blindsquirrel.org

Life with the iPad has gone really, really well. Performance is great, size is great, screen is really nice, the lack of Flash hasn’t hurt me at all…and then it happened. We started researching new cars and for the first time since owning the iPad and it became very difficult to do without Flash.

I get it, I’ve been an OS X user for 8 or 9 years now and I know what the Flash player can do. The CPU goes up, the fans kick in, and the performance goes down. I’ve been there many times. But even if the world decided to make html5 a killer Flash replacement it would not change over night. I would like to make the decision on running Flash or not. It ends up that I do want the “complete” web experience and good or bad, Flash is a part of that.

It’s a shame that Apple didn’t take the approach or working with Adobe to improve the Flash experience instead of an outright ban. Maybe all of that past Windows preference by Adobe had something to do with it. Steve has made his position clear I guess, but tonight was the first time that i had to use something other than my iPad to use the web and that is unfortunate.

So here we are, a little more than a month after the release of the wifi iPad models and it’s still going strong for me. Since the release on 4/3 I have tried to use the iPad for my only computer at home and I’ve been (mostly) successful. After using the iPad exclusively for a couple of weeks I handed my MacBook Pro over to my wife and I haven’t had any regrets. Whether the iPad will work exclusively for you is an individual decision, but I thought I would post some of the things that work well, and some that need a little more work.  One thing that really surprised me – I apparently need Flash a lot less than I thought I did.  I don’t think I have run in to a single issue in the past month where the lack of Flash has caused me a problem.

The good:

• The battery life is amazing
• The size and weight work out really well
• The screen is beautiful, sharp, and bright
• The on screen keyboard is way better than I better than I expected
• Apps written for the iPad look very nice

The other:

• No wireless sync, so you have to activate and occasionally connect to a computer.  This is why I said “mostly” above.  You still need a computer to activate.
• The screen is a magnet for finger prints. The good news is you only see them when the screen is off or dark.
• iBooks has set the standard for how to turn a page. Now go make that work for the built in calendar and contacts applications. All developers should implement this, I don’t want to hit a next button to turn a page again.
• No alarm. I know, I complained about this before, but it really makes no sense that this is not included with this thing. I know there are third party alarms available, but you have to have them running (which I do) but if that alarm app crashes for unknown reasons overnight you are going to be late for work. Trust me, I speak from experience on this one.
• I still want a customizable home screen so that I can display a clock with an alarm, the current weather, the forecast, and maybe a news feed or 2. Call it nightstand mode.  Is that so much to ask?

Overall I do enjoy using the iPad. As someone who has been in the IT field for almost 26 years I did not think this was going to work for me. But I was wrong and the iPad has worked out just fine. But, and here is the important part, I still ace access to another computer if i need to access a little heavier lifting, like Skype. Other than that I am full time iPad. I think my next move is the 3G model so I can stop using the Verizon mifi when away from wifi, but you can’t find one anywhere.

It’s funny, but giving my MacBook Pro to my wife was a huge upgrade from her older G4 PowerBook, so she was immediately happy with the additional performance. But guess what she reaches for when she wants to use a computer? Correct, the same thing my youngest daughter reaches for, my iPad. I think the wireless thin client – I mean, the wireless tablet – I mean, the wireless iPad, could push the whole “home server” market a little further, but the safer bet is probably that the iPad makes for an excellent thin client for cloud computer.

Apple, we are so close here. Yes, as I got older I found that I consume more than create so this would work for me. I love the performance and it comes close to what I wanted. My iPhone actually does a little more than the iPad but I am not looking to make calls from the iPad or even take pictures, but I could see why people would be interested in the video conferencing capabilities, but the way I tend to hold it most of the videos would be looking up my nose anyway.

The part I don’t get is why I still need to dock at all. Why can’t I wirelessly sync with the main computer in the house? If I could do that I don’t think I would really need more. I can see a future where we just have the main computer (an iMac in this case) acting as a “server” and the rest would just be iPads as thin clients. Make it so that the iMac doesn’t need to have someone logged in to sync or access their data and it is all the better.

