It’s been little more than a day since Steve Jobs unveiled his “messiah machine” to the masses, and already, the iPad backlash is in full swing. From the name, which brings to mind a popular feminine-hygiene product, to the lack of basic features like multitasking and Flash support for streaming movies, it seems everyone’s eager to toss a little haterade Apple’s way. In this instance, it seems like Apple’s hubris and hype have come around to bite Steve Jobs right in the ass. Here’s what the blogosphere had to say about the iPad’s most-harped-upon flaws.
No Multitasking:
“Are you saying I can’t listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can’t have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can’t have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product.” —
“>Twitter user “thepha”
No Flash Support, No Streaming Movies for You:
• “This means video won’t play unless it’s on YouTube, for which iPad has a special player. This also means many components on many websites won’t even appear, let alone work. Ignore the ‘good riddance to Flash’ apologists currently packing Techmeme. You’re not willing to give up that large a chunk of the Web 2.0 Internet.” —Jason Cross, PC World
Where Are the Ports?
• “Wow … can you say ‘gamble’? What portable, non-cellphone device doesn’t offer at least one USB port? How many mobile devices and accessories need that valuable port to make life fun, easy, and productive? Who in their right mind would ‘assume’ that mobile device users would not be interested in a laptop-sized device that didn’t have a USB port? You have to be kidding me. The same thing goes for ‘no memory card reader’. My reaction is an immediate, ‘Huh?’ —Gil Laroya, Huffington Post
“I think we’ve been down this road before. Does the name MacBook Air ring a bell? With only one connector port and a headphone jack, the iPad is a connectivity nightmare, since you’ll have to buy adapters for everything from USB to SD cards. Not to mention that you’re restricted to a wireless-only connection without an Ethernet port.” —Geeksugar
No Camera:
• “Really, no camera? Like, not even at all? Yep, there is no camera on the iPad. It was mystifying enough on the iPod touch, but to omit the camera here is a curious thing. That means no video iChat, no Skype video conferencing, no quickly snapping a pic of whatever and uploading it to Flickr/Facebook/Picasa/etc. The iPad is clearly a device centered around media consumption, not creation.” —Charlie Sorrel, Wired
