The iPad is Here!

Whooo, what a day! The Interwebs were overrun with anticipation for today's Apple announcement. The hype around this new "game changing" (I'm so over this phrase) device has been incredible to observe. And it's clear that days like today are one of the main reasons why Twitter is so fantastic. From work, I monitored all the iPad updates, starting with that name.

Think about it.

iPad.

Do you have to be a woman to get how bad of a name this is? Yeah, sure it sounds like iPod. But seriously? How can I NOT think of a feminine hygiene products every time I hear that name?

Clearly I wasn't the only one struck by this hilarious reflection, as is evidenced by, um, pretty much everyone. (If I could like to multiple sites, I would. But you get the idea.) And then there is this Mad TV ad parody from 2006 or 07 that resurfaced today. I'm glad they already did it so SNL doesn't have to do it again this weekend:




For me, today was more about the spectacle of it all then how the iPad would revolutionize/save/change the world. But, I'm not super clear on what need the iPad fills. As reported over on TechCrunch (here), the device is supposed to be:

A third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it.

However, there are several key things it apparently can't do: no multitasking (this one seems like a no brainer to me...why can't it do this?), no camera, no HDMI out, and no Flash. Also, it's still with AT&T. And starting device cost is $499. So there's that.

It will be interesting to hear more about this one as regular folk get hold of it. In the meantime, I'm going to sit here and chuckle about one of the worst gadget names I've heard in a while.