Since Apple announced the iPad last week, opinions are abound, with many predicting failure for a device whose capability seems to lie somewhere  between Apple’s  MacBook and iPod Touch in the company’s attempt to replace or reinvent the traditional computer. In that regard the iPad isn’t well suited in its current stage: it lacks a video camera so you can’t iChat, there is no iLife for content creation, for some reason multi-tasking is still a no-show even with the iPad’s bumped-up specs, and in terms of using this for browsing the web, it’s good but not great, lacking the Flash support that is used on many web sites across the web, like ESPN and Hulu.

As a student, though, even with all these flaws I see a lot of potential for the iPad. I actually believe that this could be a great device, and am really eager to pick one up for this reason alone—this could finally be the perfect school computer.

As a fellow high school student like many of you, textbooks are killer. They’re heavy, smelly, old and in most cases just no fun to read. The pictures on the pages for say a Chemistry book, are confusing and not really great at grabbing the attention of someone not really into Chem. I know there are times when I go through a textbook to try to get a better understanding of something, and come away more confused.

Do I think the iPad will fix this? I honestly don’t know. It is far too early to tell how well this device will perform, but the potential for a McGraw-Hill or other textbook makers to create an iBook version of their textbook with the ability to put in videos and audio around the standard text to better explain topics would be a tremendous asset. In fact, many textbook publishers are saying that they are currently working on putting e-textbooks on the iPad and other eBooks. But on a more basic level, the advantages of a single 1.5 lb device instead of several weighty textbooks cannot be under-emphasized, and especially when the device is a fraction of the cost of their physical counterparts (the exact discount between the digital and physical versions will depend on the publisher but there will invariably be somewhat of a cheaper price). This already would be a strong reason for me to drop $499 on one.

Another big draw of the iPad to me is the great potential for notes. Now I’m not talking about using the large, on-screen keyboard (which I don’t know how anyone could take serious notes on), but by using the keyboard dock accessory (which while an expensive $69, is something I consider a must have). Together you still get a great real and full size keyboard that is pretty thin itself (just go into an Apple Store and look at their Bluetooth keyboards—they’re mad thin and this looks to be exactly like it); and with iWork and the Pages app, the iPad easily becomes a great note taking device. True it is three pieces as opposed to a small netbook, but you’re getting a full keyboard and a great screen, which when propped up using the dock, should make it very easy to use for even the most intense history notes– and much better than trying to type on a more cramped netbook.

This is as a plus on top of all the other “fun” things of the iPad, with the App Store and great music, movie and game experiences.

So my first impression of the Apple’s iPad intro—the perfect student device, which will not only be great for school, but a solid device for other tasks like browsing the web, playing games and playing back music, movies, and viewing pix. And hopefully some of those aforementioned issues like lack of multi-tasking and Flash playback will be addressed in a software update to make this device even better.

Maybe I’m too optimistic, but right now, I’m really looking forward to the launch of the iPad and being able to really get my hands on it to see how it lives up to doing these and other tasks. And remember, the iPad was announced only last week, and if the past success of the iPhone, iTouch and App Store are any indication, I truly believe that it is a device that will only get better as developers get a chance to built apps made for the iPad, a bunch of which I fully expect will be ready by the time the WiFi-only iPad launches in about 50 days. Until then, let’s wait and see before passing judgment that the iPad is a failure (honestly, the hype online the past few months was so high that it was near impossible for people to be happy with whatever Apple announced).

What you think—will the iPad be the killer device for school use; would you use it? You happy or unhappy with what the iPad is after all the speculation? Sound off in the comments.

The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily shared by others at TeenTechBlog. If you would prefer to email me your thoughts on how the iPad relates to students, you can email me at eli@teentechblog.com

Last week we covered exactly what the iPad is, now let’s take a closer look at some of the accessories Apple plans on rolling out alongside the new device. Apple announced 5 main accessories along with the iPad; let’s take a close look at what exactly they are:

• Keyboard Dock– This is a must have add-on in my book—a dock that props up your iPad for ideal vertical view, as well as including a full-sized, physical QWERTY keyboard. The dock, which comes with a keyboard very similar to the Apple wireless Bluetooth keyboards for Macs, also gives you a iPod 30 pin connector for syncing with your computer, charging, or using other add-ons like the ones below, as well as an audio jack let’s you connect to better speakers if you want. If you plan to use the iPad as, say, your computer in school for taking notes or writing papers (for example, using the Pages app), this truly is a must-have, even at it’s price of $69.

• iPad Case– This is Apple’s case for the iPad, that not only protects the screen while keeping it usable for typing and, well just using the device, it also has a built-in stand that can be used in many different ways, such as setting on a table for viewing slide shows or videos. The iPad Case will be priced at $39, though we’re sure there will be many other cases coming out for much less than that.

• iPad Dock– Pretty much the Keyboard Dock, minus the keyboard. It’ll cost $29.

• iPad Camera Connection Kit– This takes the regular iPod dock connector on the iPad and turns it into either a USB port or SD card slot for importing pix from your digital camera right to your iPad. This is some of the most basic functions found on even the cheapest netbooks and we would’ve really liked Apple to have put both of these into the iPad from the outset, but I guess thinness has it’s price. The price for this add-on kit is also $29.

There also is an extra power adapter for charging off of a regular outlet (with a greater range, thanks to a 6-foot cable) and a VGA connector for hooking this up to a computer screen or TV with a VGA port available.

So there you have it—a round-up of all the iPad accessories Apple plans to sell alongside the new iPad. The big thing here of course is the new keyboard dock, which should definitely throw a whole new dimension on what this device can do (we all know how much people wanted a real keyboard on the iPhone).

The Archos 9 Windows 7 Tablet

For what seems like forever, there’s been talk of Apple making an all touchscreen tablet for the Mac. Now see, if you’re a Windows user (even though now there is talk of Microsoft making their own tablet…. but we’ll cover that another time), you can pretty much point and laugh at every Apple “fanboy” who freaks out with each Apple event and rumor hoping for said inevitable tablet—as thanks to Archos, you got a real, and really nice looking Windows tablet that’s ready to make full use of the upcoming Windows 7′s improved touch features.

Playing Hearts with your fingers!

At IDF, we made sure to stop by Archos’s booth and check out the Archos 9 for ourselves, and we came away pretty impressed. The Archos 9 tablet looks great and is insanely thin and light that taking it around wherever you go should be a breeze.

Archos did though do a couple things interesting with the tablet—for one, it doesn’t use a capacitive, more finger friendly touchscreen like those on the iPhone and iPod touch, instead going with a surprisingly very responsive resistive touchscreen (usually with resistive screens they only work well if you use a stylus or pen like object to tap the screen– but if we hadn’t known before that this was resistive we would have definitely thought it was a capacitive screen. That’s how good it is with just using your fingers! Though that lack of a capacitive screen also means no gestures like “pinch to zoom” etc). It also has a lot of the netbook type specs like 9 inch touchscreen, 1 GB RAM, 1.2 GHZ Intel Atom processor, 1.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, 60-120 GB hard drive…, but all this isn’t a terrible thing, as Archos is planning to sell this at a very solid price of $499 when it launches with Windows 7 on October 22nd.

Oh, and if your worried about using an all touchscreen device like this to write long reports or take notes in school, don’t be. Archos plans to be selling a very thin wireless Bluetooth keyboard along with the Archos, which also is pretty solid and will definitely make things a whole lot easier.

For more info on the Archos 9, see Archos’s site here.