The iPad

I don't even have the layout finalized yet on this thing, but there's too much to say here to wait.


You may have seen Apple's new iPad. Prior to its announcement, it was the stuff of legend - rumored since 2003, the 'Apple tablet' was written off more than once as vaporware. It wasn't until the iPhone came around that people started thinking it would actually come to fruition. And now that it has, people are angry. Wait, what? Angry?


Granted, this doesn't apply to everyone out there, but certainly to the fervent fans who expected the device to do everything a Macbook Pro and iPhone can do in one device, plus all kinds of far-fetched rumored features, and of course, have fantastic battery life. It's an odd thing that I see in many 'hardcore' Mac communities: So many people that feel Apple "owes" them something, or that a device will completely fail and is, ultimately, worthless, because it doesn't do that one thing they personally want.


To be fair to these folk, the iPad (and the event itself) certainly did not deliver on a great deal of what people expected. There's no multi-tasking, though the rumor mill implied this would be a feature of iPhone OS 4.0, and therefore software-based. Also, there was no iPhone 4.0 shown off, or a fourth-generation iPhone. Or Macbook Pro speed bumps. Or iLife 2010. Why did anyone seriously expect ALL of that to happen at one event? It would have been chaotic, unfocused, and allow very little time devoted to each feature. Plus, let's face it: A brand-new entry in the product line SHOULD take center stage for an event, like the iPhone did in 2007. Finally, to all those disappointed: Apple never announced any of these things would take place, nor did they disclose details on the iPad prior to today. You can cry in your latte all day about what was "supposed" to be included, but you all fed into the rumors and set your expectations so ridiculously high, there was no possible way you would be satisfied. All of these feelings of disappointment are self-inflicted.


Okay, enough of that. Let's look at what the iPad really is, and what some (including myself) thought or expected it to be. One huge question mark leading into this week was what OS the device would run. I think most people really did expect it to run the iPhone OS, but of course not-so-secretly wanted a full OS X experience, to be able to have an ultra-portable Mac that could run all our software. Using Photoshop on a multi-touch screen in that form factor? Sign me up! There's many reasons the iPad doesn't run OS X, and I'd have to assume battery life could be one of the biggest. However, I firmly believe this 'Mac Tablet' (or iPad Pro?) will definitely be coming one day, and that the iPad is a stepping stone towards that goal. That's something I'll get into in another post.


The easiest way to describe the iPad to people is "a giant iPod touch," which is true in terms of its form factor, though once you get a look at the software running on the device, I think referring to it in such a way is a disservice. Let's look at a few examples. More can be seen on the iPad Gallery at Apple.

iPod

So here we have a shot of the iPod app as seen on the iPhone/iPod. Its clearly designed to be as compact as possible, and to work on a small form factor. And boy, does it work. The iPod navigation experience has improved so much on these devices, I could never go back to the click wheel stuff.

Here's a shot of the "same" iPod app running on the iPad. There's barely a similarity: What's presented here is much closer to a portable version of OS X's iTunes. This is but one of many examples of how Apple re-created apps to fit the iPad, and didn't just decide to "make them big." So we're not using a device with OS X, but we're getting a very similar feel to a traditional desktop app here.

Calendar

I unfortunately am not an important person. I don't have to schedule meetings, and rarely have so many things planned that I need to put them into a calendar. So as much as I like what I'm about to talk about, I'm not sure I personally will use much of it - but others will, which is what's important.

The Calendar app highlights another important aspect of app design on the iPad: Not only have they been redesigned with a large screen in mind, but many of them completely re-orient themselves depending on the... well, orientation of the device. The iPhone - particularly in version 3.0, supports landscape view in most apps, which people like for the wider keyboard. It's a nice touch, though generally all that's happening is the interface gets wider to fill the space. The Messages app in particular benefits very little from this aspect, namely because chat bubbles don't extend to fill the area, so it just wastes space.

What Apple did with the iPad is something I hope makes its way to the 'small' iPhone OS devices. Look at the Calendar there (or several other apps, but this is my favorite example). You're presented with the same information, but it's laid out to fit how you hold the device, but without any hinderance. In fact, in the case of Mail and Notes, you even get the benefit of seeing your inbox and list of notes on the left edge alongside the main app area.

What it boils down to is that some serious thought was put into the portrait and landscape modes so that we didn't just get the same view in both. Instead of just choosing 'narrow' or 'wide,' we can pick a layout that best fits with what we want to do, simply by rotating the device. If you're cleaning up your inbox, you'll go with landscape to be able to see all your messages at a glance to decide what to keep. But if you're just composing a new e-mail, switch to portrait to hide the inbox and just focus on the task at hand.

I think we're going to see much more of this from both Apple and third-party apps as the iPad gets closer to release. It's not really discussed much right now, and is mostly just seen on Apple's product pages, but I think it's going to be a very important aspect of the iPad, and a key differentiating factor between it and its smaller cousins.

That's probably a long enough post for now. In a future post, I'll talk about where I think this is all leading, namely to the Mac OS X-based tablet some were hoping for this time around.

In the meantime, as Apple fans, we should remain positive about this. Let's not get so wrapped up in what we thought might be coming, or what rumor sites led us to believe. If you take away all those unrealistic expectations, what the iPad will bring is going to be fantastic, and again, I still believe that if the multi-tasking rumors have any truth to them, we'll see it in a software update. From every hands-on impression I read, the iPad is damn fast, so I've no doubt the hardware could handle it.

Also, remember how we were expecting a price point of $700-1000? Shouldn't we be elated at a $499 entry price? I know I am.