So the iPad is a Jitterbug then?

comment by Steve Pilon about a day later

Good post, mate! My mother-in-law is a total noob (never even touched a computer before) and wants to learn how to do email and facebook. I’ve been wondering how in hell I’m going to teach her all this without having to explain right-clicks and left-clicks and clicking on start menu, etc etc and then Apple announces the Tablet!

That was my eureka moment. Good to see the iPad naysayers are being answered by real people with needs that are going to be met by this device!

comment by Abisola Fatokun about a day later

I had a similar experience with my dad, who is in his eighties and only really needs to browse the web.

That does not change my opinion that there are serious problems with the iPad. It’s not what it doesn’t do, it’s what it won’t ever do, and what it represents for the future of ‘easy to use’ devices.

‘Easy to use’ doesn’t have to mean:

- inflexible by design - limited by design - the hardware supplier getting to decide what software ever runs on the device - never being able to access files independently of their apps or add external storage - never being able to combine two tasks from third party suppliers.

None of these things would by necessity make it more difficult for my dad to use it.

What it needs is:

- background notifications handled natively by app developers without some service from a company not exactly known for online service uptime

- a services menu that lets apps properly interact

- some sense of a filesystem that generalises third party device and online storage

- some relaxation over the control exerted by Apple on producing software for this thing

- and for a whole bunch of pundits to stop pretending that somehow none of these points matter to the future of what used to be an open-minded company that fostered communication and creativity.

You love your iPhone. Everyone loves their iPhone. I get it. But were you really not hoping for something a little more radical than a big-screen iPod touch with a data modem?

The iPhone’s limitations are not acceptable in a mass-market device aimed at replacing actual general purpose computers. This thing could have been so much better.

comment by Michael Houghton about a day later

I couldn’t agree with you more! As soon as the iPad video was on Apple.com, I sent the link to my parents. My Uncle watched it and immediately contacted his friend who works at an Apple Store, to ensure he’d have the first pre-order available. I think the iPad will double Apple’s revenue.

comment by Derek Martin about a day later

My 11yr old son, ever the power user with the only working computer among his friends told me that he would give his younger brother his computer in exchange for the iPad. Previously, we could not pry his most cherished beacon of pre-teen independence away under any circumstances…. and he asked for the iWork apps so he could do his homework. To me, that indicates that he really thought through his plan carefully.

I think the iPad is a different animal than the pundits posit :)

comment by Marc Abrams about a day later

First, wonderful post. I agree with the sentiment and tone of the piece—the iPad is a game changer. I also recommend all 4 articles posted by Jason.

Here’s my “but”: I hesitate even to bring this up because I have been a very ardent proponent of the iPhone’s software keyboard and the total-game superiority of ditching a tactile keyboard. That being said, the iPad brings a funny new angle to this divide in that I think you’re absolutely right that technophobes and older people will really be into this, but these are also the people most attached to a physical keyboard.

Take my mom for example. I was absolutely blown away by how much she loved her iPhone, and she still loves it almost a year later. She’s usually just awful with technology, but the iPhone clicked for her. She’s still slow as molasses on the software keyboard, however. This isn’t a deal-breaker on the iPhone because she just types off quick emails or whatnot. But she’s also a whiz of a touch-typist—she learned on a type writer. And I can say this with complete confidence: the first time she tries to write a longer document or email on the iPad will be the last time.

This isn’t to say she might not still love it, but that it absolutely will not become her primary computing device. And maybe that’s okay; maybe occasionally typing in a url or a short email will be sufficient and she’ll fall in love with the rest of the device. Hell, maybe she’ll really love it and buy the keyboard dock, who knows.

I honestly don’t even know where this leaves anything—it’s just an open observation. I still want an iPad and I have no doubt that a software keyboard was the right choice. I just also think that much more so than with the iPhone, this mode of input will be a significant barrier for some people and those people probably overlap significantly with the three categories of people you observe above.

comment by Matt about a day later

My question: can the iPad work as a standalone device without a full-OS computer to sync to? If not, will it satisfy the needs of your sample population, who will now be required to own and maintain two computers instead of one?

comment by neilw about a day later

My 12 year old son wanted an iPod Touch and is now willing to wait a couple of months to get an iPad instead. A friend’s son of the same age dreamt he had an iPad. You get the point. Children too are very excited!

comment by Angel Lamuno about a day later

“and he asked for the iWork apps so he could do his homework. To me, that indicates that he really thought through his plan carefully.”

