iPad Thoughts

[major_clanger]

So we've had the best part of a week to think about the iPad. After an initial flurry of rather polarised comment which ran on rather predictable lines ("it's rubbish!" "it's wonderful!" "it doesn’t do X!" "good! it doesn't need to!") pretty much everyone has realised that until we actually get hold of iPads to play with it's going to be very hard to judge how useful and attractive the thing is, or whether the selling points Jobs and co have selected will be the right ones.

One aspect that's not very easy to judge just from pictures is actual physical size. So, to satisfy my own curiosity I printed out some carefully scaled pictures of an iPad (front and back – I am a completist!) and found a suitably-sized book to wrap them around, giving me a full-size, although about one-third weight, iPad mockup.



First thoughts – it's bigger than you might think, which is both good and bad. It's noticeably smaller than an A4 pad, but not dramatically so; it's a good bit bigger, albeit rather thinner, than even a large-format paperback. This may limit its portability – I can't imagine any realistic way the iPad will be 'pocketable' – but it could well make for a much more effective e-book experience. Even so, the virtual keyboard would still be a bit poky for my hands, and without some form of tactile feedback I still think typing would be cumbersome. Yes, in terms of size and typing sensation, Steve Jobs has reinvented the ZX-81!

I also wonder how the weight will pan out. My faux-iPad is not featherweight, and the real thing will be much heavier (700g). Casual hand-holding of this is going to do wonders for your forearm strength. I can certainly see the attraction of Apple's folding case that converts into an angled stand; did this come out of early usability testing, I wonder?

As to whether anyone would want such a device, I can actually see that I might find a use for it. I am not personally big on the concept of having a laptop as my primary computer, and prefer to have a nice powerful desktop machine with plenty of screen real estate, hard drive and processor power. When my G5 Powermac comes to the end of its life (and it's already more than four years old) I will probably replace it with a top-end iMac. As such, I'm not sure I want a full-featured laptop too, even a cut-down one like the Air. I don't do enough on-the-road typing to make it worthwhile. But having the ability to review and make minor edits to documents via a reasonable-size screen is attractive.

For me though, the killer iPad app would be a reasonably well-featured photo processing package, capable of handling RAW files and applying basic image workflow tasks. Combined with the digicam interface kit Apple has already announced this would allow me to use the iPad as a combined photo archive unit, image viewer, initial image editor and uploader to Flickr and similar. Something like that, at a fraction the size and weight of a laptop, would almost be worth buying on its own; add in all the other super-iPhone (minus phone) functionality and it would make the iPad a no-brainer for me. Canon, if you aren’t working on an iPad lightweight version of Digital Photo Professional, start now.

Comments

[zotz]

Bill Oddie (scornfully): "You can't get that in your pocket!"

Graeme Garden (indignantly): Course you can! … Mind you, you have to wear the special trousers."

[nmg.livejournal.com]

It's the TR-63 all over again.

When SONY were marketing their first "pocket-sized" transistor radio, they gave their salesmen special shirts with oversized pockets in order to demonstrate how small the radio was.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

When I saw the keynote I was just a tiny bit meh about it all (you have to remember that I start from the $$$OMG$$$ SQUUEEEEING APPLE FANGIRL position). But since then, I have, more or less randomly, thought a dozen times 'oh, I bet that would work really well on an iPad'. Things like sketching, using Brushes, or running my favourite app of all, Tunebook, at double size so that you can prop your iPad up and play directly from it. Browsing the web and playing video in bed. eBooks of course. Running an iPad companion to Yummy Soup so that I don't have to print my recipes. All that sort of thing. So I'm pretty much planning to buy a first generation one now. Still not completely sure which one.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

I started off a bit "meh", but now I'm pretty much decided it's not for me. I'm quite concerned about the ergonomics, due to my arthritic hands - the iPhone can make them hurt after a while, so lord knows what the iPad would do.

But the main thing is the lack of multi-tasking - one of the things that is always running on my netbook in the living room is IRC, and that's going to be a no no. And personally I think the lack of Flash, while absolutely fine on a phone, is not fine on a living room computing device.

But my word, it's pretty ...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much in the "anything smaller than a laptop needs to be pocket sized" camp - with the pockets in question being able to hold up to say DVD-case sized objects. I'd dearly love something like an iPad in that form factor, but with a clip-on or fold-out keyboard, preferably one that can be used with the screen in portrait and landscape mode. Unfortunately I doubt Apple will ever give us that, so it'll probably end up being Windows 7 or Linux or something.

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

I found my Agenda clone the other day. They supplied front and back pictures, 1:1 scale, in their advertising bumph, so a suitably cut piece of wood gave me a very accurate copy. I carried it around for a fortnight to convince myself that it would go in a pocket comfortably.

I also cut a piece of paper to iPad size just to see.

I'm after a suitable laptop/netbook with a good keyboard for the touch typing malarky and the ability to run my own programs on it. I stage manage and run shows sound off a laptop, but my current one weighs a ton and I've no spare. Most on the market are expensive because they are so over-spec for what I need.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

For a moment you had me fooled and I wondered how you'd scored an advance iPad!

I want handwriting functionality and multitasking but even without them I could be suckered into early adoption. I have been wanting a good mobile device for so long and had bad luck with netbooks.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I know this may be sexist but, I think women will have many fewer problems with the iPad size than men. We don't try to put everything in our pockets we carry handbags big enough to hold the things we need.

I won't repeat all of Bohemiancoast's comment but she does cover most of whet I want a secondary computer to do. I'm facing up to buying a new PC and I think I may follow MajorClanger's lead, bite the bullet and get an iMac. Then when I can afford it complement that with an iPad.

I think Jobs's on to a winner.