Access is the second issue. Why can’t I just use the content on that iMac without syncing? You already let me do this with the AppleTV so why not with the iPad? So close to making this work for everything that I need but those 2 items are kind of big for me.

Until then this remains what it is – a really nice iPod Touch with a beautiful screen and fantastic performance. We are so close here Apple, but I’m sure you already know that and are holding back these functions for some non-technical reason. And yes, I did post this with the WordPress app for the iPad, so I guess I do still occasionally create after all.

One more thing. Would it really kill you to include a simple alarm clock function? Sure I can get third party apps for that but they have to run in the foreground to work and I don’t want to have to do that. With the dock this thing is perfect for the nightstand but I want it to function as an alarm clock as well. Give me that and I won’t give you a hard time about the lack of calculator. ;p

You have to give Apple credit for one thing at least – they certainly know how to get press coverage when they want to announce something.  I won’t get in to all of the specs since you can go read about them here, but I have been asked about the iPad enough that I thought I would just put together a quick post with some of my thoughts.

For all of you uber-geeks out there this may not be for you.  You wanted power – lot’s of power – in a small package.  You wanted something like a MacBook Pro screen without the rest of the computer.  You probably wanted it to run OS X.  You wanted full support for Flash.  You wanted a camera in the front for video conferencing and a camera on the back so that you could take pictures.  You wanted GPS.  You wanted an OLED screen.  You wanted multitasking.  You probably expected all of this with 4+ hours of battery life.  AT&T?!  Are you kidding me?  No wonder you are so upset about this thing.  And what’s with the name?  Even my wife thinks this thing is stupid.

But there is a different demographic that Apple is aware of and they don’t care about most of that stuff.  They love what their iPod Touch can do and they just wish it had a larger screen.  Maybe they would have liked to have the Touch but the screen was just too small (trust me, hit 40 and reading small screens starts to get interesting).  They would be happy reading their “newspaper” online with this thing.  eBooks?  Sure, why not?  It’s not open like Android.  They don’t care.  Truly they don’t.  They don’t understand vendor lock-in and they really don’t care as long as it does the things that they want it to do.

I think of it kind of like the Nintendo Wii.  The Wii is the least powerful game console out there.  The XBox 360 and the PS3 just crush the Wii’s hardware specs.  The XBox 360 and the PS3 are both capable of doing much more than just games, yet somehow the Wii just keeps chugging along and is one of the most popular game consoles around.  I know a ton of people that have one.  But the serious gamers I know have the XBox 360, PS3, or use a Windows PC.  The Wii is accessible and easily used by the masses.  The interface and controller require very little thought – you can just pick up the controller and play most games.

Personally, I fit more in to the geek category than the non-geek category but I am sure that I will buy one.  I’ll buy it because I love technology and like to think that I occasionally understand where things are headed – and I don’t think this is such a bad product at all.  Just like the iPhone and iTunes before it, the apps and the acceptance will come.  I’m even dumb enough to think that we could still see some changes to it for the launch.  Maybe that camera will show up as well as a new version of the OS that will allow multitasking.  Remember, this is Apple’s chip in this thing so we really don’t know what it can, and cannot do yet.

I’m certainly not right all of the time, and many of the smartest people on the Internet (as well as my wife) seem to think that this one falls short, but I still believe that the iPad will do very well.  I would be surprised if Apple sells less than 2-3 million of them by the end of this year.  And maybe, just maybe, as technology continues to advance and costs come down, Apple will give us some of those MacBook components in a tablet form – including the OS.  Until then, I can see no reason why they would be willing to cannibalize their laptop sales by giving us everything that we really wanted in a tablet.

The iPad is the iPod Touch for an entire generation that has a lot of disposable income and needs reading glasses.  You already know them because they raised you as children and are now showing up on Facebook in droves.