I really think that is an awesome media device, the ability of managing your media and your communication from a device like this one blows my mind. The addition of iWork for the iPad is just a killer move on Apple’s part, and because is open to developers to create incredible applications, this makes of the iPad the best media-communicator device in the world.

Would I be buying this device? Well of course, I really want one despite the couple things that are worrying me already about the usability. First thing is the home screen, I really like the home screen and app display configuration for the iPhone but the iPad is such a different device, I really think that the organization of the icons should be way different. The different user interface that I’m looking for is one that is more like a regular desktop.

Stepping into the desktop look-alike touch and feel, I think that we should be able to place documents and other media right on the desktop. The device should even have a documents folder, movie folder, etc., I want the device to behave more like a desktop-notebook environment in terms of organizing my documents.

Another thing that is really bugging me is that they didn’t mention anything about printing from the device. We’ve been seeing the proliferation of wireless printers in the market, plus via bonjour you can pretty much connect to any printer connected to a computer in your house. I know that we are printing less everyday but if Apple is going to give us iWork applications there should be  a way to print documents as well.

Right now I have an iPhone and a MacBook, my plan is to replace my MacBook with an iMac and my iPhone with an iPad. I will have to buy some sort of crappy phone to stay connected but I’m not worry about that, this configuration makes much more sense to me and the type of user that I am.

The only sad part of this whole story is that I will have to wait until April for the 3G version of the iPad to ship and really want it now. What do you think of the iPad? I have a forum on the technology section of my forums to discuss this subject or simply leave a comment right here.

That meant no MS Excel, Word, or Power Point, as for Entourage, I never got the hang of it. A day after that decision I had to bring MS Word back on my dock, none of the functionalities that we use on Word were available on Pages. An example would be the spelling and grammar; the spelling features of Pages wont even tell me that English goes capitalized. It is very important for me this type of functions, as my first language is not English; in grammar I appreciate the help with run-on sentences among others. And the last feature that I enjoy from MS Word is finding synonyms of words, which help me sound less repeating.

Now don’t think that I hate this program, I love it for other stuff. Like making flyer or other documents that are going to be full of media. I’m buying the suite but I was hoping I didn’t have to buy Office ’08 for Mac. Have you find it useful? I even watch every single chapter of the online tutorials; I think Pages will be a great application someday. Apple just need to work on it a tad more, share with our community your experience. Would you trade MS Office for iWork ’08? And if you do, would it be because of Pages?

I want to make sure you understand that I was not at the event, all the reading you are about to do is just from what I read around the web. The new iMac is everything anyone can dream in a computer, since the beginning I loved the new all-in-one form factor of the iMac, and this new model is not an exception. The action took place at 1:00 PM EST, new iMacs, iLife, iWork, while it was not mentioned during the keynote is fear to point that the MacMini also was updated.

The new iMac has an all alluminum enclosure with thee a black border around the screen. It comes in 20 and 24-inch screen size, with the new Intel SantaRosa Core 2 Duo chip. The new processors range from 2.0 to 2.4 Core 2 Duo and an optional 2.8 Core 2 Extreme on the 24-inch model. Glossy screen, new keyboard, 1 Gig of Ram across the board, new ATI graphics card, and all the love Apple puts on their products. At first, I was not too happy with the new design, especially because of the extra space under the screen with the Apple logo.

The all improved iLife ’08, include features that really got me thinking on getting a copy, but since I will be buying a new iMac when Leopard comes out I hold on to that thought. The new iMovie is my favorite app, I play a lot with iMovie and I welcome all the changes Apple made to this software, and the addition of AVCHD makes is more attractive than ever. iPhoto also make me smile, the new Events feature had me thinking about my library, while I only have little over 3,000 images I often find myself lost in my library looking for photos for hours (well, tens of minutes, but they feel like forever). iDVD had some minor updates but the ones that I was hoping for were not there, wouldn’t be nice if you could create you own menus with the use of a blank template. The .Mac web gallery, GarageBand, and iWeb did not impress me at all.

Another improved package is iWork ’08, I’m not an owner of iWork so there is no much I can contribute here. The new app Numbers is intriguing me, I will check if I can download or get a trial to check it out. I use MS Excel a lot, that is the only reason I have MS Office for Mac on my computer, if Numbers can do for me what Excel does then I think I will be switching to iWork soon. Since I have to pay for it anyway, I’ll be getting it before making my iMac purchase.

Let’s talk about the un-announced products, the MacMini was not eliminated from the line, instead it was given a new Core 2 Duo processor, and 1Gig of Ram across the board. The processors are the previous line of Core 2 Duo not the Santa Rosa ones, other than that no other changes were made which leaves the MacMini exactly where it was an entry level Mac for those thinking about switching. Airport base station got gigabit Ethernet, and the MacPro got some sort of optional Raid PCX express card. The web application .Mac had some minor changes, increase storage, and compatibility for the new .Mac web gallery option, but for me that was not a big deal. I’m not a .Mac member and as of today, I don’t think I will ever be.

That’s about it, I’m reading a lot of post about this very same subject, so I apologize for repeating myself. I will take my time to analyze the iMac and iLife products and report back with more great content for the community to enjoy. If you have request, comments, or just want to share your point of view or experience, please leave a comment on this post. You can also email me at lumencreativegroup (at) gmail.com, thanks.

All these news leave us wondering what is Apple talking about next, they have updated the MacBook and MacBook Pro. They rev the Apple TV, and updated iTunes. The things that are left are iMac, Mac Mini, Software, iPods, monitors, and iSight. What do you think? Which of these products are going to be even mention next week? Take you guess, here is mine.

The iPhone is the winner; we all know that they are 99% likely to talk about new features, the mysterious SDK for developers, accessories, functions, a lot of bragging, etc. While there are just rumors floating around, I think they will unveil a new iMac. This last one may even not happen because this is not a consumer show, but if not now then when. As well we have the Mac Mini, I think is going to be mention. Whether is to take it out of the market, re-design it, or finally giving it some love, like new processors, more RAM, etc.

As for the iPod, I really doubt they do or mention anything but there is a slight possibility that they surprise us. No rumors about that, but what have had rumors is monitors with iSight. I don’t really care about integrating iSight with Apple displays but LED displays would be good news for everyone. Are we done with the hardware? Well, for some reason I have the impression that they could give us one more thing, hardware related. And I base my though on patents already released to the public couple months ego about a touch sensitive device like the iPhone only that it was smaller.

Software base, I think they will talk about Leopard. However, I don’t think is going to be about new features. I think features are to wait for a later date, but release dates, along with SDK updates will be focus of attention. As for iLife and iWork, I have give up hope, I wonder about Final Cut Express though. These are all consumer products and in my mind, they should not take time of the developer’s features, but things have change and you never know.

Come on, be brave, and post your prediction on this post. Share with the world what your thoughts are, and be part of the community. Email me at lumencreativegroup (at) gmail.com for questions or more information. Thanks.