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Apple unveiled its much anticipated touch screen tablet device today at an exclusive invite only event in San Francisco today. Called the "iPad", it features a 9.7" colour touch screen and is touted as device in between a smart phone and a laptop. Apple engineers designed a custom processor to power the iPad, called the "A4", it's a custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip. The new chip gives the iPad an impressive 10 hours of battery life.

While I admire Apple's ability to create visually stunning and user friendly devices, I can't see this product taking off and revolutionising the market in the same fashion that the iPod and iPhone did. At the core the iPad is simply an oversized iPod touch. Really, don't kid yourself that is essentially what it is. At a price point starting at US$499 for the Wi-Fi only 16GB model, for all the things it is lacking it isn't a revolutionary product in my mind.

When the iPad hits Australian shores it'll more than likely be over priced just like all of Apple's products, starting somewhere around $600+. The initial market will be the Apple "fanboi's" who will buy anything with an Apple logo. I can't see average consumers jumping on board with this device when you can buy a similar sized laptop or netbook that does more, running a real operating system and with more power at the same or a cheaper price.

Once again Apple's arrogance shines with the iPad severely lacking features that many laptops and netbooks do quite well. The lack of Adobe Flash video integration stands out as the biggest failure. With nearly all internet video running on Flash video, to exclude such a vital plugin in my opinion is nothing short of astounding in this day and age. While internet video standards may change in the future, to deny a plugin that is currently the market leader in internet video is extremely short sighted.

The other key feature missing is multi-tasking. Like the iPhone, the iPad does not run more than one application at a time. You'd think that with Apple designing a custom chip for this device they'd allow background applications so you're able to do more than one thing at a time. This is something any similar priced laptop or netbook will do, Apple missed a vital selling point by not allowing this feature.

It has no USB ports or SD card slots meaning you also have to carry around a dock in order to connect it to a PC or add extra functionality like a real keyboard. It also has no built in webcam so forget Skype or video chatting with friends on the move.

However on a positive note I can see only a couple of useful functions for the iPad. The first would be as a replacement for text books for students in school and university. If Apple manages to successfully set up content agreements with major education book publishers this may help it become a useful educational tool. The other area where this device has the potential to excel is with gaming. If game developers jump on board and come up with some revolutionary games we'll see a whole new gaming platform on the rise.

The media hype surrounding Apple has managed to create a big "who-ha" about nothing. Apple had a real opportunity here to release something that would revolutionise the market but I think they've missed the mark this time. If Apple had released a 10" netbook running OS X, I'd be more forthcoming and positive.

I may be wrong but my gut feeling is telling me this won't be a big success for Apple. What are your thoughts? I'd like to know, leave a comment.

I'm not alone in my criticism of the iPad with many in the blogger-sphere unhappy with Apple's latest invention. The Apple fans and apologists however keep using the same comeback as some sort of defence for the things lacking in the iPad and that is: "It's a first revision of the device, give it time to mature."

Why is it that Apple releases devices like these missing so many core functions and features that first revisions of many laptops/netbooks already have on the market? Apple consumers should not have to put up with this kind of marketing from Apple.

For example. The first iPhone released was a 2G GSM model. 2 freakin' G! I actually made a blog post about this (before my old site crashed a couple of years back) saying that if that iPhone model had been released in Australia you could bet your bottom dollar that it would fail. Why the hell would any manufacturer release a 2G phone in this day and age when clearly everyone is moving to 3G and now 4G technology?

The lack of basic functions in the original iPhone 3G before OS 3.0 came out also shows Apple's arrogance to the market. Things like Cut and Paste are trivial to implement and should have been there from the start. This however does not discount the fact that I actually stated that the iPhone was a revoluntionary device that would shake up the mobile phone market, unlike the iPad which I believe isn't. I also have an iPhone, so that tells you something.

So back to the iPad then. Apple is releasing a device that's touted to go head to head with the netbook space and compete for your hard earned money. Why is it missing such a vital function like running multiple applications? This I cannot understand. The Apple apologists say, give it time, it'll be updated in the next release. Why should Apple fans have to wait for something to be implemented for the sake of Apple's marketing machine to come back in 12 months and say, "Hey look at all the cool new features in iPad 2.0!" That's just ridiculous!

I'm sorry but that argument just does not cut it in my books. So I remain sceptical in my review and if I'm ultimately proven wrong then so be it, I'm man enough to admit I got it wrong. Time will tell.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released a report showing that wireless 3G broadband subscribers increased by a massive 162% during 2008 - 2009.

According to the report subscriber numbers went from 809,000 in June 2008 to 2.1 million in June 2009. The massive uptake represented about 25% of all Australian internet users, compared with 11% from the year before.

3G mobile phone services also increased by 43% to over 12 million subscribers in 2009, up from 8.55 million in 2008.

The massive uptake can be accredited by a few key measures. The wireless 3G broadband market has progressively become better value over the past couple of years, with prices dropping and quota increases, the services are almost comparable to a standard ADSL connection nowadays. Also as the major carriers roll out their 3G networks to more areas, more Australians are receiving access to the new high speed networks.

The other major attribute is the number of teenagers and young adults fleeing the nest in recent years and no longer connecting a traditional landline phone service. With mobile services now far spread and affordable, younger Australians are choosing wireless over traditional forms of phone and ADSL in much larger numbers.

