Unless you're hiding under a rock, you've probably seen something about Apple's newest device, the
iPad. On the surface, the iPad is essentially a large iPod Touch, or a large iPhone (with only 3G data, no phone.) But it's really so much more.
I have a long history with tablet devices. I loved my
Tablet PC, until I killed it. I searched long and hard for a Tablet to replace it, but by then the Windows tablet world was dying. I know there are still tablet choices out there, but they're really esoteric. At one point I described my
ideal device as
"
this is basically to replace the primary usage of my tablet (One Note, email, web surfing, blog reading/posting, light document editing.) I've come to recognize that if One Note had a full featured Pocket PC version (i.e. with complete ink support), then I would almost be happy with a Pocket PC, although I think I would like a big one that doesn't exist. I'm thinking something like a 6" or 7" screen, at least 800 x 600. I still want it to be thin, maybe 1 cm? 8 - 12 hours battery life. Built-in WiFi. A fair amount of storage built in (1 GB.) 2 SD card slots, with at least one of them being SD/IO. USB host support, at least drivers for keyboard, mouse, and storage."
How close did Apple get to my ideal device, as described in August 2006?
no ink support - even though OSX has inkwell, neither the iPad nor the smaller devices have anything ink related. The onscreen keyboard does look pretty nice. I tried the iPhone keyboard, and never could get it in 5 minute increments, but everyone I know who has one says they get used to it.
- One Note - I've switched to Evernote for their cross-platform support. They've already said they will have an iPad version. In fact, I'm writing this post in Evernote right now.
- email - check
- web surfing - check - although no Flash
- light document editing - slick looking iWork apps. I guess I now have an excuse to get iWork for the MacBook
- 6" or 7" screen 800 x 600 - bigger - 9.7" 1024 x 768 - I guess we'll need to hold one to understand how big that is
- thin - 0.5" ok that's 1.27 cm
- 1 GB storage - that's just hilarious. 16 GB to 64 GB, but no SD card slots - I am intrigued by the camera connection kit
- keyboard - yes keyboard dock and bluetooth keyboard support, we don't know about mouse
A few more use cases which make it great for me. Mary has a Kindle. She loves it. I've been reading eBooks on my Pocket PC/Windows Mobile devices for close to a decade. Mostly from Peanut Press, which became Palm Reader, then eReader. eReader is now owned by Barnes and Noble. The nook is supposed to read eReader books as well as nook books. Guess what, and iPhone can read Kindle books, eReader books, and nook books. I assume an iPad will be able to as well. Obviously, there's the whole LCD vs. eInk screen issue. We'll have to see how readable these things are in direct sunlight, but I don't read that much outside anyway.
Battery life - 10 hours with 30 days standby is pretty awesome. Oh and it charges over USB. I'll just have charing cables for this thing everywhere.
I'm not sure at this point if I'll want the AT&T data plan. Yes, it sounds cool. Yes it would mean I could surf personal sites at work without my employer knowing what I do (nothing work inappropriate, just not necessarily their business.) It is worth $30 a month. It's too bad they didn't use a normal sized SIM. If they had, I could just stick the SIM from my phone in there if I needed to. I suspect I'll buy the 3G version even if I don't activate it right away.
My biggest gripe is the name. It seems pretty dumb, and it's much more than a Pad. Sketch Pad? Doodle Pad? Who knows what they were thinking. Maybe Steve didn't like iTablet or iSlate. Couldn't they have at least called it an iPadd? In Star Trek a
PADD is a Personal Access Display Device, and is definitely one of the tablet devices which geeks worldwide know and love. Heck, they even showed Star Trek all over the keynote, and their website.
Now, I just have to wait.