Whether you are excited about the iPad or not, you have to admit that it is a beautiful piece of hardware. What people disagree about is whether it is worth having around, with Apple’s chokehold on content and the limited inputs. Probably. But is it worth flicking through word documents, watching scaled-down HD content in mono, and designing presentations? Probably Not.
It’s not until one of the thousands of hackers that are out there with teeth sharpened on jailbroken iPhone apps, gets their iPad and crack the OS wide open, that the rest of us are going to have the real fun. There is reason to believe that it will happen rather fast. Why do you think that Apple neglected to include USB slots and an SD card slot? It is because they want you to buy the pre-approved games and apps from their App Store. Sure, the apps they have announced seem very fun but what we all really want is that and more, such as arcade games, custom file browsers, support for obscure video formats, and unfettered access to the device that we are all shelling out the big bucks for.
The single input is the big issue, but with the dock being essentially a USB-to-iPad cable. Sync everything over that and possible driver support for multiple wireless controllers? Think of how perfect this can be for couch or travel gaming. Bring on the DOS emulators or the dual-boot with Chrome OS (so we could even use flash on the expensive device.)
The limitations are very few, especially with the iPad being far less tethered to its OS compared to the iPhone. This should hopefully result in a bonanza for people that are willing to hack it. You may dislike Apple’s new product but with a decent CPU, discrete GPU, responsive touchscreen, familiar resolution, it’s a tablet computer, whether Apple wants to let you use it as one or not.
Stay tuned with us at MGN for the latest news on the jailbreak scene for the iPad. Share any thoughts and comments on the topic below!
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