A students thoughts on the iPad
Written via my iPhone. Forgive any typos, grammatical errors, or punctuation mistakes.
All ratings are out of five stars.
Name *
The first thing I must mention is the terrible name, I think everyone agrees on this point, except, apparently, Apple themselves. While iSlate was an ok name (I wasn’t thrilled) iPad just makes me cringe. A buddy of mine threw out the iBook name ressurected, which would have been a much better name. Now the name iPad doesn’t really change the abilities of the device itself, but it does set the tone for the whole venture. Dissapointing.
Sexy ****
Yeah, this oversized iPod touch is sexy, there won’t be an argument from me on that point. Apple is incapable of making a device which doesn’t carry itself with a high appeal in the looks department. The sleekness of it is the future of computing styles, but I don’t think anyone expected any different. The only issue I take is the LARGE amount of blackspace around the display itself. I’m wondering if this was necessary due to the component structure or a rare design flaw for Apple.
Newness **
Here’s where the problems start to play. We weren’t really given anything new. I think most of us were ezpecting this design, but with some enhanced multitouch capabilities, some brilliant software capabilities, or something else to point to other than “look, sexy.” As it stands, we don’t really have that, we have an iPod touch with a big screen and a bit more power.
Price ****
499 is a decent intro price, and hundred dollar increments for each increase in memory makes the higher level systems greater values. I understand the high cost of flash hard drives, but it seems that not many people would be able to get by with a mere 16 gig hard drive, 32 should have been the baseline, and I imagine that’s the direction that most users will head. 130 addon for the 3g card seems ok to me, but I’m not familiar with those prices so that’s a bit of guesswork for me.
Functionality***
Here’s where things get more interesting. The iPad packs some punch to it, that’s for sure, but the issue is utilization. From a students perspective I look forward to two things the most (from the iPad): the abolition of my textbooks having them all in digital format, and iWork. The ability to cut down on how much junk I lug around campus is key, if I can live off one device then it’s worth the $600 I’d plunk down to get it. The problem is that, at least to this point (Which mean early adopters are likely to NOT see this implemented) there was no mention of running multiple apps at the same time. Meaning I can’t switch between the text I’m reading and Pages (the apple word processor) with, oh say, the swipe of a finger, meaning I’d still need to carry either my laptop or my books, so how much is this actually saving me.
Where is the camera? That shouldn’t have even been a question of implementation, it should have been a given. Yes, I want to video conference from my iPad, and I think that’s a common sentiment.
I didn’t mark of for this next part, but thought I should address it. Many peope, including my somewhat technologically slow to adopt family, felt that the tablet should be the ultimate all-in-one and would have removed the need to carry any other devices, from phones to laptops. This notion is a bit ridiculous, and anyone dissapointed that they’d still need a phone was thinking a few too many years in advance.
Potential *****
Yes, I gave this section the highest possible rating. Most techno nerds knew going into this announcement that the true potential in the tablet didn’t lie in the device itself but more in the doors that have opened. The most encouraging sign was the New York Times inclusion of in line video, these sorts or new media implementations need to be picked up by the dead tree industry in their transition to digital media. They need to begin thinking in new ways to harness the power and opportunity provided to them by the tablet. The dead tree industry stands to gain as much benefit from the tablet as the recording industry gained from the iPod.
Final thoughts
I won’t be an early adopter. I remember to clearly the transition from the iPhone 1.0 to the 3g. I don’t mind waiting a year to see the implementations that the second generation of the tablet will gain. On top of that, I don’t mind waiting until the third party aspect of the tablet had grown a bit and it’s potential is brought to bear. In the end, I simply see no benefit to getting a first gen tablet. Hopefully I’m proven wrong.
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