by Henry Case

Created on: March 20, 2010

The Best Feature of the iPad

The Apple iPad has long been rumored and debated. Before it was unveiled, the blogosphere and social media sites were guessing how it would look and what it would be able to do. Now that it's finally here, many have applauded it as the "next" great thing. Some, however, have criticized it for being nothing more than a big iPhone or iPod touch. But however you feel about the iPad, it does have some really good features.

Screen Size

The most obvious distinction between the iPad and iPhone is the screen size. At 9.7 inches, the iPad screen is bigger than the screen on most of the recent netbooks, yet still small enough to make it portable. For a mobile device this is probably the perfect balance between usability and portability. The iPad touch screen is also a high resolution, LED-backlit IPS display, giving it the quality image required to do anything from reading books to watching movies in most lighting environment.

Apps

When the iPhone was first unveiled, there weren't many Apps for it. But developers got busy and over the last couple of years have built a library of more than 150,000 applications that are available from the App store. iPad owners will have access to all of those applications from day one, meaning the iPad will be able to do a lot more than the iPhone did in its beginning.

Weight

The iPad weighs about 1.5 pounds and is only 0.5 inches thick. There's not much to say here except that it will be really hard for a competitor to make something this light and portable.

iBooks

Books have been around for centuries, but in the last couple of years they have gone through a huge transformation. The publishing industry doesn't want books to suffer the same fate as CDs. So now readers can buy digital editions of books and read them on e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or Barnes and Noble Nook. But the Apple iPad just might change that. The popular iBooks application, which was available on the iPhone, will now look a whole lot better due the bright display and bigger screen size. And if my hunch is right, Apple will find a way to sell a lot of books on the iPad and become a leader in this market as well, just like it did with iTunes and MP3s.

iWork

The iWork productivity application will allow users to write documents, make spreadsheets, and create slide shows. With the iPad's bigger screen, you now might actually be able to work on presentations on the go.

Battery Life

The iPad uses the same battery that Apple developed for its laptops, so it promises you up to 10 hours of battery life while surfing the web on WiFi or watching movies and listening to music.

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