Apple’s new iPad and why it’s a qualified FAIL..
After literally months of speculation, hopes, and hype, Apple made the eagerly-awaited announcement today of the upcoming “iPad” tablet computer.
Rather than “live blog” the event, I thought I’d let it sink in, look at the device itself (http://www.apple.com/ipad), do a little research and come to a little calmer opinion than a lot of people I’ve read today suffering from knee-jerk reactions.
Why calmer? Simply and unabashedly stated, I’m an Apple fanboy.
As such, like all of us fanboys out there waiting on the “miracle tablet” to save us from our droll existence, I proudly proclaimed that I’ve already been in line for day one of its release months before it was even acknowledged.
Now that the announcement has been made, I’m not quite so sure, and here’s why:
What it is:
- Essentially, it’s a 10″ iPod Touch, replete with the iPhone OS and access to the App store.
- 1 ghz Apple “A4″ low power processor
- Will be available in 6 models. 16, 32, and 64 Gigabyte Flash Drive models, and 3 matching models which add the ability to do 3G connections through an AT&T “pay as you go” plan.
What it isn’t.
- It is neither a laptop, nor an iPhone, nor even a netbook. Whether Steve Job’s “something entirely different” (his words) is actually “better” is yet to be seen.
- It isn’t a laptop replacement in the true sense of the word, because you can’t load real software (like MS Office) on it to work from the road.
Why I’m on the fence…
As I said, I expected the iPad to be a game changer. Instead what it looks like we got is a new iPod Touch on steroids.
Maybe THAT’s why they chose the “iPad” moniker which is easily confused with its baby brother, the “iPod” over other more appropriate names like “iSlate” or even “iTab”, but I digress.
Unlike the loads of pre-announcement speculation, it doesn’t run Mac OS X (or even a lite version), so you can’t use it for things like programming or anything that really requires real work level abilities.
That being said, I *love* my iPhone. As such, I think I would actually get a bit of use out of a 10″ version of the same type features and apps (especially games). In the end however, what keeps it from being a slam dunk game changing home run for me is the fact that it doesn’t have even a hint of a CAMERA on it.
Steve.. WTF were you thinking??!!!???
Whether or not you like Apple, or their products, the simple addition of a web cam / camera on the new tablet could have changed the world. Imagine for a moment that they DID include one (*and just to be clear, they did not*).
To get an idea of why the lack of a camera on the iPad pisses me off SO much, simply imagine the following scenarios;
- sitting in Starbucks on a Saturday morning, iPad in hand, videoconferencing via skype over the 3G network to your beloved family member in another state.
- sitting on a park bench recording a video podcast segment on your iPad, then saving it to the Flash drive, then uploading it to the web via the public wifi hotspot.
- an insurance adjuster able to use the camera to send pictures of crash damage to a custom app which automatically sends it to the insurance company for on-the-spot processing…
- a medical specialist doctor using the camera to help fellow doctors in another part of the world without the need for thousands of dollars in video conferencing equipment.
- being able to sit in the local Starbucks and participate in multi-user group meetings, even if you’re out of town on travel.
Before you say it, yes. you’re absolutely right. Each of these things could be easily accomplished by any of the MacBooks (though MacBooks don’t have access to the App store) already, so why not just buy a Macbook, shut up, and be happy?
Because.. Dammit… For the first time, there will be a tablet computer on the market that could have made the difference, and it damned sure LOOKED like one of those “Star Trek tablets” we’ve been promised for 50 years now (thanks Gene Roddenberry!).
Instead, what we get is a device that might be interesting for what amounts to a 10″ iPod Touch. It might not be.
It might be “yet another e-reader” with the App store built in, but sadly, due to the one, single stupid oversight in leaving out a camera, it will NEVER reach its full potential.
In the end..
As a self proclaimed fanboy, I find myself disappointed and will probably wait for “iPad 2G”.
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Category: Apple / Macintosh, Featured Articles
Tags: 10" display, announcement, apple, iPad, iPhone and Apps, iSlate, opinion, OS, steve jobs, tablet, touchscreen
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I bet they release the iPad Video pretty soon.
They'll sell shedloads of the original first though, then when the time is right, they'll release the video version, and all those Apple fanboys will have to rush out and buy the new system.
Pfft!!
Typical Apple marketing scam.
