Apple's iPad: My Thoughts (for what they're worth)
It's been a little over a week since the announcement of Apple's iPad. On the day of the event, I listened to the live feed from TWiT.tv with bate breath. Afterwards, I watched the Quicktime video of the event and pored over the iPad specs page. In the days that followed, I listened to what various pundits had to say about it and mulled over the facts as I knew them, trying to figure this thing out. Here's what I've come up with.My Predictions Scorecard
On the day before the event, I wrote up a list of predictions for the upcoming "tablet". (I made no prediction about the name, though if I had, I might well have guessed "iPad".) How close did I get? Let's take a look:
Despite all the coverage that the iPad has gotten in the last week, I still have some unanswered questions. Maybe the answers are out there; if someone can point them out to me, I'd appreciate it.iWork Documents: In and Out
We saw some great versions of Apple's iWork apps designed specifically for the iPad. Phil Schiller told us that they're compatible with the desktop versions: files you create on the iPad can be opened in Mac OS X, and vice-versa. But I still have some questions about how these files get on and off the iPad.
Phil started each app's demo by showing the files in the app's "library". Given what I know about iPhone apps, this makes sense: each app has its own Documents folder, and what you're seeing in the library view are all the files in that app's Documents folder. But how do they get there? Do you specify which files to sync in iTunes? Is there a specific folder on your Mac that automatically gets synced?
Or is iTunes and syncing not involved at all? Maybe you can just save e-mail attachments and files from the Internet directly to the appropriate app's library. This would be extremely useful. Of course, if this were the case, I'd also like to see the ability to e-mail a file from your iWork library. Many iPhone apps can e-mail their data, so I can't imagine this being difficult to implement.
Ideally, I'd like to see both approaches: the ability to sync documents on your Mac (or PC) automatically via iTunes (or better yet, via the cloud, even if that mens requiring a MobileMe account), and the ability to receive and send documents via e-mail (and while you're at it, download them from the Internet via Safari). For bonus points, Apple could also allow you to upload to an Internet location. (MobileMe, anyone?)Microsoft Office Compatibility
And while we're on the subject of the new iPad iWork iApps apps.... We all know that the Mac OS X versions of the iWork applications support opening and saving as the corresponding Microsoft Office documents. Do the iPad versions also support this? If so, and if they tie in to e-mail as described above, what an amazing collaboration tool the iPad could be. You receive a Word doc from someone via e-mail, make some edits to it in Pages, export to Word, and e-mail it back, all without syncing, right from your Pad.Photos: In and Out
The other app I'm really curious about is the new iPad version of Photos. Again, my first set of questions have to do with getting pictures into and out of the app.
The iPad will sync with your iPhoto library (or a folder on a PC) via iTunes, the same way the iPhone does: that much is clear. But for the iPhone, the images are automatically down-sampled to 640 pixels along the longest dimension. It doesn't seem likely that for the iPad they'll also be down-sampled this much, given the much larger screen. So, will they be synced in full resolution? Or simply down-sampled to 2048 along the longest dimension?
According to Apple's Web site, you'll also be able to import photos from your e-mail or via the optional Camera Connection Kit. These will surely be full-resolution. But will they sync back to your iPhoto library automatically? Or will you have to import them into iPhoto as though the iPad were just another camera (the same way you do from the iPhone)? I'm really hoping Apple will take this opportunity to support true two-way syncing with iPhoto, much in the same way that your music and videos sync both ways in iTunes.Photos App Features
But this brings me to my next set of questions, which can be summed up with one, over-arching question: What are the capabilities of the Photos app on the iPad?
It certainly looked like an iPad version of iPhoto. It has Faces and Places, for example. But are these features "read only"? In other words, will it only allow you to view faces and places that you've already tagged in iPhoto on your Mac? Or will new photos that are imported directly into the iPad Photos app also be scanned for recognizable faces and automatically added to the correct places in the Map view?
Taking this a step further, will you also be able to organize your iPhoto library on the iPad, and have the changes automatically sync back to your Mac? Will you be able to arrange photos into Events and Albums? Will you be able to apply keywords to them? Will you be able to rate them? (The iPod app on the iPhone syncs your on-the-go Playlists and song ratings back to your Mac's iTunes, so this doesn't seem too outrageous.)
And what about editing? During the announcement event, Brushes, a really impressive painting app originally released for the iPhone, was demoed by the developer. It doesn't seem too fanciful to imagine being able to do the same basic edits on photos (crop, rotate, exposure, etc.) that you can in iPhoto on the iPad version of the Photos app. And again, these edits could then be synced back to your Mac.
