Apple announced their newest iPod – OK its a little more than an iPod but not much. The iPad represents Apple’s third tier in their iPod line and in many peoples eyes has failed to meet the expectations of many in the Mac world. People were hoping that Apple would release a tablet/slate type computer with some level of support for pen based computing and also one which supported a tablet enhanced Mac-OS.

My colleague Howard Carson over at Kickstartnews summed up many peoples response and assessment of this poor showing by Apple. I use Macs and iPods on a daily basis and what I have been hopinf for is that they would lead the pack. Instead of which we have a big expensive and barely portable iPod Touch. This combined with less than complete support for web standards like Flash and other technologies and you have a recipe for disappointment. Add to this the burden of DRM and other problematic content restrictions like regional licensing and you really have to wonder “what the hell are they thinking?”

Will I buy one … not likely … back to the drawing board, Apple.