Today saw the release of the most anticipated Apple device, perhaps of all time. Dubbed the iPad, people have been speculating for weeks. There have been some crazy mock ups and some sensible ones, but only a few have come close. The iPad has a 9,7″ capacitive touch screen. I expected this. What I did not expect was a mere upscaled iPod touch. But I will not complain. As usual Apple have put their spin on it and it has come out OK.

Also Apple announced the iPad’s very own version of iWork. Keynote, Numbers and Pages are all sold separately. This was a complete shock to me. By the looks of it they have been completely redesigned from the ground up. The new ‘portable’ iWork suite looks promising. Especially with the keyboard docking station.

The keyboard docking station looks exactly like Apple’s signature chiclet keyboard. For me this will be one of the deciding factors in me purchasing an iPad. The keyboard dock could be used in so many ways. The iPad is a portable device yet so is my MacBook Pro which can do all the iPad can do, and more minus the iPhone apps.

Though replacing a notebook is not the idea of the iPad it’s all I would use it for. I would rather purchase and and get a fully functioning portable web device. This way it would just be less to carry around. But this is just my opinion. I’m sure many people would find it helpful.

Since you can use all the apps you have purchased for your iPhone I think the iPad will be helpful for design students. Mainly because the iPhone has many amazing drawing apps, which on a larger scale (such as the iPad) could be extremely powerful.

Though I expected a little more from this event it was satisfactory. I now think that 4.0 OS or even the fourth iPhone will be announced or maybe even released at WWDC 2010 along with MacBook refreshes, most of which everyone expected to be released toady. I would give today a 9/10, it was good but I expected a little more.