To me that sounds like a smart kid who has found a way to soften you up so you’ll buy the one with 64 gigs of flash.

comment by Michael Houghton about a day later

Anyone who thinks that iPad is “just a big iPod touch” does not know what they are talking about. As they said in the iPad-video: the bigger screen does not enable them to make apps that are a bit better, it enables them to make apps that are order of magnitude better.

Look at the iWork-demo again. Could you do any of that with an iPod or iPhone? No. iPad enables things that are simply not possible with those two, while being easier to use than a normal computer.

I’m quite certain that the iPad is a revolution just waiting to happen. The people who talk about “oversized iPod touch” simply do not get it, nor do they understand what they are looking at. Sometimes I think that they were watching a wrong presentation…

comment by Janne about a day later

I said “big-screen” iPod touch.

But are you positing that the iPad is not simply a faster, higher res iPod Touch with a data modem and a keyboard peripheral (that they could have released for the iPod Touch)?

Are you somehow surprised that a higher resolution means desktop-type apps could run on it? Is there something game-changing and magical about increasing screen resolution?

Increasing the screen size and resolution, adding a 3G card, upgrading the processor and adding a keyboard option was the minimum Apple had to do to turn the iPod touch into a netbook-equivalent.

The minimum is what they did.

I’m actually astonished at the way certain pundits and commenters are doing the heavy lifting on this one.

Which was the radical, unthinkable, gamechanging step here?

comment by Michael Houghton about a day later

Nice article. Too many nay-saying stuff out there and it’s ridiculous. Good to hear a voice of reason. Apple never said it would satisfy every niche out there or that theirs was a 100% computer for the everyman. Jobs said that they wanted to create something in between an iPhone and a Laptop that did 7 essential things better than either of those: Internet, Email, Photos, Video, Music, Games and eBooks. That’s a lofty goal if ever there was one. Better than an iPhone, yes… a fairly easy goal considering the screen size, but better than a Macbook Pro at those tasks? I say wow! And I believe that they’ve succeeded by all accounts. I would almost hesitate with Email because of the very nature of email is 50% Reading and 50% Writing. The iPad alone will never do email like a regular laptop. But for on-the-go email which will be most reading and some writing, I think it’s an honest trade-off. The power-user can still bring the nice dock/keyboard with them when they really have the need.

For most people just relaxing on the couch or on vacation, this is the perfect companion.

Those complaining about the price need to take a look at the Kindle DX and see what they’re getting for the extra Hamilton.

comment by JGowan about a day later

I concur! It’s interesting to me that so many people missed the significance of iWork for iPad. Of all the apps Apple could showcase, they chose to completely redo iWork for the iPad.

The other thing to remember is that even if version 1 of the device is not perfect, the lesson from the iPhone/iPod touch is that Apple has become very good at iterating these devices.

Perhaps so much of the consternation and even anger about the iPad in tech circles is that for decades we’ve all been trained to conflate “computing” with “using a computer with a visible filesystem, limitless expandability, and a host of problems that just have to be lived with.”

Almost every day I or someone around me has to struggle with their computer to get it to do something simple. Today it was a Canon print driver that failed to install properly. Yesterday it was a friend who had a tough time moving a video from her Flip to YouTube. We’ve become so accustomed to glitches and gremlins that when someone suggests we need to rethink our computing experience, it’s treated as heresy.

We’re all suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

comment by Erik about a day later

I’ll be buying one for myself and perhaps my father, who’s a technophobe. However, he doesn’t live near me so I’m not sure how he’ll update the operating system when Apple says to. The iPad, more so than the iPhone, seems to call out for an over-the-air update scheme.

comment by Kawika Holbrook about a day later

The first person I thought of was my mom. She struggles and struggles with Leopard on her G5 iMac. I watch her struggle with click through or no click through when trying to highlight photos to share from iPhoto in email, etc.

