When we said, that Apple needs to put some “insane” features if they want this tablet to become a game-changer, we couldn’t be more correct than that statement. From the unveiling of the official name, up to the disadvantages of the new tablet. Here’s a summarize Apple Tablet 101 course for you.

Officials

The official name of the tablet is iPad (Huwaat?) Okay, maybe you’re one of the guys who voted for the name iSlate, iTablet, iJoy etc. But hey! It’s already here, so iThink just savor the name for it’s already imbued on the tablet.

In the Beginning…

What more good way to start the presentation than beginning it with a biblical-inspired statement from WSJ? My take? It gave me some spine-tingling goosebumps!

“Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it”

And this bragging statement protruded by our CEO of the decade, never failed to make the presentation even more exhilarating.

“Way better than a laptop, way better then a phone. You can turn it any way you want. To see the whole page is phenomenal.”

So let’s proceed to the good stuffs now, shall we?

On a nutshell the specs of the Apple iPad is impressive:

- SPECS: 9.7 inch IPS display, 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds in weight.

- Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768

- MEMORY SIZE: 16, 32, or 64 GB SSDs (solid state hard drives)

- CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. A new customized in-house Apple chip

- PLATFORM: Runs on iPhone OS 3.2

- Wi-Fi: 802.11n

- BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours

- Includes Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Accelerometer, and compass

- Will run all native iPhone Apps and you can even choose the resolution on how you want the apps to appear on the BIG screen of the tablet

Core Details:

Speed

The capability of the iPad Tablet in terms of speed, is pretty amazing. Try to think of the iPhone running on steroids. Although, the clamored ‘multitasking’ capability didn’t pushed-through for this one.

iBooks

Okay, this won’t be a new iDevice without some new Apps to flaunt, would it? On a nutshell the iBook is an application enabling you to carry thousands of books on your tablet making the iPad a very good contender against the Kindle device. Although there’s some caveats that we’ll introduce later why the iPad may not be able to beat the Amazon Kindle.

Pricing/Plans

If you have gotten yourself with some early dose of tablet rumors, suggesting that the new tablet will be around 1,000 USD, then its official price of 500 USD will really be an eye-opener for  you. As Mr. Jobs had said, “Grab the iPad that’s in the kitchen,”.

Note: 16 GIG Tablet WiFi only @ 499 USD.  32GB and 64 GB both WiFi only @ 599 USD and 699 USD *respectively*

If you want some 3G+WiFi loving with your iPad, the price gets steeper: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB @ $629, $729, $829 *respectively*. Now, I don’t know how much you have compared WiFi and 3G before, but you should know that you have the advantage if you choose the 3G+WiFi package here.

Connectivity/Network Carrier

It seems the rumors that this will be unveiled on a carrier with 3G capability didn’t materialize that much. Actually, this will be on AT&T again! Hurray isn’t? Okay before you get red-hot, there’s a new pricing solution for the iPad tablet.

Although it’ll use AT&T as the network carrier, the plan will be prepaid-based:

$14.99 for up to 250MB, and $29.99 for Unlimited Data (iThink you know what does that means, don’t you?) and some bonus unli-wifi on AT&T hotspots, should you choose the latter deal.

Added to the statement, , Steve Jobs did mention that the iPad is unlocked and supports micro-SIMS – this means if your carrier supports micro-SIMS, there’s no real reason for the inability to connect to the Internet..

Apple iPad’s Disadvantages

Like any alpha-device presentation, those anti-hype issues will always surface. The question is, how deep is your threshold, for handling flaws for a device? Honestly, we are a bit disappointed with some of the things that didn’t push-through for the tablet.

1) Solar Powered Cells, Multi Tasking, Open for other Network Carriers.

I say it’s all mythbusted! As good as these things may have sounded, all of them are just a fig of your imagination. Gee! I’m sure some of you may have your hopes too ups for these features to happen. Sniff**

2) According to engadget: “No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn’t have an SMS app”

I don’t know what does Steve Jobs means when he said, “this will be better than your netbook, and way better than your smartphone” Certainly, these lack of features is a BIG setback for the new tablet.

And OMG – No Camera? I mean, why? Is Apple doing this for the sake of marketing the 2^nd Gen of iPads? (You bet they will!)

3) Insane games at par with “WII”..?

The prediction that the new tablet will have customized games, didn’t push through that much, at least not on the presentation. Although, Apple co-developers manage to put some pretty impressive demos of the games, pretty sure, we didn’t feel the ‘insane wii experience’ here.

4) No Adobe Flash

A Big “F*ck you” to users, who are dreaming of watching flash-based videos, games, and apps on the iPad. So far, flash capability is still a fantasy. Again, this is a little bit ironic to the statement of Mr. Jobs that “That the new tablet holds the best way to browse a website”

5) What happened to the built-in GPS?

“The Wi-Fi-only versions flat out have no GPS support whatsoever. The 3G versions have Assisted GPS, which makes use of the cellular connection to help pinpoint your location.” – If you have your iPod Touch 2G, then the iPad tablet’s GPS functionality works more like that.

6) As usual, not external memory slot.

If you have been dreaming that Apple will someday create a product, that will have some micro-sd capability, then I guess you can be assure that iPad is certainly not the device for that. Seeing it shipping with the usual Small,medium,large storage capacity, makes you want to think twice before buying this gadget.

I mean, seriously? Who needs a tablet with only a 16GB of capacity? – I think it’s kind of moot in my opinion.

7) Not the most fantastic ebook reader

Okay so it has iBook, some boombastic graphic enhancers, and some fast procs to handle thousands of e-books. But comparing it to the Kindle – The iPad doesn’t have a e-ink (the one that makes the brightness of the screen, close to being like a real pages of a book)

The new tablet may have a 10 hours of battery lifespan (reduced on 3G mode), but compare it to the kindle, it can go for as long as one week!

Also the price of the Kindle, rangers from 250-300 USD, which is way less than the price of the cheapest iPad Tablet (500 USD)

Minutes to Burn?

Here’s an 8 minute video describing the availability of the apple-tablet. 60-90 days is the time-frame for this one, folks!

Wrap-up:

Beyond the doubt, the Apple tablet  is one, if not the best tablet at this moment. But ‘it’, beating the high-rollers of the e-book/netbook kingdom, is still a little bit out of reach.

As I keep on saying, it depends on your preferences, if you want a tablet for your day to day life. But let me tell you, if you already have a high-end smartphone (iPhone 3GS, N1 phone, HTC high-rollers) resting on your pocket, and have a laptop at your home. My credo is, sleep over it before buying this one.

Also, there’s a chance that this first-release *just like the iPhone* will be held under scrutiny and may have the tendency to be half-baked – iPad: No camera, No flash capability, No Built-in GPS etc.

I don’t like to see you as that person who will buy this tablet, then after a couple of months you will get infuriated seeing that the 2G model will arrive fixing all these flaws. Half a grand isn’t too cheap, is it?

So the question remains, are you going to buy the iPad now, or not?

(images: engadget)