Just days after the first unveiling of Apple’s iPad, some of the big players in the entertainment and mobile industry have thrown in their 2 cents worth on the device.

Satura Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, criticized the iPad. He called the iPad “just a bigger iPod Touch”. He also stabbed Apple for not delivering anything new or innovative – after all, the iPad is just a combination of a tablet, an iPod and an ebook reader. This especially rings true as the iPad runs the same operating system as the iPhone, and is a lot less functional when compared to a laptop despite its decent specs.

Also in the gaming industry, Sega seemed very interested in the iPad, citing that such a technology can have a huge impact in the context of gaming possibilities. They were immensely successful with their Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone and is not about to let similar opportunities slip through their fingers.

Another major iPhone games developer, Tapulous, popular for their Tap Tap Revenge game, believes that the iPad will build upon the success of the iPod and iPhone. CEO Bart Decrem foresees the increasing presence of the iPhone OS in mobile devices and that it may be a start of a big shift towards mobile gaming on the operating system.

Bolt Creative, on the other hand, have a different opinion altogether. Despite having the best selling paid iPhone app on the market to date (Pocket God), they’ve expressed their disappointment on the device. They claimed that the multi-touch still have problems that prevented it from becoming a more robust gaming platform and that the iPad will most likely not have as big an impact on the gaming industry as the iPhone did.

Nokia too, had a problem with the iPad. Or to be more precise, Mark Squires, the head of Nokia’s Social Media was taken aback when he heard that Apple had claimed to be the biggest manufacturer of mobile devices. The current accepted usage for mobile devices does not include laptop and netbook, which was calculated in by Apple when they made the bold claim. In reality, Nokia still holds the title and no one is coming close at second at the moment.

Russ Wilcox, CEO of E-Ink, commented that dedicated e-readers will outsell the iPad, simply because there are many other readers out there that can outperform the iPad in its task.

Netflix did not really provide any direct comment relating to the iPad, saying that it’s not their priorities to bring their services to mobile devices yet. However, he did mention that they were looking forward to releasing an app for the iPhone. And if iPhone can run it, so can iPad.

The iPad was generally received well by most, especially in the gaming industry. However, it doesn’t seem to favour well with the rest. Just how well will the iPad perform?

We’ll have to find out come launch day…

There has already been a lot hype about Apple’s new iPad even though it has not even come out yet. The question from the consumer is: Is it as good as everyone says? I suppose that question will surely be answered in due time.

Now, what about the gaming? Will the gamers enjoy it? The answer is simple, yet complicated. The Apple A4 processor in the device runs at 1 GHz, up from the reported 600 MHz processor in the iPod 3GS. I know what you are thinking to yourself: “Okay, I have no idea what in the heck this guy is talking about.. EXPLAIN!” Okay okay I will! Calm down! More simply put, it is better than any other Apple device on the market.

So to answer the question above… Yes, the buyer will be more than pleased with Apple’s new product. The gamer could not go wrong with this iPad.

But wait! There’s more!

The iPad also offers a multi-touch screen, and lists in the specs an accelerometer. The new accelerometer on the iPad will be able to be sensitive to both the X and Y axes to really give the gamer the ultimate 3D feel. The accelerometer is really what allows the user to tilt the iPad and have something happen on the screen. The iPhone does not offer this type of accelerometer, so this is a new update.

The iPad is considered to be somewhere in between a computer and an iPhone. It is designed to work like a computer, but not quite as expensive and not quite as large. It offers a nice large 9.7 inch screen for the gamer to use.

Apple has already been working on new apps and games for the iPad user exclusively. Apps that nobody has ever seen or used before. These are said to be “The next generation of gaming”. There really isn’t any way to go wrong with the iPad gaming system.

Okay, well what’s the downside?

There really isn’t a downside to the iPad gaming system. The only problem is that the user will be limited to Apple’s SDK and iTunes delivery mechanism. This means that the user is limited to only Apple’s games or ideas. This is really too bad because there are tons of games out there that are designed by companies other than Apple that are simply outstanding. Are there ways around this? Yes, of course. The ways you can get around this are, unfortunately, not legal. I would not recommend taking these actions, however they can make your iPad gaming experience even better.

