The Strengths of the IPad

After spending some time with my iPad, I've formed a few conclusions. My experience with the iPad has exceeded the hype that preceded the release of the device. I cannot in good conscience describe the iPad to anyone as simply a larger iPhone or iPod Touch, because really it is more than that.

Its All About Dynamic Productivity

While the iPad and the iPhone share many features from the same operating system, the iPad allows greater interaction and understanding with the information presented. For example, this article was composed in the Word processing application Pages, a part of the iWork suite of applications for the iPad, that includes the spreadsheet processing power of Numbers, and the presentation prowess of Keynote.

Pages for the iPad is the most powerful word processor I've ever used on a device that is smaller than a desktop or laptop computer. It allows the choice of fonts, sizing, and style formatting that you would expect on a much larger device. The document is persistently saved during composition, which makes it unlikely any of it will be accidentally lost. This app is an example where the iPad is more dynamic than iPhone. Even if Pages were available on the iPhone it would be a claustrophobic experience because of the smaller scale of the screen!

Transferring documents was really easy. Once I finished composing this article I simply chose "export" and the format as a .doc file (I could have exported it as a pages or pdf as well), and when I connected the iPad again to iTunes on my desktop it was there in the Apps tab where I was able save it to my hard disk. Alternately, if I were on the go, I could have emailed the document to anyone, or published it to the iWork.com website and distributed the url to coworkers, family, or friends.

Put Your Nose In An iBook

Another example where the iPad exceeds the capabilities and comfort of the iPhone is with Apple's free eReader, iBooks, that is downloadable from the iTunes App store. The iBooks experience just completely surpasses the reading experience of their chief competitor, the Amazon Kindle and the also-ran Barnes & Noble Nook.

The iBooks app comes standard with a copy of Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne. The screen brings the book to life in full vivid color! Not only is it a pleasure to read at night, it also doesn't strain the eyes with the backlit screen that can be adjusted in the event you sleep with a light sensitive spouse. Just like the Kindle, the application remembers where you left off, so no worries about nodding off in the middle and losing your place after a long, late night read. In a move that might get the ire of the Authors Guild, as the Amazon Kindle did, the iPad comes with a VoiceOver feature that can be enable in the settings menu which will allow you to listen to your book being read to you (it is also a great tool for the visually impaired).

I was also impressed with the iBooks dictionary when it was not fooled by the word "phthisis" referenced in the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." A store button within the app brings you over wi-fi to a bookstore in the iTunes application that has a ton of free books, most of them from the Guttenberg Project. I tried the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes book, for free I might add, and was pleased to discover that the ePub formatted file was very small, and still looked great.

Learning on the Wave of the Future

I imagine, especially when the OS upgrade that allows universal multitasking on the iPad comes this Fall, that the iPad will be a very useful tool in classrooms. Textbooks can be carried on the device. Notes can be made in the Pages app. I can even envision a time when developers will create a piece of software that will enable an instructor to give an instantaneous quiz or test and have it graded automatically on the spot, while retaining the dynamic interpersonal learning environment of a live lecture and discussion. If the textbook manufacturers are willing to cooperate, then taking notes and books on a field trip should become a breeze.

Moves Like a Butterfly and Stings Like a Bee

The first generation iPad is way more responsive than an iPhone 3GS. There seems to be no discernible delay when the accelerometer adjusts to the turning of the device. I haven't tried a driving game on it yet, but I could see how the iPad would be responsive enough use it as a steering wheel for such a game, as has been advertised.

Last night my wife and I sat down with the iPad and tried out the Scrabble game. It was incredibly fun! We used our iPhones as the tile racks and flicked the letter tiles onto the board to arrange our word during our turn! The tile rack app on the iPhone even has dictionaries installed that you can double check possible words in! The game offers to connect your devices by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but in our case Bluetooth worked more reliably for us. If you are playing closer to your Wi-fi hub, you might have better results.

The iPad Keeps Going, and Going, and Going...

I'm also amazed by my firsthand experience with the battery life. On our first few days with the iPad we tried every feature out, and we easily received more than 10 hours of battery life with the screen turned up as bright as it would go and with Wi-Fi access enabled. I've never had a laptop or smart phone that could achieve that while being used during the entire 10 hour period. I had intended to check out the Standby time, but I haven't been able to have enough patience to ignore the device long enough to find out. I can see how it could have close to the 30 days of standby time that Apple claims if disabled the wi-fi, 3g, and turned the screen down.

I eagerly look forward to seeing what it is like to have persistent internet access with this device when the 3g version is released later in month of April 2010.

My only real criticism with the device is that Apple did not include a pair of earbuds with the device. At second glance I can see why they didn't. Including a pair of earbuds would reinforce the incorrect notion that this device should be used like an iPod, and if a user starts off thinking that way, then its possible that they might miss these other distinguishing features that are also important to really enjoying the full iPad experience.

Addressing the Critics

The two biggest criticisms that many people level at the iPad is the lack of Flash support, and the lack of multitasking ability. As James Zadek wrote: "I wish I could touch the screen while I surf the internet, chat with friends, and listen to music." Well, the good news is that you can do these things with the iPad. You just won't be able to do it until Fall of 2010 when the new iPhone OS 4.0 software patch is pushed to the device. In the meantime, multitasking is a tricky thing. To say that there is no multitasking on the iPad would be an incorrect opinion. You can multitask with your iPod. You can listen to music, podcasts, etc. while working in your word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, or video game, if you wish.

If history is any indication the new software upgrade will likely cost around $10. Apple also announced recently that iPad will receive a whole host of other features that should make the device even more desirable, such as a social gaming network on the level of Xbox Live; Folders, as a way to organize multiple apps in once place, and a new iAd program that will allow developers to create free apps and receive 60% of the ad income generated by their content. The iAd programs should be a nice incentive for developers to bring the price of their apps down to free or very close to it, granting more value to a user of the device. Additionally I think that is great that the developers who create the most engaging and immersive apps will be rewarded for their efforts, as they should be.

Others have said they want to be able to watch streaming online video. Well, how does YouTube suit your fancy? Heck, the device with YouTube as a standard icon, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch do. I had no problem seeing YouTube or any of the other major sites that have had Flash in the past. I say had, because the sites that matter have seen this moment coming for a long time (say three years), and had already converted many their sites to be used with Safari on the iPhone, so there weren't problems there. The only things didn't come for me were usually ads on sites. I don't know about you, but I don't mind seeing fewer ads when I am browsing the internet. Plus you can interact with Facebook either through your Safari browser or through the application available in the iTunes app store for free.

I've also heard people complain about the heft of the device, and yet I am perplexed by this observation because the iPad is really light at only 1.5 pounds. To put that into perspective it is lighter than any netbook I've lifted. Heck it is lighter than many of the hardbackbooks I used to read, like Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which I would hold for hours while poring through it.

A New Paradigm is Born

In short, what iPad provides out of the box is an immense value, without any lasting phone company contracts, with a ton of free content available, and a battery life that goes on and on, while allowing to enjoy the full spectrum of the web. That is a pretty sweet deal.