iPad: Ten Minutes To Wapner
If you’ve been online to any of the news, gadgets, or social media sites over the past couple days, you’ve likely noticed the plethora of posts regarding Apple’s new unveiling of the iPad. The tag line for those who can’t be bothered to click the link:
Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. Starting at $499.
Most advanced? Really? Magical? Seriously? $499? Are you out of your mind?
Those are quite lofty descriptions for the Rain Man of new gadgets. Why Rain Man? Because the new iPad in its current incarnation cannot multitask. It can only do one thing at a time. Judging by the video on Engadget, it does that one thing well enough – when it does work – in the traditional Apple-pretty way. If you’re expecting an update from your favorite social media page and you want to listen to music while you wait, you’ll have to close down your iPod/iTunes and go to the web browser and then go back again when you’re ready to listen to music. Allegedly, multitasking is on the horizon for future versions, but for now, one thing at a time. It’s possible that there are people out there who don’t care about multitasking and doing one thing at a time would suit them just fine. I still think there are better options available.
Let’s dig into some of the above assertions, shall we?
Most advanced:
Safari: It comes with the Safari browser and allows you to “see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time” and to navigate the web using “the most natural pointing device there is: your finger”. So how is that different from any of the latest generation phones already on the market like the Nexus, Droid, MyTouch, Hero, or (say it with me) iPhone? Seems there’s nothing new here.
Mail: You can get email. *GASP* Will the marvels of modern technology never cease? Ok, I suppose it has one thing that my current phone (the quickly becoming antiquated T-Moile Dash) doesn’t in that it will allow you to see an emailed photo in the message and will allow you to save it to the iPhotos app. I can save any emailed image, though. I don’t know about any of the other newer smart phones, but I would assume they would allow you to also see photos in email. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Photos: You can organize your photos into albums and do the standard pinch and expand to manipulate the size, view pictures as a slideshow, or you can use it as a digital photo frame even if it’s docked. My current phone doesn’t allow me to do anything but view a picture or watch a video, so I’m hoping someone with a more current phone can verify whether theirs has that capability. I believe that they do, but I’m not 100%.
Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, and Spotlight Search: With the exception of YouTube, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, and Spotlight Search, I have all these items on my current phone and I know that most if not all are available on newer phones. From you iPhone-philes out there, does the iPhone have the Spotlight Search that allows you to search over everything on your phone? If not, then that’s another potential new innovation.
All in all, I’m not seeing the whole “most advanced” as being too terribly accurate here since you can get these items on a tablet PC, laptop, or smart phone. So, is it advanced because you can alter the viewing orientation? No, your smart phones can do that and so can a PC tablet.
Magical:
I’m very curious what they deem magical about this device. Is it that all these features are packed into a sleek, pretty package that’s sports a high-res 178 degree viewing angle surface that measures 9.7″ diagonally – slightly smaller than a magazine – is only .5″ thin and weighs 1.5 lbs? Maybe. Unlike your phone, however, this baby isn’t fitting into your pocket or anywhere else on your person. Now if they could get it to shrink and expand into and out of your pocket, that would be magical.
Starting at $499:
There are cheaper and more expensive “tablets” on the market. Ultimately, everyone’s price point is different in what you’re willing to spend on what. I’m very curious, though, to know how many people are willing to fork out $500 for a device that will only handle things like photos or videos (or other non-online activities) or $500 plus the $30 per month for the data package to do it all. Is there truly that large of a market that craves something that fits between a laptop and a smart phone?
Anyone here feel the need to rush out an buy one of these bad boys or care to discuss your thoughts?
(continued from fo0)
Pete, of course it’s magical. Stephen Colbert has one. Would Stephen Colbert want this magazine-sized piece of touchable glass if it wasn’t magical? I think not.
Toby, when I mentioned pricing, it was based not on the details of the pricing page on Apple’s site, but on pricing information posted on other sites which alluded to models that may come w/o Wi-Fi. That was definitely one big head-scratcher for me and, clearly, my mistake for not looking into it further.
You’re also right about your CPU/GPU comment. After I posted the comment Neppy sent me, it got me to thinking about what was behind it all and that could be classified as advanced. Hell, even a 10-hour battery for something that size is pretty impressive.
With regard to the iBook app, I just don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve perused a friend’s Kindle and it left me a bit cold. She loves it and it would appear you do as well. Would my feelings on it change if it looked as though it was text on a page on the screen – looked like I was turning a page? I don’t know.
We know that first generation gadgets are typically chock full of bugs and good intentions and this item appears no different. Like you, I still have questions.
I’d also point out that while you’re busy investigating specific application functions looking what’s “most advanced” about this device, you’re missing the point that the compact low-power CPU/GPU combo powering the thing is owned by Apple and is a brand-new ARM SoC that makes the chips powering all the other mobile devices you’re talking about look like worthless shit.
Remember that on day one, the 16GB iPod Touch was $499. I know this because I bought one at that price. Ordered it the day it was announced. And it was firmware 1.0 — no app store, no push notifications, just a lonely home screen with like 6 built-in apps, most of which I never launched. And it was _worth it_.
So now a 9.7″ iPod Touch is available for the same price with all the functionality you get from its smaller cousin. Sounds like a bargain.
However, some of the things Jobs has said about the iPad left me scratching my head like Pete: is it really a “third class” of device between the iPhone and the MacBook? Is it really magical, ground-breaking, and super-awesome?
Not today, but you know what? The real potential of this thing is not as iPod Touch v4 but as iPad v1, and it’s up to the developers to make that the case.
