Ok, I have to admit I'm still on the fence on the iPad. Full disclosure, I don't own an iPad and I've never even played with one so my opinion is based solely on what I've read from others and not on personal use. Does that make my opinion less "read-worthy?" Possibly. Does it mean that I will refrain from giving my opinion about the iPad? Hell no! It's my opinion and I'll say what I want. If you disagree, stop reading right now. Just stop it.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's continue. One of my pet peeves about the iPad is that it is strictly a tablet-style device. That is, it does not have a keyboard, other than the software keyboard you use on the screen. My experience with these types of devices ranges from smartphones (yes, I've played with an iPhone) and tablet-PCs of various types. Some you use your finger and some require a stylus to touch the screen with. In almost every case I found that I wanted a physical keyboard to enter text. I don't care for handwriting recognition systems (sorry Stepan) and software keyboards are pretty useless for entering more than a sentence.
So, this brings us to the picture of the product above. That's actually an iPad inside a case called the tyPad. You slip your iPad into the top of the case and use Bluetooth to connect to the included keyboard. You'll have to read the C|NET review to get the whole picture, but when I read the review it spurred me to write this post. My question is, if you needed a keyboard in the first place, why would you buy a tablet-only device? I mean, the iPad costs between $499 (16GB, WiFi-only) to an whopping $829 (64GB, WiFi plus 3G)! Add the tyPad for another $129 and you're approaching $1,000. How many of us will opt to go this route when there are many, many options for netbooks, laptops, and convertible versions of those available for as little as $199? Heck, splurge for a decent one and you're still only out $500.
Perhaps it's just me, as I have yet to taste the Kool-aid the Apple-faithful seem to drink daily. I'm not saying that the tyPad solution is a bad idea, but it just makes me wonder why I would buy an iPad and then stick it into a case with a keyboard. The iPad is supposedly "magical", according to Apple, but if that's true, why didn't they "magically" include a damn keyboard in the first place?
Ok, I'll climb down from my high-horse until the next time I think of something to say.
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