The iPad - Apple's Take On The Tablet Computer

[ginzo]

I don't get this thing at all, but I'm not an Apple user or fan.

 

From what I've seen, this one has left many die hard Apple fans scratching their heads.

[TPDave]

You should probably skip this post if you don't really care about the iPad...

 

I'm pretty unsure about this device. I was expecting a tablet that runs OS 10.6 and I would have paid good money for it and used it religiously, but if you already have a smartphone and a laptop, I'm really struggling to see how they've defined a new product category with the iPad.

 

Hardware wise, they've done as much as can reasonably be expected of them. There's a nice multi touch screen in a thin and lightweight enclosure, it looks all right (I'm not a fan of the front on view, but the other angles are nice) and has a battery that will get it through the day. None of this was ever in doubt though, if you believed Apple was going to create a tablet, it was pretty much a dead certainty that it would have these features.

 

The real stumbling block for tablets over the years has been the content that they provide and the ease with which it can be obtained/used. If Apple want to make a successful tablet, having the right hardware pales in comparison to providing a wide range of content that's easy to obtain and appropriate to use on the device. This is where the battle will be won or lost for the commercial success of the tablet.

 

The problem I see is that all the content they're offering for this is already available on the iPhone with the only major difference being that the device has 4X as many pixels so you can fit more of a book on the screen, have higher resolution games and go into street view in google. You can already read books on the iPhone, use all the apps, and on top of that you can make phone calls too!

 

I doubt that people will be willing to pay an extra few hundred dollars for a larger screen (ok, a faster processor too, but the iPhone 3GS is no dinosaur!).

 

I hope that I'm wrong and I hope that this is successful and they develop the tablet form into something that I would buy, but until they seriously add to the content they deliver (and thus the purpose of the device) I don't think i'll be parting with my cash.

 

Dave "sorry for taking up so much of your time "Wilson

[KrakenKing]

New in 2012 from Apple! The iTampon!

 

Dumb name, dumb machine... I'll wait for 2nd Gen (In hopes that it's better and larger)

[thrillrideseeker]

I must say I was really looking forward to this coming out, and then when they finally released it I was like.. WTF? I was seriously disappointed. It is just like a giant iPod touch. It looks like an iPod made for old people, like those giant remotes for old people. Anyways, again, I was very disappointed, and I am pretty sure I will NOT buy one.

~Matthew

This is what it reminds me of...

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^

[gisco]

I think people are missing the point of the IPad. It is the home version of the ITouch. I can see myself buying one this Summer. My primary use would be to read. I would do away with the newspaper and subscribe to it online. I wouldn't get the 3G version, just use the WiFi.

[Jew]

^I get that. But I don't think the iPad does enough to differentiate itself from the iPhone, iPod Touch, or even laptops/desktops to make people who already own one of those go out and buy an iPad.

 

It doesn't even do flash (and probably won't---why would Apple want you watching shows for free on Hulu instead of buying them on iTunes?).

 

 

However, I do like the form factor/concept of this device. Like I said, if they get a next generation version of it running some form of OS X---then I will consider buying one. They'd really be on to something if they could have an iTunes like store that could sell you versions of real software titles to run on the tablet---not just iPhone apps.

[gisco]

I agree, there is nothing ground breaking here but I don't want to read my news or browse the web on a 3" screen or sitting at my desk. I would also use it as a photo album for family and friends. Yeah I could use a laptop but this would be less bulky especially when I read at night in bed. I think this is aimed at Kindle users and not meant to replace the IPod/Iphone or a laptop just yet.

[Loefet]

I had my hopes for this one, but they fell short when they announced it...

 

I just wish that they had more expansion possibility (USB, SD card reader, etc.), more space, a better OS that allow you to run more than one app at a time as well as "real" software, it had a real GPS chip in it.

Then it would have been a perfect travel partner, instead of lugging around a wad of papers, a laptop, a GPS device, etc...

 

Think that I just have to way until all the "clones" appear and finde one that fit my needs. I have seen news pointing put that several (40+) small tablets coming in the near future...

