iPad Review

This weekend saw the delivery of iPads into hundreds of thousands of filthy hands. I managed to get my hands on a 32GB unit and put it through its paces for a battery charge and a half, and wanted to take a few minutes to share some notes with you. But if you don't care to read the whole review, let me give you a hint: I am typing this review on my laptop.

The packaging is minimal and sleek. Almost nothing comes inside the box: just a cable, power cube and some minuscule documentation that nobody will read. The iPad itself arrived fully charged. It is usable out of the box without any syncing, but I chose almost immediately to pair it with my laptop just to get all my apps and data on it. This syncing process took forever. It's kind of amazing how long it takes to sync 20 or so gigs of movies and mp3s. This isn't unique to the iPad of course, but I never really noticed it on the phone since I don't sync video there.

The UI and functionality is pretty much as expected: It's a big iPhone. There are some minor differences (like being able to drag different numbers of items to the sticky footer menu). The new calendar application is nice. But the star is the mail client. Reading mail on my iPhone has been the "Last Resort," but the speed and clean layout and usability of the iPad mail app makes me prefer it to my desktop. I need a faster way to mark spam, but that's not necessarily the end of the world. Writing mail on the iPad is a different story. More on that below.

The new photo app is decent, but if you have a large number of albums and events it gets tough to find specific stuff quickly. I can't figure out why the iPhone and now the iPad don't make use of folders. Their mac equivalents both let you create nicely nested hierarchies of albums or playlists, but those both get lost on their little cousins where screen real estate is even MORE important. The video app seems to do strange things with thumbnails: it seemed to want to give videos the same thumbnail icon if they share an "Album." This means navigating my home movies category is lame because all 15 or so videos have the same thumbnail. It shouldn't be that way.

My iPad has no 3G, therefore it has no GPS. But applications were constantly asking me for permission to use my location. This seems like an oversight: if you don't have a location sensor, don't ask! Even the built-in Map app asked me for information that it could not possibly have.

Finally, time to test Safari: I tested out Slashdot first, and it renders pretty well. There are a couple of minor layout glitches and a few trickier functionality problems. The problems are mostly the same as the iPhone, but having the larger screen makes it a lot more obvious. I'll probably get some tickets into the system this week to clean up these bugs.

When I started browsing the net at large I noticed a few interesting problems: The first is that a lot of websites are serving iPhone pages to the iPad. So you get a number of ridiculously minimalistic pages on the big bright screen. It's laughably annoying to see these teeny tiny menus. Most sites seem fine, but I was surprised at the number of mainstream sites that thought I needed this. The lack of Flash is MUCH more noticeable than I thought it would be. The good news is that YouTube seems to embed cleanly and in-place, so a lot of video oriented websites still work fine. But the lack of Flash hurts. Apple has made their position known on the subject, so I'm not expecting anything to change. The lack of a real scroll bar make sites that make use of frames for navigation not really work properly. At the end of the day, I was surprised at the number of sites that actually had SOME problem with them. Most worked fine, but when something fails, I noticed more than I do on the iPhone. I think this is simply a user expectation thing: on my phone I expect things NOT to work and am happy when they do. On the iPad I expect things to work as well as they do in Safari in my desktop, and am irritated when they don't.

I tried out a good number of apps. The NetFlix app is really nice, but it doesn't let me rate selections using their little star system. Since I'm OCD about that, this bugs me. Epicurious is a fantastically elegant little recipe system that really shines on the system. ABCs app works but meh. The Weather Channel has a nice little app, and several of my old favorites have ports that make at least some use of the big screen. I suspect it'll be a few months before we really see what the unit has to offer since many of the most popular apps haven't been ported yet. I'm thinking Facebook and even the Apple Remote are very overdue. But hey, the old versions work, they just look like crap.

Let me talk about User Accounts. An iPhone doesn't have them, which is fine because one phone sits in one person's pocket. But your laptop is passed around, and the user account system on a Mac is necessary in any place where you want multiple people sharing a computer with any regularity. The iPad needs it: since this machine wants to be seen in a public place and be handed around, my wife shouldn't have to keep logging out of Gmail and Facebook. And I shouldn't have to leave my iPad on the coffee table signed into my mail. And I shouldn't have to sign out every time I put it down, leaving a brick on the table unusable by guests.

Finally let me talk about the device itself. It's heavy. I mean, surprisingly heavy. The specs say that it is 1.5lbs, which sounded very light on paper. For the first few minutes, I liked the heft; I felt that I was holding a solid, well-crafted item in my hands. But then I started trying to figuring out ways to type. I wrote a number of emails of moderate length and slowly realized that I just don't like typing on this thing. It's fine for URLs and names and passwords and a sentence here and there. But to actually sit down and write a thousand-word review well, there's just no way. I tried many different angles, but in order to hold it in your lap and type, you sorta need to prop it against your belly. Holding it up one handed made my arm kinda tired fairly quickly: unless I'm willing to squish my thumb against the center of the screen. When I do this, the center of gravity shifts and it's much more comfortable to hold, but there's a giant thumb blocking my screen, making it impossible to type. You can cradle it in your arm and type one-handed. That seems like the only way to use it while standing. But I just don't see myself writing anything lengthy. After a day of heavy usage, I felt a little sore. The size and shape is nearly perfect. But all that screen and battery sure feels heavy when it's spread out like this.

