tech talk:
The iPad - the iGood, the iBad

Sam Gaskin, 2010-03

Having produced two of the most popular gadgets this millennium – the iPod and the iPhone – big things are expected from Apple product releases. Enter the iPad. As the radiation cloud of blog posts and comments on the device begins to settle, TALK examines the fallout, asks whether the iPad is for you, and suggests some alternatives.

The iPad

The demure Apple tablet has finally debuted, and she’s wearing a particularly attractive price tag. The tablet is WiFi enabled, runs on a tweaked version of the famously intuitive iPhone OS, has a 9.7 inch touchscreen, an onscreen keyboard, and promises 10 hours of continuous use. A 16GB model costs just US$500 dollars, but you can spend up to US$829 adding 3G and increasing the hard drive to 64GB.

The device has a lot going for it, but not its name. It’s called the iPad, we think, because it pads the already full Speedo of personal computery. What does it add to the virile meat and potatoes combo of a laptop and a smartphone?

After all, the iPhone does everything the iPad does, and what it lacks in screen size it makes up for in portability. A laptop is more unwieldy than an iPad, but it’s also a lot more functional.

Like the iPhone, the iPad can’t run multiple programs, it’s incompatible with Flash and it only runs apps available from the Apple store. There’s no fine-tuned drawing or photo editing program to make use of that big touch screen, and it’s unlikely you’ll prefer typing on it to a real keyboard. Unlike the iPhone, and many laptops, which are equipped with cameras, the iPad has none.

The iPad is a good size for reading (but the LCD screen will make it less appealing for some than E-ink readers) and watching movies (if you prop it against something or don’t mind holding it), and it’s cheaper than most laptops (but not netbooks).

Whether the device can find a niche, and where that niche lies, remains to be seen. The Chinese market may be able to help in this search sooner than expected: while it took Apple two years to sell the iPhone here, the tablet is already being promoted on the front page of Apple’s Chinese website.

Price: TBC – hopefully not much over RMB 3,500. Web: www.apple.com.cn

Drawing Tablets

Drawing on the iPad is basically limited to the same smears you can make with the iPhone. That means Wacom, the defending champion of drawing tablets, doesn’t even need to step into the ring to retain its title. Wacom’s top model is the Cintiq 21UX (right). Using the device’s pen, which registers tilt and 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, you can draw directly on the 1,600 x 1,200 pixels of the Cintiq’s 21.3 inch screen. Of course, the Cintiq requires a computer to be of any use, but some would say the same about the iPad. If the price tag looks a little frightening, check out the excellent Intuos line (below) – although you can’t draw on their screens, prices start from RMB 1,900.

Cintiq 21UX. Price: RMB 30,000. Web: www.wacom.com.cn