Couch Potato Online

In the week of the US release of the iPad there have been many reviews, criticisms and posts about just what this 'revolutionary'device is for.

It seems to be revolutionary because it is made by Apple. If they brought out a toilet brush that cost £200 and was made from aluminium and did what every toilet brush had ever done but just more stylishly the twitterati would nerdgasm over that too.

And that can detract from what the iPad and it's upcoming android and windows 7 counterparts will bring to households. The era of casual couch computing is upon us.

I recently picked up a freebie iPod touch 8Gb 2nd gen from a friend who had upgraded. As a bigger screen to watch itunes downloads and video podcasts than my classic, it's a boon for the train. However, as iphone users know it's the apps that make the device. And apps like IMDB, while sitting on the couch watching a dvd for that "Oooo, what have i seen her in?" moments or just popping into safari for a quicky wiki check. It's even got me reading comic books again thanks to the excellent comiXology app. All backed up with a few cool retro style games that make it a DS rival in pocket gaming.

So, surely, if the touch is the perfect pocket sized couch potatoes friend, then an iPad is merely just a bigger screen version and can't be all that bad for being nothing more. Perhaps, with the edition of itunes books to back up what stanza offers on the touch it's even more for that couch (or even in bed) entertaining computer experience.

But, hang on, it's pretty expensive for a glorified wifi portal to enhance the movie experience purely ecause it connects to the network more or less instantly. I mean, that's the key isn't it? i want to know the answer to this now not in 5 mins after i've gone to the computer and booted it up and the browser comes to life. wifi devices and smartphones have cut out that boot process by being 'always on'.

And yet, i already have a device that does all this, it's not cool, it's not touch and it's certainly not Apple. but it has great battery life, runs a gazillion apps, connects to the web with a 7" display and can even access itunes, etc. Ok. it takes about 3 minutes to boot but if i just have it on when i get to the couch, the battery is enough to last all night. and despite being underpowered and as pretty as a house brick and superceded by a thousand copycats it's a damn sight more open and flexible than an ipad.

Ladies and gentleman, welcome back to the spotlight, the humble EEE pc 4G. £150 if you can find one, fast with linux installed, powerful with xp installed and before long, in late 2010, lightspeed when it has chrome os installed (i tried an early build on usb, boot to browser in 10 secs).

Yes, the ipad is a very impressive ipod touch on steroids. But it can't do a fraction of what this obsolete bit of plastic i'm posting from can.