Telstra recently released figures showing that its cash cow, line rental, had dropped significantly in recent years thanks mainly to the take up of wireless and Naked DSL services. 

Also notable in the ACMA report was the rise in complaints with 3G wireless services. More than 115,000 complaints were received in 2009, compared to 63,000 in the previous year.

With continued competition in the 3G spectrum we can expect to see further price reductions and faster speeds in the near future as more and more of us get mobile with our Internet access.

Read the full report here.

It is indeed a sad day for all Australians today as it seems with our communications policies it's two steps forward and five steps back. The Federal Government plans to implement mandatory ISP filtering for "refused classification" websites, it was announced today.

The government concluded trials of its mandatory filtering policy in October but has only just released the results of the trial today, the same day it announced its intentions to filter "refused classification" websites. Under Australian classification laws, RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape, and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use.

I have no problem with the government wanting to stop this stuff from getting onto the computer screens of Australians but it opens up a very slippery slope to other "grey areas" being added to the filter later on. The Australian Christian Lobby has already indicated that it wants the filter to go further and block R and X rated material.

However the filtering trials clearly showed that the filters "over-blocked" up to 3.4% of sites that were not intended to be filtered, and that high volume sites would likely cause the filters to fail. The other key aspect of the report also blatantly spelled out that anyone with technical knowledge could easily circumvent the filter with simple Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology.

Australia has now been put in an exclusive club with countries I'd rather we not associate with. The likes of China, Iran, Cuba and United Arab Emirates are all countries that enforce mandatory filtering upon their citizens.

This filter is wrong. It's been pushed through into policy under the guise of "protecting the children" while it does nothing to combat other areas such as the growing concerns over online bullying.

Stand up and protest this filter.The legislation will be introduced to Parliament in the new year so make sure you contact your local representative and let them know we don't want this filter. For those of you in the Cairns region our representative is Jim Turnour.

LINKS:

No Clean Feed

Electronic Frontiers Australia

Well 2009 is almost over and what a year it's been in the technology industry. This year we saw two major policy announcements by the Rudd Government that are set to shape the future of our entire communications in this country.

The first bombshell of the year came back in April when Kevin Rudd announced his new vision for the National Broadband Network (NBN). No longer was the plan to offer Fibre to the Node (FTTN), the new plan was to offer 100 megabit Fibre to the Home (FTTH) access for 98% of the nation. The remaining 2% would be delivered by wireless and satellite technology, ensuring that Australia's communications would well and truly be future proofed.

Also announced was that the NBN was to be a wholesale only network, delighting everyone in the industry, except of course Telstra who holds a retail and wholesale monopoly over the existing copper network.The NBN is to come at a cost though at almost $42 billion it's been likened to the Snowy River Hydro Electric scheme of the 90's.

The other big announcement from the Government came in the form of their Internet Service Provider (ISP) level mandatory filtering trials. This caused the biggest debate of the year amongst technology savvy citizens, technology pundits, network engineers, ISP's, child safety advocates and religious groups. The issue was so hotly debated that Stephen Conroy was voted the Internet Villain of the Year and labelled Australia's Worst Communications Minister ever.

It was highly criticised that the trial was flawed and the results are still unknown and haven't been publicly released. We expect to hear more about this policy during 2010.

We saw a major shift at Telstra with the departure of Sol "Satan" Trujillo who arguably was the company's worst CEO of all time. Refusing to co-operate with the government and watching Telstra's stock price halve and slide below $4.00, his reign will be remembered for high prices and bad customer service.

This year saw the much anticipated release of Windows 7. Microsoft worked hard to release the new operating system and down play the failings of Windows Vista. The release of Windows 7 also signalled the end of sale of Windows XP, finally laid to rest 8 years after it was released to market. Windows 7 has reaped praise from the entire technology community and Microsoft hopes to recover on the back of the good news it has received.

Apple released the new iPhone 3GS, a much faster iPhone than the previous 3G model and also increased capacity introducing a 32GB model and slashing prices on the 8GB and 16GB 3G models. Similarly Motorola also came out with its CDMA Droid smart phone based on the Google Android mobile operating system. Motorola's release heated up the smart phone battle in the US with the Droid expected to be released in GSM form for world markets next year.

PIPE Networks connected their Australia to Guam undersea cable, heralding a new competitive link leading to reduced Internet prices. Similarly Bass Link also got off the ground, the first part-privately owned cable from mainland Australia to Tasmania, signalling the end of Telstra's overpriced monopoly on the route.

Australia's third largest Internet Service Provider, iiNet was taken to court by a group of Hollywood heavyweights including Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Seven Network and Twentieth Century Fox. The group collectively known as AFACT or The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft allege that iiNet hasn't done enough to curb piracy on their network with the court case still ongoing and an announcement expected sometime early in the new year. The outcome of the case is expected to set a precedent in the way that ISP's manage users who may be downloading pirated material.

We also saw a massive rise in social networking site Twitter this year as it came into play during the Iran Elections. Many criticised the mainstream news organisations for failing to properly report the story with leaked images, video and messages coming through of civil unrest in the country that unfolded after the election was allegedly rigged.

The year also saw the biggest entertainment release of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, estimated to have made US$310 million in the UK and North America in its opening week. In stark comparison, the biggest movie to date, Batman: The Dark Knight, took in US$155 million in its opening week.

That's my take on the 2009 technology year in review. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.