Here’s something I can do with the iPad I can’t do with either the iPod or the iPhone: plug a camera into it and download pics. Huh. Now that I think about it, 16GB probably is too small. Regardless. That’s laptop functionality without laptop headaches.
What the hell kind of question is “$500 for a device that will only handle things like photos or videos (or other non-online activities)”? — it’s got WiFi, dude. You can probably go online with that.
Most of the naysaying and bitching about the iPad comes from the easy position of comparing it directly to the iPod or iPhone. Doesn’t fit in your pocket! So what? Neither does the magazine or hardback book you’ve also compared it to! It doesn’t do anything my iPhone or Laptop doesn’t do! Yeah it does. It gives you a reading surface the same size as the similarly-priced Kindle DX. It opens the opportunity for the successful app-store paradigm to produce larger, more functional applications that take advantage of the significantly improved speed and screen real estate on offer. No multitasking! Seems to me only people who don’t have iPod/iPhones complain about the lack of multitasking. I can run Y! messenger on my iPhone and get an IM irrespective of what I’m doing in what app. I can only think of one situation where I wish there was real multitasking: you can’t run a Pandora (or Rhapsody) stream in the background while in other apps. Background music has to come from the iPod.
All that aside, there are plenty of questions I need answered before I decide whether I’m going to buy one of these. Foremost is whether I can load arbitrary PDF files to read in iBooks the way I can load arbitrary music, video, or photo files. If I can’t then I’ll at least be postponing my acquisition of this thing pending a killer app.
Trish (et al) – In case you don’t visit fo0′s site, you can see how Mad TV saw this coming in 2007.
I’ve been a Mac user/groupie/junkie since they first came out with layout programs and laser printers and freed me from ever spec’ing the length of a headline again.
After getting hooked in college, I was handed a typewriter, them a PC at work (de-evolution! ack!); coming out of that hell into one of the first Powerbooks was the happiest day of my life.
I’m the perfect mainstream Mac customer: Tests show I’m in the middle on the right/left brain spectrum, but I’m more comfortable on the right—and just the opposite politically. I’m a creative professional. I want a bug-free, virus-free, lesson-free, completely intuitive computer experience. Gorgeous design and brilliant branding are more than icing on the cake for me—they complete the experience.
I know from experience to wait for the 2nd or 3rd gen. I’m not enough of a gadget geek to neeeeed to be an early adopter. I got my iPhone in December (walking away from the Palm platform after almost a decade) and cannot believe how much I love it. No phone has ever been allowed this close to my pillow.
So yes, I will get an iPad…sometime in 2011. It’s not an addition to my laptop/iPhone combo—it (along with a keyboard dock) will replace my laptop when the time comes.
Also: I don’t care about the name. Yes, at first, it does give you the impression that maybe no one who works at Apple has a spouse, girlfriend, sister or mom. But naming is hard—I know this from professional experience. Given the alternatives, they made the best choice.
It’s a netbook, and because it has an Apple logo people will pay through the nose for it. That, and the first generation will be loaded with bugs.
As the Captain mentions, you’ll be spending $629 for 3G (despite the fact that 3G chips are less than $10) or $829 for a 64GB model.
At that price, you can get a damn nice laptop that can do way more stuff.
Craig, when you’re citing your examples (especially regarding the multitasking), are you speaking from the perspective of your iPhone or from experience with the iPad? Perhaps I’m simply misreading you, but there seem to be contradictory statements in there. If you’ve seen or read something I haven’t regarding the iPad multitasking, please provide a link.
I’m well aware of mobile versions of sites considering I have one for this very blog. With that in mind, we’re really just talking about screen size and whether people want something bigger than a phone and smaller than a laptop/tablet for the cost. As far as “most advanced” being everything combined, I don’t know if that is such a valid statement as we see that other devices have those features, just not in the size of the iPad. Perhaps it’s just semantics.
The price point is an interesting one as I will give them credit that they are still cheaper than many tablets (for now), but as Neppy points out, that $499 can be misleading.
I can understand what Neppy said to me via chat when replying to why he is interested – “mainly b/c it makes me feel like i’m in Star Trek
but also because then i can sit on my couch and, for 10 hours w/ out plugging in, do pretty much everything i want to do with the internet/media”. That I get… just don’t know if I’m willing to “get it” at that cost.
I thought you would never ask.
First in regards to multitasking, your example is not a good one because you can listen to music and surf the web at that same time. But it still can’t multitask, lets say you wanted to surf the web and play a game of Topple, well you would have to close Safari, open Topple, then close Topple and then reopen Safari. It would be nice to multitask, but I can only think of a couple of times when i’ve needed the ability.
Second, in regards to viewing web pages, many pages have a mobile version, that when you access them via some mobile devices you get a different looking page than you would get if you viewed it from your computer, they are saying that you wont see the mobile versions of web site with the iPad. In regards to Spotlight search functions, the most recent software update added this feature on the iPhone.
I think what they mean by “most advanced” is the combination of all the technology used in the device. Plus the new iBook function, which looks better than the current e-readers on the market.
“Magical”, yes, an interesting choice of word.
I like what I’ve seen so far, but until I can try one out for myself I’m not going to say I want to buy one. I want to hold it in my hands and try out all the features before making a judgement on weather or not it is worth the price.
For the cheapest version (16 GB) it’s actually $499 for the WiFi version, and then an additional $130 if you want the 3G-enabled version. On top of that, you either pay $15/month for a limited amount of 3G use, or $30/month for unlimited 3G activity.
So, you’re paying $629 if you want 3G capability, plus the monthly service.
All that being the case, I totally want one.