Apple announced their new (soon to be available) iPad yesterday. Much of the nerd community is buzzzing with news about it. I didn't watch the Apple presentation, but I did poke around at it on the Apple website, and have some opinions of my own to share.

Exciting disappointment leads my thoughts. Of course, I've not seen or used one, so the rest of this is just from my trained-eye scouring the spec sheet.

It's basically a big iPod Touch. Yeah, it's faster, has more storage, and works with a keyboard. It sure looks pretty, and seems like it might have enough power to do all kinds of things all day long (claims 10 hours...close to all day with not-constant use). But it falls well short of what I was hoping for.

It does do Bluetooth keyboards. The little keyboard on my Droid phone (and other PDAs I've owned) is nice to have, more to save the screen space instead of using the software keyboard, but the keys are so small it makes me yearn for a larger keyboard. Bluetooth makes this work. Apple makes one for their iMac line. Writing blog posts, big e-mail, or even that book I should be working on can be done where one gets the whim these days, except that the input is dreadful, so we wait until we get to a real PC.

It supports a ton of wireless networking, including 3G, so it should work on the Internet and other networks just about anywhere. I'm hoping that it's easily separated from the network, and that it can do plenty without being connected, for those who have dark zones or, you know, work in a building...

I'm more than a little disappointed that it's a large iPod rather than an iBook without a keyboard. For a portable device, the 1GHz-ish processor is fine. The 64G flash drive could be a little small, but it should be the case that we get a portable computer instead of a bigger media device. Sure, I watch videos, listen to music, and play a game or two, but that's as often because that's the upper limit of my device than what I would really like to be doing in those spare moments. I write, I peruse the web, and whatnot. I want to express myself and create stuff on my computers, as much as I distract myself, and this is less likely to cut it than a little PC would allow.

It doesn't have the what-it-needs to allow use as a large cell-phone. No, I'm not suggesting one would hold this to their face, but as a speakerphone or with a Bluetooth headset anything these days should be able to be used as a cellular phone, right? Hopefully it can take advantage of software like Skype or whatever iPad version of iChat there might be to allow voice over whatever network connection it can manage.

It doesn't have a camera. How can this be? No, not to replace a real camera, either; no need to see people holding this in front of them as they line up their shots, but even so, they wouldn't be holding it to their eye, but up as a viewport. No, what I think is that this would be a crazy opportunity to turn this into a video phone of sorts. A little eye-hole camera over the screen, like all of the Macs have, some agreeable network software like iChat, and everyone could see who they're talking to. People would be holding their devices in front of them, looking at the image of their counterpart, while the camera sees them looking right at it and shows that on the other end. Easy, killer app. Why not?

It doesn't have slots for external storage. It's a mobile device, not a little PC, I get it, but for swapping and sharing and syncing files with a PC, without using some paired software, a single USB port or other media (micro SSD is everywhere) slot would be nice to have. A quick swap of the memory card and a whole new mood of music selections are available, more pix of the friends and family, and even a new distribution method of movies andstuff. Yeah, the 64GB holds way more than I have a need for, and even the 32GB is plenty, but why make this into a limitation?

An over-looked competitor, Archos has a more agreeable device, the Archos 9 PCtablet, selling for about $50 less than the iPad. It runs full-blown Windows 7, which for some is a boon, but for me means it can run real OSs, and therefore full-on applications. It's got a regular USB port that works with USB keyboards, printers, hubs and thumb drives, and who knows what else. It's resolution is just a little short, and the screen is just a hair smaller, but it starts with the storage the iPad tops out with, and has slots for expansion. Half the battery life, too, by the spec sheet, but 5 hours is possibly plenty to get from office to home, where a dock or recharge could be waiting.

I mention the Archos not to say it beats the iPad, but because it shows that such a small device can, indeed, give us a full PC in our bags. I had hoped for at least that much from Apple. I'm a little sad they didn't deliver.

And, yeah, if the opportunity presented itself, I'd still take one as a gift or bonus. Either one. Or both.