For anyone who wasn't paying attention, Apple finally announced its fabled tablet device today - the somewhat unfortunately named "iPad". If you don't believe me, do a quick Twitter search for #iPad, and prepare yourself for the onslaught of bad jokes and puns.
I have to say that, while I'm at least marginally interested in everything Apple does, I wasn't that excited about the tablet. All rumours indicated a big iPhone with an equally big price tag. The interest I did have was somewhat tempered by my equal-or-greater fear of another "revolutionary" gadget requiring me to sell my soul to a carrier for three years.
All in all, there weren't a whole lot of surprises from Apple today.
The Apple rumour machine proved itself fairly accurate: Steve & Co. essentially brought us a 10-inch iPod Touch, with a few notable tweaks, including the new iBook store, and some seriously prettified menus. The biggest surprise of the day was the price point- Long expected to start in the $1000 range, the base model of the iPad (16GB, WiFi only) was announced at just USD$499, putting it pretty close to the land of netbooks and e-Readers (As I write this, I'm still feeling rather relieved that I didn't splurge on that Kindle DX). Folks, this is the couch potato's Mac.
Disappointments? Apparently a fair number of people were anticipating a camera on that shiny new iPad. Personally, I don't think it's essential. That said, MY main complaint is the lack of non-iPad announcements today! I was expecting iPhone 4.0! And maybe some shiny new Macbook Pros! And where's my multitasking?! Still, none of this makes me any less inclined to run, not walk to my nearest Apple Store and give my $499 to the nearest hipster in a coloured shirt. I'm not sure I would use the word "magical" (with any degree of seriousness) to describe a piece of hardware, but Steve Jobs wants to know whether we think there's a space between our iPhones and our laptops for yet another kind of computer. I think there is - But I guess we'll have to wait until April to know for sure.
