It’s been 8 hours since the existence of the iPad was confirmed. All the readings are stable, Planet Earth is still functioning as per normal and there have been no reported iPad related deaths or trauma.

Phew!

There has, however, been a loud roar of love, discontent, hate, whinge, love again and a little bit more hate. The iPad keynote was one of the most expected and most hyped keynotes of recent times. Whilst talking to Renai LeMaythis morning here’s a link to our podcast I mentioned I would’ve rather had saved my iPad virginity for this morning than to have had it taken all those weeks earlier by rumour after rumour.

Steve Jobs always delivers a passionate plea for people to continue to love and support his offspring in these keynotes, a plea which I’ve answered each ad every time for the last 5 years, I am an Apple fanboy. Unfortunately for me, other fanboys and my comrades at the Fans of Apple Facebook Page the iPad wasn’t designed, nor will it be marketed, to us.

My Prediction

I predict that the iPad will be marketed to the members of our community that don’t know where the ‘any’ key is, those that don’t know how to ’log on to 10.0.0.1 and reconfigure the router’, the mothers and fathers that need to call their son if they want to send an email, the friends who want to be on Facebook but aren’t sure why they need to keep their recovery discs.

The iPad has been billed as a giant iPod Touch or iPhone. It technically is, with some features that are made to fit the larger than iPod screen real estate. This isn’t such a bad thing, the iPod Touch is something anyone in my family could pick up and start using once they figure out that you just use your fingers.

This is the end of driving to your grandpa’s house to show him how to defrag his computer!

Why I’ll Still Buy One

The iPad will become a member of my technological family soon enough because I’ve always liked using a desktop, preferably a Mac Pro but my main computer now is a MacBook. It’s great but lacking in speed and configurability, it’s ultraportable, especially when it’s paired with a Telstra NextG USB stick and that’s a feature I love.

Some day in the future I’d like to go back to a Mac Pro in the home office and carry an iPad 3G on me at most times.

Some of the Negatives

It would’ve been great to have a USB plug so a 3G USB stick could be used, we’re also unsure what a micro-SIM is and if any carrier in Australia use it.

As usual Australian carriers will not be generous with their data packages, especially our friends at Tel$tra. In this blogger’s home town Tel$tra is the only option for a mobile carrier unless you can rent a house at the base of the Vodafone or Optus tower.

60 Days

As announced today we could expect to have on in our hands within 2 months, between now and then it will be refined and hopefully iron out some of the bugs and this blogger will be a happy man when the postman arrives on that fateful March morning!

If you’re not really sure what I’m talking about or what an iPad is then follow this link to the Apple Website to find out all the details, watch the videos, find out the price and sign up for an email notification on how to buy one.