Ah, well, I'll just have to wait and try out the Photos app in an Apple Store, as soon as the iPad is actually released.Wish List
Apart from the features I've speculated about in the previous section, there are also a number of features that I'm pretty sure are not in the initial release of the iPad that I'd like to see in upcoming versions:
So, given all the above, what's my conclusion about the iPad? What it is, and more importantly who is it for?
Clearly, Steve Jobs is selling this as a living room device. But given that it also has 3G support (at least on some models) and is super-light and portable, it looks appealing to the Road Warrior as well. I think each of these environments has a primary target audience, and I'm not sure the iPad is perfect for either one (yet).
Leo Laporte commented recently in one of his many podcasts that the iPad is a device where the technology is transparent, that the tech just gets out of the way of what you're actually trying to do with it (check your e-mail, look at pictures, etc.). Apple is hinting at that, too, with all their marketing hype about it being a "magical" device. And frankly, I see their point. In many ways, I see this as the perfect "mom computer", and in fact I might well recommend it as a replacement for my mother's laptop when it dies. After all, what does she use her laptop for now? Checking e-mail, browsing the Web, looking at and sharing photos: all things that the iPad does, and does exceedingly well and-most importantly-seamlessly and intuitively.
The only problem with the "mom computer" concept is that the iPad still feels like an extension to a desktop computer as opposed to a completely stand-alone device. I personally like that idea and wish it were something that Apple would pursue more whole-heartedly. But if my mother also needs a desktop computer for the iPad to function properly, then that kind of defeats the purpose. But if Apple adds the functionality I mentioned above to the Photos and iWork apps, I could really see this thing as being completely stand-alone (after an initial sync with the old laptop to get all the existing photos and whatnot, and periodic backups to the same PC or a new one).
On the other end of the spectrum is the user like me: a Mac geek who likes the portability and high tech aspects of the iPad, and who probably has another Mac (desktop or laptop) as his or her primary computer. I personally have a MacBook Pro as my primary computer, because I like being able to hook it up to a keyboard, mouse, and large monitor when at home, while still being able to just disconnect it and take it with me when I hit the road, essentially having all of my files and applications available to me at all times.
Again, Apple has come close, but not quite nailed, this demographic. The iPad needs to sync more effortlessly and seamlessly with your primary Mac (this includes many of the things I've already mentioned, like over-the-air syncing and support for 3rd party application syncing). And, in a pinch, it needs to be able to actually connect to your primary Mac, both to remote control or just to grab files. If Apple managed to incorporate some of these concepts into the next-generation iPad, I could definitely see myself replacing my laptop with an iMac and an iPad.
And that's the bottom line for me: the iPad looks great, and has a lot of potential. But I think I'll probably do the same thing I did when the iPhone came out, and wait for the second generation iPad before taking the plunge.
What are your thoughts?
On the day before the event, I wrote up a list of predictions for the upcoming "tablet". (I made no prediction about the name, though if I had, I might well have guessed "iPad".) How close did I get? Let's take a look:
- It'll be a media player. Check. Although I also claimed it would have 720p resolution. 720p is 1280 x 720, and the iPad screen is actually 1024 x 768, which means, if my calculations are correct, about 1024 x 576 if you letterbox a 16x9 image onto the screen. So, call it 576p? Not quite 720p. I also imagined much more storage to support hi-def video, but it looks like Apple was more concerned with keeping the price down. So instead of 64GB being the minimum configuration, it's the maximum.
- It'll have a 10-inch LCD display. Check. I was also right about it not being OLED.
- It'll be a book reader. Check. Although why they went for a separate iBook Store instead of using the existing iTunes Store (which is for way more than just tunes at this point anyway), I can't figure. We'll have to wait and see how this all falls out. I'm still thinking a new release of iTunes will actually have books in it (and will also be a competent book reader for use on your desktop/laptop). Unless, of course, they don't want you to have access to the books on any device but the iPad (which I wouldn't put past Apple).
- It'll run 3rd party apps. Check. I even said "I imagine the apps will be more iPhone-like (i.e. geared towards a touch interface) than Mac-like," but I didn't realize the extent to which this is true. With a few exceptions, the UI on the iPad is exactly the UI of the iPhone.
- I actually made one anti-prediction: that running existing iPhone apps in a small 320 x 480 window on the iPad would be "too inelegant a solution for Apple." I was partly right: a lot of folks are saying that it's not in any way an ideal experience. But I'll have to mark this prediction as a fail, because they did exactly what I thought they wouldn't do. And I did not foresee the 2x mode.
- It'll be a gaming platform. Check. Although I was imagining a hardware solution to the problem of the form factor and interface not being ideal for gaming. Instead, we saw game developers coming up with new and innovative ways to take advantage of a larger touch interface. I'm still not convinced that a 10-inch touch screen and no physical buttons is great for gaming, but I may well change my mind if and when I get my hands on one.
