Thoughts On The iPad

Apple iPad

Apple finally announced the iPad today which is great and all, but the best thing about it is the end of all those rumors that have been littering my RSS subscriptions. After looking around the blogs that were lucky enough to get a hands-on, here are my thoughts on the iPad.

The Good

  • Starts at only $499, which is a lot more reasonable than the rumored $999.
  • Runs all iPhone apps pretty well.
  • Powerful CPU. From the presentation everything looked really smooth, thanks to that fancy 1GHz Apple A4 chip.
  • Keynote/Pages/Numbers. If I ever get one I’ll be able to do my reports at the very last minute. Score one for procrastinators!
  • 10 hour battery life. Even if it is a little exaggerated, that’s not bad at all. Definitely enough to get through a full school day.
  • 9.7 inch screen. Think of all the possibilities! Besides the obvious HD pron, apps like Brushes seem a lot more useful. Why with a pogo stylus, it could very well replace a sketchbook for some people.
  • Books. With several major publishers, we might start seeing academic textbooks soon.
  • Unlocked, with an optional contract-free $29.95 unlimited data plan from AT&T.

The Bad

  • It’s $629 for the cheapest model with 3G.
  • Some iPhone apps might look screwy or stretched out.
  • Still no flash support. With a processor like that and a screen that big, surely Flash wouldn’t be too hard to implement?
  • It weighs 1.5 pounds, which is like a textbook.
  • iPad? Seriously? Cabel from Panic had a better idea in my opinion— Canvas. The latter sounds like a quality product, whereas the former sounds a little tacky and unoriginal.
  • No multitasking? Lame. However this may well be fixed in iPhone OS 4.0.
  • No OLED display? If even the Zune HD has one, surely it’s time for Apple to go OLED.
  • The design, which looks rushed. Apple basically took the top half of a MacBook, slapped a large multitouch screen in it, and called it the iPad.

The Wifi-only models will ship in 60 days, whereas the 3G models will ship in 90 days. Although some may criticize them for taking so long, it’s a rather wise move in my opinion. The time as well as the release of the iPad SDK will give developers a chance to fix their apps for the iPad, so that when they finally arrive the apps will be ready.

Will it sell? Originally nobody believed in the iPhone either. Heck, I was laughing when I heard about it back in 2007- “No buttons, haha that’ll sell!” Only time will tell, but I’m willing to bet that it’s going to sell pretty well.

Image taken from Apple. Please don’t sue me.

 

Jan 27 2010
zPosted in Apple, Technology
  • http://benj3.com Benje

    It looks pretty good, but no flash support? Wtf.

  • http://kr1s.net Kris

    I don’t think I could ever buy a laptop that doesn’t have a physical keyboard, but I guess this looks kinda cool.

  • http://fynmark.org/home Tim

    If it had flash and I had 500 bucks I’d get it, maybe, but who’s going to buy that?

    Also, get a better processor. That’s a big complaint.

  • http://net-cake.com Paul D’Amora

    Oh sigh.
    1. Ok, it doesn’t have flash support. Well, frankly who needs it? Major video sites like YouTube already have HTML 5 players, so flash is quickly dying out for video. If you want to watch flash animations or something, I can almost gurantee it’s on YouTube as well.

    Look at it this way. The iPhone doesn’t have flash support, but the millions of people who’ve bought it don’t seem to care all that much.

    2. It’s not a laptop. Apples selling point on this is that it’s their own new category. It’s supposed to be between a smartphone and a laptop. IT IS NOT ACTUALLY A LAPTOP. If you want a laptop, go buy a laptop, not an iPad.

    3. A better processor really?
    If a 1GHz Apple A4 chip isn’t good enough for you, I honestly don’t know what is. This thing is going to be blazing fast as far as mobile devices go. Plus, it’s priced so well.

    I will definitely be getting one, seeing as I have neither a smartphone or a laptop.

  • http://fynmark.org/home Tim

    @VD, one of their selling points is browsing the web. If there’s flash on a website, and you can’t view it or use it, then that’s a fail at great web browsing.

  • http://dzine-studios.com Dan

    Actually I agree with VD for once. Flash needs to die. It’s such a CPU hog. HTML5 is a much better solution, in my opinion. I’ve been using the YouTube HTML5 beta and I’m loving it. It’s fast, no lag, and the CPU stays cool, even with 15+ videos open at once.

  • http://fynmark.org/home Tim

    Attention Microsoft, don’t copy Flash with Silverlight.

  • http://net-cake.com Paul D’Amora

    @Tim Flash is not a necessity when it comes to the web. The largest use of it is on video content sites (YouTube, Vimeo), and that is starting to slowly die out. There is the occasional website completely based on flash, but as far as I care, they can all die as well. Maybe they should try real web design out instead.

    I think everyone needs to watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMt2gUpr1Lk&feature=sub

  • http://dzine-studios.com Dan

    Flash really isn’t necessary anymore. Plus HTML5 will allow people to make interactive content without having to buy/pirate a bloated, buggy authoring tool. Not to mention a large amount of web vulnerabilities come from Flash. An outstanding example of how a JS-powered app owns Flash: 280 Slides. It works on all but the most ancient computers, and doesn’t abuse the processor.

  • http://slantedmndz.com Alec

    The reason it doesnt have or might never have flash is because that would take away the point of the APP store games. Flash games would kill the sales

  • http://fynmark.org/home Tim

    “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.“

    “You don’t want your phone to be an open platform. You need it to work when you need it to work.”

    -Steve Jobs

  • http://slantedmndz.com Alec

    They kinda screw’d themselves with the name though.

  • Marcel Krasner

    It essentially is a big ass version of the iphone….idk. I see why they wouldnt want to put a camera on this device because its meant to be hand-held and peoples hands are not so stable. I’m sure they will have a dock that could have a separate camera so it would be comfortable to video-call someone. The bezels are also really wide because its supposed to represent a book. If you open a book, you wouldnt want your fingers to cover he words…same case here…you dont want to press something accidentally. The ipad has potential, but i feel they should have done something more creative with the software. The device physically is pretty sweet, but software could use work. I wish they made a combined OS..part mac, part iphone…or SOMETHING.. My sister was planning to buy the b&n nook, but this device would be pretty sweet..although led lights are not so great for your vision. I feel apple made this product cause so many people wanted it, but it didnt come out to be what people exactly wanted. I feel they should have made this product only if it had something extremely unique from the itouch. im not so happy with this product as of yet, but im sure people will find a way to jail break it..and everything will be pretty sweet :)