What is “missing” IMHO is to be un-tethered to a “real” computer. 1. ability to rip music on it from a USB CDROM drive 2. ability to backup to a TimeCapsule 3. Hrrmmm, the ability to update the OS over the air (from TimeCapsule again?)

Otherwise everything else just needs to be in the cloud.

comment by KiltBear about a day later

Speaking as a tail-end baby boomer who’s been working with computers since ‘74, saw some of the first Apple II’s in the plastic and been a Mac user since ‘87 I resent your implication! But I agree with your conclusion, it’s been blindingly obvious since the iPhone came out that the next step had to be a larger version with more productivity app support so more mainstream work could be done using the multitouch interface, and that this would greatly help the many normal non-geeks out in the real world that don’t enjoy computers for their own sake.

The reactions to the iPad exactly mirror the reaction to the first Mac, and I remember feeling the exact same sense of the world changing then as I do now. Back then though I was young and too poor to buy a new 1st generation Mac, something I’ve always regretted. I don’t intend to make the same mistake this time.

comment by David S. about a day later

I’m no boomer (far from it) but I too would like to clarify how they feel about computing: they love it, but they don’t want to screw around. If the answer to a computer problem starts with “Yeah. But…” then they don’t want to hear of it.

-Can you upload those photos to flickr and keep them private? -Yeah. But, you’ll have to sign up for an account and accept my Family invite. -Forget it. Just E-mail ‘em to me kiddo.

-Will the iPhone accept my office’s e-mail? -Yeah. But you need to configure it with IMAP instead of Exchange. -I’ll get a Blackberry.

You get the idea.

Don’t forget, Steve Jobs is an Alpha Boomer. When he talks, folks just perk up.

This is a great observation though, and not one to be taken lightly. Sure a bunch of geeks will scoff at you for admitting the iPad is for old people or luddites or whatever. Sure, tweaking a ton of crap is fun for me, but if the iPad “just works” as Apple claims, then it will make a lot of people very happy.

I think it will be a great filmmaking tool, but maybe that’s just me: iPad for Filmmakers, Hopefully

comment by Jonathan Poritsky about a day later

Bravo for this post, my experience is the same: non-techie people are excited about a computer that they’ll be capable of using. For many, iPad will be the only computer they need. I plan on replacing my laptop with an iPad; all I ever use it for is web, email, iWork, iTunes and a few games.

@ Michael Houghton

“Which was the radical, unthinkable, gamechanging step here?”

Simplicity & Stability = “the hardware supplier getting to decide what software ever runs on the device.”

In other words, no buggy POS code, like Flash, for example.

This isn’t true: “never being able to access files independently of their apps or add external storage”

You’ll be able to move files to cloud systems, including a very seamless connect to the Apple me.com suite. What you do with it after that depends on what other devices you use.

comment by Keith X about a day later

For what it’s worth, back in June I theorized that Apple’s forthcoming tablet would be a bullseye for the baby boomer generation.

I based this on two precepts: 1) bigger screen, bigger buttons as ideal for that demo; and 2) the ability to harness a great internet experience without getting locked into a large monthly mobile bill, key for a segment more likely to be contemplating fixed income lifestyle.

Here’s the full post, if interested:

iPad: The ‘Boomer’ Tablet http://bit.ly/46CtH

Cheers,

Mark

comment by Mark Sigal about a day later

Rob- I didn’t take time to read any of the comments so I apologize if you’ve already answered some of my questions. I was super hyped about the iPad when I first started reading about it, but now I’ve become a bit underwhelmed. Why can’t I watch Hulu on my iPhone and why will I not be able to watch it on the iPad? How long until they start adding more publishers to the iBook library. Currently, none of the publishers that they have named publish sci-fi or fantasy books. I had some other questions, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. Still want one, but I may want until the next gen.

comment by Spencer Davis about a day later

RE: boomers.

Who do you think used pre-gui PCs? Spent hours configuring DOS games for their kids? Bought inch-thick computer magazines? Invented the industry?

Lots of young people can’t do anything on their computers but use Google, Facebook, Amazon, and iTunes.

comment by Gary Bloom about a day later

Re. Hulu: I don’t think Hulu passes the SJ test. I live in a major market with 10Mb cable and I cannot stand the freeze/buffer refresh. I would not talk anyone out of enjoying Hulu but I do not imagine the experience is something Apple to which Apple would adapt their products.

