The iPad Cometh

Hyundai has just unveiled it's new 2011 Hyundai Equus. A big, rear-wheel drive sedan, the Equus is meant to compete with cars along the lines of the Mercedes S-Class and the Lexus LS. However one of the things that set the Equus apart from other cars in it's weight class, is it's owner's manual.

Instead of the usual 300 pages of paper bound and stapled together, Equus owners will receive their owner's manuals virtually on a new Apple iPad. For those of you, like myself, who prefer to surf the waves left in technology's wake, the iPad is a portable, tablet computer that is about to be released on the market by Apple.

Functionally the iPad operates sort of like a bigger, badder version of the iPhone and in fact it runs on a modified version of the iPhone's operating system. Unlike the Hyundai Equus, however, the iPod is intended to be something altogether new.

It is meant to stake out territory somewhere between a decked out smart phone and a small laptop computer. If a laptop were a Honda Civic for instance, and an iPhone was a motorscooter, the iPad would be kind of like a Smart Car: small, portable, economical and easy to park.

Initial review of iPad do in fact seem to be good. It's got touch pad keys, good speed on the web and it's is also being touted as competition for e-book devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the Barns and Noble nook. Many praise it's ten hour battery life and experts believe it will be able to compete with many of the larger, existing netbooks already on the market. Within a few days of it's unveiling the iPad received praiseworthy comments from British author/actor Stephen Fry who was impressed by the iPad's speed and responsiveness.

In that sense, perhaps the iPad could be seen as being more like celebrated Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi: small, fast, smart and able to punch far above it's weight.

However unlike Messi, who is now the highest paid athlete in world football and whose transfer fee (if there was one) would be a king's ransom, the iPad is quite reasonably priced at $499.

Although, it can be yours for free. If you've got $50 grand to spend on a new Hyundai Equus that is.