I highly recommend the iPad to all the gamers out there. One really couldn’t go wrong with it due to Apple’s very large investments into it. How do they acquire these investments? Well, have you seen their stock recently?! They have accumulated a very large capital due to their revenue, along with their shareholders. They are an incredible company with great investments. The iPad buyer couldn’t go wrong when it comes to gaming.

Apple has finally released a new product to the public. Apple wouldn’t even have to show this product and get millions to buy it without a sweat. Fortunately, they did give it a name. It is the iPad. iPad? What in the world is that…? A virtual mattress? No! The iPad is said to be somewhere in between a computer and an iPhone. Apple came out with this product to target businessmen, gamers, Mac lovers, and all sorts of people.

Okay, well please explain it a little better than just “a big iPod”.

That’s what I’m here to do for you! The iPad offers a 9.7 inch backlit LED screen, and is only 1.5 pounds with a thickness of 0.5 inches. The iPad gives you the ability to download anything directly onto it with its Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G AT&T capabilities. All of these capabilities ensure that the iPad user will be capable of the fastest connection and downloading speed out of any of Apple’s products.

Is there an app for that? The answer is yes. Yes to any situation one could think of. With the iPad, the user has 140,000 apps or more at their fingertips. There are apps being created every second of the day. Need an app? I can assure all that there is one.

Speculators were…well for a lack of a better term… speculating that the price of the iPad would be nearly $800 or even $900. Yet, Apple came out with a debut price of only $499! Somehow, Apple really worked on their price, because the user is paying only $499 for an iPod and a computer!

The network offered through the iPad is AT&T. Some may say how poor of a company AT&T is, and this, or that. The truth is, AT&T is doing everything in its power to ensure that the iPad user obtains the best wireless connection. AT&T has invested two billion dollars into creating a better  experience for the iPad user and is planning to invest 900% more within the next few months. AT&T is going to stop at nothing to make the iPad perfect!

Well, what about the features? I think a better way to ask this is what features does it NOT have? The iPad features YouTube, Safari, 140,000 apps, photos, iTunes, iPod, App Store, iBooks, maps, calendar, and contacts to just name a few. Any Apple owner knows that Apple has had all of these things since the iPod touch. Well, not only does it have all these features, but it has the updated versions of all of them.

The iPad has a new accelerometer that has been upgraded from the previous iPhone accelerometer. The iPad’s accelerometer uses both X and Y axes to ensure a real 3D feel to it. This new upgrade is brilliant for the gamers out there.

Apple’s new iPad has so many features going for it. The new technology it offers is truly endless. One could not go wrong purchasing this new iPad. The targeted audience? The human race.

Yup, that’s right folks. The iPad, just as the iPhone and the iPod before it, will not support Flash. It doesn’t come as a surprise, seeing the long history of Apple’s refusal to support the popular web multimedia platform.

Adobe Flash was first introduced in 1996 (under Macromedia) and has now become the most popular way to include high quality animation and interactivity on the web. Entire games have been created from Flash, from simple addictive Tower Defense games, your favourite games in Facebook (Farmville, Pet Society) to a full blown Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG).

Popular video streaming sites like YouTube, Google Video and Hulu uses Flash to play their videos – making the platform one of the most used and most important multimedia tool on the Internet today.

So, just why exactly won’t Apple support this wildly in-demand feature?

iPod and iPhone users have been screaming for Flash support for years, but their pleas have so far been fruitless. Apple continues to throw out newer models of the iPod and iPhone without any signs of Flash support.

The same goes for the latest device from Apple, the iPad.

Strangely enough, instead of implementing Flash into their iPhone OS, Apple have instead developed a standalone app for the OS to allow users to connect directly to YouTube. Good news for many, but bad news for those who frequent other video sites like Hulu.com. No doubt, this will be same with the iPad as well.

