The new iSlate

Oh wait, that's what it should have been called.  I was wrong with just about every prediction, and that makes me sad; not because I don't like being wrong, but because the new tablet is underwhelming at best.  Starting with the keynote itself, I only really enjoyed the part where Jobs tried to squeeze the product between laptops and smart phones.  I disagree with him that very many things will be better on the iPad than on a laptop.  Reading books is about the only one, along with an incredibly long battery life.  And even here, it's not better than the Kindle.

There are so many things that the iPad fails to do, including multi-tasking, readability in sunlight, Adobe Flash on the internet, and.. uh.. oh yeah, video conferencing or taking pictures (there's no effing camera).  iPad cannot run any of the iLife apps, like Garage Band, iDVD, etc.  The screen doesn't have proximity sensors (like many drawing tablets) nor does it provide non-visual feedback to typing or other touch screen actions.  Lastly, the bezel around the screen is huge, making the device very large for the screen size.

There are a couple things that I expect the iPad to change over the next couple of years.  Textbooks, especially those with color photos and graphs could be much more legible on the iPad.  And over time, the iPad could make updated and interactive textbooks far more powerful than their paper brethren.  Print subscriptions also promise to be a great way to get the NYTimes or Sports Illustrated on the go.  Gaming will also presumably be good, although a touch-feel screen would make it even better.

I hope that apple will aggressively update and improve the iPad, as they have with their other hardware.  I'd like to see that Pixel Qi screen, as well as one with physical touch feedback and proximity sensors.  A camera or two would be great, as would touch "buttons" along the bezel or on the case itself.