iPad padding in (updated again)

Apple is using very big words about the new iPad device.



Immediately it seems promising. A laptop like the "AirBook" (as I persist in calling it no applause at all) is very handy is size and weight, but it's just clumsy to hold and use. The iPad is only half the size and weight. If the user-interface really works, they may have something here.
I've been intrigued with all the things people do with the iPhone, but the display is simply waaaaay too small to appeal to me.
I really hope the iPad can multi-task, unlike the iPhone. (Update: seems it doesn't. I don't get it.)

The iPad docks to a dock which has a full-sized keyboard. I like that.
I wonder if you can use a regular USB keyboard? That would seem like a good idea. But the iPad does not even seem to have a single USB port, I wonder why.
... It does have bluetooth though, maybe one can use a blutooth keyboard and mouse?

Stephen Fry tweets: "Nothing you can say about the iPad matches the experience of using it. So much more than a large iPhone or small laptop. Stunning feel."
And David Pogue has a first-impressions blog post.
And TidBITS covers it.
"During the announcement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs led up to the iPad by pointing out that everyone (well, everyone who is anyone, or is likely to be a customer, from Apple's perspective) uses a laptop and a smartphone, so any device that attempts to fit between those two form factors must perform key tasks better than one or the other. He then pointed out that products in the popular netbook category fail that test, since they're generally slow, have low-quality displays, and, well, run Windows.
Thus, Apple sees the iPad as sitting between the iPhone and the MacBook, and competing directly with the entire netbook category. And certainly, the iPad's screen looked far better than any netbook we've seen, and the responsiveness of the demoed apps was impressive."

Another gotcha (after no multi-tasking): it doesn't support Flash? Weird. (And we don't know about PDF yet. That would be another big hole.)

Steve said:

"I can envision them as being a great way to share digital images or slideshows without audio. The one downside I wonder about is the audio for sharing. Not good on the iPod Touch."

eolake said...
They claim the built-in speakers are very good.


"The future of magazines and periodicals has just been presented."

Yes indeed. I've been waiting for this for ten years. This is clearly a huge step in that direction.
I still buy magazines out of habit, but I almost never read them, because I've read all the news on the web! This device potentially replaces magazines in the sofa, in cafes/restaurants, and in the bed.

Update: GG points to an article with a very good point, that the iPad, like the iPod and iPhone, is not for geeks, it's not for people who already have devices of that stripe, it's for everybody else! (Just like the Mac was for people who were allergic to looking at command line code.)

There's a famous Ballmerism, one he's even said to me, that goes something like, "A business isn't worth entering unless the sales potential is 50 million units or more." 50 million. That's why Ballmer is happy to go into the portable media player business and the game console business, but laughs about ebook readers.

That's ridiculous. If everybody had to wait for every market to be potentially 50 million units, there would be no markets of any kind. A market is worth going into if it can make a profit, that's all. (I'm aware he's talking about M$, but still.)
And in a decade or two, the ebook reader business will be as large as the gaming console business, or in the same order of magnitude for sure. I hereby officially predict that "reading" (and video) devices like the iPad has the potential of becoming totally dominant, due to simplicity and portability and universality.
(And this has not dawned on me just now, I have been considering what the ideal form would be for such a device for a decade. Basically, what is the magazine/newspaper of the 21st century...)

Oooh, another good observation from that article:
We can sit here in our geeky little dorkosphere arguing about it all day, but as much as Apple clearly enjoys our participation, the people Jobs wants to sell this to don't read our rants. They can't even understand them. My step-mother refuses to touch computers, but nowadays checks email, reads newspapers and plays Solitaire on an iPod Touch, after basically picking it up by accident one day. That's a future iPad user if I ever saw one.
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