According to a report in Wired magazine, an unnamed source had cited that Steve Jobs recently spoke to a number of Apple employees on a few subjects, one of them being Adobe Flash.

Steve Jobs was claimed to have called Adobe as “lazy” and claiming that the reason why Apple has refused to support (and will continue to do so) Adobe Flash because it is full of bugs.

Steve says that most of the time when a Mac actually crashes, it’s Adobe’s fault with their buggy Flash platform.

He also made an extremely bold claim that the world is moving towards HTML5, and that Flash will be useless.

HTML5 is currently being developed as the next major revision of HTML. HTML is currently the core language used by all websites on the Internet and aims to reduce the need to depend on external technologies such as Adobe Flash and Sun Java. It is estimated to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage by 2012 and W3C Recommendation by 2022. However, some parts of HTML5 have already been completed and are ready to be used.

Still, it doesn’t take the fact that it will still take years before HTML5 will be accepted as the standard and even then, there are not indications that Adobe Flash will just fade away.

So will Apple ever give us the Flash support?

Maybe.

But as long as the man himself continues to throw out comments like that, it’s very unlikely.

Steve Jobs is at it again. This time, he and his company, Apple Inc. have once again launched a new innovative product that is out of the box cutting-edge technology. While there have already been netbooks, smart phones and even digital book such as the Amazon Kindle, Steve and Apple have an even more brilliant idea. They combine all aspects of the already existing devices and pack them into one slim portable device which they call the iPad.

With an iPad, the user is not only capable of reading the e-books but also able to play sophisticated games such as Need For Speed Shift that is developed by the big name company, Electronic Arts, Inc. This is possible because the iPad has been equipped with a processor that seems to be more powerful than that equipped into a common netbook.

Long before, in the year 2001, Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, had already forecasted that such a tablet computer as iPad would become the trend in the world of consumer electronics in a period of 5 years. But unluckily for Microsoft and Gates, their project got stuck even though such big names as Compaq and Dell were behind the company to give it support.

However, it is a relief to the world that Steve Jobs stepped up to plate. With his artistic touch, he had actually obtained the rights to the technology in 2004. But the 5th September 2007 became the first time that he ever launched his first mini tablet computer, that is the iPod Touch. This is the real beginning of the iPad.

Steve mentioned that with the experience of Apple, Inc. of selling 75 million devices (iPhone and iPod Touch) they knew that people are indeed in need of the iPad. We could even see that Steve’s face was full of confidence and joy when he mentioned it at the launch of the iPad.

With a device that is sold with a price tag between $499 and $829, Steve Jobs, together with his beloved Apple, Inc. crew, has once again broken the rules and laid out the regulation that tends to limit people from being creative and innovative.

Going against the norm seems to be one of the things that Steve is really good at. Twenty five years ago, this was exactly what he did and he became the first person to revolutionize the computer. He became the person who came up with Silicon Valley right from his home. At the launch of iPod in 2001, he did sparked another revolution in the industry of music. While people are busy hijacking music in MP3 format, Steve was able to sell the MP3 music in mp4 format instead. Now, with his iPad, he seems to be challenging the Amazon Kindle.

However, it is up to the customers after all which one they will go for. It could be an iPad or it could be an iBust!

It is inevitable that Amazon might lose its portion of the market share to Apple after the debut of the iPad device. This is not something that Amazon wants to experience, of course. Therefore, Amazon is currently attempting to keep up with Apple iPad. One of the steps Amazon is taking is the acquisition of a company that happens to be known as Touchco.

Touchco can be considered a newcomer in the industry of touch screen interface. Amazon and Touchco reached a deal last Wednesday (4th February 2010).

By aquiring the Touchco company, Amazon is intending to make their Amazon Kindle a more powerful device than it is at the moment. Amazon happens to be one of the pioneers of digital books. The company has sold 1.5 million units of the Amazon Kindle and they have become affiliated with loads of publishers as well, including the New York Times, in order to publish hundreds of thousands of digital books and articles that can be read on an Amazon Kindle device. Now, this step is exactly what Apple is also trying to take.