[TPDave]

It doesn't even do flash (and probably won't---why would Apple want you watching shows for free on Hulu instead of buying them on iTunes?).

 

They've just confirmed it wont support flash

[SharkTums]

If I was to buy a tablet, I'd want it to look like the iPad, and have the same weight, height, batterly life, etc. But in order for me to buy one it would need:

 

- Additional removeable storage

- Flash

- Multitasking

- Camera

[Cameron]

This is a bit long, but I hope at least most of you read it

 

It looks like an iPod made for old people, like those giant remotes for old people. Anyways, again, I was very disappointed, and I am pretty sure I will NOT buy one.

 

You're more right than you think about that, Matthew, but of course you're not going to buy one, you're completely outside the target audience (Apple would rather you buy a laptop anyway, as their margins are much higher on one of those). Anyway, as a homework assignment for tonight, please read up on the "Baby Boomer Generation".

 

I think a lot of people (including most of the press, oddly) has really missed what Apple is trying to do here. Most people (I'd say well over 90%) hate to use a computer. It's not that they don't understand it, or can't use it, it's just that the amount of time and effort involved in general maintenance has grown out of control. There are endless software and OS updates, service packs, DLLs, libgcc, virus signatures, "the certificate for this website has expired", a parade of dialog boxes and "balloons" constantly popping up warning about every little thing, more crap like will Word even open this Word Document; and don't get me started on backups. It's becoming insane, and like I said most people hate it.

 

I'm no stranger to computer tinkering .. I was installing Slackware Linux onto old PCs (from stacks of floppies!) back in 1993, I've built Linux boxes from scratch (without using any distribution) as web servers, mail servers (sendmail and qmail), domain-name servers, etc. Yet even I'm tired of all the nonsense. I know it's not manly to say it but I like one-click updates! Almost daily when I use my computer I get some nag-screen about an application that wants to update itself. Then I have to sit there and wait while it downloads, blaa blaa blaa .. I just don't care, all I want is to run my freaking program!

 

Apple knows this, and they're trying to address it. Well to be fair I reckon all the companies know this, but Apple is one of the few in position to experiment (they posted over $5 billion in revenue last quarter). The iPad is not a mini-laptop because it's not supposed to be a mini-laptop. Putting OSX on it would make it just as annoying as every other OSX (and Windows and Linux) machine out there. There isn't a single computer/os combination on the market now that is truly good and truly a pleasure to use. What comes the closest are the specialized machines like TiVo, XBOX360, Wii, etc, these are real embedded devices. The iPad is Apple's first step into making a general use "embedded device" like this, and their target isn't tech-geeks like us, it's everyone else.

 

A lot of people have been complaining about missing features, but Apple very intentionally (and wisely) left all that crap out. It's funny to see the iPad compared to when the iPhone was released (and how that too was half-baked and didn't do much, and was really more of a technical demo - just like the iPad is). However I think a better comparison is with the original iMac. When the iMac was first announced in 1998 the press went crazy with much of the same stuff they're saying about the iPad (they even ridiculed the name!). Apple released the iMac with no floppy drives or serial or parallel ports, no way to open the case for upgrades, and Apple even ditched a lot of their own standard technology like ADB. Everything was USB, the keyboard, mouse, all peripherals, etc. The intent was to strip away all that crap and build a machine that was easier (and thus more pleasurable) to use. And it worked! While nerdy tech losers like us were all laughing at the iMac and its (growing) user-base, Apple was finally making money again, and starting down the road which lead to where they are today.

 

The iPad is exactly the same. All that missing hardware has been intentionally left out, and I firmly believe that over time the iPad line will be able to function as the primary computer for many people. Take for example the SD Card slot - something that I also complained about before thinking about it for a bit. How would the SD Card work exactly? Would my content be split over multiple cards? Will I need a certain card to listen to song A, but then a different card to listen to song B - yikes, we'd be back to the floppy-disk nightmare again. On the other hand if it's "everything on one card" then how is it updated? Would I have to plug in an external card reader/writer so that I could transfer all my stuff from the old 8G card to the new 32G card? Or maybe I'll have to plug it into a computer to do it? Then there is the question of different brands of cards which perform differently. Forget that crap - I just want to buy the thing with the storage built-in, thanks.

