After months of hype, the iPad has finally arrived in the UK. I remain unmoved. Please don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine gadget: well-designed, cleverly conceived and beautifully realised. But no matter how much I tap it, stroke it, prod it and swipe it, I am not seduced by it. Unlike so many other Apple gadgets – the iPhone, the MacBook Air, which I have bought out of pure, unapologetic lust – the iPad just doesn’t float my boat.
What would I use it for? Thanks to my MacBook and my iPhone, I exist in an always-on, internet-enabled universe, where my emails, Facebook status updates and all the information the web can offer are never more than a few clicks away. When I’m out and about, I’ve got my iPhone; when I’m at home, I’ve got my MacBook. All my bases are covered.
The lack of Flash support is problematic, too; whatever the rights and wrongs of Apple’s dispute with Adobe over Flash, the fact remains that a huge number of websites use the technology for video or animation, thereby rendering great swathes of the web unviewable on my iPad. And although the virtual keyboard is perfectly suited to tapping out the odd email, I find it struggles with heavy-duty word processing, which means the iPad is not yet ready to replace my netbook when I am away at a conference.
That said, just because I have no need for the iPad doesn’t mean I can’t see how other people will find it useful. If you don’t own a smartphone, and your computer is a big, bulky desktop machine, hidden upstairs that takes 20 minutes to boot up, then the lure of the iPad is irresistible; a sleek, easy-to-use device that sits on the arm of your favourite chair and allows you to check your emails, look up the latest news headlines or distract yourself with an ebook or puzzle game.
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