But I'll tell you what I like: Having a casual PC at arm's length for a quick lookup of something. Working within the screen size of the iPhone often makes simple internet tasks unwieldy, but provided whatever you need doesn't use Flash, this is a great little web browser. Fast and pretty.

Since the announcement of the iPad, I've wondered what its role could be. My first big question was whether it be a complete replacement PC for "Grandma." Like many of you, I'm occasionally called upon to do little tech support tasks on PCs that do very little, and I was hoping that this might be the solution. After just one day I know this is not going to work for them. The difficulty of using the keyboard. The missing Flash. And the lack of video camera for chatting with the grandkids make this device simply not ready for them.

My other big question is how much of a replacement PC it could be for a power user. Now I can work around Flash and rarely need a camera, but what is clear to me is that a huge percentage of my screen time is spent staring at iChat. While I don't usually need a camera or microphone, my iChat is connected to 4 different networks, and I simply can't do my job without the steady stream of co-worker notes and bot notifications that I rely on. I've yet to find an app that lives in the background and is capable of connecting to the 4 distinct networks that I use. (AIM, SSL'd Jabber and Non-SSL'd Jabber)

I'm not expecting a WoW client or anything, but Chat? Seriously, Apple: You're on iPhone 3.something-or-other and you can't give us a chat client? I can only hope that the end of the exclusive AT&T era means that Apple will no longer be tied to some secret back room deal that forced iPhones to try to shove users to the crap SMS network to pad a telco profit margin despite the fact that our devices are living on a Wi-Fi network.

So, what does Apple need to fix?

• Lose several ounces. PLEASE.
• Video Camera
• iChat
• User switching (or at least an Anonymous mode)

I used it for a day and a half and think that it will be an excellent couch companion PC. I'm also certain that on planes, long car rides, and vacations it will be a great little machine. The battery life is pretty dang amazing. But this is a 1.0 piece of hardware running 3.0 software. The size/shape is great. The speed is wonderful. And 2 years of Moore's law might make this a device to be reckoned with if Apple sells enough of them to continue heavy development on the software and hardware. This version isn't a replacement PC for anyone yet, but future versions might be. You probably want to save your cash until then.

Comments

CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[Space cowboy]

Considering that the last time he passed comment on an Apple handheld, his prediction was pretty lame

I don't think this is the ultimate device for keyboard-focussed nerds, but (as usual) that's not who Apple is aiming at. I guess we'll have to wait and see how well it really does, but selling 300k in one day, in one country compares pretty well to the 3G and 3GS phones (which sold ~1M in 3 days, in 21 countries worldwide).

[Aside - not directed at the review]
perhaps it's just me, but the qualifier "just" in "just a bigger iphone/ipod touch" seems somewhat questionable. Does anyone here want to trade their HDTV for an SD model ? Thought so. With a TV, all you do is view it. On an iPad you'll interact with it - that 5x screen-estate isn't a "just", it's a "crucially", IMHO.
[/aside]

Simon

Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

You know, growing up, I used to do archery a lot at summer camp. When ever we would accidentally hit the wrong target, or anything other than the target we were aiming for, we'd cry out "That's exactly what I was aiming for". It was obvious BS that was funny. But people still try doing that like the parent post. If a product doesn't suit your needs then well, it must be intentionally not aiming for you. Its not the products fault it doesn't suite you , its your fault for not being the target!

Of course, the opposite was equally practised, and even funnier. Sometimes, a friend would hit the bullseye, then it would be required to claim that he was really aiming for the tree. This is more rare to see in tech circles. People are smart enough, and don't have the same sense of humour that kids do to claim it. Usually, when people make the "aiming for" statement its of the first kind: psuedo marketing BS.

Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[0xdeadbeef]

Do you know what iPods have now? Wireless and more space than a Nomad! Not only was he correct about the iPod, but his comment directed Apple on the course that ultimately led to the iPhone. You fanboys owe Rob Malda for everything.

Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[Princeofcups]

Who is iPad aimed at then?

I'm waiting for the first review of using VNC on this thing. I see it as the perfect remote console for all my "real" systems.

Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[justinb26]

Let's hit a couple points:

Touch keyboards seem a lot more limiting when you touch type 80+ wpm on a physical keyboard. Grandma's hunt-and-peck speed isn't going to be affected much. There are stands and docks available. I paired a random folding bluetooth keyboard last night with no hassle.

