The official release of the iPad is still some time away. Apple still has not disclosed all the details. And by the time the iPad hits the stores, developers would have already prepared a lot of great applications that will make the iPad very useful.
Like many others I was wishing for a more OS X Leopard-like tablet. My PowerBook G4 is now really old and I was hoping a tablet becomes its replacement. Obviously this is not how Apple is thinking.
Now that the dust has settled I see Apple’s point. This is not a laptop replacement device. If you need portable productivity, go for a MacBook. It’s obvious.
If you were hoping for a universe-changing revolution (because you follow too many Mac rumor sites and because you wanted that iPhone ‘high’ again) then the iPad might’ve disappointed you. But think about it: Apple already have a revolutionary touch platform. They extended it for a bigger screen and they’re launching the iPad with the ability to run so many useful iPhone apps. It is absolutely the right thing to do.
When the iPad was unveiled, and even now, I was extremely disappointed by lack of camera, multitasking and Flash support. These are almost deal breakers for me.
But when I downloaded and watched the iPad launch Keynote, and saw what’s possible with iWork on the iPad, I became more excited about the device’s prospects. I am big user of Keynote. Having it on a tablet would be an interesting proposition for me.
I imagine that Adobe could actually come up with light versions of Photoshop and Illustrator for the iPad. I mean, why not? If they don’t, some new enterprising developers can address that market.
But at this point, when thinking about productivity on the iPad, questions start popping up in my head. For example:
- Will the iPad allow me to install my fonts. Even iKeynote would be pretty useless to me if I couldn’t design or edit presentations with my company’s typeface.
- How will file management work? Will files be strictly savable within apps or is there some sort of folder structure somewhere?
- What about downloading files and copying them into other apps. For example: I am browsing the web and I find a funny photo that I want to paste into Keynote or Pages. Can I do that? What about taking a screenshot of a part of the screen to use it in a presentation. How would that work?
- Will multitasking ever become possible on the iPad. Yesterday I was editing a proposal and kept jumping between Numbers and Pages. Please don’t tell me every time I do that on the iPad I need to restart apps.
These are some of the questions I have. Yes I understand that the iPad is not a MacBook. But highlighting iWork on the device just raises all these productivity questions which could determine if I get an iPad or not.
Comments
5 responses to “After the dust settled.. some iPad questions”
Well, i am pretty sure that some really wicked new apps will be launched as soon this new “creation” comes to the market and finds its way to its niche and beyond, i think this new platform will be a great hit for apple and a new turning-point in the PC evolution, this thing is based on a solid sound foundation, namely, OS X Touch, beautiful industrial design and a 140,000 app store. some are already dismissing the iPad and don’t really get the big picture here, this picture is better articulated by understanding the iPhone itself, iPhone’s user-interface with the power of the Unix-based OS “OS X” turned the classical human-computer relationship to to a whole new simple yet intuitive one, one that captured the minds and hearts of millions who just want really a useful handy device that makes sense when you use it.
but why stopping there, if we already have this amazing experience on a 3.5 inch screen, why not put it on a bigger screen and give it some steroids?. Bill Gates was very passionate years ago about Tablet Computers, but the problem that you simply cant transfer the mouse based interface to a tablet or something similar and microsoft lost their shot back then because they thought people want windows experience on their tablet.. but do they? even if this interface of windows or leopard system is somehow customized or altered to make it more touch-friendly that would be just not enough, iphone proved that people want a simple straight-forward experience and apple delivered and now they are pushing it forward to a fighter-level and change the way we think of computing and computers interface, i am not saying the mouse will disappear within a day and night, what i am saying ipad could be remembered as the device which transformed our interaction and experience with computers in general, i think it’s as important as the first Macintosh back in 1984, and the iphone is like the Apple Lisa in the perspective of PCs in general.
Steve Jobs was very excited about this product announcement, and i think he now feels that the 2nd era of GUI-Revolution has began, look how he put his old picture with Woz and how he passionately talked about why apple is apple, he even made a bag for this thing! which brought me back to the first mac too.
but like any other product, even if it was based on real passion and hard-work, there will be some issues/questions/concerns, for this particular first iteration of ipad, they might not have nailed it, but they are close, let’s not forget the first iphone, which lacked of many essential functions but still sold like hot cakes! then the 2nd and the 3rd iphones came along and addressed most lacking features. ipad has no front-cam, that is a very legitimate concern and i am pretty sure the 2nd iteration will have one, but why apple decided not to put a cam on this one? well.. i think i have some theories, i believe there was some cost concerns, apple choose to have an aggressive price strategy here to attract a big base of first adaptors customers, but cost is not really the only thing here, FCC is already concerned about the 3G network could be compromised because of the expected high data load of browsing, so if we wanna add a cam to this thing, i guess it would have been really attractive to people to video-skype with their friends and so on and that would just put more pressure on the already crippled at&t network, third explanation is software-readiness, maybe apple was not ready to implement their iChat, photo booth etc… to this device, and they thought lets wait till we have our stuff ready and make people wow next time when they see how we can make video calling so awesome!.. anyway i think its a sad thing that apple didn’t include a cam and i really hope they do (some hardware news leaks suggested that the ipad hardware has an empty slot for a isight camera, which suggests its coming soon or it was decided not to include it because of the reasons i mentioned or other marketing strategical reasons).
back to Ahamd’s questions, i am not sure about the fonts thing, for the mean time i don’t think any fonts can be easily installed, unless you jailbreak it.
concerning multi-tasking, some believe that iphone can’t multi-task, well actually when we talk about iphone OSX, its not really that different than the normal leopard one, same kernel and services, just different GUI, so the iphone OS, and ipad for that matter, are very capable of multi-tasking, but again for many reasons apple like to have limited multi-tasking in their iDevices, but i bet this will change with the time and allow some kind of multi-tasking without jeopardizing the speed, stability and power consumption, and complicating the user-experience on the other hand, but with the fast blazing performance i guess multi-tasking wont be a deal breaker for now.
according to the released SDK for ipad, it will have a shared file directory for managing files and mounting it on your mac or pc, still blurry, we have to wait and see.
and yes, you can save a pict you from safari to your images folder, that is doable in the current iphone OS and wont be a problem with the ipad.
and sorry for this long post
correction.. higher-level not fighter level
I read this yesterday and came back today to answer a few questions, to find that Osama said everything! Thanks!
…
But I can talk about one thing, data management.
Apps are available now to manage data that can and cannot be read on iPhone OS, to be transferred, stored, and reached whenever you need them. That with bluetooth, and small external peripherals like the ones apple already have (MMC readers), I think there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be able to have basic file management features on the iPad, even if that happens after the 2nd generation comes out.
…
As far as installing typefaces, maybe yes or maybe no, logically type foundaries will launch apps that give you a chance to do that, maybe as an extension of one’s license.
But as far as i’m concerned, If I absolutely had to use an iPad for work, I’d only write outlines, jot down notes, search for online references, …etc
…
Thing is, if you have a laptop and a phone, i.e, a Macbook and an iPhone. Getting an iPad for the house isn’t overkill at all, because it’s sth that you can access whenever, by whoever.
it just might be the next ultimate household product, after all, TVs, Fridges, and Microwaves are so old skool!
whomever!
Simply the answer is YES!
You will be able to do all of that you wanted and even more!
the iPad as you know is running on the iPhone OS and everything you asked for above can already be done on the iPhone…if jailbroken.
So even if Apple doesn’t officially allow to do all that you want, the community will.
But this raises a new question, without official support from Apple, how useful would all this be?