(To compare: iPad has a 1 GHz processor running an OS that is quick on a 600 MHz processor. It has a 9.7″ screen running at 1024×768. It is 13.4 mm thick (0.53 inches) and weights just 0.68 kg (1.5 lbs).)
The width of our modern cars, Hummers notwithstanding, is descended from the width of Roman chariots. Now while this has been debated as coincidence by some, the fact remains that rutted roads would have been very awkward to drive on if your car had a signficant width difference. Some people go so far as to claim this development was by edict – but it’s much easier to understand the mechanics of the situation. These things were more than coincidence – they were common sense. They didn’t happen by edict, they happened because their developers had a challenge and had real world problems to deal with.
In Jaron Lanier’s “You Are Not A Gadget”, he treats us to another example. Victorian railroad tunnels were re-used for the modern London Underground system. Sadly the tunnels are sufficiently narrow that while they can accommodate the trains, they can’t accommodate an air-conditioning system without a serious amount of rework. Which means consumers end up with a hot and stuffy travel experience in one of the greatest cities in the world.
I’m told, but can’t find a reference, for the 20 kg (40 lb) weight limit on carry on items being due to stagecoach limits?
I see this in computing. In 1984, everyone thought that the Macintosh was a step too far. Computers had black and white (or green) interfaces. And twenty-six years later, we’re all using more or less the same interface. While it would be easy to blame the market leader for a lack of innovation (and even easier to point at them as a cause of stagnancy in the computing industry as a whole). We’ve not come a long way from 1984. We have files, we have a single mouse pointer. Yes, our computers are bigger, faster and more colourful but we still poke with a single finger at our files and and pictures. Our computers can do a lot more – but these things are tasks – we don’t see much of the operating system when we’re playing a game nor when we operate a word processor. The Operating System becomes simply a way to access these tasks and for the most part we only perform one task at a time. We don’t write a novel while we’re playing a game. We don’t tend to design elegant infographics while we’re also mixing a sequence of music to accompany that infographic. We do one thing at a time.
Where this breaks down is in the simple mechanics of tasks versus ‘apps’. I keep most of my music on my iPhone and play this while tapping out emails and tweets. However if I want to use a service like Spotify, then I have some problems. Spotify is an “app” on the iPhone and only one “app” can run at a time which means I can listen to music from Spotify or I can write email, but not both. For me, that’s not a pain but it is why I suggested ‘backgrounding‘. I’m not too worried about Spotify because I don’t use it – but I can see more of this in the future – where there is a need to hook into a service in the background and there will be a solution in place.
The resistance to task-based interfaces is perplexing though – especially from the crowd who lauded the appearance of Wizards – software designed to make certain tasks easier – not designed to help productivity itself but rather to overcome the increasing complexity of computer operating systems. So let’s envisage a product representing the next stage of computing, the removal of that complexity – not the obfuscation of complexity behind a Wizard, simply the removal of it.
What would that product look like?
Would sort out the main concerns. Front facing video camera, doc to hold it still and supply power.
Maybe..
OK, so the iPad was announced and the official line from the wife is that if I am in the US in late March, I’m to pick up three of them for the house and if I only come back with one, I’m a dead man.
They will fit my usage profile with the software out of the box. My usage pattern is essentially email and web. And when you add the apps that will easily port over from iPhone (by, uh, just installing them) then the remainder of my needs will be filled. Arguably some apps will work better on iPad (like the previously mentioned iSSH).
That one issue with iSSH essentially conveys the only real issue I had with iPhone – it’s a phone. It’s not going to be the best device for everything but the iPad solves a lot of the concerns with the iPhone as a general computing device. The screen is much larger so we can see the utility of a touch interface which can accept more than three fingers. We can see the new metaphors which free people to learn new methods of interacting with their computers. There are some recent iPhone metaphors which have inspired delight – such as the drag to refresh in Tweetie 2 for iPhone, the way you can grab and drag maps in the Maps app and the dice manipulation in Rory’s Story Cubes (based on the Award winning game). With all of these apps and more – we have to wonder what the additional screen space will do for the user experience. Important to note that the iPhone is 320×480 at around 160 dpi and the iPad is 1024×768 at around 130 dpi – so text will be in theory a little fuzzier at the same point size than iPhone but as the text will likely be larger, it should be, in theory be clearer.
What else..
From MacRumors
A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC. This is presumably how files such as iWork documents will be transferred to and from the iPad. iPad applications will be able to access this shared directory.
This is a relatively big deal, if correct. Not only is it the way to get your docs into your iPad, I’d presume that it will sync with MobileMe’s iDisk.
And if applications running on iPad can access this directory then we’re going to see a slew of apps which will be able to use WiFi and Bluetooth to swap files. This (OBEX) is something we can’t do on iPhone but we can with the Mac and other mobile phones. Maybe we’ll see other services being pushed – other than Pages files and images.
And yes, this potentially drags iPad (and maybe iPhone with OS 4.0) into the realms of where every other mobile has been for years.
And lastly…
I have to consider what will come in the accessories for iPad. We’ve already seen the Keyboard Dock, the Dock, the leather Case, the Camera Connection Kit – but what about the third party opportunities
To be honest, I see the iPad replacing laptops and desktops in lots of other circumstances where people use screens to interact and do not have to do massive amounts of data entry. Lawyers, doctors, students, teachers, estate agents – all sorts.
Am I being Apple Fanboi Hysterical here? I don’t think so.