as we all have heard, Apple and Steve Jobs have introduced the new "magical" device called the iPad to the world with claims that it will revolutionize...something, idunno. They always act like the world will be changed whenever they flinch. They were right when the created the iPod: more capacity, centralized purchased, more compact design than the then-industry leader from Archos. They were right with the iPhone: multi-touch surface, no real keyboard, wifi enabled pocket computer with "real Internet". They were most right with the app store: third-party apps, most of them free, exponentially advancing the value of their phones and apps. Bu this time, short-sighted techies aren't so convinced. Well, this writer is. Here is why.
Last year, when the world's worst kept rumor of a mac tablet started circulating, people became curious and skeptical for the need to make a MacBook even smaller. Moreover, word had it that it would not come with a hardware keyboard, and few saw any reason to do any real computing on a virtual keyboard for longer tasks. My concern was that I personally am a die hard PC, despite the commercials. I like pirated software. I see viruses and Trojan horses as cause for adventurer, that from which ancient civilization mythology is born! Nemeses and Hackers, scanners and antidisestablishmentarianism! Oh what fun! Also, it's much cheeper. Especially for someone always in dire need of art and music software in order to remain competitive. To quote my sound engineer: iLocks suck, but I digress.
Point of fact is this: last week, when Apple released the iPad, it seemed to be nothing more than an oversized cumbersome iPod Touch. Everyone shouted "NO!" but for once, I said "Maybe". The iPad is slated to run the same operating system kernel as the iPhone, the iPhone I already have and have had for two years, the iPhone that keeps reinventing itself with amazing apps for amazingly low to no prices. This would mean no paradigm shift for a PC like me who happens to have an iPhone. I have TONs of apps that will now also work immediately on an iPad. However, for many, this simply isn't enough for quite a few to buy into the hype.
"An iPod Touch is cheaper and smaller and has a camera!"
"Wait, so it's not even a netbook? This sucks!"
"No stereo speakers??!?"
"I can't even make calls on it??!?"
These are the mantra of the hatefully short-sighted. My questions are thus: who wants a 10-inch diagonal CAMERA??!? cameras haven't been that big since the 19th century. When was the last time you pulled out a laptop to video tape anyone but yourself in a ustream channel that nobody watches?
Similarly, why would you want to make a phone call on something the size of a lawn paver? The first cell phone with the backpack and twisty cord was the only phone less mobile of an idea. If you do not already have a better remedy for this problem (read:a cell phone, or a quarter) then you aren't the market apple is targeting. You are dead to Steve Jobs anyone, because you are either unemployed, or six years old.
And to anyone complaining that it doesn't have stereo speakers, then you are the idiot who is sitting in the starbucks streaming YouTube vids with no headphones. (We get it: he doesn't like kids with their pants o the ground, hat turned sideways, walking around town calling themselves a cool cat!)
But here is why the iPad is absolutely revolutionary: size.
From the time the iPhone came out, people complained it was too small. Even those of us who swear by it would love to be able to use a larger device. Not for a camera, not for speakers, not for a phone (we already have the iPhone, stop asking for things that already exist. Next, you will complain that it doesn't play your cassette copies of NKOTB or Bell Biv Devoe's POISON! P-P-P-P-P POISON!) But think of what a screen that size and resolution with a chip that fast could mean considering key apps:
1. No more mobile versions of websites. Facebook would finally be Facebook.
2. Slingplayer. I use this over a 3G and can watch tv on my phone. Sometimes I'll sit in starbucks and watch the niners game off my father's tv in the Bahamas. He has the NFL package. Now, I can watch the Niners game on a bigger screen too!
3. Intua Beatmaker: this app allows me to make professional quality beats on my iPhone, but it zaps my processor and ram, and the tiny screen make it harder to use in certain capacities as the $1000.00 machines it mimmicks. A 10 inch screen would remedy all of that, making thousands of dollars of studio equipment pointless and unnecessary. Plus, an upgrade to an emulator app is free, versus buying whatever new machine comes out.
"But it's not a real computer!
4. VNC app for the win! To those who argue it is not a real laptop, you are correct. It isn't. This is better. I have the VNC app on my phone which allows me quick and easy remote access to my laptop. I can remotely do everything remotely over even the weakest of 3G signals using a smaller and wimpier year-old iPhone 16gig 3G. I don't need a wifi hotspot. I don't need a keyboard. If I'm at the office and I left that MSJ at home, I can just get it remotely and email it to myself, or better still: send it to my MobileMe account so I can work on it from the iWork app I already have. If I want to play music or video that I also don't have on my ipad hard drive, I could upload those as well and access them crystal clear over ANY network. As for programs like Photoshop: those would kill the hardware on my ipad, but not on the computer. I could access that remotely, as well as anything off my 3 terabytes of hard drives connected to it. If I'm at the studio and I want to work on a mix of a song that I don't have with me, I can access it remotely and - you guessed it - upload it to MobileMe so I can then access it wherever I am.
Truth of the matter is this: cell towers will only get faster and more plentiful. Broadband wireless access will do the same. Prices for these services are dropping very quickly, and "cloud computing" (that is, the remote concepts I describe above) will make your netbook and laptop useless. Just get a bigger cheaper desktop and leave it at home to access anywhere in the world.
The iPad adds the one aspect that keeps the smaller iPhone in the lurch: size.
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All I have to do is say it's here. Those in the know who saw his first video and downloaded chapter 1 have been waiting to see where this ghetto cyrano takes you with his brilliantly written, excellently produced and mixed symphony. His first mixtape was the Making Myspace mixtape hosted by Quddus and Felli Fel, and he pushed 15 thousand copies in a matter of months! The second one was every bit a success, but he raised the bar with six amazing tracks that told a story. He even had a short-film that came WITH it that has the mixtape as its soundtrack! (Think R. Kelly without the latent pedophila.) 