Hulu has stated they are investing resource to deliver to the iPhone (hence the iPad by extension). That is worth waiting for, not Apple’s enabling Flash delivery of…anything.

comment by sandifop about a day later

Awesome writeup … echoes exactly what I was thinking when I saw the keynote … “this is going to be perfect for my mom!”

Great writing … now I’m off to read the rest of your stuff. Thanks!

comment by Bruce Jacob about a day later

I agree with you about the Touch version of iWork (in Thought #3), I think that while other stuff is going to get the press, iWork Touch is where Apple is going to really make their case for their vision of the next step in computing. It is as fundamental as the iPad itself in the launch of this new platform. It is not so much the apps themselves, but that the apps will show the way forward. It’s the software, much more than the hardware, that displays the vision.

For anyone who doesn’t want to mess around with files, folders, and all kind of other stuff - i.e., most people - it’s going to be compelling.

comment by Alderete about a day later

Excellent. My own attempt at making a similar point is here: The iPad is an Information Appliance

comment by Mark Whybird about a day later

I find it ironic, and quite entertaining, that someone would ask

[W]ere you really not hoping for something a little more radical?

and

Which was the radical, unthinkable, gamechanging step here?

at the end of posts which are basically suggesting that Apple should make the iPad more like a regular computer. Who, exactly, is having difficulty thinking radically?

comment by Alderete about a day later

Hey Man-Nice post, but be careful with the “boomer” category:) I’m technically the last year of “baby boomer” and no where near a grandfather. My mother is barely a grandmother…but you’re right, she’ll dig the iPad.

comment by PJ Roberts about a day later

So glad to hear a reasonable voice. I was getting so frustrated with the folks upset about “missing features.”

If 37signals has taught us anything, its that sometimes simplicity and stripping features is the most ingenious and kindest thing you can do for your users.

Lots of people complain about lack of features on 37s products, too, though. Some people just don’t get it.

comment by Sam about a day later

I don’t believe that Apple ever said that the iPad was to be considered a primary computer. They claimed it was in a new category between the iPhone and their notebook lines. This being said, the iPad was never designed to be a stand alone device. I believe that someone already commented that this thing is going to have to be synced with an actual stand alone computer to be of any use. Who is going to sync all of these iPads for these Luddites who have always been opposed to owning a computer. Then what if they don’t opt for the 3G version and they settle for WIFI? How are they going to manage a wireless network in their home? Don’t get me wrong, I think that the iPad is a great device IF it is used like Apple intended it to be. Look back at the MacBook Air, there was a lot of hype about it but people thought that they were getting a stand alone computer that was as thin as a sheet of paper when Apple was really marketing it as a secondary device to accompany a primary device.

comment by Jake about a day later

“Which was the radical, unthinkable, gamechanging step here?”

The fact that Apple rethought what a computer is and how you use it.

What you are hoping for is some hardware-feature or some piece of software that is somehow “radical”, but you fail to see the big picture. There’s nothing radical in the iPad as far as raw features are concerned (same applies the iPhone as well). If you only saw iPad’s features listed on a piece of paper, it might really seem like a “just iPod touch with a big screen”. But such comparison hardly does the device justice.

Like I said, the radical thing is that Apple rethought the computer. Just about all the things you can do with a computer (apart from things that require large screen and high-end performance) you can do with an iPad. That is the one key differentiator between iPod touch and iPad, and that alone debunks the idea that iPad is “just an iPod touch with big screen”.

Sure, iPad does not have all the features and functionality that a laptop has. But then again, it’s smaller, lighter, has longer battery life and it’s considerably cheaper. It’s also simpler to use and the things it does, it does better. I bet that web-browsing (for example) is better on the iPad than it is on a laptop. Imagine Stephen Colbert whipping out a laptop during the Grammy-awards? Me neither.

It was already commented somewhere on the web that this is comparable to when Apple introduced the iMac and it had no floppy-drive. People whined that “OMG, Apple is removing features, this thing is going to fail!”. Look where we are now. Sure, iPad has less features than laptop has. But the things it does, it excels at. And it’s still cheaper and smaller than a laptop. If you want a laptop, go buy a laptop. No-one is stopping you.

