Every year or so at the Apple Keynote Event, Steve Jobs, the face of the company, has presented something to the slavering public to make just about everyone want it, even the PC and Linux faithful. So, much to the disappointment of several gadget wizards and technophiles, the unveiled iPad is proving to be far more underwhelming that originally thought. Following off the heels of products like the iPhone and iPod Touch that are slowly proving Apple’s capability to compete in the greater video game market with creative and clever apps, the iPad seems to be taking a minimal step forward, if any at all. Regardless of whether or not gamers will quickly dismiss the iPad as merely an enlarged version of the iPod Touch, that’s really what it’s shaping up to be. Sure, it has the accelerometer that Touch owners have come to expect and love. But while this is cool, it isn’t something we haven’t seen before. Also, take into account that the iPad isn’t capable whatsoever of multitasking. For a product attempting to be a middle ground between the iPod Touch, currently available netbooks and Macbooks, this is a monumental disappointment.
Sure, my PC and Linux machines can multitask exceptionally well along with my Xbox 360, which allows me to talk in party chat while playing a game or seamlessly moving between online mediums like Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook and Netflix. But, iPad doesn’t do this. You better be content doing one thing at a time on your giant iPhone that can’t make calls, because that’s all you’ll be able to do. Additionally, it seems that if you want to attach anything to the iPad, it is going to require a monstrous amount of adapters. Oddly enough, the damn thing requires an adapter for usb. Usb is supposed to be the universal standard for adapters, however I have the feeling that this is just another way Apple is seeking to nickel and dime the early adopters of the iPad. In an age where just about every piece of electronics has some form of HDMI, VGA or DVI for high-definition output, the iPad completely lacks it.
I think this is utterly hilarious that my 360 is hooked up via HDMI, yet if I want to watch something I’ve downloaded from iTunes in glorious high-definition from my iPad, I’m basically out of luck as far as Apple is concerned. Most of all, it doesn’t support any kind of flash which is positively ridiculous. Even web browser enabled consoles are able to support flash video is some capacity and if not, it’s a simple conversion for them to be able to do so on their respective stores (i.e. WiiWare, PSN, XBLA). If this game was able to play flash, even via the Safari browsers, it would garner a huge following from gamers, casual and hardcore alike who just enjoy lounging around and wasting time every so often with the newest browser game. Most damning of all comes from a hopeless reliance on the App store. While this shouldn’t be a problem, Apple has consistently done so to prove otherwise. Apple consistently pulls apps or disallows them from being released on the App store for arbitrary and outrageously poor reasons.
If nothing else, it’s this Draconian mindset on Apple’s part that has pushed many developers away from creating programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch, inevitably garnering the conclusion that the iPad stands to face the same scenario. While the iPod Touch is without a doubt a clever little gadget, the same can’t necessarily be said for the iPad. Besides an immensely silly name, its technical offerings lead potential gamers into a locked down situation with a piece of hardware that is too big to necessarily warrant ever being called a handheld in any capacity. Hopefully later iterations might stand to compete far better in the video game community. But for now, I think gamers can comfortably continue holding onto their controllers with a fair measure of confidence. This new toy may look somewhat pretty, but that’s all it seems to be doing for now. In the past Apple has openly stated they’ve been trying to increase their share of the gaming market by reaching out to the community, but for now, my only real question for Apple is: What the hell am I supposed to do with this?
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