The iPad: What’s In A Name?

By Audra Foster

To be honest, the only fault I have with the iPad—or, as I like to think of it, the iTablet or iSlate—is the fact that it is called the iPad, because in the week since it’s been released that name has already gone down as one of Steve Jobs’ stupidest ideas ever. The name has been mocked six ways from Mars and back, and I’ve seen and heard enough of it already to know that if I dare open my mouth to speak my love for the product itself, I too will be subject to cringe-worthy amounts of humiliation and mockery.

But yes, that’s right, I love Apple’s latest product. I love it and I want to own it and I want it to be mine. And up until this point, although I’ve lusted after the iPhone and pined for a Mac Book of my own, I’ve been solely a PC person, mainly because their prices have not been anywhere close to what I could afford. Until now. For Wi-Fi and a 16G hard drive iPad (ugh): $499—for Wi-Fi and 3G, $629. It increases in denominations of $100-200 as the memory increases.

It weighs in at 1.5 lbs and measures 9.7 inches diagonally—and it’s only half an inch wide. It has a multi-touch screen with the same functionality and versatility as the iPhone and the iTouch. It has an LED backlight and a 178 degree viewing angle. I get shivers at the idea of such a powerful piece of equipment looking so deliciously delicate. It’s large enough to watch a movie, but small enough to comfortably sit in privacy and read a book or type a paper. I know I’d love not to have to lug around my 30 pound, virus-infected, outmoded piece of antiquity anymore and just be able to tuck this slim device into a backpack pocket or into the convenient leather carrying case designed for it, which also somehow folds over so that it tilts the iPad on an angle, and you can sit it up and type away.

The major downside is that it runs an iPhone operating system. That means no other programs besides Apple’s apps. I don’t know if the technological grace is enough for me to sacrifice everything I’m used to in favor of the apps, which, despite all of Apple’s advertising that there’s ‘an app for that,’ are less than preferable.

So I guess, despite my immediate and, admittedly, totally shallow response to the iPad, I am forced to accept that while it would be a useful tool in many ways, it does not have the function or the capacity of a real computer. But this is only an indication of the future, of all the different ways touch screen technology will revolutionize the computer industry.