeur. It will run anything that runs on Android; which is a significant number of Apps.

Web Cam:

I mean, come on Apple, how could you leave this out? You could have grabbed the book market and the video phone market. I suspect it will be in future releases. I also suspect their will be a mad rush of people selling their 1st Gen iPad for a newer one. At this point they will all suddenly agree that it should have had a web cam to begin with.

Screen Size:

Its a bigger screen that looks more comfortable to use for media and browsing. This is actually a minor detail, but when I was looking at an iPad, it just didn't 'feel' quite the correct size.

WePad Cons:

It has less battery life. This is to be expected; however I am still waiting for some battery life numbers to come in from the iPad after it's been out for a moth or so.

It's not out yet, so the fact sheet could be wrong. According to the site, on 4/26 a WePad will be put into the hands of critics.

The WePad's price is listed as 449 Euros. I don't know how that will translate to US dollars at the time of release.

The biggest downside is that its initial mass release will be in German this August.

Still if it does what it's claimed to do, then it will be worth the wait.

My advice to everyone is to hold off on buying the iPad.