Giving the iPad all those gee-whiz features people seem to demand would make it more complicated, less reliable and slower (and more expensive). Why exactly should we still waste our time managing files in a filesystem? Surely the computer can handle all that? Why do we need to waste our time managing apps and app-windows? Why are users given all these possibilities to mess up the computer and make using the computer harder?

Antoine de saint-Exupery said it best: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

The problem is that traditional computers (Macs included) can’t really rethink the way we do things, since they have 30 years of baggage on their backs. People expect them to work in certain ways, and if they don’t, people get confused.

With the iPad Apple can make a clean break from the past. With the iPhone and iPod touch they managed to introduce these ideas to people. People did not expect those devices to work like computers do, since they were clearly not computers. Now they can bring those ideas to the iPad. And they can do that, since iPad isn’t a typical computer. It doesn’t look like a computer, and it’s not even called a computer, it’s an iPad. So people have less expectations regarding the ways it should work. Had they called it “MacBook touch” or something like that, user-expectations would be totally different.

iPad is a simple device. And on one hand that means that you can’t do some things with it. But it also means that you do not have to hunt for that app-window that is buried underneath some other app-windows. You do not need to puzzle over why keyboard-shortcuts are not working the way they should, since wrong app has the focus. You do not have to worry about hunting and updating drivers. You do not need to worry about hand-holding the computer.

What Apple did here IS “radical, unthinkable and game-changing”. And that is EXACTLY the reason why so many people are complaining! What they expected was the same thing we have been using for the last 30 years or so. Instead, they got something new, something rethought.

comment by Janne about a day later

“This being said, the iPad was never designed to be a stand alone device. I believe that someone already commented that this thing is going to have to be synced with an actual stand alone computer to be of any use.”

Why should it be? I mean, you can buy apps, songs, movies, books etc. right on the device. You can manage your 3G-connection right on the device. You can manage your contacts, bookmarks, calendar etc. right on the device. You do not need a separate computer for any of these tasks.

Now, it might be that you need to hook it up to iTunes the first time you start using it. But I’m not sure that is that required for the iPad. But even if it were, you could use the iPad as a standalone device after the initial setup is done.

comment by Janne about a day later

I, too, think that the iPad will be just fine for lots of people without another computer to fall back on. WiFi networks are really quite easy to set up these days, almost plug and go; you only need to enter your ADSL account details. You can bet that the Apple Airport Utility will be a free app. WiFi printers are also getting more and more common. You can also back up your data either to the cloud in general or to a simple wi-fi enabled disk set in your own home. So what do you want a so-called ‘real’ computer for exactly?

comment by Mark Whybird about a day later

“Now, it might be that you need to hook it up to iTunes the first time you start using it. But I’m not sure that is that required for the iPad. But even if it were, you could use the iPad as a standalone device after the initial setup is done.” -Janne

Well, I just had to sync my iPod Touch to iTunes today for the new firmware update. My iPod has wireless capabilities and so does the iPhone. But, both of these devices have to be synced to a computer with iTunes in order to be updated. I guess you could argue that Apple only comes out with firmware updates for these devices a few times a year but you still need to have an iTunes account on a computer as of right now. I don’t want to appear to be an iPad naysayer. I think it is a great device. There are many great features like iWork. I follow Apple products very closely and I really didn’t expect anything like iWork to be on an iPhone OS tablet. All I am trying to say is that people need to be aware of certain drawbacks to using the iPad as their primary computer. Otherwise, they are going to be disappointed and blame Apple for distributing a device that doesn’t do something that Apple never said it could do. Apple said that it could do certain things better than the iPhone and could also do certain things better than the notebooks. They did not say that this was a replacement for their notebook or desktop lines.

comment by Jake about a day later

I agree with your post generally, but I see several problems

- digital cameras these people are the same people that need to transfer their photos to a computer, not including any kind of option for this is stupid, now i know apple doesn’t like slots, but that would have been simple.

