I need a new iPad, right?  Yes, I'm sure I do.  And I need the $829 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G version so that I can use it absolutely anywhere and store my next novel on it.  Like a really lightweight, constantly connected computer. 

But it's not really a computer.  It doesn't have word processing applications or my screenwriting software.  I can't connect it to my printer.  In fact, it's basically a giant iPhone best used for reading books and watching movies.  But what about those of us who want a portable computer the size of an iPad that does everything our laptops can do?  When will that happen?  And why, if it hasn't happened yet, is everyone treating the iPad like it's the second coming of Mac?

Believe me, I am a MAC GIRL.  I love Macs.  PCs seem so utterly artless and unrefined to me ever since I first put fingers to a Mac keyboard almost twenty years ago.  But when Steve Jobs introduced something brand new, revolutionary and had people lining up around the block to get it, I expected it to be just that - brand new.  Not merely an iPhone on steroids.  

Just as when I saw the introduction of the iPod many years ago and immediately thought, "They should merge this with a phone," I'm sure that Apple will catch up with me eventually.  In fact, I'm willing to bet they have already created an iPad with complete computing capabilities and are just holding onto it for a few years as they bring out new versions with a few tantalizing "updates" at a time.  Keeping their market from ever being satiated is how they keep their business up.  

But for those of us who want it all and want it all now, it's a bit frustrating to have to wait.  Maybe, instead of putting out an incomplete version and building up to something that actually IS revolutionary, Apple could actually put out the best, most complete version of a product from the get-go, and spend the rest of their time working on their next innovation.  I mean, go find out what we will want next and make us think we can't live without it - that's what you do best, Apple.  

Someday I'm sure we'll all be carrying around credit-card-sized computers that can project a giant virtual screen onto the empty space in front of us (and we'll complain that they're still too bulky and ungainly) - so get on that, Apple.  But let us have today's technology today.  If you've got the capability, let us have it.  For those of us who still use our computers and want more than a media browsing system, it's time to make the iPad be all that it can be.  Then you'll really have people lining up around the corner, and may even someday be able to take over the market share for personal computers from all of those PC offshoots.  

This is a new time we live in.  We buy things knowing that they are temporary - that we will quickly ditch them when a newer, improved version pops up (which happens at a pretty fast clip nowadays).  Remember when people used to take their televisions in to be repaired?  Now, if we realize there is a bigger screen size, or better resolution, or flatter screen that actually lays flush with our wall - we unceremoniously dump what we already have (even if it's working just fine) and run out to replace it with whatever is newer and "better."  And perhaps companies like Apple who give us a product that they know is incomplete, only to "enhance" it along the way and entice people to basically keep re-buying what they already own, are the ones who have cultivated this culture.  But we are the ones who sustain it.

This is our fault.  We have too freely given too much hype to Apple, allowing them to coast on all the early adopters and people who can't wait to carry around their new iPads for everyone to admire and covet.  Maybe we should actually wait to see if a product lives up to the hype before we go out in droves to buy it.  Maybe we should stop being mesmerized by that illuminated apple logo like a pack of wandering zombies, and actually find out if the technology we're being asked to shell out big money for is worth it before we click, sight unseen, on the "Buy" button.  If we did, then Apple might feel compelled to put out the best, most complete product they could right from the start.