If you are not wondering, please feel free to read anyway… Oh, you were expecting me to say “please feel free to skip this post?” Of course not, I don’t want you clicking away from my website!
I know you are thinking, there’s already a multitude of reviews and opinions about the iPad, why would I add to that instead of point you to some article or other that I mostly agree with or like in some way, or pointing out the stupid ones? Because this is my website silly and I can post anything I want on it! 
So, the iPad
There is no doubt that the iPad is a gorgeous device. It’s thin, lightweight and beautiful. And it’s full of multi touch goodness with an evolved (from the iPhone and iPod touch) multi touch UI. There are so many things about this device that make my mouth water, and I even went into the iPad announcement with the mindset that I could not see how I would even want such a device. And yet Apple has done it again. They have made me want, seemingly against my very will. I went into this product announcement pretty sure that Apple was going to announce some sort of tablet device, and pretty sure I would not like it and certainly would not want it. And yet after it was all said and done, and despite any arguments I have against it, I wouldn’t mind having one (on at least some level).
The good
Where do I begin?
Like almost (and note the use of the word “almost") everything Apple does, it looks like the iPad follows suite. iPad is (or looks to be) easy to use, fun to use, and still manages to bring power to the hands of the user (don’t flame me iPad dissenters, I’ll get to the bad in a bit).
Horsepower!
The iPad has it. At least from the demo and the accounts I have read of the hands on experience, there is no sluggishness in iPad’s performance. It looks like a very smooth experience. Webpages render quickly, scrolling is silky smooth, pinch zooming is a breeze, all the little animations never stutter, and so on. This is in contrast to the first iPhone. I still have a first generation iPhone in my house, it’s my wife’s phone. As break through as that device was, by comparison to my 3GS, and now especially in comparison to the iPad, the original iPhone is seriously flawed in that it is underpowered. Nothing is snappy on the original iPhone!
The interface
iPad excels at bringing the multi touch experience from the iPhone to the larger screen in a way that makes sense and builds on the ease of use that the iPhone has. You see something on the screen you want to get to, you touch it. Anyone can use this device. I mean really. Gone are the days of, “do I click or double click?” “Oh, you meant right click not left click?” or “What do you mean by control click?” It’s all gone because now! See it, want it, touch it. It’s (mostly) that simple. And at least from what I could see, pretty much every thing built on the iPhone’s interface and made sense, as well as looks beautiful. This should be no surprise, this is Apple’s strength. Great aesthetic design and ease of use.
It does real stuff
Yeah, it carries over all the functionality of the iPhone; Mail, Safari, iPod, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, Notes, not to mention all the applications in the App Store that are already available for the iPhone and will run natively right on the iPad (iPad will even pixel double iPhone apps so that they will run full screen). And there is an SDK for developers to develop apps specific to iPad. Yeah, it’s got all that, but Apple has also done something else that’s interesting…
iWork
Those of you on PCs may not realize it, but Apple’s iWork suite is amazing and quite compatible with Microsoft Office in terms of importing documents created by MS Office, and exporting documents to MS Office format. And most importantly to me, it’s easier and more fun to use. Apple has created a version of iWork just for the iPad. And this is interesting. combine iWork for iPad with the really cool keyboard Dock Steve Jobs also announce for the iPad, like for when you need to do some serious typing, and this device really does become almost the only device “many users” will need to take with them almost anywhere. And don’t underestimate how powerful this could be for presentations. And it brings the “See it, want it, touch it” interface I mentioned earlier to iWork. People are forever asking me how to do stuff in iWork or MS Office. And it looks to me like this could eliminate a lot of that.
I do think multi touch is the future, and Apple is pioneering a lot of things the right way in this area. It seems to me that the multi touch UI is a far more natural feeling interface and does not require me to “learn” anything. No more, “do I click, double click, right click?” That’s just gone, and replaced with, there’s a button that I want so I just touch it. There’s an email I want, so I just touch it.