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It's already here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eF0y0IfpPU
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Looking at your conceptual uses, I think the omission of the camera is probably the right way to go for now. Consider that, since the tablet has a much larger screen, the quality that will be expected for video will be greater for the user. For media consumption, the low-power processor probably has all the oomph necessary (or an appropriate decoder chip) to decode high-definition media streams. Encoding is an entirely different matter, requiring either a much more powerful processor or co-processors that would increase both cost and power requirments. I also assume that streaming high-def media from a device on a 3G network is probably a lot more taxing on the carrier (upstream is always slower than downstream). The possible effects of many iPad users sending high-def content would be enough to scare the crap out of any service provider.
There was more, but it was too long for the site to accept.
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Perhaps, but… When my $80 digital camera can encode and save 640 video on the fly to the flash card, I can't tend to believe it's a very difficult proposition..
Streaming it over 3G on the other hand might be a different issue. I remember how much trouble AT&T got into when the iPhones first hit where bandwidth was concerned, so I concede that it might be an issue. Still.. Even if you did like my eye-fi card and stored it locally until you had a wifi connection, that'd be better than no camera at all IHMO.
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I'm not an iphone user (and have never understood the allure of apple products) so I may be way off the mark here. It seems to me that the entire i* experience is built around a one-way consumption of information/intertainment, with Apple getting its cut of every item (app, music, video). That isn't a bad thing (as far as I can see everyone is happy and the market power of the community helps drive down media prices), but in that model there is no incentive for Apple to help the customer produce content that doesn't generate any revenue for the company. Not only that, but it makes their access parters (AT&T will eventually loose exclusivity) work harder to service the uploads.
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I'd have to agree. Apple's system for the App store is very "Wal-mart" in principal, but it's more on the scale of death by a thousand paper cuts. Each iPhone user supposedly spends about $5.00 a month on applications for their phone, of which Apple keeps 30%.
The programmer of each App gets the other 70%. While 70/30 may sound insane, it's exactly what Amiga Inc was trying to do. Only difference is, Amiga Inc didn't actually want to build the infrastructure, relying on Tao (or whoever) to do it all for them.
In the defense of the App store program, Apple's happy, the programmer of the app is happy, the end user is happy, so in effect it's a victimless crime.
I even understand — to a certain extent — Apple's need to control certain types of applications and keep them out of the app store. Emulators such as UAE for example would introduce vulnerabilities into the system allowing virus writers to hack together an Amiga virus which could theoretically take over the phone.
Voice apps, such as Google Voice for another example would allow an iPhone user to bypass their telecom partner's system while still using up their telecom partner's 3g bandwidth, which — while the American way — isn't fair to AT&T. That part of the app store approval process probably IS governed by a part of the contract between Apple and AT&T, so while inconvenient to the end user who wants to run his Amiga on his phone, I have no problems with it.
All in all, I can't do much more than raise a glass and give kudos to Apple for their genius in putting it all together.
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There was an article on ArsTechnica.com today that addresses some downsides to a camera on a tablet that I hadn't thought about:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/01/the-ipa...
If you were to use a tablet to record video (like your podcast example), or video conference, you would either have to hold the tablet up and out in a very uncomfortable way, or set it down and have very bad camera angle on your face (unless you have a nose-hair fetish).
Unless the pad came with some kind of fold-out legs (or the optional iEasel), I think that I'd get frustrated pretty quickly trying to use a camera on something that big. And this is coming from a guy who once tried to strap a Sony Digital8 handycam to his head (there are times I wish I drank so I'd have something to blame these ideas on).
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cool
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I'd like it better if there was a bigger size. Like 8.5" x 11" display model along with the current size. Yeah, and a camera too… on the edge that could swivel forward and backwards. A lite version of OS X. Plus a stylus for fine detail drawing and writing.
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I'm sure some other enterprising young company will come up with a stylus for exactly that reason. The one thing I could see that might be handy with the iPad would be a "paper pad" application where you could just walk into a meeting and start making hand-written notes (or in my case doodling when you're bored)…
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Good posting, I bookmarked your site so I can visit again in the future, All the Best
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You bring up a good point.. I wonder though whether that leaves the door open for someone to build a "webcam adapter" (like some little clip to attach one of those older Logitech round-type "eyeball" cams) which would allow the camera angle to be moved, rotated, and such to fix the problem of angle?
I have a $500 credit hopefully coming from the Best Buy trade in program, so if I can resist buying a new Macbook pro, my iPad should be "free" (as opposed to having a 3 year old iMac unused on my desk) so I think I'm still interested, just disappointed at the moment..
As for drinking to cover up your ideas, I'm of the opinion that it's the night owl life you live. I think we're all convinced you're living life as a vampire. A particularly apathetic vampire, but a vamp nonetheless..
Wayne
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