Man Gadget: Apple iPad

If you follow latest IT development, you should noticed the hottest news lately. Yes. Apple iPad. My first impressions of this device are largely positive. Apple has once again built a product that looks good and feels great in the hand, and the familiar user interface, borrowed from the iPhone and iPod touch, is perfectly suited to the bigger screen. The iPad whizzes along, opening applications, re-sizing web pages, and zooming in and out of maps almost instantaneously.


It's a great, fun gaming platform, and it's lovely to view full-size web pages while browsing the internet. Developers, no doubt, are already rubbing their hands with glee about the apps and services they could tailor specifically for this device.

As Steve Jobs said during his keynote, if you're going to create a third category of device, between the smartphone and the laptop, then it needs to be better than either for certain tasks. In many areas, this is true for the iPad -- web browsing is much better on the iPad than the iPhone, just because of the bigger screen, and physically flicking through photos, music and movies is just more enjoyable on the iPad than a laptop.

Apple has already sold out its initial supply of iPads, which is going to be delivered on April 3rd. If you make an order now, you will have to wait until April 12th. Apple has only started delivering Wi-Fi enabled iPads. If you don't mind to wait slightly longer, 3G enabled iPads will be ready and ship by late April.