iPad Impressions, from a Fence Sitter
The iPad, if we are to believe Apple, is magical and revolutionary and will change the way we interact with technology. Now, even though I don’t have the cash to splash on one of these shiny, aluminum beauties I feel, like the rest of the world, that I can pass comment on it.
So I did: to all my friends and family, I preached about how it was a good concept and how the apps developed for it would make it or break it, etc., etc., etc. I chose to ignore everyone who said it was just a big iPod touch, because surely Apple is smarter than that!
Well, before I tell you what I thought of the real deal I must say, in the big Windows vs. Mac fight, I’ve always been a fence sitter; Macs are beautiful, powerful and I’ve never heard a bad word about them, but they are expensive. Windows PCs on the other hand, tend to have faults and quirks, but Windows machines are cheap. So I compromise. I am typing this on a Dell 1525 with an Apple wireless keyboard and magic mouse.
But enough about that. Back to the iPad: Having had the chance to play with one for a decent period of time with some of the better apps available, it’s just like a big iPod touch, and utterly underwhelming. It pains me to say this, but even though it’s blazingly fast, and the screen is fantastic, it is a big iPod touch, without iOS4 even (although that is on its way). It’s better than an iPod touch but is it $500(NZD, about $300USD) better?
At the moment, no. Once it picks up multi-tasking and some seriously good apps (and I mean apps like full blown Word or Pages, not watered down, but improved for the iPad), social networking apps that don’t need to be double pixel scaled, and an iTunes app that will let you sync to and from other iPods and iPads, then maybe, but only maybe, as Apple’s walled garden is still a large prohibiting force (one big example of this being Flash, or lack of support for it).
It is still a great concept, in my opinion, because Apple has taken a full-blown operating system and scaled it down to the iPad form factor. At least that’s what Apple says. What they’ve really done is scaled it down to the iPhone form factor and upped the resolution, and that’s not good enough.
Balance is important: when, not if, Apple gets it right, then they will dominate the mobile computing market.
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