The iPad. Doesn't it look like it were a stretched version of the iPhone?(Picture taken from Engadget.com )

So: to the point. If you haven’t heard about Apple’s last new big thing, you probably lived on another planet for the past couple of weeks. Yes, I’m talking about the amazing iPad! I could start by talking about what a great piece of engineering this probably is (that thing is pretty thin, and it has a pretty big display so my guess is that this wasn’t easy) but that just wouldn’t do justice at all.

I mean… Did you see the thing?! It’s a big iPhone (actually iPod Touch)! No bullshit. It really is just a magnified version of the iPhone and its OS.

They didn’t take the courtesy of creating an OS from scratch for this device and they really should have. That’s just complete bullocks. Why even bother…?

If anybody at Apple is reading this (I’m 100% sure nobody is, so this is actually more like making a statement): What the FUCK (yea, uncensored) where you guys smoking when you decided it would be a good idea to actually go on and create this thing?

I remember when the first fake mockups appeared. They all looked exactly like the real thing: Just a big iPhone. And everytime I saw one of them I said to myself: ‘This ain’t the real deal… Apple is smarter than this. If they come up with a tablet PC, they’ll innovate and create a new experience that will actually make sense for a tablet computer‘.
You just have to agree: Apple knows how to innovate things and create new experiences. There might be a slight discussion here about who invented the wheel and who started selling it only years later, but that’s not the point. They actually come up with new ideas and eventually will push the envelope and in the end: they create an experience that just works.

With the iPad (what an annoying name… ) they really didn’t! It really is just an oversized iPhone!
You think I’m exaggerating?  Well let’s compare…

1. What physical buttons does the device have?
   • iPhone: Home button, sleep button, volume control, silenced mode
   • iPad: Home button, sleep button, volume control, silenced mode
2. How do you unlock the device?
   • iPhone: You slide the bottom of the screen from left to right.
   • iPad: You slide the bottom of the screen from (center) left to (center) right
3. How does the home screen look?
   • iPhone: 4 rows, 4 columns of applications. 1 dock with 4 applications.
   • iPad: 5/6/7 (?) rows, 4 columns of applications. 1 dock with 4 applications.
4. Does the statusbar do anything special?
   • iPhone: No. Carrier/wifi signal, clock, battery status.
   • iPad: No. Carrier/wifi signal, clock, battery status.
5. Is there a camera?
   • iPhone: Yes, but not facing the user.
   • iPad: No. None. (Wtf??)
6. Can you run different applications at the same time?
   • iPhone: No.
   • iPad: No.
7. Can it run Flash in the browser?
   • iPhone: No.
   • iPad: No.
8. How much does the cheapest version cost?
   • iPhone: 475€ (Belgium, factory unlocked)
   • iPad: 499$ (current price announced on the Apple site)

So what am I missing? How is this device different besides a few changes to the calendar, mail, iBooks and a faster CPU? (Don’t you even think about ‘it runs iWorks’. It’s a tablet PC! Any Windows tablet device can run the latest Microsoft Office package. Being able to run this is just plain basics and common sense… Nothing worth drooling over).

But hey: Again, this is Apple. They really innovate things and keep the coolest stuff for the end. The really cool feature about this is the following. Ladies and gentlemen. Steve Jobs gives you…

Nothing

I read somewhere Steve Jobs said this is the most significant thing, he had done in his life.
I beg to differ. I really respect the man a lot. He has done a great deal of amazing things, and he has inspired me to do certain things with my life, which otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about. But this must be embarrassing to him and probably the people working at Apple.

So: the round up is: You get a device that looks ridiculous, that doesn’t run Flash, allows no multitasking, doesn’t do ANYTHING – NOT ONE THING – special at all, with no camera, no microphone (?),  and no dedicated OS.

What have they been working on all those years? This really is nothing more than taking the existing iPhone/iTouch technology to a bigger size without ANY kind of innovation. And it’s not even as cheap as it looks. This is totally un-Apple.

When the rumors became certain that Apple would release a tablet to the world, I expected a masterpiece of innovation, that really takes advantage of tablet computing. But this time, Apple really disappointed. They took their iPhone hardware, magnified it by 200%, put almost the same (LIMITED) OS on it and released it as if it were a completely new world opening up. But it isn’t.

It just an oversized iPhone. An even more compact Macbook Air with the same boring and unimpressive iPhone OS on it. I am not impressed.

Not one bit.