- printing yes they need to print something, tickets, emails, photos, so even if they don’t realize it in the beginning they will start to talk about printing soon

- camera skype rules, without a camera the experience is half as good

ptfjib80

comment by Florian Bailey about a day later

I can totally relate… I’m sitting here with a friend in Tim Hortons at 5.00am and out of his mouth comes iPad. I was taken back, because my friend usually does not speak of technology, rather he is often angered at technology for failing. This is partially because of his Acer laptop that dies if its touched in a certain way.

Lo and behold I have never seen him so excited about anything technological. Wow! Its portable enough, wireless keyboard option, I can read the Bible on it, calendar, word processor… and his rambling goes on.

Finally he says, man I really want one! and goes on to think of the many ways he can build money money for one.

Its bizarre.

comment by Enoch Wu about a day later

@florianbailey

put a video camera roughly where you would expect the camera in this to be during use and film yourself, replay your recording. Still want this to have a user facing camera?

Imagine trying to hold the iPad in the correct position long enough that your buddy doesn’t experience additional nausea from the constantly moving image

for me the most interesting part of the keynote was the chair Jobs sat in

comment by Doug Young about a day later

”- digital cameras these people are the same people that need to transfer their photos to a computer, not including any kind of option for this is stupid, now i know apple doesn’t like slots, but that would have been simple.”

Apple does offer a solution for this: the camera connection kit. You can use it to transfer pictures from your camera to the iPad.

”- printing yes they need to print something, tickets, emails, photos, so even if they don’t realize it in the beginning they will start to talk about printing soon”

We haven’t heard anything one way or the other regarding printing, so we can’t really complain about iPad not supporting it. That said, I have heard rumors that iPad will support printing to networked printers.

”- camera skype rules, without a camera the experience is half as good”

There are few problems with this: either you will get video from bottom up, prominently showing the users nose, or you need to hold the iPad in front of your face, which would be quite inconvenient and uncomfrotable.

comment by Janne about a day later

“these people are the same people that need to transfer their photos to a computer, not including any kind of option for this is stupid”

There’s an accessory that allows people to transfers photos from their digital camera straight to the iPad, no computer required.

Another part of that subtext other people have talked about.

comment by Richard about a day later

Great post. Stumbled across it but really glad I did.

I totally agree with the idea that the filesystem should be visible only to us nerdy types (like what MS tried to do in the last two incarnations of Windows, but not as awful).

I really see a new generation of typical-user oriented computers out there, whether it’s this version of the iPad or what follows.

comment by Robert Munnelly about a day later

humans in general seem to think that they themselves are “normal” and if something doesn’t meet “their” needs then they generalize that as being not right for ANYONE, when in reality it’s just NOT right for THEM.

The other funny thing is, IF this computer isn’t for you, their are plenty of OTHER computers and devices that ARE perfect for you. People are acting as though ALL other laptops, netbooks, desktop computers are going to vanish and the iPad and it’s “Wannabe’s” are going to be ALL that is left.

You know you can still buy a vinyl record, and you can even buy a manual transmission car. Some people still prefer them.

comment by Shane about a day later

I am being somewhat misconstrued here. I’m not doubting the need for a simple device, and nor am I banging on about multitasking. What I am getting at is the paucity of analysis of real ease of use in discussions about this thing.

Think of a few common workflows that a simple user might have, and ask yourself if all those workflows are possible now with your iPod Touch.

Things like: taking a photo you’ve been sent in an email, putting it in a photo editor, making some changes, adding a caption, and uploading it to facebook, and then to flickr.

Or opening a document from an email, editing it, and then saving it as a PDF to Evernote, or uploading the PDF to Dropbox or to your website.

It seems to me that with the iPad as presented many simple workflows are not easy unless they are achieved in total by a single app.

Are we really saying that the only way we can make a user-friendly computer is by taking pathways away? That interapp sharing can’t ever be easy therefore Grandma shouldn’t be troubled with it? That the notion of a file as independent from a program is so complicated that anyone over 50 should just not have to worry their pretty little greying head about it?

I think an organisation as innovative as Apple could have found ways to allow both of those things without vast complexity and in a way that would radically improve the flexibility and unity of the device.

They didn’t, and that’s why we are now seeing countless blogs breathlessly speculating about widgets on the iPad desktop, which is something Apple has not announced.

