Day started with all the excitement and hopes that all the hype about the new Tablet, now iPad, comes true.

The presentation started and as expected Steve Jobs started talking about how there was a link missing between the SmartPhones and the Laptops. We knew what he was talking about right? The new tablet!

The tablet was released in the first couple of minutes of the presentation and the demos started flowing, and it looked nice.

But the problem is we expect extra ordinary stuff from Apple not just “nice”. The company should be worried when people start calling its products “Nice”, “Fine”, “OK”, etc.. those terms are meant for Apple competitors.

The following article will take you through the Good, Bad and Ugly of Apple’s latest creation, Apple iPad.

The Good:

Looks and Design of iPad: I like the way it looks. iPad is 9.56’ in Height, 7.47 Width, .5 inches think and weighs about 1.6 pounds. It comes in 16, 32, and 64 GB versions with Wi-Fi+3G or just the Wi-Fi capability.

Though I like how it looks, one cannot deny the fact that there is no design innovation here. It’s simply a bigger version of an iPod Touch and nothing else, but still good!

User Interface: The best part about iPad’s users interface is that its based on iPhone and iPod touch platform. That means there is no UI learning curve involved for the users.

Currently there are over 75 million iPhone and iPod touch users who can simply start using iPad without any learning time involved.

Pricing: iPad it is competitive and very intelligently priced. The 16 GB Wi-Fi only version is priced under $499 and the Wi-Fi+3G version is priced at $629, a good $130 extra for a 3G enabled device.

The Wi-Fi only version lets Apple claim a cheaper device in the tablet industry. However spending $500 on a tablet device without 3G capabilities is still pretty expensive.

Check out the following chart for prices on each of the models.

iBooks for iPad: From what we saw in demo’s and the Hands-on video at Engadget I think the application is pretty good and tries to add a lot of real-book-reading like gestures and feel to it. At this point it’s hard to tell how does the color interface for book reading matches against the e-Ink readers like Kindle and others.

The iBook app itself has a pretty neat look with the shelf like interface and the iBook store right behind it where users can buy books from and download or buying books is incredibly easy. The demo of this app looked good but a hands on with the app looked like it is still work-in-progress.

3G Subscription: This makes it to the “Good” part of the review because of the price on the unlimited plan and the fact that it does not require a contract.

Users can sign-up with AT&T 3G service from the tablet itself or terminate the account whenever they like. You can choose from two plans, 1) $15.00 plan which has a 250MB’s cap on data transfer and 2) The more attractive, unlimited plan priced at $29.99 a month.

iPhone and iPad SDK: This is a good news for Developers. One application fits all! Developers can create a universal application using the iPad SDK which will run flawlessly on all three devices, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Developers do not have to download a separate SDK for development on iPhone or iPad, starting SDK 3.2 beta, one SDK does it all.

While I was happy to see the new tablet the disappointment kicked in when it started to become clear that there was no onboard camera, no flash support, no multitasking, etc..

The Green Element: iPad is far more environmental friendly. iPad is BFR-free, it’s a chemical compound to make electronics fire resistant, Arsenic-free display glass, Mercury-Free LCD display, Recyclable Glass and aluminum and PVC-free.

The Bad:

Keyboard and Writing: Because of its sheer size one cannot use the type pad as you would on iPhone. iPad has to have a back support of some sort to be able to type at an acceptable speed. Either you put it on your lap or use the dock to hook it up with the keyboard accessory.

Most thought, the tablet will have stylus like capabilities without having the actual stylus. But from what we have seen there are no new gestures which suggest that tablet will enable users to take quick notes or use it for writing with gestures, etc.

No Multitasking: I though at least with the latest tablet Apple will enable multitasking on the iPhone/iPad platform, but, I was so wrong!

Lack of multitasking capabilities just pushes iPad out of the tablet category. The tablets we are familiar with might be ugly, might lack good design or UI but they at least performed multiple things at once.

No GPS on Wi-Fi Only Version:

The Wi-Fi only version does not have the GPS capability, which means locating yourself on Google maps will not be as accurate as it obviously would be with GPS enabled Wi-Fi+3G iPad device.

The UGLY:

Adobe Flash – Missing: We all so the missing-plugin icon during the demo which was due to lack of support for Adobe’s flash player. Most of the people I talk to associate the lack of Flash support to iPhone’s battery life but that’s not a good enough reason for Apple to keep Flash off a device which is mainly made to be an entertainment and multimedia device.

I agree that there is a lesser number of sites using flash when compared to about 3 years ago but most of the video sites still require flash plugin to function properly.

Camera-less iPad: Coming back to the things iPad does not have. Camera tops the list. I cannot think of one reason why Apple didn’t add a front and a back camera to the tablet. This device is primarily for personal entertainment and multimedia use.

The fact that there is a version which has Wi-Fi capabilities only, suggests that it can only be used at Home and Office (mostly) and when you are home wouldn’t you like to get on a gadget that is lying around to talk to someone on Skype or whatever application out there?

Augmented reality (AR) is another victim of lack of camera support on iPad. We’ve already seen so many amazing iPhone applications which can do so much better on a bigger screen, yet those applications cannot work on the iPad.

I still like the iPad (a little bit) but not as much as I would have with a camera on it. This could be one of the biggest factors for people wait for the next version assuming it will have an onboard camera.

AT&T Tie-up: No matter what we, the iPhone users think, Apple tends to stick with AT&T. Though iPad sells in the unlocked state which can be used with any service and anywhere in the world the only carrier Apple has worked out a deal with is AT&T.

That’s that of the Apple’s iPad.

Overall I think it’s just a bigger version of iPod touch. Apple is clearly relying on its developer community to make this tablet successful, however, if the company decides to continue to play God with Adobe and its policies with Developers it might become a victim of its own success.

Also, before we start expecting Apple’s iPad to be as successful as iPhone or even iPod touch and sell in millions, remember, not all of us need a Tablet but almost eachone of us need a mobile phone.

Last but not the least, in its current state, I refuse to call it a Tablet simply because its not a tablet!

See the following video to see Apple’s iPad in action..