Sizable magic from Cupertino

The next really big thing.

Everyone else (including Der Fuhrer) is weighing in on the new iPad, so I will too. Putting the bottom line at the top: I do not want one.

Yes, I’m aware that it’s magical. And revolutionary. Because Steve Jobs says it is. But it’s also quite large. Looking at one, it’s like you’re examining your iPhone with a big magnifying glass, and when you take away the glass, presto! — the iPhone remains enormous. That’s magical, all right. You imagine putting that thing up to your ear and can’t help but chuckle.

Not that you’d really put it up to your ear. But with its similarity to the iPhone form factor, and with precisely the same icons appearing on the screen,  the iPad looks less like a revolutionary, “magical” device than a Soviet-era knockoff of that device.  If there were no iPhones, maybe this thing would seem cooler. But there are iPhones, quite a lot of them. And they seem to fulfilling the whims of on-the-go app whores quite well. Occasionally, you can also make and receive phone calls on them.

Apple seems to think this is the device that will finally render paper books obsolete. Maybe. I know some of us have long pined for the ability to carry everywhere an entire library of books we’ll never read, as opposed to just one or two. I know some of us are tired of letting our paperbacks drop to the floor when we fall asleep, instead of plugging them into a nice charger. I know some of us would prefer to link our reading material to trusted corporations, rather than get it willy-nilly from small libraries and musty bookstores. So this idea may have merit.

But really, AT&T? As the saying goes: WTF? This is the weakest link in the iPhone, so why inflict the same malady on its bulky stepchild?