Concerned that your early-adopting pre-order of the iPad will inevitably disappoint thanks to the lack of killer apps available on release weekend? You can't write on it with a stylus, television programming isn't cheap and easy through the iStore, there's no Flash and your friends and family are all preparing to mock you for your unnecessary tech toy.
Never fear. Here's one solution that will turn that $500 slab of innovative technology into the arcade console you always dreamed about back in the 1980s: Thinkgeek.com's iPad Arcade Cabinet.
For a mere $150 you get a cabinet that is colorfully decorated, shaped with classic cabinet contours, and powered by the iCade app (free in the app store on April 3). Just slide that expensive piece of Apple love into the slot and prepare to destroy the high score boards on Donkey Kong or Zookeeper, or any other MAME you have lying around.
Who's laughing now? Well, Thinkgeek, I guess, since it's their annual April Fool's product. But you kinda want one, don't you? Well, you will may get your chance, joke or not. In past years, every fake April Fool product Thinkgeek has come up with has been so popular, they ended up making the product eventually anyway. Taunton sleeping bag. Personal soundtrack t-shirt. Start sending your demands to Thinkgeek now.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2010.