Jan 30 2010
The iPad — I Get It
I’m not often impressed with new gadgets, but I find the iPad to be the most interesting thing I’ve seen in a long time.
This may seem odd, given the amazing amount of negativity that seemed to surround the product release. Such as:
- “It’s just a big iPod Touch.”
- “I’d never get it, I have an iPhone.”
- “I have a netbook that’s a ton cheaper.”
- “You can get good laptops at this price.”
- “It won’t sync with Linux.”
- “It’s proprietary.”
- “It doesn’t play Flash [this often coming from the Linux people--LOL]“.
- “It’s something my grandma would use.”
and so on. Maybe I’m the one out of touch, but I can see a ton of uses for the device.
I don’t know about you, but it’s 2010 and I’m tired of complicated installations, .NET framework upgrades, and compiling C source code — just to get a silly little application running. An app store where I can download applications which have been certified and tested? A single place to get that stuff? Sign me up. This will be a huge boon for people who are sick of dicking around with computers (me) and people who need a reliable, safe, environment to work in (my parents).
I can really see this as the perfect bedtime & relaxation device. How many times have I been in bed wanting to add something to my Netflix queue? Lots. So I lean over, grab the X61, open it up, wait for it to wake up, re-connect to the network, open a browser, go to Netflix. Not the end of the world, to be sure, but an unnecessary hassle.
And what about when I just want to browse though some old woodworking magazines on Google Books? I don’t need a keyboard, I just need a slate that gets me to the magazine so I can page through it, bookmark interesting parts, and then put it down. There are a lot of times I just want to browse information without dealing with a full blown laptop/netbook.
Am I going to write blog posts on it? Nope. Why would I? I’d sit at my desk to do that. Do I need it to take photos? Well, do I normally take photos with a netbook? Nope. I’d use a real camera, or a camera phone (if I had one).
Take a moment to think about your REAL interaction with your computer. For me, 90% of it is reading/viewing content. I skim though 100 or so blogs in Reader. Check e-mail, rarely responding (unless it’s work). Check FaceBook. Read some back issues of magazines on Books. Check on my business sites (seeing what traffic is going where, checking on ads, checking on the store). Skimming Netflix and updating queues. Reading the news. It’s all checking and reading and viewing. The iPad would do all of that brilliantly.
If Douglas Adams were alive he would instantly recognize the iPad as THE Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
5 Responses to “The iPad — I Get It”
Cool post. I’m really anxious to hear your impressions once you do have an iPad in hand. Other than maybe the eBooks which are coming, I still think the biggest deal of the iPad is that it will run all of the App Store apps but with a much larger screen and a much faster processor.
People who do not have iPhones and have not sampled some of the excellent apps there will not know what they are missing. Apps such as Evernote and Things, for example, are incredibly useful and I practically live in those apps every day. On the iPhone, though, they feel a bit constrained. The screen size really is restrictive on what functionality you can surface as a developer. The iPad, for all intents and purposes, eliminates those limitations. I am very excited to see what Evernote and Things will look like on iPad. In the latest documentation, Apple is really pushing developers to make their apps approximate the look and feel of real world objects. For example, a book that looks and acts like a book. That sort of realism just makes using apps so enjoyable.
Sure, there will always be a place for heavier duty laptops and desktops but I think those will be increasingly oriented towards a) programmers, b) engineers and scientists, and c) graphics designers. For the rest of the world, the iPad has everything they need. I fully expect the iPad to be the last computer my parents will ever need. I relish the days when I no longer have to remember how much RAM or hard disk space or what OS my parents’ computer is running when they call for help. I actually believe that the iPad will be the first successful device for residents in nursing homes. Even a half senile old lady knows how to tap on a screen. And since no other company is pursuing this, Apple is going to make a killing.
I seem to recall that Flash didn’t work on Linux for a long time. Might have been mistaken.
I consider the lack of keyboard to be a huge selling point. It breaks us away from 100+ year old ways of interacting with paper and computers. The QWERTY layout was a horrible hack from the start and we’ve stuck with it for way way too long. It’s currently the fastest way for humans to get information into a computer, but I don’t think it should remain that way. (Voice and touch interfaces have been a Holy Grail for input. We probably won’t reach the promised land until computers can mind reads.)
Cost and hardware issues get fixed over time. iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player out there, but it revolutionized the industry (helped in large part by iTunes, which started only on the Mac). And look at the first generation and how it evolved to the Touch. Imagine what the iPad might do in a couple of generations.
I think what Apple is trying to do is make a super powerful piece of paper. I’m no fan boy (my only Mac is sitting in my garage, my iPods don’t work anymore) but I get where Jobs is going with this.
It should also be noted that since the iPad announcement last week, it has been determined that the wireless Apple Bluetooth keyboard (and presumably other Bluetooth keyboards) pairs up nicely and will function as another way to utilize a physical keyboard. This means that you can just prop up the iPad (or use the fancy case they showed) and get out the keyboard for a mass text entry. I think it’s perfect for college students in that way. Take the iPad to class, read your textbooks onscreen, take notes with the onscreen keyboard, etc. Go back to the dorm, pull out the wireless keyboard and type up a term paper in iWork’s Pages. Best of all worlds right there. I would have been all over this thing in college.
Two great articles just out. One, a review from a guy who got to spend 45 minutes with the actual device. Two, a nice essay on new versus old world computing:
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2017907,ihnatko-ipad-hands-on-012810.article
http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/359224392/i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-computers-ive-been
And regarding my comment about use in nursing homes (from the Ihnatko review):
Bravo to Apple: the iPad has plenty of features to aid people with low vision, such as full-screen zoom, a white-on-black display option, and Apple’s “VoiceOver” technology (which reads anything on the screen aloud). For the hearing-impaired, the media player supports closed-captioned content and the audio output can be remixed to mono.
Seriously, who else pays attention to these things besides Apple?