I watch the Apple keynotes. I feel dirty all over for indulging my want of new technology that I probably won't get and don't need, but I find them interesting nonetheless. So, iPad. It's a pretty great looking piece of kit, and will revolutionize the tablet scene not just for Apple but will raise public awareness of that particular area of technology for other companies who want to market and sell similar products.
There is one aspect of the presentation that did resonate with me though, and the more I think about it the more I don't like the connotations of it. The line "netbooks aren't better at anything", which at the time seemed like a cute and cheap crack at the processing power of netbooks, received a chorus laughter when Jobs' dropped the line at the Apple January keynote.
My immediate response was, "yeah, that's clever, but it's a little extreme". The more I kept thinking about it along with the idea of an iPad, the more I didn't like it. Not only had it seemed like Apple had just bulldozed over the netbook market in one fell swoop, but they had neglected the core factors that made netbooks popular over laptops in the first place - price, battery life, and portability. If we compare the iPad with your typical netbook, yeah it's portable, has a pretty long battery life and is cheaper than Apple's other products - but netbooks match that. If we exchange features like touch for USB ports and add in other features of netbooks like the ability to run any kind of software regardless of whether Apple likes it or not, the playing field is pretty even.
Just because it's Apple's first stab at a tablet form factor it doesn't mean we should just disregard products that match its practical ability, fall to our knees and bow down to the ass of Steve and the crew.
Clearly I'm biased as I'm typing this on my Half-Life 1 capable Eee PC, but I do feel that there are some people out there that will turn against a set of products just because Apple said so. Stay safe, and remember kids, don't make unjust comments.
