The Apple iPad is a "magical" device, according to Steve Jobs, and according to many people a completely new and innovative product that has never been done before.
Except that it has been done before and is currently being done better, and more cheaply, than what Apple has offered up.
But let's start with the facts and the positives - what the iPad IS. The iPad is 10 inch tablet that runs a regular LCD screen at a resolution of 1024 by 768, HD enough for 720p (but not 1080p like some other tablets). It runs a "custom" 1Gigahertz processor very similar to Intel's Tegra processor that is currently in many top of the line mobile phones, like the Google Nexus One by HTC and the iPhone by Apple. It has a microphone and one proprietary port for docking, plus a headphone jack. You also have the option of buying AT&T wireless 3G so the device can be connected anywhere on the go, and it includes wireless. The operating system, which many expected to be some new amazing combination of the best parts of OS X and iPhone OS, is literally just iPhone OS 3.2 supersized. Barebones 16GB model with no 3G will run you about $500 (I refuse to say $499), and top of the line model 64GB with AT&T 3G will run you about $830.
Okay, now lets dig into what's wrong with this picture.
#1 No multitasking. You cannot run more than one program at a time on this tablet computer. Contrast that with the MSI Wind tablet that is coming out this year running Android, or the HP Slate running Windows 7 or just about ANY other tablet multitouch computer. You might think it's not important, and when we're talking about a tiny portable computer like the iPhone, you might have a point, but when you have such a large screen and you can't even listen to a podcast while you browse the web... you start to get the idea. Writing a business document and need to go search for something on the web? You have to quit out of that program, go to the web, then quit out of that, reopen the document with iWork. No quick referencing - no productivity - no purpose for having a computer sized screen. Here's a quote from Jacob, an intern at Engadget:
"I got past the lack of multitasking on the iPhone / iPod touch because of its 3.5-inch screen, but with the introduction of the iPad, I suddenly have a whole 9.7 inches. And what can I do with this newfound screen real estate? Well, the same exact stuff I could do on the 3.5-inch one. Apple's pimping this new A4 chip as "a screamer," yet they still won't let me run more than one app at a time. How can you bill a device as a step down from a full fledged laptop and a step up from a netbook, but not allow users to open a web browser and an instant messaging client at the same time? It's not like we're pressed for space any more, and some sort of window management -- something like the webOS card interface -- would allow for seamless integration and multitasking." But the HP Slate Does:
#2 Closed ecosystem. On my laptop right now, I'm working in Google Chrome, because I prefer it to Windows 7 default Internet Explorer, so I went to the website of Google Chrome, downloaded and installed it an now it's my browser. Want a different browser on iPad? Nope. You're stuck with Safari - apple only allows you to use it's browser. Similarly, I'm running Open Office instead of Microsoft Word because it's free and open and I downloaded it from the web. Want to do that on the iPad? Nope -you have to go through the Apple approved App Store to download anything, and it all costs money and has to be expressly allowed by Apple. Can you imagine if Microsoft only allowed you to use what they said you could, you had to go through THEIR store, use only THEIR browser, and they made you pay for everything? Yeah... there'd be antitrust REAL fast. I'm gonna wrap up this complaint by simply quoting defectivebydesign.com's petition for a more open ecosystem on Apple products:
"DRM will give Apple and their corporate partners the power to disable features, block competing products (especially free software) censor news, and even delete books, videos, or news stories from users' computers without notice-- using the device's "always on" network connection.
This past year, we have seen how human rights and democracy protestors can have the technology they use turned against them. By making a computer where every application is under total, centralized control, Apple is endangering freedom to increase profits.
Apple can say they will not abuse this power, but their record of App Store rejections and removals gives us no reason to trust them. The iPad's unprecedented use of DRM to control all capabilities of a general purpose computer is a dangerous step backward for computing and for media distribution. We demand that Apple remove all DRM from its devices."
#3 No flash. This is kind of a result of the closed ecosystem. But I'm not even going to write about it, I'm just gonna quote Adobe's (makers of Flash) official response to iPad:
"It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I'll be out of luck.
Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use."
#4 No ports! Can you imagine any computer or netbook that didn't contain a single USB port, let alone HD out - the iPad canNOT out put HD video, unlike even the Zune HD - or a card reader or even bluetooth connectivity. Want to hook something up to this particular tablet? You've got to buy an expensive Apple dongle for their proprietary port. Want to put your mp3 player's music on your iPad? But the USB dongle, then buy a usb cord, then pray that Apple plays nice with it and recognizes it (which it probably won't). ArsTechnica.com editorializes this problem as such:
" It seems like the necessary hardware is in there ... and there's plenty of room around the edges of this monster for the ports. One of the biggest advantages of a larger form factor has been squandered."
And there are many more problems with this "Revolutionary" and "magical" if you believe the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field - including stealing the name from Fujitsu, having only a crappy on screen keyboard, no video camera, using old screen technology (no OLED or eInk or anything but an old side-lit LCD), being billed as a "first of its kind" after the avalanche of quality tablets has ALREADY fallen at CES earlier this year, etc. - but I'll close with a quote from Darren the Engadget Editor:
"I can't begin to explain how disappointing this device is in the sense of being a usable computer. There's a 1GHz CPU in there that can't even be used for multitasking. There's no camera for video chatting. There's no way to watch a Flash video and chat within an IRC client at the same time. There's not even a way to connect a USB device to this without paying Apple extra for an adapter. The iPad is remarkably limited in scope and functionality, and for no good reason. A netbook can run circles around this in terms of actually getting work done, and if I want to enjoy multimedia, I'll carry around something that can fit in my pocket. As I mentioned, you'll say I'm just missing the point, but this thing does absolutely nothing for me in its current iteration."
This cold shower of truth is on me, and brought to you by the 10 year old Windows CE Tablet called the iPad that can, sadly, do more than Apple's new iPad. Booyeah.
Michael Ludden
"The Hater"
