10 reasons to hate iPad or why no one should ever buy it...

It’s been said a lot recently about iPad and one common thing observed in all reviews is that people tend to split into those who realize all disadvantages of this gadget and those who simply overlook them trying to convince themselves that this device is well worth the money they wasted on it. Well, I’m a very rational person and simply knowing all disadvantages of iPad I can’t even think of buying it. So here is the list of what makes me skeptical about it:

1) No Multi-Tasking. Yeah, this one bothers me the most. 5-years old symbian-enabled Nokia phone can do it, so why the device that Steve Jobs calls a "magical and revolutionary " can not? Why can’t someone listen to music while browsing the web? Twitting while reading? What the heck? For a device that intended to be a substitution for laptops/netbooks and costs as much as the iPad does, the inability to multitask is unforgiving.

2) No Camera. Yeah, the same old Nokia has camera, 2 actually. I can’t say what is worse: not to have a front-facing camera for video-chats or not-having a back camera which should be natural for a such mobile device. Camera now is commodity. Very cheap commodity. And I see no reason not to include it. Even iPhone which I don’t like either has 2-3mp camera.

3) No USB. Since its inception in 2001 miniUSB became a standard for mobile devices. Then it was followed by microUSB. But Apple always has its own way. And usually this way is quite awkward (recall how long Apple was torturing its users with PowerPCs). Only Apple with its hunger for $ that could be earned on proprietary adapters (adapter for USB for god’s sake) could do it.

4) No Flash. End of last month Steve Jobs published very unusual letter that ended up with very thoughtful claim: “Flash is no longer necessary”. Yes, Steve, perhaps for you. But I’d still prefer to be able to browse many web-sites, play games and watch videos. Perhaps this guy believe in HTML5 – but Apple took no action in its development and it will be another 2-3 years before it takes off.

5) No VoIP. Sounds weird? But that’s true. As Dan Neary, Skype VP, stated this week: “I think the iPad is an exciting product but it is clearly not the same communications device in its current form that the iPhone is. So we’re looking forward to further advancements in the iPad and where that can go in the future.” Politically correctly, indeed. But the point is clear: I think he said the same earlier this year when Skype discontinued its Windows Mobile support.

6) Small storage. 16-64Gb – what is it? Are you kidding? My external hard drive is 1500Gb. My 500$ laptop is 320Gb. My tiny USB stick is 16Gb. It’s not a Nook, nor a Kindle that are supposed to store mainly books. This is a multimedia device and memory is crucial. And we all know that Apple never gives us a chance to increase memory in its devices.

7) Lack of widescreen. New iMac is 16:9. iPhone is 3:2. iPad is 4:3. The past is back. Welcome and enjoy almost forgotten old-TV experience.

8) No GPS on pure-WiFi versions. Many called iPad a giant iPhone. It’s not quite true. iPad is worse in all aspects except it’s bigger. And GPS is not exception: iPad for $699 doesn’t have it.

9) Poor reading experience. Unique combination of a heavy weight and the glare on the screen makes using iPad for a long periods “a battle for comfort”. Unlike with Kindle one can’t read well in direct sunlight with iPad. Moreover you can’t download books you bought from Apple bookstore for your iPad to your Mac or iPhone.

10) Price. I kept it for a last but it’s a very important aspect for many. $699 for 64GB for pure-WiFi and $829 for 64 GB for WiFi/3G model – come on, Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10-3t does it all for less than $500 and boasts much better specs than any generation of iPad is likely to have. Modern netbooks start from $250 and by $499, which is starting price for 16Gb iPad, you have a big choice of very good devices. Add to it quite expensive apps and it’s hard to believe in Job’s intention “to put this (device) in the hands of lots of people”.

You are not yet convinced with these 10? Then consider some “bonus”: no SD slot, no HDMI out, closed apps (i.e. you don’t have a choice for pre-installed programs like browser), use of microSIMs (the whole purpose of it was to fit into devices otherwise too small for a mini-SIM – and it’s not iPad for sure), poor reviews on keyboard experience and quality of WiFi receiver.

And yes, I do realize that some of these drawbacks were made by Apple intentionally as a part of their strategy of introducing more advanced models a year or so later after the first release. I think about it as a unique way of Apple to minimize its R&D costs – there are so many simple things missing in iPad that you can add them in the new models another 2-3 years. And while it may be a good strategy from marketing standpoint, it completely undermines my view of iPad as an innovative product.

So my suggestion: wait for HP Slate and MS Courier later this year just to see the differences yourselves or buy a good netbook from Acer or Lenovo already now.

very long rant including commentary on mobile video content, the Google universe, and other stuff

I like to say that media is the love of my life. When I was a kid, I produced my own magazine, neurotically manipulating the capacity of my mom's Brother word processor to make my impact on the national trade of ideas, trends, and cool advertisements. It still remains easier for me to follow reading that is paired with images than the kind that stands alone, and the thing about the internet is that you can read next a movie or an animation or a 3D billboard.

When I came to New York to be in publishing, I really was trying to get a head-start on my now foggy ideal of men's handheld magazine. I wanted to do men's because the space gets better editors and no limits. It would have interactive cover shoots, top five convo starters for the most likely life scenario of the moment ("top five ways to make a lunch hour a happy half-day," "top five ways to make a dates out of one"), and improved news delivery. All on the cell phone. The problem was that only Asia and a bit of Europe was on the smart phone.

