I, support any tech product that’s meant to help you humans in your petty rat race(s) and usually Apple seemed to have always taken and met the challenge – of making products that integrates the need of the modern adult of today combined with an interface built for a 5 year old.
It’s that last bit that other manufacturers have always fell short of (keep in mind that even the original Windows was a copy of the ancient Apple Lisa OS). It’s also the one place where Apple have shined almost consistently, until now.
During the latter years apple really haven’t pioneered technology as much as they have slick yet stupidly usable user interfaces, and innovative marketing. So I took the iPads launch with the same grain of salt that I had when they had released their iPod, which which was “its been done before, lets see which of Apples strongpoint gets the upper hand – their ‘innovation’ or their marketing.”
In the iPods case it was the former, the interface was understood in about 5 min (10 min if you’re Really slow) and you were good to go, problems with iTunes would appear soon after…but that’s outside of the actual iPod so I won’t go there.
So far I can’t say the same for the iPad. First the all touch screen interface has been done before by technology giants HP, and I’ve actually used it back in 2004! As condescending as the following may seem, it actually is VERY true:

but that wasn’t what deflated my positive vibe. i actually thought that less stuff might be better (I’ve learnt that it usually is). What really bummed me out is the amount of issues that are cropping up in shovelfuls. Just after 40 min. of usage I’ve noticed,
The following Bad Stuff:
- A lot of the design sites I visit appear VERY crap, many don’t even work because they’re Flash based (e.g. BBC.com didn’t work, but at least they have a lo-fi version, others I visited didn’t). To those new to Apples latest tech marvel, the iPad has absolutely no Flash support (something about Apple not wanting to give into Adobes monopoly of that technology…which is why they’d decided to make their own version and monopolize that.)
(edit: I’ve found that the crafty boys & girls at adobe have pulled a fast one on Apple, it seems you actually CAN run Flash on the iPad!)
- It seems that web designer will have to start making separate iPad ready templates because of the above mentioned issue, never a good sign when you have additional work to do – especially for a device thats supposed to make things easier.
- For some reason i seem to be facing some issue with USB charging… I hope its just an isolated case. (edit: turns out it isn’t isolated, others are having this problem too)
- iPhone apps work on it…barely, but they work. The up-scaling from iPhone to iPad though definitely shows and for the most part it looks like flung monkey poo.
- So far its a great way to read & absorb content, but not so much for Making stuff so I still cant code, make music, edit videos, do some serious work in Photoshop (of which you’ll see the results within this very article, just you wait!) etc. In the iPad’s defense I’m sure it wasn’t designed for any of those. Also typing may be a non-issue for the serious iNerd but it was for me, and I’m pretty nerdy…except in a more general sense (I’ve yet to be product placed).
- I cannot stress this enough – a VGA adapters only purpose is to Connect a device so that it may be viewed on A bigger screen. Enter the iPad VGA adapter which somehow has taken DRM to a stupid new level, the adapter only works on Select iPad applications (e.g keynote, photos, videos) …and guess what, NetFlix isn’t one of them. For crying out loud, I thought Apple learnt from the past!
- Another pet peeve, but it irks me to no end…This is my first Apple product, I did NOT want to sync up, or for that matter, install iTunes. Guess what’s the first thing the iPad asks? Getting this wrong is not an option.
I’ll be the first to admit that Apple Inc. does not read my stuff (or cares) but,
Here are my suggestions:
- Without iTunes the tablet doesn’t even turn on, please STOP garbage like this! Why the hell would I want to connect my ‘Stand alone Portable digital world’ which still has an umbilical cord connected to a Desktop Computer?
- Please remove the stupid VGA adapter software lock/DRM.
- I tried to clean a hair from my iPad. Turned out it was the shooting star on the background picture, best you find something that doesn’t make a new user test out how scratchproof the screen is.
- I consider this is a personal gripe, but how about a matte finish? The Glossy look is taken to an extreme and seeing my face while watching a movie is kind of weird.
