The Want
The iPad has been the device I’ve been waiting for, literally, for years. The iPhone proved the case and I use it constantly: on the sofa, lying in bed, etc. I’ve always wanted a highly capable, touch-based, networked portable device that was not a laptop. The iPhone has filled that niche but left me pining all the more for a true tablet. The first day I played with the iPhone OS I knew I wanted it in a larger format for those times when tiny wasn’t a requirement. Don’t misread me… the iPhone is the device I want when running around, both as a phone and a data device. But the iPad is the device I want while lounging about, doing casual surfing while watching TV, as a reading device, in most meetings, while traveling, etc.
With the iPhone I’m already leaving my laptop behind for many meetings, short trips, etc. Anytime I don’t expect to be doing larger scale work such as editing 21 megapixel photos from my camera or heavy remote sysadmin work, I leave it behind and go all iPhone. The iPad, however, looks to be that perfect fit in the middle. I also never dreamed the Jobsonian ideals would allow a keyboard, but not only do they support their bluetooth keyboard, they’ve made a dock specifically for the iPad with one built in.
So, yes, as a hardcore Mac user, a 15+ year Linux advocate at the desktop and server level, sysadmin, programmer, photographer, Kindle reader, iPhone owner and all around alpha-geek: the iPad is that missing piece I’ve been wanting for many years dating back to my Newton 2100 days.
Many will gripe about its “lack” of multitasking. Aside from growing evidence that this will be a non-issue come iPhone OS 4.0… I don’t really encounter that hampering my iPhone usage. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who couldn’t survive without OS X’s Spaces to keep the sheer number of different tasks I have going more organized.
My usage of the iPhone tends to be very focused and I don’t expect to be any different with an iPad. I’m reading. I’m surfing. I’m watching something or playing a game. How does it currently multitask in ways that I need? Background music from the iPod app. Background mail checking if I so choose. Alarms and notices. Sure, I might benefit from a more constantly running IM application that isn’t tied to Apple’s Push method or a few other things… but it seldom crosses my mind.
Adobe Flash? Frankly, I’d like to escape that in most cases. Flash frequently irks me in the web world… probably as often as it appeals to me. It’s the most likely thing in my browsing experience to cause the fans in my MacBook Pro to start screaming like jet engines. It’s what my plug-in-isolated Safari in Snow Leopard most often reports to be the thread that got sent down for the dirt nap, allowing Safari itself to live on. Yes, HTML 5 stands to take over much of Flash’s role and the sheer impact of the iPhone has already prompted many sites to drop Flash or at least create browser-detected alternatives.
The lack of a camera doesn’t bug me, really. If it had one, cool… but I think people complaining that it isn’t in the bezel facing front don’t consider that in normal, comfortable use the camera would be looking up your nose. This is an area where I think an external bluetooth camera or even an iPhone app where you dock/prop the iPhone nearby and it streams video to your iPad for conferencing would get the job done.
