Apple iPad – What’s there And What’s not

Apple has recently unveiled another marvel in its product line. Apple has had a successful launch of the much awaited tablet. Given the name iPad, it was launched with minimum hype and without the usual viral marketing adapted by apple before the launch of its product. Unlike the launch of other popular products like iPod, before iPad’s official launch there were no real confirmed leaked photos or exclusives gushing in the blogging world. Whether it was deliberate on Apple’s part or not, it really worked for them.

On 27th January, 2010 Apple unveiled iPad. All the basic features, specs, pricing, etc have been listed down :

Dimensions

It is just 0.5 inches thick and measures 9.56 x 7.47 inches. The 3G model weighs approximately 1.6 pounds (or 725.75 grams) and non 3G model weighs 1.5 pounds (or 680.39 grams).

Screen Size

It has got 9.7 inch (diagonal) LED-backlt glossy widescreen with Multi-Touch display along with IPS technology. The screen resolution is 1024 X 768 and comes with fingerprint resistant coating (No smudges).

Other Hardware

iPad is powered by a 1GHz Apple ARM A4 chip. It will be available with memory capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB ( flash storage). It also comes pre-loaded with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, single 30-pin iPod connector, a speaker, a microphone, an accelerometer and a compass. It supports playback of popular extensions .m4v, mp4, and .mov file formats.

Battery Life

iPad comes with a built in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium battery. Apple has made bold claims about the battery life of iPad. According to them the iPad is expected to last for 10 hours when used continuously (Thats a lot!) and can last for a whopping 1 month when in stand by mode.

Software

• The operating system on the iPad is based on iPhone OS. It includes a new set of standard UI tools, including a pull-down menu.
• The homescreen uses the iPhone launcher and has an OS X-style shiny dock.
• The Input comes by way of an onscreen keyboard (awesome), almost exactly like the iPhone’s.
• iPad comes with an upscaled version of Safari mobile browser.

Pricing

iPad will come in 2 versions i.e 3G and non 3G model.

3G Model will cost :

16GB – 499 $

32GB – 599 $

64GB – 699 $

Non 3G Model Will Cost :

16GB – 629 $

32GB – 729 $

64GB – 829 $

The features mentioned above appear to be appealing and may even attract you to purchase it asap. However, iPad also has its own set of drawbacks and lack some essential features which could have made it the most sought after application in year 2010. Following are the feature that i think should have been there but aren’t :

Missing Multi-Tasking

Exclusion of multi-tasking is going to hurt the sales of iPad. Forget iPad, even the smart phones these days come with the feature of multi-tasking. It is one of the essentials and should not have been overlooked by Apple. Just imagine that you cant listen to your favorite song while working on your project.

Lacks Camera

Forget front side camera. This thing doesn’t even have a single camera either at the front or at the back. No camera means to video calling. In short you have to be satisfied with plain old text chat. Moreover, whats the point of using WIFI or 3G when you cant do video chat.

No Flash Support In Browser

It was somewhat bearable to not be able to do video chat but lack of support for flash file in its custom built browser is more annoying. Most of the users like to view video file on the internet and the lack of support for Flash will discourage them from buying iPad.

Device Connectivity

How will you feel if you had to connect adapters before you could use your USB with iPad ? Well, another much required feature of USB port, SD card slot is missing in iPad. Everytime you want to use a USB connecting device, you have to first connect it with the adapter and then with iPad. Usage of adapter just makes it bulky and inconvenient.