When the Apple iPad was unveiled last week by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, gadget geeks were anxious to learn what all the hype was about. Who will want to buy the iPad and what all does it do? Is the iPad application device worth the hype that has been built up? Whether or not the iPad will crush or slay netbooks and e-readers like the Kindle remains to be seen. The iPad is an application device and not a computer or a laptop, so why there is talk about the iPad crushing netbooks sounds like nothing more than hype and geek jargon to me.

After reading a ton of pro and con reviews about the Apple iPad and watching video presentations, plus finding out from FOXNews that my already overloaded smartphone carrier AT&T will be providing services for the iPad, I’m underwhelmed. Some thought the iPad would be named the iTablet or the iSlate instead of something that conjures up thoughts of feminine hygiene products for women.

Oh, the iPad jokes took the net by storm, and hilarious they were for sure. Admittedly, the iPad is a good looking gadget, but who is the moron that came up with the goofy name? The cost of the iPad, a giant iPhone kind of gadget, is too rich for my blood. Unless Apple lowers the price. Yeah, right.

The Apple iPad Tablet price list is:

Wi-Fi iPad 16GB is $499.00
32GB will be $599.00
64GB will be $699.00

For 3G service, add another $130.00. Unlocked, with a monthly fee of $14.99 per month for the 250MB data plan and $29.99 per month for the Unlimited plan. There are no contracts for the service and customers can pre-pay and cancel at anytime. At its unveiling, Apple announced that the Wi-Fi iPad version ships in 60 days, and the 3G version ships in 90 days.

Apple iPad Reviews Roundup

Engadget -
“…the Apple iPad doesn’t live up to that potential. For all its horsepower, we’re still relegated to one app at a time. For all its talk of being a great web experience — and it is really snappy — we still don’t have Flash. The New York Times app showed promise for newspapers and magazines, but for now the experience unfortunately seems to be the exception, not the rule.”

CNET -
“Really, it’s the casual computer user that will see the biggest benefit from the iPad. The kind of person who doesn’t own an iPhone or a laptop and would be happy to browse the New York Times stories over morning coffee, if it didn’t mean sitting at a computer desk. If you love showing off your digital photos but detest using your home computer to organize and display them, the iPad and its photo-import functionality and large display may be just the ticket.”

Gizmodo –
“Sure the iPad may not be as easy on the eyes as a Kindle. But you will be able to read in bed without an additional light source. You will be able to read things online without banging your head against a wall to get to the right page. And, once the publishers get their acts together, you will be able to enjoy comics, cookbooks, and children’s books, with colorful images. Even before you set them into motion, dancing around the screen, they’ll look way better than they would on e-ink.”

PC World –
“While the Apple iPad is super slim at only a half-inch (13mm) thick, we had some difficulty handling it. At around 680g, it is too heavy to hold in one hand, which is troublesome if you plan on using it as an e-book reader.

“Other e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle 2 or the COOL-ER e-reader, are much lighter in hand than the Apple iPad, and therefore make for a much more comfortable user experience. Using two hands is much more comfortable, but if you’re reading a long novel, that could get quite tiresome.”

Slashgear -
“In many ways it feels like an oversized iPhone, and unfortunately some of the iPhone’s flaws have been carried over. The biggest – and most frustrating, given the turn of speed the iPad is obviously capable of – is the complete absence of multitasking.

There’s also no Flash support in the browser, a crime given how well it displays webpages. Over the WiFi connection here, SlashGear loaded up snappily and just as you’d expect from a desktop browser, bar any animations, but at least it flips between landscape and portrait orientations with no lag.”

Even though the Apple iPad Tablet looks really cool (even for gadget geek-wannabe’s like me), I just might wait to see if the next new-and-improved version of the Apple iPad has all the bells and whistles that are missing from this version. Hopefully Verizon will become a service provider for the iPad too, because AT&T’s service hasn’t been the greatest.

Multi-tasking capabilities is a must-have in my book since I usually have several tabs open at once on my desktop pc and/or laptop computer, so I’ll definitely be watching for updates and upgrades for the iPad. Do you want an iPad? Do you plan to buy one?

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