Me, Myself & Media.

After Apple’s reveal of the newest piece gadget -- dubbed the iPad -- many tech savvy bloggers have been blasting off messages of excitement, anticipation and feeling of awe at Apple’s ability to continually produce products that further the boundaries of modern gadgetry. However, there has been a large amount of criticism and disappointment from the tech community about features that are missing from the iPad, one of which being Flash software.

At first, I felt like people were overreacting about their dismay at the lack of Flash, but after thinking about it, I do find it strange that a product which Apple is touting as the ultimate personal entertainment device would be missing a software which enables most advertisements, websites and online TV shows to run. In an article on MediaWeek.com, Mike Shields points out that without Flash, the increasingly popular alternative TV venue Hulu.com will be unavailable. According to Shields, “Hulu, which reached 43.7 million unique users in November, streamed a record 924 million videos”. These numbers are staggering -- and I must admit, I am one of those unique users. Do not get me wrong, I am an avid iTunes downloader, mainly thanks to my parents generosity in giving me a monthly iTunes allowance.

However, as my hard drive filled up and my laptop began to move slower, I decided to try Hulu.com, so that I would not have to buy Ugly Betty and House episodes and have them take up so much space. Before using this site, I was morally against it -- thinking that it was furthering the death of commercials. However, after watching an episode of Ugly Betty and being interrupted four times throughout the show to watch ads (which you are unable to forward through), I realized that Hulu was even better than TiVoing for advertisers. After a couple of episodes of the show, I could recite to you the NyQuil spot in my dreams -- and this is an advertisers greatest wish.

So while I am still very excited to get to play with an iPad when it finally arrives at Apple stores, I may perhaps hold off from buying one until iPad numero dos comes to the market, hopefully with the addition of Flash software. Still an owner of the original iPhone, I am reminded that patience is a virtue with Apple’s techie gadgets every time that my little sister quips out her iPhone 3GS and whizs about Safari at a speed unknown to my seemingly decrepit cellular device.