 

Adobe Flash - it's never going to happen. Never, ever, ever going to happen; but I'm sorry to say that it's not some grand conspiracy, it's far more simple (and obvious) than that. Apple is trying to make a device that is super stable - the stability has to be such that people don't even think about how stable it is. No crashing, no rebooting, everything (every single piece of software and hardware) working *perfectly* together. In order to do that Apple needs to be in complete control of every single line of code that runs on the device. They don't have to write it all (and they didn't - much of the core OS is open-source, you can build and run Darwin on any PC), but they have to control it. Flash is a huge wild-card, and under OSX it is the single largest source of application crashes. There's no way Apple is going to let that onto their super-deluxe-mega-ultra-stable device. Hulu (and all the similar sites) are *video* sites, not Flash sites, they will switch to HTML5 soon enough. Those sites don't care one bit what the delivery method is, they'll just use the most popular one available.

 

When Firefox was first released everyone was screaming that it didn't render a large percentage of websites correctly. The reason was that Firefox was designed to be a standards compliant browser, while IE was this big horrible mess of bugs and nastiness. There were loads of blogs and articles written saying that Firefox will never catch on because none of the websites worked, and they will have no choice but to emulate IE. Well Firefox stood their ground, and people used it anyway because it was small, fast, and secure. Gradually websites started to be fixed so that they complied with the standards (and thus worked with Firefox), and so as more sites worked with Firefox, more people used it, and as more people used it more sites were fixed, etc etc etc. The same will happen with the transition from Flash video to HTML5 (which mobile Safari, Firefox and probably the latest IE already support), but someone has to make that first step. And as for games, well do you really need 50-billion poorly implemented copies of Bejeweled?

 

Now all that said, I still think the iPad (as released) is a little half-baked. The biggest thing is lack of multi-tasking (for third-party apps). Although most "normal" computer users don't understand what multi-tasking is (or care), they will likely get annoyed at not being able to run AIM at the same time as anything else. However I think that will change, maybe not with OS3.2, maybe not with 4.0, but sometime soon (my bet is on the next rev). I also question why the iWork applications were selected to be among the first Apple apps released, they don't seem to really match the target audience.

 

But all that aside, I do think this will be a successful product, and I think it's the start of an entire amazing line of products that is desperately needed. Computers now are more painful to use than riding an SLC with a hangover, and it's great to see that someone is finally in a position to take that first (baby) step in trying to change things. Apple will go on to release new (and better) iPads, and other companies will release their own versions (I can't wait for the first Android one); and gradually (hopefully) the current computing horror-show will fall into the halls of history.

 

Cameron.

[andre8]

They should change the name to iTab, iPad sounds, well, you get the picture.

And how is it a tablet computer when you can't even multitask?

[moinab]

Great post, Cameron!

 

I'm not a tech geek, nor have I ever used any apple product, and I just couldn't see the point of this product, but you brought up a lot of interesting points. Thanks!

[PKI Jizzman]

I heard that March they're switching to Verizon? If not June? Just what I've been hearing around campus.

 

I'm not that interested in Apple computers..I've just not sat down and looked at one enough to understand it, coming from a PC. I've had this IBM Thinkpad for 5 years now and it still runs great! I guess I just don't trust anything else!

[Calaway Park]

They should change the name to iTab, iPad sounds, well, you get the picture.

And how is it a tablet computer when you can't even multitask?

 

Apple never once marketed the iPad as a tablet computer.

[ginzo]

But all that aside, I do think this will be a successful product, and I think it's the start of an entire amazing line of products that is desperately needed. Computers now are more painful to use than riding an SLC with a hangover, and it's great to see that someone is finally in a position to take that first (baby) step in trying to change things. Apple will go on to release new (and better) iPads, and other companies will release their own versions (I can't wait for the first Android one); and gradually (hopefully) the current computing horror-show will fall into the halls of history.

