During the iPad’s unveiling yesterday morning, Steve Jobs rhetorically asked, “Is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and smartphone?” He says that there is, and that they call it iPad. The device that sits in the middle of a laptop and a smartphone should have the advantages from both categories merged into one, but the iPad is an atrocious merging of only the disadvantages from both categories. Will I have my iPad on me at all times? No, it’s too big to just fit in my pocket. Will I bring my iPad to work or school? No, because I can’t do anything productive with the iPad—such as writing more than just a one sentence response to an email.

Apple’s iPad is merely an Amazon Kindle™ with a responsive color interface and games, but is combined with the great disadvantage that the screen is not eye-friendly. I choose to buy a real book over an eBook because I strain my eyes reading from my laptop’s screen. I’ve only been graced with one opportunity to read from a Kindle™, and I was amazed at how easy it was to read from the screen. It seemed that I was reading from actual paper.  If the iPad were more like the Kindle™ and removed the eye-strain associated with bright LED screens, I might consider the iPad when shopping for an eBook reader. However, a glossy bright LED screen is one disadvantage Apple just couldn’t resist.

iDon’t care for Apple’s iPad. The tablet was greeted with far too much excitement, and I tuned in and joined the masses in watching the press conference. I should have known that all Steve Jobs would do is package something shiny with every buzzword known to man. I could have finished building my golden calf with all the time I wasted getting hyped up about Apple’s new revolutionary product.

However, there was one announcement worthy of prophetic majesty: AT&T will be offering 3G data service for $30 per month with no contract. That’s phenomenal!