The saying goes that "bigger is better," and that generally can be said to be true about a lot of things - and specifically untrue about others, like for example, credit card bills.
So, you would think a winning strategy would be to take a really popular thing and make it that much bigger.
It worked for televisions and plastic surgeons, after all.
That seems to be exactly what Apple was thinking recently when it unveiled its newest "must have" product, the much-anticipated iPad, which disappointingly is really just an iPod Touch on steroids.
Although Apple founder and tech guru Steve Jobs called the iPad "magical" and "revolutionary," technology pundits have been talking more about what the iPad lacks then what it delivers.
First of all, if you do call something "magical" it better fill my heart with child-like glee or shoot unicorns out of somewhere special, otherwise you're just reaching.
So far, the iPad doesn't seem to do any of that, so possibly magic was used to make the iPods grow larger into iPads, and that's what they're talking about - but who knows?
I'm fine with using the word "revolutionary" though, as long as it really is, which it isn't.
Coming in at nine-and-half-by-seven-and-half inches, the iPad is similar in size to a book or small magazine, and at about one-and-a-half pounds, it's pretty lightweight.
It's got a nice, slick touch screen, and it lets you surf the web, email, watch video, listen to music, read e-books and use iTunes apps.
But before you think about shelling out about $500 or more on one of these, let's look at a few of its cons.
The name: I won't stoop to making feminine hygiene jokes - mostly because Late Night talk show hosts all beat me to the punch - but the Apple marketing boys might have been too hasty when naming the product.
I'm just saying.
But the current model also has no camera, no multi-tasking ability and no USB port.
Those last two are oddly absent, considering the iPad was hyped to be something that would replace laptops. And having no camera seems to diminish the usefulness of its photo and video software capabilities.
The iPad also comes in two connectivity flavours: wifi only, or wifi and 3G.
So you can either only use the thing around your own wireless network (or at a hotspot), or shell out extra for one that can also connect to a 3G network, like from Telus or Rogers.
I don't think they're going to let you use their networks for free, so that's going to cost extra, too.
I guess what perplexes me about the iPad is that I don't really know what it is supposed to be. It's not a smart phone or laptop but rather something in-between yet still missing some of the best elements of both.
I love my iPhone for the exact reason it can do all that stuff plus has a video/camera, it's a phone and it fits in my pocket.
So in this case, I think smaller ends up being better.
If only that line of thinking would carry over to my credit card bill.
Now that would be magical and revolutionary.