There are plenty of multi-IM chat programs. Most are not updated for ipad yet, but they work fine for the time being via upscaling. Keep in mind this is a device with 150k+ compatible apps on launch day, plus hundreds of native ones, and most developers NEVER EVEN TOUCHED THE DEVICE before releasing v1 of their ipad software. That fact continutes to amaze me.

How did you want it to support MS office, that you think it doesn't do so? Obviously you're not talking about file format compatibility through the iWork apps, the third party Office-compatible apps, or published apps via Citrix (not to mention VNC/RDP)? Is the problem that this thing doesn't have a native version of the MS Office suite (on day 1 no less)? Are you really surprised by this?


Now, the continued outcry over Flash support is just stupid. Flash was never a good solution for online video, it just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Flash games are not exactly crucial to my online experience, but YMMV. Most importantly, the majority of flash apps are NOT MADE FOR TOUCH INTERFACES: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/20/an-adobe-flash-developer-on-why-the-ipad-cant-use-flash/

(tl;dr - Flash apps make heavy use of "hover", something that makes no sense on a touch UI (yes, I have a wacom-based tablet and understand how that tech works. that's a pen interface, not a touch interface).



I'm still trying to wrap my head around this fact: there is now a $500, 10", 1.5lb, .5" thick, slate formfactor, 10 hours battery life, fast, 3d accelerated, multitouch freakin' tablet on the market. It runs an OS built for multitouch. There are over 150,000 apps available on launch day.

And people are falling all over themselves to complain about it.

The iPad is something out of Star Trek or HHGTTG, the sort of thing nerds have been dreaming about for decades. Yet there are people for whom the most important aspect of this is the lack of flash (and a camera, and a desktop OS, and it's too heavy, and the bezel's too big, and the app store is evil, and, and, and)...

Way to really, really miss the point. These are most likely the same people that said the same sort of things about the iPod, the iPhone, the Wii, hell, probably the color tv and automatic transmission, too.

Bottom line is that the iPad is a glimpse at what the future of (casual) computing is going to look like. If you don't want to get onboard, that's fine, but don't cry when you realize the train has left the station without you.

Re:CmdrTaco drags big brass ones along the ground

[somersault]

So when you are in a situation where you think, "man, it would suck to try to use my laptop now", I would guess that an iPad might be just the ticket

iPads work in the shower?

To sum it up:

[Anonymous Coward]

No Flash. Less usability than a netbook. Lame

Re:To sum it up:

[Colonel Korn]

The problem with netbooks is that they suck... unless you stopped growing in kindergarten.

Even then they suck. They're slow, and have horrible battery life.

And that's where the iPad comes in.

My eee 1005HA lasts 10 hours, loads web pages much faster than an iPad (and is able to use adblock, making the web useable, and flash, making the web...well, at least adblock is good). The advantage the iPad has in battery life doesn't mean much when the competition lasts 10 hours - that's long enough and in the same ballpark. The iPad's only advantage is form factor. For me, that's easily overshadowed by the fact that my netbook runs Windows 7 very smoothly, giving me vastly more capabilities than an iPad.

Since form factor is the only thing the iPad has going for it and it's still too big to be truly portable, I have an iPod Touch instead. An iPod Touch barely lags behind the capabilities of the iPad (unlike the vast gulf between the iPad and the netbook) but is immensely more portable. I think this is really a case where, if you can afford it, having two devices are better than the poorly designed compromise in between them.

Car analogy: I'd rather have a sedan and a pair of glasses than a fifty pound magnifying glass on roller blade wheels.

iNough!

[WrongSizeGlass]

Please, enough of the iPad. I'm a Mac user, and I find the iPad a potential tool for some of my clients, but enough already.

I can't think of anything that has gotten this type of media hype ... and for what? 48 hours of availability? It's going to take a lot longer than two days to decide if the iPad is well suited for its market niche or if its going to run into problems. Failure is much easier to measure, but determining success takes time.

Location without GPS

[daffmeister]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that the iPhone, and therefore most likely the iPad, can get location without GPS via Skyhook and the known locations of wireless access points. So apps asking permission to use your location is not a bug.

Good review

[dskzero]

The keyword is the point that it isn't a replacement PC for anyone. I sincerely hope people realize that, so the flame wars can move on and debate about something else.

It's not a computer, it's a living-room appliance

[daffmeister]

I don't think this ever will be, or is intended to be, a replacement computer, even for stuff as simple as writing emails. It's intended to be an entertainment device and sometime organiser. Reading the newspaper, watching TV, playing games, finding recipes. Stuff that we did before computers, just an electronic version of such stuff. If there's a big enough market for that, and I think there might be, this will do very well.

Re:You don't need 3G for GPS.

[marcansoft]

You do on the iPad, as GPS and 3G go hand-in-hand in the still unavailable 3G model. But Taco was confused by the Wi-Fi location finding system that does work on his non-3G model.

Some might have forgotten...

[rwade]

The post behind this joke. Here it is:

Apple releases iPod

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.