May, 2010. I had actually saved up enough money to buy, lets face it, the worlds first slate computer you could actually use. The Apple iPad. Many people said that I was a fool. That it was just an over priced, over sized iPod Touch. But I didn't care. It is a beautiful piece of design, and in my opinion possibly the most important piece for tech to come out since the desktop PC. Yes it only runs iOS, not OS X, but is that a bad thing? A lot of people have asked me, "What is an iPad?" well, it is basically anything you want it to be. If I want to listen to my favourite radio stations, I fire up TuneIn. If I want to write a letter, I open up Pages. And if I want to lose an entire day of life I play Angry Birds.
Now the technological world is awaiting news about the iPad2. Apple tend to have refreshes of their products every 12 months or so, so its almost a given that in the next couple of weeks they will announce the new version, no doubt with a whole array of new features. This leaves me with a decision, do I upgrade my favourite piece of computing kit, or do I hold out, maybe even look at the new Android slates, or heaven forbid, Windows 7 slates.
I feel that Apple did leave out some things from the first, that would have made the iPad unbeatable, even by the new slates that were announced this month. First of all, a front facing camera. The iPad was announced in all its splendour in March. Then in June, Apple announced the new iPhone 4 with facetime. Why Mr Jobs did you not put a front facing camera in the iPad?? What I have seen of Facetime on both the iPhone/4G iPod Touch and the Mac, I have been very impressed. Yes I know, you need a wifi network to use it instead of using 3G, but the quality of the app is outstanding, and it has finally brought about the era of video calling. My old Nokia 6680 from 2005 had video calls, so it has taken over 6 years for it to actually catch on. I really am not fussed about having a rear camera. The iPad to too large to use as a camera/camcorder. But I think a front facing camera is a must for the second generation.
People have said that it is likely to have the Retina display, but I doubt that. It would increase cost too much. One thing the iPad has over Android slates at the moment is the price, and I doubt Apple will change this until the Retina display can be made cheaper.
I would love to see the second iPad be alittle lighter. When in its case, it tends to make your wrist ache after a lot of use, so shaving off a few ounce's couldn't hurt.
Battery life is excellent, I don't think Apple need to change that at all. But maybe a dual processor, and more RAM, (256MB does seem alittle small even though you don't notice) would be great, but would probably effect battery life, so maybe the battery would need to change after all.
I have seen a lot of moans online about iOS. But I actually like it. If I want OS X or Windows then I boot up my MacBook. I would love to see a Slate only version of iOS. Like Android have done with Honeycomb. There seems to be a lot of screen space wasted with the current iOS. Its fine with an iPhone or iPod, but with the iPad it just seems wasted. Would be great to have widgets etc on your homescreen.
So, to recap;
1) Front Facing Camera, cant believe it was missed the first time!!!
2) Lighter.
3) Dual Processor, More RAM.
4) A slate only version of iOS.
If Apple tick 3 of those boxes, I think I will upgrading my current version. If not, I just hope they bring out a portable iSight cam for the first generation.......
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