The Bad
Multi What?
That’s right, a carry over from the iPhone (and this limitation I also hate on the iPhone). NO MULTI-TASKING! This really does kill me and it really is pretty much a deal breaker. On the one hand, I really do hate to keep harping on this subject, it has after all been hotly debated. And Apple will tell you that this is a feature and not a flaw, because look at what multi-tasking would do to battery life. And yet, this concept is so old to computing, and so essential that one wonders how Apple can (KEEP) glazing right over this and glibly pretending that it doesn’t matter, and even pretends it is better to not multi-task. They are completely missing the point here. Sure the push notifications they introduced is a really good idea for things like IM where keeping the whole application open in the background and constantly communicating with the server would really unnecessarily drain the battery fairly quickly on a portable device (and we all certainly know that on the iPhone anyway, battery life REALLY stinks!). But what if, as I’m working on an iWork document I want to have Pandora playing in the background? Sorry, that’s not allowed because you can’t run more than one app at a time! Do you know how UTTERLY RETARDED THIS IS? Sorry, I felt like using all caps… I’m over it now… Yeah so, I’m even willing to compromise with Apple. Let us have some interface whereby we choose 1 or 2 applications we would like to keep backgrounded (such as pandora). I mean, I have my iPhone hacked to allow me to run as many apps in the background as I want. Do you know how often I background more than one app at a time? Not very. It’s usually Pandora, or if on a trip, my GPS navigation app so that I don’t loose my place or miss a direction while checking my email from the passenger seat while my wife drives. I really do find that apps open so quickly that switching back and forth between apps isn’t a problem for the most part and it’s really only 2 or 3 apps at most that need to stay open in the background. Push Notifications really are a good way to handle IM clients and the like. It just wouldn’t take much to satisfy me here.
I Can’t see you
Do you realize how AWESOME the iPad would be for video chats? And yet though Apple builds cameras into their laptops, right at the top of the screen, and builds them into their new cinema displays, and though there’s plenty of room somewhere on the iPad’s bezel (some people have even complained about how stinking big that bezel is), there is no camera to be found on the iPad! This really is a shame and a HUGE missed opportunity on Apple’s part.
Connect stuff? Kidding right? That would make iPad too useful!
Related to “I Can’t see you” is the fact that you can’t just buy a webcam for the iPad either because guess what, the only access you are going to get to the iPad is through the standard iPod connecter. And thats great, I love the iPod connector, I just wish it at least had a USB port or two on it as well. They’re thin little ports and would be easy enough to hide in the design of the iPad. Why? Why? Why? can’t we have more connectivity? This is actually a gripe I have even with Apple’s full grown computers (You know, like removing the Express/34 Card slot from the “professional” laptops). The iPhone isn’t a problem just having the iPod connector. But this is a little different. I may want to connect devices to this thing if I’m really going to use it like a computer.
I need my mommy!
And still related is the fact that this cannot be a standalone device. It is pretty much going to be necessary to connect it to a full grown computer at some point. It is designed to be a device that syncs with a computer. It can’t even do over the air updates! So if nothing else than for updates it is going to have to be connected to a computer running Windows or OS X. I think Apple has again missed an opportunity.
What’s a widescreen?
The iPad has what’s essentially a 4x3 screen in a widescreen world. Enough said.