Deep down, more of you are a little disappointed than you are letting on, I think.

comment by Michael Houghton 2 days later

“I’m guessing if you have to ask, the product probably isn’t for you. Hint: It’s all about the software.”

Nice going with the gnomic reply thing, but that’s not really an answer, is it?

comment by Michael Houghton 2 days later

‘I’ve been finding it amusing that people use the phrase “just a big iPod touch” as a negative epithet since the iPod Touch is a pretty impressive piece of tech in its own right.’

I think it’s a negative point about the iPad, yes. The iPod Touch is impressive; I had one and I liked it well enough. But what is this really except a large iPod touch with options for 3G and a keyboard?

‘Totally. From my view, the keynote was chock full of subtext that said “We’re showing you the future.” I’d say iWork was one gigantic piece of subtext.’

Isn’t this just a tiny bit embarrassing?

There was me thinking they were showing a product in a final form that was about to ship, because as we are told, Apple don’t preannounce.

Now it’s subtext and a hint of the future they were announcing? Oh please.

Does that mean my criticisms of the present product are doubly meaningless, because they will all be addressed in an imagined future?

(P.S. this was all typed on a recent unibody MacBook, which you would have to prize from my cold, dead hands. This is loving criticism, not Apple hatred)

(P.P.S. I like that this discussion is even happening)

comment by Michael Houghton 2 days later

Indeed, my wife pulled a very similar trick.

I am geek, and thus am loathe to give up my control of files/folders/existing apps/terminal access etc.

But my “tech-conscious yet hardly geek” wife could articulate her need for an iPad 10 minutes into the keynote video. For her, a road warrior, it fits between laptop company forces her to carry, and Blackberry she had to give up her iPhone for.

And it made perfect sense.

comment by Juz 3 days later

Rob,

thanks for your response. Actually on the day your article got Fireballed I did try to add a more detailed comment but the POST failed when your server died and I foolishly hadn’t copied it to the clipboard.

Mike

P.S. feel free to email if you want to discuss for a future post.

comment by Michael Houghton 3 days later

I can understand people thinking that the device as presented made sense in the presentation Steve made, because he presents things in a very compelling way; like many people I wish I had his skills.

However, I can see quite obvious problems with the device that make it a less compelling purchase than the iPod Touch (which is priced so that it’s a no-brainer, and really everyone should try one once).

I’m rather concerned that the limitations that are obvious to people in the tech industry will lead to a load of iffy reviews when the thing finally ships.

Whether or not Apple think this is an alternative to a netbook or present it as such, given its price it’s an entirely justifiable thing for some consumer reviews to compare it with a netbook head-to-head. No matter how much more intuitive it is at the shallow end, it’s not hard to come up with comparative review usage scenarios where it will fall flat compared with a device half its price, or where even quite a poorly-made, unattractive-looking Android tablet will seem more flexible by comparison.

These are interesting times but I don’t think it’s possible to dismiss that the instant reaction even outside the tech press was not universally glowing.

(Even the new media darlings of the Huffington Post pointed out what it couldn’t do based on what Steve presented, and that’s the kind of weekly magazine readership he needs.)

I think this thing could have been a lot more (re)inventive, and my feeling is that Apple have 60 days to make iPhone OS 4.0 a lot better.

comment by Michael Houghton 3 days later

@Michael Houghton wrote: “Now it’s subtext and a hint of the future they were announcing? Oh please. Does that mean my criticisms of the present product are doubly meaningless, because they will all be addressed in an imagined future?”

Michael, what would you have said about the Mac when it was introduced? The ancestor of the Mac that (your words) we can pry out of your cold, dead hands? Because when it was introduced, there was MacWrite, MacPaint, and The Future.

It will take time for even Apple to create 1.0 versions of their appropriate applications for the Touch platform. To say nothing of third parties. Or does the iPad need to achieve Avatar-level (i.e., instant) success for it to be successful at all?

I can remember writing, laying out, and printing newsletters in MacWrite on a Mac 128 and an ImageWriter printer. Would I want to go back to it?, of course not. But even with those 1.0, first generation tools, my friends and I could do things no one had ever seen before, just making it up ourselves in afternoons after high school. No professionals needed. It was exhilarating.

