And we love it because it just makes people sound ignorant, or flat-out trollish. That’s not to say that the iPad wasn’t over-hyped by much of the media and the Apple faithful: in our hands-on with the iPad on release day, it lived up to our expectations but didn’t surpass them. It was definitely cool, we look forward to our 3G version arriving later this month, and getting a chance to play with iPad-specific software (the upscaled iPhone apps we tried didn’t look great). But the device was heavy – heavier than we thought it would, which doesn’t mean anything other than the fact that we wouldn’t hold it out in front of us for long periods of time, but we didn’t really expect to do that anyway.
But we still think the device is a potential game-changer. HP just announced their pricing and specs for their Slate, and if you think that’s a coincidence in light of the iPad’s release on Saturday, then you’re high. The Slate, after all, was announced before the iPad, and the Slate has everything to gain after critics’ lukewarm reception of the iPad on Saturday, versus a preemptive announcement that would have been drowned out by the iPad fanfare. But here’s the thing: the Slate is a Windows 7-based machine, and who the fuck wants that? And yes, we’re ignoring from the Slate-drooling-set the people who think they’ll be able to run modern Windows-based games and those who want to get their old-school emulation game on, because the iPad has already been hacked, and we’d sooner trust a jailbroken iPad than a buggy Microsoft/HP product any day.
But back to the iPad hate, Gruber already refutes Dave Winer on the position that the iPad may fail because its users can’t develop applications for the iPad on the iPad: gaming consoles have shown success for decades despite the fact that none have offered reasonable application development suites on the consoles themselves.
But Winer has other arguments that need addressing, because they’re plain wrong. Especially when this one follows with Winer’s iPad-on-iPad-development argument:
It’s definitely not a writing tool. Out of the question. This concerns Jeff Jarvis, rightly so. This is something my mother observed when I demoed it to her on Saturday. Howard Weaver writes that not everyone is a writer. True enough, and not everyone is a voter, but we have an interest in making it easy for people to vote. And not everyone does jury duty, but easy or not, we require it. Writing is important, you never know where creative lightning will strike.
The problem with Winer’s argument(s) isn’t just his stream-of-consciousness blathering, but the missing evidence as to the iPad’s writing prowess (or lack thereof). Is he basing his argument on the fact that Pages is an extra $10 purchase? Or that a slew of high-quality writing apps isn’t already available on the AppStore? At what point does the iPad fail at writing where other mobile devices (e.g. netbooks) succeed? And don’t start with the multitasking argument, please, because if multitasking isn’t indeed a feature of iPhone OS 4.0, then state-saving between apps is still a work-around, especially if load-times between apps is negligible.
Winer goes on to condemn the iPad for not supporting his bookmark synchronization tool of choice: Xmarks. And a sillier argument he couldn’t make, because to judge an Apple product for not supporting a third-party product is as nonsensical as us condemning every Android and Windows-based device because we can’t run Ulysses on them.
Three days into the iPad’s public availability, we haven’t seen one single, comprehensive review of the iPad where the final verdict isn’t positive. Those like Winer who paint a poor picture of the device either flatly refuse to adapt to the iPad’s new way of doing things, else simply don’t get it.
But here’s who did get it: when working with a computer illiterate family member this weekend, jumping back and forth between her iPhone and MacBook, she touched an icon on the MacBook’s screen, and later an entry field, because it’s a natural thing to do. And that’s the first time when we realized just how intuitive a touch interface is, because it’s finally a better input mechanism than a mouse. And when explaining how apps didn’t need to be installed by disc, and could be downloaded wirelessly, and how the chances of breaking an app, losing windows, overburdening a CPU, et al, we next to nil on the upcoming iPad, our family member wondered why it wasn’t so easy to begin with. Well, now it is, and she and thousands of others will pick an iPad up because it makes more sense than a traditional computer, and she and those thousands of people won’t be concerned with whether or not a random third-party app exists (because they’ll find one on the AppStore to do what they want to do), and won’t worry about developing iPad applications (ever). And that great force will undoubtedly trickle down to the unbelievers who want a lightweight computer, because the reality is, they too can do 99% of what they need a computer for, on the iPad.
And in the meantime, all the winers [sic] will realize that the iPad is as capable a writing machine as most any other.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m admitting freely that the ON SCREEN keyboard is probably less then perfect… Its a good thing apple put bluetooth in it. so you can use any bluetooth keyboard with it, so those who do want the simplicity, but want a normal keyboard. are in luck.
As for the hate of apple, and the app store, I think there’s a lot of valid arguments for the politics and business model of “the app store”, and I even agree with cory doctorow’s ideals… but apple did it, and now its up to someone else to do it better.
Over all though, your post touches on the fundemental level of the “ipad” as a “thing”. its a paradigm changer.
Will it last 10-20 years like the last paradigm of desktop/laptop computers? maybe? maybe not. but its a solid argument that its as impactful (as a first generation device, of many more to come) of a new way to do computing as the first desktop PC’s and macintosh’s were to the home user.
In fairness, the iPad sans physical keyboard isn’t fantastic for writing, but that’s like saying Rock Band sans an instrumental controller isn’t a fantastic game. The fact that the iPad can utilize a physical keyboard is, arguably, its killer feature, built atop the glitz that a larger tablet offers. We probably wouldn’t have pre-ordered the iPad if it didn’t work with a physical keyboard, but similarly, we wouldn’t have picked up Rock Band if there weren’t any instrumental controllers available.
We’re not even saying that the iPad will be around in 10 years; we’re saying that the iPad puts to test everything we know about interacting with home/mobile computers. The old way is, well, old. And in the face of newer tech, there’s no excuse to keep doing things the old way when the new is more elegant and adoptable by the masses. And if no one else realizes this, then Apple may very well lead the revolution with the iPad.
I find the built in notes app more than adequate for jotting down quick ideas on the go, and browsing/commenting on blogs is easier than ever.
Well done. Many techies don’t care for the ipad because it isn’t a full computer, but it wasn’t meant to be. It is meant to be fast, stable, do everything 95% of consumers use a computer for, and be more intuitive to use than a clunky full OS. In that respect, it is a complete success. Oh and mobile Internet for $30? No laptop can come close.
Would I like a camera for videochat? Sure. But this is just the first gen. But the first gen of a game changing device.