Apple iPad – What do you think about it?

Alright, so the mystery is gone now. Apple finally announced its highly anticipated tablet device, iPad. It is essentially a “much” bigger version of iPhone (without phone feature) or iPod Touch (with a lot of feature options) depending on how you look at it. So what do you think? Here are my thoughts on the device.

Without actually holding the device on my hand, it will be difficult to give a fair review on this one and I am not about to give one. My thoughts will only based on what I can see so far: the specification, the video demos and so on. First of all, am I jumping up and down excited about the device? Not this time. Not comparing when they first announce iPhone. iPhone was a ground breaking innovation. It was the device when Apple first announce the multi-touch technology, easy to use iPhone OS and sleek device design. iPad on the other hand, other than it is much bigger size, it isn’t really ground breaking to me.

I know they introduce the new processor (their own brand) and the multi touch on the 9 inch glossy LCD may be significant for the engineering perspective, but that to me is again nothing new. Apple iPad to me is an amazing eBook/web tablet. It is a for-sure Amazon Kindle DX killer. With one iPad I can enjoy more than three ebook devices: Apple iBook, Kindle, B&N Reader and more.

So what are the things that I think iPad does it right?

1. I think the price is right. With $499 as the starting price, that will persuade people to consider buying iPad from devices such as Kindle and B&N Nook
2. New native apps are great (email, ebook, calendar, web browser, photo gallery). This always be Apple strongest suit. The update the user experience of all the native apps to nicely showcase the big screen of this device. NO compromise on the user experience here. Two thumbs up !!!
3. No contract with AT&T. Hurrrayyy !!! That is really great news. This allows people that do want 3G capability to use it with whoever they want. Not sure about the decision of using the micro SIM card

So what are my dislikes with iPad?

1. I wish it was smaller !!
2. Still no updates on the OS? Where is the multi-task capabilities?
3. No camera? Come on Apple, at least a front facing camera for video conference

Well hopefully once they have it on the Apple store to play with, it changes my mind. Especially the size. Well have to wait until March. Until then, let me know what you think about it.

Happy New Year 2010 !!

Hello all ICUBE reader. I’ve been pretty passive lately on writing the blog. Too much tweeting around instead making me so lazy to write. Not much new gadget that I bought lately. I am still waiting for the rumored iPhone tablet to come to reality. So instead, I am staying with several of my beloved devices: Mac Book Pro 15 inch for my music production tool, Sony TZ laptop for my main working laptop during travel, my beloved iPod touch that I wish it would have the camera, my Blackberry Tour that becomes a must-have phone to communicate to all my friends (all of them on BBM system), and finally my Archos 5 IT that has been hacked to have a full Google experience (waiting for the 2.0 upgrade soon). This year I hope it will be an interesting year for gadgets and subnotebooks arena (or if you prefer to call them netbooks instead)! For one, more Android devices are scheduled to appear. Obviously people is waiting for Chrome OS for netbooks. More on the cloud applications including Office 2010!

Alright, I think to kick off this new year, you guys should check out this Google phone (real Google phone), a.k.a. Nexus One. Engadget has the real unit on hands and created a small video with it.

Here is the link to it: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/02/exclusive-google-nexus-one-hands-on-video-and-first-impressio/

Let me know what you think about it. My first impression, it is very smooth and fast! But I am still not sold with the Android ecosystem for now. I stick around with my Archos 5 IT for now until later on this year for more worthy devices.

- Muliadi

[3-in-60] Sony Xperia X10 first look, Nikon S1000pj, Nintendo DS goes Large

Been busy lately as my wife travelling to Asia leave me with the 2 kids But that gives me chance to play some more on couple of my toys: MAudio Axiom 49 Keyboard Midi Controller and Archos Internet Tablet. I will have separate post on those 2 devices. For today 3-in-60, here are what I think worth mention:

1. Sony XPERIA X10 First Look
GSM Arena posted their first look at Sony Xperia (envy them). I own Archos Android Internet Table and I love the form factor and screen resolution. The Google Android platform is promising (still evolving) but it has enough application for what I need. With that in mind, Sony XPERIA is definitely one of the highest candidate of my next phone. It has all the best and whistle that I need and added some custom UI that is really sexy. Check the first look article here.’

2. Nikon S1000pj
You wonder what so special about this Nikon that is worthed to be mentioned. Did you ever think it will be nice to project the photo out of the camera without worrying to carry a cable? Now you got it. The “pj” is stands for “projector”. This point and shoot camera does all what the camera should do (taking picture) and also serves as digital projector !! Of course you can’t expect an HD quality of video projector but the video image is good enough for a resemblance of “42 inches” monitor of photo slideshow and videos. Here’s detail from Akihabara News.

3. Nintendo DS goes large
Nintendo promises us for larger screen for its DS line and they deliver it. Unfortunately, only our friends in Japan can get this DS XL version for the holiday season. For us, we will have to wait until Q1 2010. It gets 4.2 inches screen (both screen). Here check it out at Engadget site.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody !!!

[3-in-60] Dual-Screen Netbook, Verizon Droid, LTE in real world

Been a busy week with quite a lot of travel lately. There is not much big movement except more and more news on Droids (Androids device). I even join the crown of owning a droid myself too (review is coming). Here are my 3-in-60 list.

1. Dual Screen Netbook
I love working with dual screen with my desktop. It is beat any large screen monitor (in my opinion). If you like me, you will happy to see that now there is a netbook that will have dual-screen with it. Click here for more detail on this little machine. This netbook by Kojinsha carries dual 10 inches screen. The design is very well done.

2. Verizon Droid
More information on the Internet covering Verizon Droid. I’ve been following CNET on more and more details regarding this Android phones that start to crop out at Verizon. Motorola Cliq is promising but my biggest concern is the Android eco-system is not user friendly! I love this article that Kevin wrote on JKOnTheRun blog. It gives you a quick run down of what’s going on.

3. LTE
We barely have a decent 3G network here but the 4G data is start appearing. Samsung (creates the dongles) and Ericsson (get the network up) team up together to get the LTE solution up and running in the real world. Of course for us, Verizon is preparing its network for 4G for some time next year.