Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPad today. I just got done watching the video of the keynote. Here are my impressions.
The name: terrible. I mean, truly terrible. Tampon jokes were all the rage online and even in the office this afternoon. iPad. Seriously? I mean, yes, I get it, it's close to iPod-with-an-O, but really. It's as if Apple hired the supergenius at Microsoft who came up with such brilliant product names as WinCE and WinME. Urgh.
The physical form factor: very nice indeed, if rather unimaginative. Perfectly in keeping with the Steve's minimalist aesthetic, and purposely evocative of the iPhone, with which it shares an OS and an App Store. It's a bit more square than I was expecting, but then again it's similar in size to a sheet of paper, which is probably not an accident. 1.5 lbs is not a lot, though I suspect it will grow a bit heavy in younger or weaker hands if used for lengthy periods. Most of the people demoing the device have been seated with their legs up or crossed, and again, I don't think that's an accident.
I was a little surprised by the absence of a GPS or a camera, but Apple's not pitching this device as a big alternative to an iPhone. Having a GPS in an iPhone is a necessity, as far as I'm concerned, but I don't think I'd be checking for directions on an iPad (agggh). Nor holding it up to try to take substandard photos. It would've been nice to have a front-facing camera for web conferencing. Maybe the next version.
The display: beautiful, if the reports are correct. The iPad (gah, I hate that name) uses an IPS LCD screen with an LED backlight. IPS is also used in the top end photographic quality LCD monitors for its extremely wide viewing angle and excellent light transmittance. It's big enough to be useful, and it's full color. The bezel is quite large, which seems to be giving some people fits, but it's not a cell phone. There has to be a lip around the display area for your fingers to hold onto without intruding on the screen, after all.
The OS: a disappointment in only one (but profoundly important) area: no multitasking. I understand it to some degree in the case of the iPhone. It's a much more limited device with severely constrained resources, and Apple doesn't want third party apps degrading the performance of the built-in apps such as the telephone or the iPod player (which, unlike most iPhone apps, can run while in the background). Considering the much more capable processor in the iPad (yrch, that name!) I think the absence of multitasking is a real problem. However, I think it will eventually be rectified (more on this later).
The operating system seems perfectly capable in almost every other way. The hands-on demo I saw on Engadget's web site proved that the performance of an iPad-optimized app is very good—surprisingly good, in fact. I doubt anyone will have anything to complain about when using the iPad iWork apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote). In fact, it was seeing those apps being used during Steve's keynote that convinced me that the iPad really is a fully capable handheld computer.
The lack of multitasking, though—it really stands out like a sore thumb when you can use apps like Pages or Numbers, and it will be missed all the more because of it. Unless those apps go into suspended mode when you switch to another (to Mail, for example, to get some figures for your nascent spreadsheet) and then come right back to where you left off, the absence of multitasking rises from annoyance to genuine impediment.
I'm guessing that we won't see multitasking as we know it until iPhone OS 4.0 is announced, if then. If Steve had shown an iPhone OS device with multitasking today, people would be smashing down the doors to get it on the iPhone as well. Previous Stevenotes give strong evidence that he doesn't like to pollute a brand new product launch with big news about other platforms.
I doubt iPhone OS 4 is ready for prime time in any case. I suspect they'll announce the next iPhone (with OS 4) in March or April. They debuted iPhone OS 3 on March 17 of last year, for example. I don't have any evidence for my belief that multitasking will eventually arrive, but I hope it will, and I suspect they'll release an iPad update with multitasking at the same time iPhone 4G (or whatever it'll be called) will ship.
I'm more confident that the iPad (blorgh) is a very good device after seeing the whole keynote than I was just hearing about it from blogs. Lots and lots of people seem to hate it, though, and mostly because it's "just" a big iPod Touch. Although it looks like an iPod Touch and can run iPod and iPhone apps, it's much more than that. It's far, far bigger, much faster, and altogether more powerful. It's like comparing an entry level MacBook with a Mac Pro tower.
And what the haters are decrying as a problem is really a big advantage, both for users and developers. Consider: if you can use an iPod Touch or an iPhone, you can use an iPad with no additional training. No complex gestures to learn, no new UI design metaphor save the additions of some pop-up menu elements and other bric-a-brac. Developers don't have to learn a whole new OS SDK to program apps for it. The demos shown by the third-party developers Apple invited to port their apps to the iPad (blech) prove that. Less than three weeks and they all had very functional-looking programs running.
So how did I do in my predictions from the last blog post?
There was no special emphasis on education, in spite of the demo of a book reader app. I guess Steve figures that the ed market will take care of itself. There was a demo of Brushes, which was quite impressive, and I think that artists will flock to the iPad (ugh) once even more spectacular drawing and painting apps make their appearance. No stylus (not that I ever thought the probability was high), and therefore no handwriting recognition. I guess it makes sense, considering how much faster and more accurate even an on-screen virtual keyboard is than handwriting.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Apple DID announce a keyboard dock for the iPad (aieeee). No mention of a mouse, of course. At first I was puzzled by the omission of a mouse, but there's just no mouse function in the Cocoa Touch framework. That's what your fingers are for. I suspect this will make certain operations on documents rather awkward at first, but I also suspect we'll get over it.
I quote myself: "Connectivity will be familiar: WiFi built in, with 3G as an option. There will be an iPod dock, a sim card slot, volume and mute controls, and a home button. And that's it." I forgot the built-in microphone, and I didn't expect a 16 GB cheapie model, but otherwise I nailed it. Maybe I should be a computer journalist.
I also expected iWork: "The iTablet will be able to play music and movies and run iPhone apps, but it must also be able to handle word processing and note taking and spreadsheet functions, too. I expect these apps to be available on the iTunes Store for a lower cost than their Mac-based predecessors. I also expect them to be optimized for use with a touch interface."
The iBook app is sweet. The iBook Store is very impressive, being on the "flip side" of the iBook's virtual bookshelf. Nifty UI, that. It's like the door into Victor Frankenstein's secret laboratory. It remains to be seen how readable the books are, but at least there won't be any complaints about lack of backlighting.
As an ebook reader goes, the iPad (ptui) is a mixed bag. Its UI is far superior to that of anything else I've seen, but the battery life of the device is much shorter than that of any e-ink reader. No surprise there. I'm wondering just how relevant that is, though. I think book reading will be a definite "also ran" application for the iPad (snort) compared to web browsing, game playing, etc. Recharging it rather frequently is going to happen no matter what. Still, ten hours of battery life while watching video is pretty impressive, and I imagine if you're just reading books on it the battery would last even longer. We'll have to see.
In summary, I think the gadget is very cool, wretched name notwithstanding. It's not an out-of-the-park home run. I'd call it a triple. I'd definitely prefer to take it on a trip than a full-fledged laptop. I've had occasion to use my iPhone to VPN into the office network and ssh into servers to do system administration work. I'm looking forward to the iPad version of iSSH.
Hey, I finally wrote "iPad" without twitching. Maybe I can get used to the name. Maybe.
(Uck)
Or not.
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