- How about a little love for us typists? Is it too expensive for you guys to put a pop out leg on the back like all full sized keyboard have as standard? And no, I would NOT like to makes a separate purchase of either the keyboard dock nor the Multi-Dock. Yes this WAS being typed on an iPad, but it got old really quick, my hands went frozen and I looked like that typist android robot thing from Ghost in the Shell, also I sure as hell am not shelling out more money for a separate keyboard dock)
- While you’re at it how about "reinventing" that paper holder contraption? (it used to be on some REALLY old keyboards…have no clue why it died off)
- Kindle for the iPad is great, learn your lesson and next time bundle something like it in your next (near imminent) release, please. Ditto with stocks, weather, voice memos, clock, calculator, and compass apps. Yes, we can get some of them for free from the apps store. The others either cost, or just aren’t there. These were standard on the iPhone 3GS…what the hell happened?
- Please take a page out of the gaming industry and make some killer apps to bundle along with your product. If you’re going to argue that its not the same thing , then I’ll counter it with: Yes I know it’s supposed to be an all purpose computer without a keyboard and that out of the box, we can use it for: Web browsing, e-mail, photos, playing music, movies, games, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations & e-books. I also know that this can be done with devices I already have (laptop/PSP/iPhone/<insert own handheld device>).
Good launch software can make a world of difference, in fact bad software (read: games) is what raced the Sega Saturn to a speedy death (and it took our beloved Segata Sanshiro with it :’( ). Whilst I agree that your product isn’t dependant on games alone apps like Scrabble, Wolf Ram Alphas periodic table, or the DJ simulation app are a nice aside but they’re no where near “OMG my world has changed!!11!!1one” levels. Before you say it The “New 3D TTR!” (Tap Tap Radiation) doesn’t count. - Will someone please make a Tumblr and/or a better TweetDeck app already!
What about the Good? So far it looks like a ‘spit on apple’ campaign. Worry not smelly Mac owner, because
The iPad definitely has its plus points:
- It’s the best sofa device ever, and while it’ll take some getting used to, I can actually imagine a time when I can sit around with my family and show them pictures and videos of me vacationing in…Sri Lanka (for example). Try passing around your current photo album and force it to play some video, protip: it can’t. The all touch interface makes it accessible to everyone from baby Joey to Grandma, for them it makes THAT much more sense than a laptop.
- Its the only device of its shape and size that can do the mass basics (mentioned above) without the need to be plugged in.
- The accelerometer & the multi-touch stuff are BLAZING fast…hell you want a killer app idea? Make it so that you can replace your steering wheel with the iPad! (onscreen grocery list optional) How hard could it be?
See? Told you there’d be Photoshop!
There is bound to be crap-tons of 3rd party apps since they’re relatively easy to code (and for its case, that means developers can spend more time on stuff like creativity)
If the iPad is anything like the iPhone/iPod Touch then for most developers there’s easy money to be made (which is great for iDevs but it makes the above creativity point moot since creativity doesn’t always mean really useful – and with the current spate of iPhone/iPod Touch apps it’s more Quantity than quality/shovel-ware etc.)
The iPads popularity will most probably force web developers to rethink their ways and adapt the HTML5 standard, which is miles better than the current web standard.
So where do I stand on this?
In the 6 hours or so its taken me to write this article (due to relentless flitting between the iPad and word processor) I’ve come to realize that the iPad isn’t the radical change people were making it out to be, but its far from underwhelming too. In its current form, the iPad is exactly what the gurus have been talking about, those who support it say it’s awesome for Mom/Grandpa/anyone who can’t be assed to learn the boring side tech in-depth, these gurus are right.
Also those gurus who say the iPad is nothing more than this:
…are, for now, pretty much right too.
As for me, the current Cons far outweigh the Pros and it’s not because of any one point (although that USB charging thing comes pretty close) but due to all those issues combined as a whole. So, I’ll have to bite the bullet, open up my list of cliché article endings and say “For now, iPass!”
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