However, it is bad news to Amazon that the technology powering the Apple iPad is more attractive. The Apple iPad does not come with a black on white screen like the common digital book usually does. The device is also capable of supporting multi touch just as the iPod and iPhone do. Thanks to these kinds of technology, people can easily zoom in or zoom out with a few simple movements of their fingers.

Yet, the reason Amazon took acquisition of Touchco is to equip the Amazon Kindle with this multi touch technology. Touchco will be collaborating with the staff of the Kindle division, Lab 126, to achieve this goal. However, we cannot obtain further information since Amazon and Touchco prefer to stay quiet about it.

Word on the street is Touchco is using interpolating force-sensitive resistance technology. This technology will make it possible for users to give instructions to a device by simply touching it. Moreover, the screen is clear besides economic. For a screen that measures around 30 square centimeters, the cost is figured to be around $10 or less.

Touchco is also able to support multi touch which makes it possible for the company to identify which touch is slight and which touch is heavy. The company is planning to stick this screen onto an LCD just as Apple and Hewlett Packard exactly do. Another feature that Amazon is considering is a colorful screen.

Donalr Norman, a professor at the Northwestern University, tells New York Times that to compete with the iPad, Kindle came up with a lot of breakthroughs. The E-Ink technology that is being used by Kindle can be a superior factor over an iPad due to its proven durability for battery life. With cheaper a price, he is quite confident that Amazon is able to keep up with Apple. The next thing Amazon might need to do then is offer users a device that can accommodate multimedia applications.

The long wait is finally over. After 8 years of rumors and speculations, Apple has finally opened the floodgates and announced the arrival of the Apple iPad.

Just how good is the Apple iPad, anyway?

Was the patient wait in vain, or are we being treated to yet another innovative product from the great Apple?

Most people would think that it’s a giant iPhone or iPod Touch, and they’re not wrong either. The design is almost identical except for the fact that it’s, well… BIGGER?

Other than the design, the look and feel of the operating system would be strangely familiar for iPhone and iPod owners. This is no surprise especially since the iPad is actually running on iPhone OS 3.2. Yup, that’s right. This doesn’t just look like a giant iPhone, it even runs on the same system!

That means anything you can run on your iPhone and iPod, you can run it here. Unfortunately, that also means no multitasking and no Flash capabilities. This is really a letdown, seeing it’s running on a 1GHz Apple A4 custom processor.

Everything runs incredibly fast due to the powerful yet underutilized processor on its gorgeous 1024 x 768 pixel resolution on a 9.7 inch screen. As expected of Apple, they made good use of their touch technology, although the virtual keyboard could have been made much more responsive.

The iPad will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flash drives. It’s estimated to have a 10 hour battery life when used to surf the net, play music and watch videos. This is truly very impressive and perfect for those always on the go and do not have the luxury of having a place to plug in their charger wherever they go.

One very interesting implementation on the iPad is its ebook reader. This is possibly the closest thing you will get to reading a book without actually having the book in your hands. The combination of touch screen and page flipping animations makes reading an ebook on the iPad a unique experience not found elsewhere.

With the inclusion of the iBookstore, you will be sure to find plenty of ebooks to download and enjoy.

There has been an increase in the demand for portable ebook readers that allows you to carry it around and reading it like you would a normal book. Amazon had come up with their Kindle reader with moderate success. But Apple looks to dominate this market with their iPad and iBookstore. Unlike Amazon, Apple looks towards giving their users the experience – a common theme in all their products which have given them an extremely high level of success.

The iPad is set to be sold at $499-$699 and its 3G capable unit starting at $629-$829. The higher end 3G model is rather pricy, considering that a much more powerful Macbook costs $999. 

So the ultimate question comes down to this: is it worth getting an iPad?

It’s a rather tough question to answer, but if you’re always on the move and wish you had a bigger iPhone with you, then definitely get the iPad when it finally gets shipped to stores in March.