My rant on the iPad

Why not, everyone else has been blathering on about this stupid thing, I might as well get my two cents in and a bit of press right?

Here's my position, I remember tablet devices. Sorry folks, my excitement waned on them over 5 years ago. You want to wow me? Give me a decent wearable and heads up display. I don't want to have to view things through a stupid touch screen. Can we say old hat?

When I heard that the device was going to be "magical and revolutionary" I laughed. No, I guffawed. Wanna know why? It's because it's all a lie, it's all market speak for we couldn't come up with anything better to tell you.

I remember another device that was supposed to be all revolutionary. You might remember it after I bring it up, but the hype has long since died down and nobody is that excited about them. At the time, it was a "sooper dooper seekret" and everyone was speculating what it would be. After all the inventor was a genius and even Jobs thought this would be a great thing. Have I triggered any memories yet? Cities were going to be built around this. It was going to revolutionize how we would get around.


If you haven't got it yet, it was the Segway. I've yet to see Segway town and the battery life was so abominable, that I could never have used one. I don't live in downtown environments. I've almost always had a commute of at least 10 miles.

I see the iPad as about as useful to me as a Segway. It would be an interesting toy. Lots of people will adopt and purchase them. But after a while, the excitement will peter out and that will be that. I don't think they'll vanish entirely, but I don't think the world is going to be revolutionized either. Segway is still in business after all, they're just nowhere near building cities.

As for buying into any of it, I considered an iPhone, but realized I'd be happier with an Android device. I want the hackability. I want the control. For a tablet, I'm holding out for the Notion Ink. Again, I want the freedom. I don't mind working around an interface. I work on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, BlackBerry, iPhones, and almost any other device out there. I'm a quick learner and very capable. Sorry Apple, I'm not your target market and I hope you never think of me as such.