- It'll have always-on Internet access. Check. At great prices, too. Of course, I didn't foresee the option of getting one without. But then, I was really imagining this as more of a travel computer, not as a living room computer the way they seemed to be selling it.
- It'll also have WiFi for connecting to your local network and syncing with your iTunes library wirelessly. Well, I got this one half right. I'm still holding out for wireless syncing in iTunes 10, or maybe iPhone OS 4.0. But more on that later.
- It'll sync with your Mac. And by this I meant more than just media syncing, which it does. So this one's a failed prediction. At least partially. I did get this part frighteningly dead-on: "Imagine this scenario: you're at home, working on a Keynote presentation. You save the file, grab your tablet, and head out the door. On the train, you open up your tablet, and there is the exact same file, automatically synced to your tablet via the cloud, ready for you to apply the finishing touches using the new tablet version of Keynote. You get to work, log on to your work Mac, and voila, the same presentation, with the edits you made on the train, is waiting in your Documents folder (or, more realistically, on your iDisk)." It seems like currently it'll require manual syncing, as opposed to wireless or over the cloud, but the fact that I accurately predicted an iPad version of Keynote is a little scary.
Despite all the coverage that the iPad has gotten in the last week, I still have some unanswered questions. Maybe the answers are out there; if someone can point them out to me, I'd appreciate it.iWork Documents: In and Out
We saw some great versions of Apple's iWork apps designed specifically for the iPad. Phil Schiller told us that they're compatible with the desktop versions: files you create on the iPad can be opened in Mac OS X, and vice-versa. But I still have some questions about how these files get on and off the iPad.
Phil started each app's demo by showing the files in the app's "library". Given what I know about iPhone apps, this makes sense: each app has its own Documents folder, and what you're seeing in the library view are all the files in that app's Documents folder. But how do they get there? Do you specify which files to sync in iTunes? Is there a specific folder on your Mac that automatically gets synced?
Or is iTunes and syncing not involved at all? Maybe you can just save e-mail attachments and files from the Internet directly to the appropriate app's library. This would be extremely useful. Of course, if this were the case, I'd also like to see the ability to e-mail a file from your iWork library. Many iPhone apps can e-mail their data, so I can't imagine this being difficult to implement.
Ideally, I'd like to see both approaches: the ability to sync documents on your Mac (or PC) automatically via iTunes (or better yet, via the cloud, even if that mens requiring a MobileMe account), and the ability to receive and send documents via e-mail (and while you're at it, download them from the Internet via Safari). For bonus points, Apple could also allow you to upload to an Internet location. (MobileMe, anyone?)Microsoft Office Compatibility
And while we're on the subject of the new iPad iWork iApps apps.... We all know that the Mac OS X versions of the iWork applications support opening and saving as the corresponding Microsoft Office documents. Do the iPad versions also support this? If so, and if they tie in to e-mail as described above, what an amazing collaboration tool the iPad could be. You receive a Word doc from someone via e-mail, make some edits to it in Pages, export to Word, and e-mail it back, all without syncing, right from your Pad.Photos: In and Out
The other app I'm really curious about is the new iPad version of Photos. Again, my first set of questions have to do with getting pictures into and out of the app.
The iPad will sync with your iPhoto library (or a folder on a PC) via iTunes, the same way the iPhone does: that much is clear. But for the iPhone, the images are automatically down-sampled to 640 pixels along the longest dimension. It doesn't seem likely that for the iPad they'll also be down-sampled this much, given the much larger screen. So, will they be synced in full resolution? Or simply down-sampled to 2048 along the longest dimension?
According to Apple's Web site, you'll also be able to import photos from your e-mail or via the optional Camera Connection Kit. These will surely be full-resolution. But will they sync back to your iPhoto library automatically? Or will you have to import them into iPhoto as though the iPad were just another camera (the same way you do from the iPhone)? I'm really hoping Apple will take this opportunity to support true two-way syncing with iPhoto, much in the same way that your music and videos sync both ways in iTunes.Photos App Features
But this brings me to my next set of questions, which can be summed up with one, over-arching question: What are the capabilities of the Photos app on the iPad?
It certainly looked like an iPad version of iPhoto. It has Faces and Places, for example. But are these features "read only"? In other words, will it only allow you to view faces and places that you've already tagged in iPhoto on your Mac? Or will new photos that are imported directly into the iPad Photos app also be scanned for recognizable faces and automatically added to the correct places in the Map view?
Taking this a step further, will you also be able to organize your iPhoto library on the iPad, and have the changes automatically sync back to your Mac? Will you be able to arrange photos into Events and Albums? Will you be able to apply keywords to them? Will you be able to rate them? (The iPod app on the iPhone syncs your on-the-go Playlists and song ratings back to your Mac's iTunes, so this doesn't seem too outrageous.)
