Skyward Fire

The new Apple iPad is the newest addition amongst Apple’s window of products. At 0.5” thick with a 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed chip, this certainly stands out as one of the signature Apple products. But ever since the launch, it has been a victim of Apple-bashing from people who like to judge things even before trying it out, and jumping to conclusions about certain things and features. And one of the many things that got bashed up include even the nomenclature of the product. No one bitches about a letter pad sounding anything like a tampon, so what’s so intriguing about making fun of this product anyway?

The specifications of the Apple iPad are nothing exciting, true that. But it’s too early to speak considering how, like the iPhone, even this might eventually evolve into a really handy gadget. One can’t live up to everyone’s expectations these days. It has no USB port, no flash support, it can’t multi-task (expecting much from a 1GHz ARM core is a joke), it can’t make phone calls (unless you’re using VOIP over 3G), and it has no card reader. These drawbacks and upset a lot of people. But I’m sure Apple will eventually resolve at least some of these issues with firmware updates (flash support) and other hardware upgrades, like it did with the iPhone.

In a profit-driven market, it’s easy to guess what restrictions AT&T might have implemented on the deal they have with Apple for the iPad so as to make sure that people use the data bandwidth, and Apple’s App Store as much as possible. So, the iPad has been dubbed as an iPhone on steroids. It has no front camera, which I was personally expecting to see. But the fact that it weighs a little over 700 grams and marks about 10 hours battery life (actual usage statistics may come down to 6-7 hours) still makes it worth a consideration. It’s a shame it’s being compared to the iPhone, and some are comparing it to netbooks. It must be understood that this is a new product category. It’s too early to say if the iPad pleases or disappoints. Justin Williams has a nice article on why he does not want an iPad.

Considering the fact that 3G data charges in India, and here in UAE, and in a lot of countries around the world is still pretty high, the iPad will take time to pan out. Those who have been thinking of the iPad as a potential gaming machine might reconsider, since the lack of hardware keys and only multi-touch makes it kind of difficult to imagine how one would play anything on something so big while chilling out. And $500 isn’t cheap for what Apple has to offer even for a starting range. What you’re getting for that is a closed system that can’t run any standard apps or games, can’t run any standard operating systems, can’t do most of the stuff you’d want it to do, you’re forced upon some of that Apple DRM love, and if you want more, you have to pay more. Classic Apple!

Chrome OS based future products based on Dual core Atom/Dual Core Cortex A9 Nvidia Tegra2 will blow this thing away if Apple doesn’t satisfy it’s users soon, since that would be a cheaper and a more productive alternative. The Apple iPad has a very simplistic approach, and is not for a heavy user. You use a toaster to toast and you use a juicer to juice. Apple’s R&D is innovative, and thinks out of the box. But when it comes to implementing their finds on to their products, they are never in a rush to do so. They took 2 years to bring copy-paste to the iPhone, and that says a lot about how Apple thinks. No matter what, their products sell. And no matter what, people wait. So we’ll have to give it time and see how the Apple iPad actually unfurls. If not, we’ll always have HP Slate!

Until a year ago, I never understood the success of Nintendo Wii. I always thought it was the best selling console with the worst line up of the videogames history, and so did many others across the world. I refused to agree with NPD numbers, and so did many PS360 owners everywhere. But then again, I’m not a kid, I’m no mother with a child, I’m no grandparent with grandkids, I’m no aunt or uncle with nieces or nephews, and neither am I a casual gamer. And quite a marginal number of gamers who might be reading this article won’t consider themselves casual gamers either, so it’s safe for me to make that statement.

For the gift giving crowd, the Wii is by far the best console amongst the basic three to choose from. Especially with it’s line-up of fitness games, it’s also by far the best console for the holiday season with many women looking to work off all that food they eat during the holiday season. January’s NPD very much reflects what the sales figures were like for the Nintendo Wii and the games lined up for the same over the stretch of the holiday season in 2009. We’re talking about games that are family and party friendly, unlike what we usually have for the PC, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.

The lack of games that more gamer oriented (‘hardcore’, as some might put it as) people would find attractive is also a reason for the kind of stereotype that the Wii has become. Wii is no longer a fad, and is going to continue to sell more units inline with X360 and PS3 going forward. One month out of the year doesn’t diminish in anyway the trend that was established over the course of the whole year.

That said, this isn’t to say it won’t continue to outsell the HD consoles month to month, but it probably won’t dominate sales month to month as it did in past years. And it will also continue to dominate December sales figures until we move onto the next generation of videogame consoles.

Who else believes that the days are numbered for some of the current "hot" game series? We lost some from last decade when the 2000s came in. New gaming trends came along, new technologies came that led to social gaming going crazy (unfortunately). Some things just became stale, and new graphics and sequels failed to bring the sales.

So, just what’s on the way out and what’s on the way in? Try your luck at being the next great videogame prophet!