Now I've moved on to thinking about how to get 200 hours of video content on a thumb drive and convince people to pay 89.99 for it. I think its the best way to get more profits into independent productions and more love behind cult classic programming. It's exciting because while MTV has coined the term vee-jay, no one's really ran with it.

If you love deejays, which is to say, if you love music, you know that a good one will start you off where you want to be and take you were you never could have imagined finding love. For instance, I'm Beyonce lover.

As the deejay, you start me off with "Baby Boy," then you mix in some classic Biggie, an allusion to the label Bad Boy, with Junior Mafia's "Player's Anthem," (you know the iconic lead-in 'duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh'), then more 90s hip-hop/R&B, to Prince's "Starfish & Coffee," which rolls into Mary J. Blige's "Real Love," and on the fade out do the big spook, Nine Inch Nail's "Closer." You have to throw your hands up because it was sick, and from there, the deejay's got you rocking out to Ray Charles, Hendrix, the Ronettes, John Mayer, Chubby Checker, Dolly Parton, Bo Diddley, and then dropping you back where thought you were going, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

That's a good deejay. I paid $30 to go to Stevie Wonderful over the summer, because I've been meaning to for years, because the word is that the deejays are so nice...and I NEVER pay to dance. But I will if the programming is beyond what I can do with my own iTunes. It was unbelievable. It's so good that the man himself crashed two years ago because what they do to his music is for lovers only.

But to my point, imagine if someone could start you off with "Arrested Development," follow it up with some "Family Guy," put in some old "Chappelle Show" followed by "The Daily Show," then some "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," then an old school "MTV News Alert," then the classic film "Trading Places," followed by some "24," "Cities of the Underworld," "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations," the classic Eddie Murphy in a tight red leather suit stand up, "Diddy's Making the Band 12," two hours of music videos while news and finance tickers ran atop the screen, "Wendy Williams Show," and a classic episode of "Fresh Prince" or a series of best of Sesame Street sing-a-longs, before the morning edition of "Anderson Cooper 360."

I want to bundle the most arousing video content experiences and sell them on key cards because while you can get on the internet at anytime, I don't think that people will want to need to be connected to the internet or reliant on the traffic.

Someone suggested to me that this is what the iPad can do, but I'm for no knew appliances. Maybe the key-card lets you sign in to the video content web, and you can be your own programmer. But I'd rather become the world's best veejay, broadening the audiences the exhibitors at Sundance and Tribeca and exploiting the profit capabilities of niche markets. (Note: while niche is a horrible idea for social networking, i.e. the non-difference between BlackPlanet and Facebook, I know it is a hit with television, i.e. "Arrested Development" should not have been canceled and could have been a hit if it we're expected to serve everyday and was expected to serve the optimal amount of people who be obsessed and pay to feed their fanaticism.

But I'll end my rant with this: I used to believe that my real friends are gchat, while my public is Facebook. I'm not sure how I feel about Google Buzz, or why I signed on to be taken there, but I expect that, paired with the Google label internet, I will be a citizen of the Googlobe and I will begin to participate in the annoyances of citizenship that I never expected. I will pay Google taxes and perform Google service. I will sell myself, or at least my name, for money. I will send my kids to college based on how many ads my private email sells. My husband with be insecure about the fact I refuse to comment on my relationship status before people I do not really know how I feel about knowing. I will live life like its an old school television program or "The Truman Show," holding up a bottle of Coke in the middle of my work day to profess via video chat that it is, in fact, always refreshing, always Coca-Cola. And the rainbow flag will no longer be synonymous with gay rights; it will be the right to Google.

Back in 1994 , I thought I'd be (@AIM) starfishur forever. I'm smarter now; I'll be IP address until my computer breaks, buying 8 inch laptops that I can pull out the attached 3D glasses to talk to my mom because I really want to relive the myriad of time spent not having my own life. That was sarcasm. That was to say, I kind of don't mind losing my privacy as long as my mom is the one watching me.

Apple = future. Kindle and Nook, nice try.

There has been a lot of discussion about the iPad and the Kindle, but not much mention of the Nook. Since I'm an owner of both eReaders (long story), I thought I'd provide my two cents on all three devises and why I think the iPad IS a revolutionary devise.

The Kindle did a great job of turning paper into text. The Nook tried to do the same thing, but did a poor job of differentiating itself from every other eReader. The problem: both devises suck.

They both are so poorly designed that they're actually painful to use! Buying restricted content from either Amazon or B&N doesn't really bother me (I used to buy paper books all the time), but what does bother me is that these devises are actually limited by their own design.

iPad has no limitations. It is basically the entry into a worm hole that allows me to consume any format of digital content I want... with joy and happiness. It warms my soul just thinking about it.

Imagine throwing away your stupid Dell and carrying a slim iPad that has your entire life and everything you need... all tied to your own personal cloud that you can sink and access from anywhere. Most people weren't excited about the idea of a "bigger iPhone" because most of the 140,000 "apps" were stupid and a waste of binary code.

However, iPad apps actually have the potential to be useful. I think Apple will either install Snow Leopard or design a whole new operating system that throws out the "windows" experience all together. Also, finger browsing is soooo much faster than using a mouse and has so much more potential to revolutionize the way we interact with a computer.

Apple = future. Kindle and Nook, nice try.