The Apple iPad The Perfect Student Laptop

Unless you have been locked away in an underground bunker for the last six months, you've probably heard about Apple IPAD. This new lightweight portable "computer slate" by Steven Jobs, seen by many critics as just an over-sized iPhone is suffering from severe megalomania.

But all kidding aside, it's IPAD the ultimate or perfect student laptop? A close examination of IPAD functions could answer this question. What IPAD has or has not, will tell you if you IPAD is a suitable device for students or not?

Firstly, we look at some of the IPAD main selling points that will bring the students in all of us. It is lightweight and extremely portable at about half inch thick and weighs about 1 ½ pounds, so IPAD can be easily transported anywhere. You will not even notice that you have it in your backpack or school bag and with over 10 hours of battery life on IPAD will probably survive your longest day of school.

Second, a 9.7 inch touch screen color display where all iPhone and iPod users have been properly accustomed to. This touch-screen would be very comfortable, especially in a quiet classroom or auditorium. The color display will also read books and magazines much more fun.

Thirdly, IPAD is also handy for browsing the Web, watch videos and even play games. But this is the book reader function that could potentially make IPAD a virtual "replacement" for all textbooks. Think, instead of towing five or six heavy textbooks to class every day, you have them stored in your IPAD - ready for access. But what about highlighting all that important text with a big red marker - which is probably already an App for it.

Now lets examine some properties of the IPAD not have this may deter some people from bringing this apple to school. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks is to be lack of multitasking. If there is something a young student has learned, it's how to do multi-tasking. Some youngsters have even perfected it to an artform. They know how to watch a video, text a message, send an e-mail, download a movie and surf the web ... all while doing their homework.

Second, IPAD not have a keyboard that can make it difficult to write or take long notes. While this handicap mostly will depend on dexterity of the user, you must remember, young people are easy adapters of new technology, using touch-screen keyboard may not be a big problem for them.

Thirdly, IPAD does not have many common features that you would see on a laptop or even a net book. There is no Flash, which will make viewing Web pages less pleasant. There is no USB port, which will not please many people, but you can use a dock connector. There is no SD card slot, no HMDI out and no full GPS. There is no camera or webcam ... which virtually excludes sexing will parents be relieved, but seriously, a true portable communication device should have included a webcam. Maybe future models will sport them or maybe Apple did some serious consideration to issues relating to privacy in the classroom and school environment. A camera unit less can be more welcomed by school staff whose IPAD not be the ultimate virtual textbook.

In addition, some techies criticized IPAD to have a 4:3 ratio display, which makes it relatively square, instead of a 16:9 ratio, there would be more ideal for watching widescreen movies. Since you probably want students read textbooks, rather than watching movies, this is not really a design fault.

The last consideration for most students will be price. The IPAD is more expensive than a net book, but a little cheaper than most laptops, of course, would depend on size and brand of laptop in question. Prices for IPAD range from $ 499 to $ 829th The expensive IPAD want more storage space for all those music and video files - even if storage is mass produced, only offering 16, 32 or 64GB.

Overall, IPAD has many good features that make it very suitable student laptop: It is highly portable, it has long battery life, it is small and light and its touch-screen color display makes reading books, textbooks and magazines a virtual pleasure. Plus, browsing the Web, answer e-mails, watch videos and even play a few games on this unit makes it more of a "slate computer" than an ordinary e-reader like Amazon Kindle. While the negatives: no flash, no multi-tasking, no camera, no USB, no full GPS and limited storage of only 16, 32 or 64GB, which will leave some buyers cold. Nevertheless, IPAD have many more takers, especially in the student laptop market.