Two hundred twenty-two days after the debut of the iPhone 3GS, Apple announced the release of their latest creation, the iPad, on Jan. 27.  The iPad is essentially a touch screen laptop.  It has all the functions of Apple products, like iTunes, Safari, the App Store, and others.  But like all other Apple products, it is not finished. You’re probably wondering, “What the hell does she mean by ‘not finished’?”

For example, if you are an iPhone 3G user like myself, you are probably frustrated that you paid approximately $200 for a phone that could not copy, paste, or forward texts, record videos, audio, receive picture messaging and a plethora of other things that the simplest picture phone on the market can do.

When Apple realized that they would eventually lose out to phones like the G1 or the Palm Pre because these phones could actually do these things, they released the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3GS fixed these issues, but was still missing certain features that once again, other simple phones could do.

For example, there is still no Adobe Flash, no customized text alerts, no wallpaper, etc. Thank God for Jailbreak. (Google it.)  So now that the iPad is on the market, I was not surprised when the list of features did not include a camera, Adobe Flash, a multitasking option or the fact that the iPad is running on the iPhone operating system rather than OS X.  Really?

“It would be good for my mom because she’s big on organization and this would be big enough for her to physically see what she has to do,” sophomore Grace Lepis said.

Conversely, others are not as convinced about the viability of the iPad.

“It’s a large version of the iPod Touch without a camera,” freshman Kenisha Beaupierre said. “My iPod Touch has a camera, so I guess I have a mini iPad then?”

Sophomore Konadu Gyamfi agreed.

“Well, I think it is a nice idea, but it’s not worth the hype Apple made about their ‘latest creation,’” Gyamfi said. “I feel like Apple is capable of so much greater.”

It is a very nice gadget if you want to be very professional when presenting your work or if you are looking for a touch screen organizer that can do it all like the iPad can.  I wish that Apple would take their time in thinking their products through.  Two hundred twenty-two days should have been enough time to produce something that can do it all with no strings attached.

Photo credit: apple.com