My First Month with the iPad

A brief history We haven't seen a significant change in how we interact with computers since the keyboard and mouse (a late 1960's invention). We can point to tablet PCs as the early innovators, but ultimately that isn't true: They did feature pointing devices and a flat screen, but the operating system and user interface was pretty much the same interface that was designed for a keyboard and mouse. There was little or no attempt to rethink how something would work without a physical keyboard. Like many things Apple, the iPhone/iPad is not as revolutionary as profoundly evolutionary. With the iPad developers now have a successful model for how a touch interface can work on a tablet. This is good for everyone.

This week, AV-1er Hal Meeks shares his first month with an iPad.

I was fortunate enough be given an iPad through work. It was easy to justify based on what I do for a living. The reality was that I was prepared to buy one for myself, so I am sitting on the money to do just that at a later date. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you my initial observations...

iPad as computing appliance

The iPad represents the shift from computer platform to computing appliance. There are many examples of this now, but the iPad represents the most blatant.

The Tivo is a computing appliance in that it runs an operating system, has a processor, RAM and storage, and a modest amount of third-party support. However, unlike a personal computer, it is a "closed" environment that not just anyone can write for.

Video game systems, to some extent, represent the same idea. It is possible to hack these to run third-party applications, but it's really not the intended use. It seems to me that the iPad represents a further shift in this idea, whether someone agrees with it or not.

Flash: conspicuously absent

Flash is the most hotly contested. It is a disservice to not support embedded flash applications in the browser. There are legitimate technical reasons to exclude flash, but at the end of the day I would have included Flash application support in the browser, but not necessarily for stand-alone apps. As for flash as a video player - I think that bird has flown. The HTML video tag has too many benefits to not adopt it. The "which format" issue will sort itself out - I root for the open source alternatives - but the pragmatist in me says that h264 will win - hardware acceleration, better tools, more content.

Battery life = game-changer

Battery life can be a deciding factor for many who consider buying a tablet. I am watching my battery go down on my MacBook right now, but on the iPad the battery life is so phenomenal that I don't even think to check it.

Some apps really shine

Music apps such as Megasynth, Bebot work fantastically. Megasynth has made the leap from novelty to near-killer app. Where will it go once MIDI support is enabled, who knows? I can't wait to see what kinds of graphic applications show up on the device!

The looming tablet-fest

It will take about a year before the other manufacturers begin to ship truly competitive products to the iPad. HP's purchases of Palm and WebOS hold some promise.

Price at cost of power

Most of the tablets out now are using hardware that is not nearly as power-efficient as the iPad. These toy tablets are little more than netbooks in a different form factor. Price will affect rate of adoption. As with netbooks, there is definitely a price/performance tipping point. The $150 netbooks aren't selling because they are too underpowered for what people want them for. A $200 tablet versus a $350 tablet may be a world of difference. Apple figured this out.

How about you?

Have you evaluated the iPad? Have you fallen under its spell? What is your perspective on this frenzy? Chime in in the comments section below or on the AV-1 Forum.

This report was reposted with permission from the blog hal meeks made it up.

	by Hal Meeks
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.