 

Interesting thoughts. I agree that the current home computing platform is counterproductive and annoying:

 

DO YOU WANT TO CHECK FOR UPDATES???

 

ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO CHECK FOR UPDATES???

 

WE'VE UPDATED YOUR FTP CLIENT. NOW YOU NEED TO REBOOT 75 TIMES!

 

Really the job of technology is to get out of your way and let you do your work. But PCs have become more of a giant pyramid scheme where they try to get you to pay a vig to several random software companies just to establish a baseline level of functionality. A level of functionality that should just come out of the damn box.

 

On the other hand, I remember some particularly provocative speeches by Scott McNeely of Sun Micro from about 10 years ago. He was talking about killing the PC in favor of "information appliances", at COMDEX no less. Back then, "information appliances" was the cool buzz word. But nothing ever really came out of that.

 

Of course, for Mr. McNeely that was just a sales pitch for more Sun servers: Move the processing away from the desktop and to his giant, expensive servers.

 

And, yet, here we are 10 years later and still barely closer to that vision

of handy "information appliances" that make the PC unneeded.

[Gnome]

played around with the Ipad today. While impressed an amused at first, I quickly decided that the ipad is kind of pointless and way overpriced. As soon as the apple fanboys all have their hands on the ipad, I can foresee the sales of these bad boys declining

[Wes]

Okay, I ended up getting one these for my birthday and I have to say I fucking love it. Even as an Apple fanboy, I was hesitant about getting one cuz I didn't know if it would get much use, seeing as I have a desktop, a laptop, and a phone. A few weeks in with using the iPad, I use my desktop only for doing design work, my phone for making calls and sending texts, and my laptop has been turned off and stowed away. Basically all of the day-to-day internet/email functions are done on the iPad now. It doesn't hurt that it's super easy to put in my ambiguously gay manpurse and bring with me the office or wherever.

 

I know it seems kinda pointless especially if you're just using one at an Apple store or whatever, but once you integrate it into your life and customize it to what you do, it ends up being pretty rad.

 

 

Oh yeah...This has been sent from my iPad.

[Wes]

Yeah its fine. There's like a 5 min period when I open a book and I think it's kinda weird but then I get used to it stop noticing. Best of all is that you can read without having a light on in the room, which is good when the woman wants to sleep but I want to keep reading.

[Cameron]

^ I picked one up as well, and my experience has been pretty similar to yours. I also bought some international data (and the camera kit), and look forward to posting updates while on the bus (between parks) on the Europe trip. I honestly think that iPad-like devices have an extremely cool future - the PC industry has been stalled for like 25 years, and now we're finally going to see some changes. As a computer AND gadget nerd, I'm particularly excited

 

Cameron.

[themeparkman25]

I am trying to decide whether or not the ipad will pay itself off in textbook savings, but cannot seem to find books on the itunes store. I see audiobooks, but not just readable books. Can anyone help? Also, has anyone considered this situation, and if so, your thoughts?

[Cameron]

^ check what Amazon has available for the Kindle. There's a free Kindle app for the iPad (and iPhone too); plus the Kindle has a bigger library, and is more portable (you can read your stuff on a wide range of devices - while iBooks is tied just to Apple products).

 

Cameron.

[thrillrideseeker]

Just bought my iPad today! Not sure why... I really have no need for it... But it was pretty!! Anyways... So far I am LOVING it!!

~Matthew

[cedarpointfangirl]

Just wondering if anyone has gotten the zaggmate bluetooth keyboard for their iPad? I have been thinking about getting one, especially for trips.. instead of lugging my laptop. If so, reviews?? Do you like it, pros, cons? I have seen others reviews, but I tend to listen more to people from TPR.

 

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=zaggmate+w+keyboard&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=12274655670321977205&ei=Oy9kTYPTBpP6swOh0bnDCA&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD4Q8wIwAg#