(Apple) iPads for sale!!

What an appropriate day to post about Apple (note to PC users: the iPad 2 goes on sale today!).  However, it's strictly coincidence.  This morning the Sac State Renaissance Society had a mini-seminar that was billed as "iPad 101, how to maneuver one of the latest Mac products".  Boy, was this ever the most mis-labeled class I've ever attended.

Has anyone else ever noticed that Apple owners can't just explain how their equipment works?  They have to "sell" the equipment first, as in "Apple is the only manufacturer which builds both the hardware and the software so there's complete compatibility;" and "it's impossible to write a virus for a Mac;" and "people are converting to Apple all the time but you never hear of people moving the other direction." Instead of hearing how to actually get productive work done on an iPad, we were treated to one and a half hours of the magical world of iPad.  And although there are purportedly thousands of "apps" (short for applications) for sale for the iPad, only two were demonstrated iBooks and Garageband.  iBooks on the iPad is better looking than the Kindle counterpart but with no serious improvement in functionality.  Garageband makes the iPad into a piano, organ, guitar, drum set, and who knows what else.  A wonderful,  even magical toy but still a toy.

When questioned about external storage or USB connectivity, two items glaringly missing from the iPad, the answer is the usual "Apple decided to use a safer technology.  Large amounts of data shouldn't be on the iPad, too easy to lose (especially with iPad's one-level file hierarchy) and USB devices can introduce bad data and viruses into the system." What about a program like Adobe PhotoShop?  Shouldn't a machine with 64 gigabytes of memory be able to do some fantastic photo editing?  Answer: Do your editing on a Mac and leave the iPad for slide presentations and photo albums.

Actually, the only thing I heard in the class today that I can almost believe is that the iPad may become the input device of the future, replacing many of the functions now done by the mouse, track pad, and even the keyboard.  I have some issues with the keyboard but the rest is almost believable.