No Flash support
Now, I have to tell you I have mixed feelings about this one. I HATE Adobe Flash, I despise it. I think it represents everything that is wrong with web-design today. In fact, for a long time I have tried to keep flash off my website, and you currently have to look hard in the archives to find any flash on this website. And any flash you find on my website will be when I posted a YouTube video. And I hate doing it. Flash is such a heavy technology. In fact, I have an add-on installed on my computer that prevents flash from loading unless I specifically tell it to load. Flash video will peg my processor at anywhere from 50 to 70 percent. And my computer is not too shabby. And this is not just the flash browser plugin for the Mac. I have observed this phenomenon on Windows too. Flash just chews up CPU cycles in a bad way, and boy do I hate flash when I’m running my laptop on battery power. Using that much CPU cycles not only makes a little heater out of my laptop but kills that battery in a hurry! That being said, Flash is sometimes essential at this stage in the internet game. There are times when you simply have to have the flash browser plugin installed to make some websites work. Which is why I like my “clicktoflash” plugin. If I really need flash to load on a website, all I have to do is click it. I think this is the way it should work on the iPad. I don’t mind that it doesn’t load flash by default. To me that is a feature! But at least give me the option to load it if I really want to!
Saved from the evil apps!
This closed app ecosystem is really getting tiresome! It’s the same app ecosystem that is being used on the iPhone. I’m okay with Apple being a gate keeper to some degree, I’m okay with the apps being completely sandboxed. What I’m not okay with is the way Apple has gone about this. Apple sometimes rejects apps without explanation, or sometimes with an explanation that doesn’t make sense. Take the Google Latitude app for iPhone as an example. Apple rejected it because it “duplicated functionality” and “confuses the user.” I’m sorry but while Latitude may have some of the same functionality of the stock maps application, it is not the same thing. And frankly, I’m not okay with Apple being my app gate keeper in this sense! I’m okay with them making sure it doesn’t destabilize the system. I’m okay with them making sure it plays within the app sandbox. But no application should be rejected unless it violates these two things. And I’m using Latitude just as an example. I was so severely disappointed and enraged at Apple when they rejected the Latitude app that I wanted to punch Steve Jobs right in the chops (well almost at least). But to me this demonstrates a very real problem/flaw with the iPhone OS app ecosystem! You see on my computer, I install any app I want, but on my Phone and now Tablet computer? Forget it. Apple tells me if I can or can’t install Google’s Latitude app and that’s just the way it is! And frankly, it’s disturbing and disgusting!
We love the small footprint and cruddy 3G service!
Yeah, the cellular data version of the iPad is effectively saddled to AT&T… again (sigh, sigh, sigh). Sure it’s an “unlocked” device, but it only supports the 3G bands that AT&T uses (let’s not even talk about the stupid micro sim!) How hard would it be to make a version that supports T-Mobile’s 3G band, and a version that supports Verizon and Sprint’s 3G? Or at least Verizon and Sprint, seeing how Verizon only has 5 TIMES MORE 3G COVERAGE than AT&T. Even Sprint has more 3G coverage than AT&T. And though AT&T’s 3G (UMTS with HSDPA being rolled out) may be technically faster than Verizon’s, Verizon consistently has a better 3G experience. And even if the problem is that AT&T’s network is just overloaded by all the iPhones and other data hungry devices, isn’t the answer to spread the load out among the other networks? Have I mentioned that I don’t live in a AT&T 3G area. But Verizon has 3G in my area… sigh!
Why do I need an iPad?
Now, I do think the iPad would probably be great for my wife. In fact, though it will be a couple years, when her laptop needs replaced, we may well get her an iPad. She can sync it to the Mac Mini Media center we have when it does need to sync with a big computer, or needs a software update. And for the things she does it would be perfect and inexpensive.
But why would I get one? Given the cons of this device, and the fact that anything I would do with the iPad I can do just as well on my iPhone. And when I need more horsepower than my iPhone, I need a full grown OS, I need OS X. So why would I get one?
So it looks like I’m just not in Apple’s target audience anyway. But I really can’t see why if you have a laptop and a good smartphone (like the iPhone), why would you need the iPad? It’s too limited at this time! I know I said toward the beginning of this article that I wouldn’t mind having one. And I wouldn’t. From the aspect that it’s a cool flashy device, and it’s beautiful, I wouldn’t mind having one. But it would have to be free or dirt cheap as you can see from my conclusion. Because really, it’s not worth spending the money on! I think Apple missed the boat!
