All hail the arrival of the iPad …

I haven’t seen so many geeks so excited about a gadget for an eternity (myself included). The Internet has literally been oozing with desire, rumour and conjecture about the iSlate/iTablet – and now we know … it’s the iPad. Not since the very first sex toy was revealed have people wanted to glide their sweaty hands over a piece of erm functional technology so badly. Shame about the name. Still, this can’t be a review since I haven’t managed to get my hands on one (yet). So, what’s all the hype about?

Well... let's have a look. What are we waiting for?!

Let’s be honest. The iPad is a sexy beast. It’s everything we have come to love about Apple. They make user friendly, innovative, functional sexy shit that makes other companies panic and run around like headless chickens trying to emulate Apple. My instant gut reaction is that I want an iPad and I don’t even know why! Apple claims it’s “The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video. Hands down.” Wow! I don’t know about that but did I mention it might be the sexiest way to do all those things? I’ve read the specs, I seen the video, I’ve marvelled at the design but … (there is always a but) the question is would I buy one? To be honest, It looks like a big iPod or iTouch and you can’t exactly call that a criticism. Some might say 9.56inches is big and be proud. I say, it’s small. Handy. A good size. And with a width of 7.47inches – it’s going to be small enough to cart around very easily. It’s a veritable pocket powerhouse promising extreme intuition for the user and features we’re already familiar with only better. My mum can use it. My Nan can use it. My dad can use it.

As the blurb says, it does everything you can do normally – only better. If I listen to my heart as it thuds ever so delicately in my chest, I’m already whipping out my credit card as I type (yes, that’s right, I can multitask). But if I listen to my head and stop to think, I don’t think I’d buy it. It didn’t blow my socks off quite as much as I thought it would. You could say that my expectations were too high but if you have an iTouch or an iPhone – why would you buy an iPad? If you want a bigger screen, more speed and an ability to play more games then I guess you might be tempted but it doesn't offer much more than the iPhone. And it is missing features. No camera (I double checked and still find it hard to believe it doesn’t have one) so no pics and no video conferencing. As a photographer, I was tempted to get one to dump my photographs on when I’m travelling and use it as a portable hard drive. Oh no, wait, it doesn’t have an SD card slot? Shoot. Never mind, I’ll use the USB port as a connection. What? There isn’t one? Hmmm. Of course, you could look at it the other way and say that, since it's just like the iPhone/iTouch, it's instantly usable by millions of people. A bit like Windows without the glitches *coughs* And the iBook feature which looks super amazing. That I am interested in.

Now Apple has a loyal army of hardcore followers that must have the latest Apple gizmo so I don't need to be psychic to know that this gadget will sell. But I’d rather wait for the new iPhone and get that instead. Or, if I really want one when I finally manage to caress one in a shop, I might wait till the 2nd or 3rd incarnation. Or, if the exchange rate works out in our (UK's) favour, I might still get one anyway and live a little - $500 for the basic iPad is around £350. *sigh* I'm normally so decisive.

Decisions, decisions. What should I do? Views? Opinions? Will you all be getting one?

Treehouse rating: N/A (For now)

Could be a chronic case of iron pyrites or golden Apples ...