The Apple iPad. Not a phone. Not a laptop.

I couldn’t let the week pass without at least some comment about the week’s biggest tech news. Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, has probably been one of their worst kept secrets for quite some time. Launched by Steve Jobs earlier this week, the iPad met with both cheers of joy and despair.

So, in this article I aim to highlight some of the specs of the new iPad, and begin to wonder whether it will ever replace the power of a laptop, or the pocket-friendly smart phones.

Despite it’s lukewarm reception, the iPad is still likely to be a massive success and I suspect it’s one of those gadgets you don’t really need – until you have one. At which point, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without the iPad. However, the competition is intense already. Microsoft launched it’s latest incarnation of the TabletPC, now renamed as the SlatePC, earlier in January, so the market is already warming up to a new form factor. Whether either the iPad or the Slate will succeed, only time will tell.

In terms of form factor for the iPad, think iPhone, but much bigger. Coming in at around 24cm x 19cm, it’s about 5cm shorter and 2cm more narrow than an A4 piece of paper. Depth is a fraction under 1.5cm, so it’s about twice the depth as current smart phones. The weight does depend on which version you chose, but both current models (WiFi and 3G) are both around 700g – so not light.

For the processor in the new iPad, Apple have deviated from their current partners Intel and ARM, and have decided to go it alone with it’s 1GHz custom-designed low-power system-on-a-chip (SoC).  This new chip is still a bit of a mystery, but certainly combines the graphics processing and low-power CPU onto a single slither of silicon. This combination of low-power and low heat apparently helps the iPad achieve the reported maximum 10 hour battery life. It’s interesting that Apple quietly bought a small little known company PA Semi in April 2008, but since then we’ve seen very little from this marriage. We can only assume that the new SoC is the result of both this acquisition, and a couple of years of hard research.

In terms of ports and sockets to expand the iPad, Apple have been fairly mean in what you get here. There’s the obvious Dock connector in the iPad and a 3.5mm headphone jack, but that’s about your lot. It’s important to remember that the iPad is not a Laptop or TablePC in this regard. So in terms of peripherals, you’re going to be limited to connecting external devices to the dock connector. It doesn’t go unnoticed that the IPad has no Firewire or USB ports. And there’s no DVD player. The conclusion is you’ll only be able to load content onto the device using the wireless, 3G or Bluetooth connectivity. Apple are going to be launching a specific keyboard for the iPad which looks like a beautiful add-on, but the cynics of the world would question why one is needed when Steve Jobs went to a great deal of trouble to demonstrate the on-screen keyboard?

Which leads me onto the 3G connectivity. It’s worth noting that you’ll need a subscription to a 3G service provider to use this service. Looking at current trends, you’ll probably have the choice of either a monthly payment of around £30 for unlimited downloads, or you’ll be able to buy top-ups for around £15 per 250MB. In the US it looks like Apple has teamed up with AT&T for the 3G connectivity for the iPad,  so the patchy network coverage will continue for users of the iPad.  Rumor has it that Orange will be pairing up with the Apple to provide iPad 3G connectivity in the UK. However, there’s no WebCam on the new iPad so Skype conferencing will be linited to audio only.

The lack of USB or Firewire on the iPad will become something of an issue since the iPad does have limited storage. Models available include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flash drives. Enough to store a couple of thousand books, but the built in support for music (MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV), and video (H.264, MPEG-4, M4V, MP4, MOV), means you’ll soon fill the space of even the largest size. Lack of SD Card support means you’ll struggle to expand the storage in a portable way. One nice feature of the Apple iPad is support for VGA. You will be able to use the Dock connector to hook it up to a monitor, and of course you’ll be able to use Apple’s component AV cable, and composite cables.

Bearing in mind the size of the screen, one really exciting function is the promise of large-screen mapping and navigation. With built in support for GPS, and the digital compass, gone are the days when you’ll be squinting at the small screen, and zooming in and out to find your location. Could this be the death of micro-form factor hand-held GPS devices?

And finally. Just addressing the lack of support for Adobe Flash on the Apple iPad. Unfortunately, for those who watched Steve Jobs demonstrating the iPad, he couldn’t get off the New York Times web site fast enough when it failed to show a flash image. This will be a serious restriction for games and apps on the iPad. There is a slow movement in the industry away from Flash and towards HTML5, but Flash will be around some quite a while yet. I’ve heard and read various rumors that it’s because of the resource-eating nature of Flash, and Apple didn’t want to compromise the battery life. My believes are a little more basic than that – compatibility problems.  It’s well documented that Flash is the single biggest cause of crashes and hang-ups on OSX and another Apple devices, so I can only assume this problem extends to the iPad too. Only time will tell if Apple manage to get it sorted on the iPad.

In terms of prices in the UK, Apple will not reveal it’s pricing until the iPad launches at the end of March. However, the MacWorld magazine website takes a guess and predicts a range from £388 to £591 for the Wi-Fi model, and £490 to £693 for the Wi-FI and 3G model. Get saving those pennies now.

What are you looking for from the Apple iPad?