Introducing the iPad Air. Its slick, memorable apple icon arrives to users once again in the form of a smaller, thinner, and lighter version of the of the iPad mini.  As the same with many new products from Apple, there is a lack of innovation in design, however, the innards of the 7-inch tablet are something to brag about.

Using an A7 processor chip (the same featured in the super smart iPhone 5s) the tablet’s speed has never been more evident when searching the web. Paint yourself a picture using the Layers app to reveal the sharp, clean, high resolution LED back-lit screen. Picking up your WI-fi twice as fast with the iPad Air is made possible by not one, but two antennas for your browsing convenience.

But, why spring for the Air instead of the five prior models of Apple’s tablet collection? What’s a good reason to buy this new device? If you want a lighter, faster tablet without giving up battery life, if you have never bought a tablet in the past, or if you have a heap of cash lying around, the iPad air is definitely for you. Prepare yourself for a sticker shock (as far as Apple products are concerned) as the iPad Air starts at $499 for 16 gigabytes of storage. Bump up the storage to 32 gigabytes for $599. A whopping 128 gigabytes of storage is available for $799 (for those professional photographers and emcees).

However, when introducing all of the larger sizes, it makes the iPad Air with 16 gigs of memory seem puny and not worth while. Eliminating the 16 gigabyte storage standard, and lowering the 32 gigabyte price of the iPad Air’s memory would have virtually cut consumer storage problems. Apple failed and it’s high prices don’t seem to have any effect on company profits, but it disappoints me to say the least. Storage costs need to be more practical for 32 gigabytes.

A lot of retina display products, such as televisions and laptops, have almost unimaginably high quality displays, yet, specifically, Apple’s whole idea of 3.1 million pixels for the iPad Air has me excited.

For the Air to have such a pick-up-and-go intuitiveness that many other challenger tablets lack is imperative, because of the complex market for such devices:  The new technology required for a product, with such a high pixel display, using micro processing technology, and lightning fast internal hardware system all come into play when considering competitors, and the iPad Air seems to stand above all others.

Recently, Apple reported that they had been asked by thousand of countries for private customer accounts for those involved in crimes, running from prosecution, or of missing persons. But I can’t help but think its just the tip of the iceberg. Apple uses encryption codes to protect the security of its users and it’s own network.  Google is using the same encryption techniques for the security of their emails, as Gmail has become the go-to mail server.

From a customer relations perspective, I give Apple three out of five bars for it’s lost connection with America’s current financial situation. However, I give the technology aspect of the iPad Air nine out of ten bars, because Apple has simply not stopped dishing out state-of-the-art technology on a regular basis.