That is what we’re going to see, for a whole different group of people (non-geeks, of all ages), when Apple starts selling the iPad in ~60 days.

I think that so many industry and computer “experts” cannot see this is an indication that Apple is executing a radical vision. It may take take a few years and product generations to be obvious to those of us on the inside of technology, but there will be lots and lots and lots of people from whom you can pry their iPads from their cold dead hands, just as surely as you’re clutching your Mac today.

comment by Alderete 3 days later

My last comment:

@Alderete: Please don’t put retrospective words into my mouth, or try to shoehorn my opinion into some sort of comfortable anti-simplicity box.

I distinctly remember thinking the Mac (and indeed the Apple Lisa, if you remember that) were entirely awesome, when I read about them at age 10 in Home Computer Course in 1984. Too expensive (particularly Lisa) but awesome. The potential was not lost on me. I still have that issue of the magazine, just as I still have the issues of Byte magazine where the PowerPC was introduced and analysed, and I still have my original copies of OS X 10.0 and 10.1 as keepsakes.

I’ve been using Macs for more than a decade; I’m not sneering at Apple or dismissing them, or being some sort of geeky ease-of-use Luddite. I may be a software engineer, but I have long used and admired Apple products and I think this is a poor one, because it fails on the kind of elegant beauty of making difficult things easier. Apple set the bar high on this one, and I think they are not really delivering.

If Apple is executing a radical vision it is for taking away choice, and I have a problem with that, however radical they are being. This thing could have been better and there are ample ease of use precedents in Apple’s long career for how they could have made it better.

Even Android has better interapp activity support than the iPad manages.

You won’t change my view that it’s an unimaginative product. Apple could change my view with OS 4.0, but what they have announced so far fails in my view to meet my well-schooled expectations of Apple’s capability for software design, and I don’t think I’m the only one; at least one of my criticisms has been echoed by Andy Ihnatko, for instance. Check out what he has said, and his past pronouncements, for reference.

comment by Michael Houghton 4 days later

My last comment:

@Alderete: Please don’t put retrospective words into my mouth, or try to shoehorn my opinion into some sort of comfortable anti-simplicity box.

I distinctly remember thinking the Mac (and indeed the Apple Lisa, if you remember that) were entirely awesome, when I read about them at age 10 in Home Computer Course in 1984. Too expensive (particularly Lisa) but awesome. The potential was not lost on me. I still have that issue of the magazine, just as I still have the issues of Byte magazine where the PowerPC was introduced and analysed, and I still have my original copies of OS X 10.0 and 10.1 as keepsakes.

I’ve been using Macs for more than a decade; I’m not sneering at Apple or dismissing them, or being some sort of geeky ease-of-use Luddite. I may be a software engineer, but I have long used and admired Apple products and I think this is a poor one, because it fails on the kind of elegant beauty of making difficult things easier. Apple set the bar high on this one, and I think they are not really delivering.

If Apple is executing a radical vision it is for taking away choice, and I have a problem with that, however radical they are being. This thing could have been better and there are ample ease of use precedents in Apple’s long career for how they could have made it better.

Even Android has better interapp activity support than the iPad manages.

You won’t change my view that it’s an unimaginative product. Apple could change my view with OS 4.0, but what they have announced so far fails in my view to meet my well-schooled expectations of Apple’s capability for software design, and I don’t think I’m the only one; at least one of my criticisms has been echoed by Andy Ihnatko, for instance. Check out what he has said, and his past pronouncements, for reference.

comment by Michael Houghton 4 days later

Oops, my last comment twice. I’m not that self-important I hope; I double posted, Sorry Rob!

comment by Michael Houghton 4 days later

Excellent thoughts and supported by 3 contrasting sources — affirms similar thoughts I’ve been having about the future of the file system. The people that actually care to see that are few and far between. iTunes is an excellent example of getting stuff out of the way so I can just do.

comment by Andrew 4 days later

I think there’s a lot of truth here and a lot of hype.

I’ve always thought computers need better design to find the more common user.

Don’t forget though, the iPad is closed.

comment by American Yak 4 days later