The tablet
Ok, so now we know! It’s out, no more waiting and wondering.
So let’s take a user point of view and see what we can tell about it.
The size
Small is what came to my mind first but like with every engineering project it’s a trade-off, give a little, get a little. The balance looks acceptable.
I tried to type on a 10″ netbook and it’s not really easy, let’s wait for a practical validation of the real usability.
The device
Well… it is an Apple product and you can tell. Great finish, very nice as usual. The technical specifications are unfamiliar. It is powered by a 1 Ghz chip designed by Apple and nobody has any experience with that. On stage the demo looked impressive but we will have to wait and see.
Maybe the greatest achievement is that Apple managed to create a real laptop with no keyboard. Time will tell, if that really works but so far it looks very promising.
And for a change the price is good too. Compared to a traditional netbook the entry level model is rather well priced.
The user interface
Nothing really disturbing here or fundamentally new. It is a touch base user interface just as expected. The attention to detail is even more spectacular than on the iPhone.
But a lot of elements will make it familiar to iPhone users, the tab navigation at the bottom, the home button, the automatic switch between landscape and portrait. Ok let’s say it – it’s a larger iPhone or iPodTouch.
The OS
We don’t know much right now. It looks like it does not do multitasking even if the processor looks powerful enough.
I will study the SDK soon and maybe I will figure out a few things.
The communication and networking
A good wifi chip, ok, what else could we have expected anyway. Blue tooth, normal. 3G, logical.
No contract needed and all devices unlocked. Even better. I assume it is a GSM device so it should work with multiple operators.
I wonder to what extend it is a device that you will carry with you all the time like an iPhone. It’s not like you can drop it in your pocket and forget about it, so maybe the 3G is not fundamental unless you are constantly on the road.
It also looks like you cannot make a phone call with it, even on the 3G model with headphones.
What is a surprise?
No camera!. Why the hell? Honestly I have no idea! Why such a device could not be used at home for video conferencing. I use my laptop for that connected to a wifi network all the time. The iPad would be perfect for that if only there was a basic web cam.
It does not make any sense to me. Except if maybe Apple want to come with an iPad+ in a few months with that feature.
In the meantime, sorry guys but it’s a pretty stupid omission.
What is it good for, especially for a photographer?
No camera. Ok, well, I will miss it for video conferencing but I won’t miss it for taking photos.
Where I see a flow int eh logic here is that this is a perfect device for geotagging due to the integration of the map but the device has no GPS. So what’s the point?
A good part of the presentation was dedicated to photos and it looked really good. It is some sort of iPhoto with a Cocoa touch flavor.
The iPhone was already a great way to show your portfolio the iPad will be even better.
Some people pushed the iPhone pretty far in term of creativity with the built in camera, with a larger screen I think that wee will see more serious photo retouching softwares. Once again it will depend of how sensitive the screen is and to what extend it will replace a graphic tablet. Maybe with an additional pen it can actually replace a Wacom tablet.
Another thing is not clear at all – connectivity. Could the iPad be used as a tethering device connected to a camera. Probably not out of the box or without some specific connectivity and custom software development.
A developer point of view.
To finish, let’s look at the device as a developer. The screen size is different from the iPhone. So the traditional iPhone applications will have to be adjusted, the traditional views won’t fully take advantage of the new device. But that’s not such a big deal. It looks like the screen in landscape mode is like 3 iPhone screens next to each other. For example the Mail application on the tablet gives you the list view of the iPhone and to the right 2 times the size of the list view for the detail of an e-mail. Same thing for the calendar. This was not possible on an iPhone, so the way to develop softwares will change for sure.
Unlike the iPhone there are floating windows and actually more than one window at a time. That will also be a big difference in the way the software function. Ok Apple call that “pop-over menus”, I guess it’s a new concept.
So, overall, no real surprise. No disappointment either except maybe the lack of video conferencing on such a device which does not make any sense. If ATT&T network cannot handle it at least Apple could have enabled this on wifi.
