Yes, it's gigantic.

I used to think that calling the iPad an iPod touch with a gigantic screen was an insult. I mean, why would you degrade such a great new product with potential to something like a music player? 

Well, now that the iPad is out, and there are apps available, I can easily say that it’s an iPod touch XL. But I don’t say it with malice, no. See, with that larger screen, and that more powerful hardware, the iPad is a device which isn’t just a supersized music player, but in actuality a whole new way to experience media. Let me tell you how.

First, that screen opens up a whole new world of opportunity for Apple and developers. When the iPad was first showed off, all you really got a chance to see was how their own apps (Mail, Contacts, Calander), really looked with the new screen. The thing is, though, what other develops have done. Primarily, applications have been using the larger screen to show different parts of navigation at once. Mail, for instance, shows your inbox and the message at the same time just as a laptop or desktop would. Instapaper does a similar thing by showing all your available articles. The screen also allows for better looking apps, ones that are either more detailed, or more in depth because you have more access to the game itself. However, the best part could just be the presentation of video and text. The NY Times and USA Today have fantastic applications that take great steps in presenting a newspaper like experience on a tablet. Scrolling through articles, pictures, and video, is something that isn’t entirely possible on a small tablet. ABC and Netflix have also used the larger screen to their advantage to present full TV shows and movies on the device. While possible with a smaller screen, it just doesn’t work as well that way. More power means more fun, as well. Not only are those larger video applications possible with the greater processing power, so are games which require more power. 

That larger screen also opens up something else: books. Yes, you can read a book on an iPhone or iPod, but for all intents and purposes, who wants to? With the huge screen on the iPad you can easily read a book in whatever font size you wish. You can flip pages (or show two at once), and best of all view color pictures on the screen. It makes e-ink almost obsolete. 

So, yes, you might be getting an iPod touch with a gigantic screen, but when you think about it, that isn’t bad. Not to mention not every teenager you see will have one.