And what about editing? During the announcement event, Brushes, a really impressive painting app originally released for the iPhone, was demoed by the developer. It doesn't seem too fanciful to imagine being able to do the same basic edits on photos (crop, rotate, exposure, etc.) that you can in iPhoto on the iPad version of the Photos app. And again, these edits could then be synced back to your Mac.
Ah, well, I'll just have to wait and try out the Photos app in an Apple Store, as soon as the iPad is actually released.Wish List
Apart from the features I've speculated about in the previous section, there are also a number of features that I'm pretty sure are not in the initial release of the iPad that I'd like to see in upcoming versions:
- It needs a forward-facing camera for video chat. This one's obvious, and the rumor mill is already rife with speculation about it. I'm not talking about a 5MP camera like the one on the iPhone 3GS for taking pictures, but just a 1.3MP iSight camera like the ones built in to all MacBooks. But hey, wouldn't it be cool if the camera were mounted on a vertically-swivelling hinge on the top of the iPad, so you could also use it as a camera for taking pictures and video?
- It needs to be able to sync over the air, either via local WiFi or the cloud. C'mon, how 2004 is having to hook up your device via USB to get content onto it?
- It needs to add two-way syncing for 3rd party apps. This is something I speculated about in my previous post, but I'm going to bring it up again here because it seems like we're moving in that direction. Now we've got nine-count 'em, nine- apps that will sync with the iPad: iTunes, iPhoto, Address Book, iCal, Safari, Mail, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. And that's not counting all the various types of things included in iTunes: apps, podcasts, movies, ringtones, etc. How hard is it to imagine a new tab in iTunes, or maybe just some new functionality in the existing Applications tab? In the same way that the iPhone consolidates all 3rd party app settings into a single Settings app, why couldn't multiple 3rd party app syncing preferences appear in iTunes? Maybe with iPhone OS 4.0....
- It needs Back to My Mac capability. Granted, there are some really good apps for the iPhone that already do this sort of thing (I recently heard about one called Jaadu VMC that has some great features). But, with apologies to the folks at Jaadu, it seems like such a no-brainer for Apple to add this as a built-in feature. Then anything you can't actually do on your iPad you can just do remotely on your home iMac.
So, given all the above, what's my conclusion about the iPad? What it is, and more importantly who is it for?
Clearly, Steve Jobs is selling this as a living room device. But given that it also has 3G support (at least on some models) and is super-light and portable, it looks appealing to the Road Warrior as well. I think each of these environments has a primary target audience, and I'm not sure the iPad is perfect for either one (yet).
Leo Laporte commented recently in one of his many podcasts that the iPad is a device where the technology is transparent, that the tech just gets out of the way of what you're actually trying to do with it (check your e-mail, look at pictures, etc.). Apple is hinting at that, too, with all their marketing hype about it being a "magical" device. And frankly, I see their point. In many ways, I see this as the perfect "mom computer", and in fact I might well recommend it as a replacement for my mother's laptop when it dies. After all, what does she use her laptop for now? Checking e-mail, browsing the Web, looking at and sharing photos: all things that the iPad does, and does exceedingly well and-most importantly-seamlessly and intuitively.
The only problem with the "mom computer" concept is that the iPad still feels like an extension to a desktop computer as opposed to a completely stand-alone device. I personally like that idea and wish it were something that Apple would pursue more whole-heartedly. But if my mother also needs a desktop computer for the iPad to function properly, then that kind of defeats the purpose. But if Apple adds the functionality I mentioned above to the Photos and iWork apps, I could really see this thing as being completely stand-alone (after an initial sync with the old laptop to get all the existing photos and whatnot, and periodic backups to the same PC or a new one).
On the other end of the spectrum is the user like me: a Mac geek who likes the portability and high tech aspects of the iPad, and who probably has another Mac (desktop or laptop) as his or her primary computer. I personally have a MacBook Pro as my primary computer, because I like being able to hook it up to a keyboard, mouse, and large monitor when at home, while still being able to just disconnect it and take it with me when I hit the road, essentially having all of my files and applications available to me at all times.
Again, Apple has come close, but not quite nailed, this demographic. The iPad needs to sync more effortlessly and seamlessly with your primary Mac (this includes many of the things I've already mentioned, like over-the-air syncing and support for 3rd party application syncing). And, in a pinch, it needs to be able to actually connect to your primary Mac, both to remote control or just to grab files. If Apple managed to incorporate some of these concepts into the next-generation iPad, I could definitely see myself replacing my laptop with an iMac and an iPad.
And that's the bottom line for me: the iPad looks great, and has a lot of potential. But I think I'll probably do the same thing I did when the iPhone came out, and wait for the second generation iPad before taking the plunge.
What are your thoughts?