Objective Review of the iPad

David Monagle

Wednesday 02 June 2010 04:30

I was somewhat underwhelmed by the iPad when I first saw it presented. With all the speculation and rumor about the Apple tablet, my expectation was a device that would replace my laptop. Instead, Steve Jobs explained concept of a third category of device. One that sits between the smartphone and the laptop.

But by the end of the presentation, I really did get that concept. I have a 15" Macbook Pro. It’s light as far as laptops go. It’s portable and it’s powerful. But I’ve never wanted to get it out on a train or on a plane. As portable as it is, a laptop is often cumbersome in these environments.

So my iPhone is the other option – and it’s a good one. Only that the iPhone isn’t really perfect for anything more serious than typing out a couple of lines of text.

Both the laptop and the iPhone could do the job. But the iPad just does it better. I have my iPad in an Incase convertible leather folio, making it appear as a decent sized leather diary. I can flip it open, hold it in one hand and type out a quick message at much greater speed than I can on my iPhone. In landscape I can put it on my lap and type at a good percentage of the speed that I can on a physical keyboard. For responding to an email after-hours while sitting on the couch, this device is brilliant. Gone are the days of checking an email on my iPhone only to go to the study to type out a lengthy reply.

Web browsing is another thing that the iPad was made for. I’m a developer and a systems administrator. I spend an awful lot of my time doing online research. I really do get sick of sitting in a chair all day long hunching towards the screen, reading massive documents. Since I got my iPad, If I have a long article to read, I go read it on the couch.

I also have about fifty eBooks that I have collected over the last few years. Reading a novel on a computer is no fun at all, and the iPhone is not great by any stretch. The iPad is the perfect solution for reading these books.

The other thing that the iPad is good at is sharing the information. Having two or more people crouched around an iPhone screen isn’t always ideal. With the iPad, showing off maps, photos, videos and documents becomes a much nicer experience.

I am still refining the way I use it, but it’s very clear to me that the extreme portability of the device is going to mean more freedom for me as I am always at the beck and call of my clients.

So the iPad is getting a lot of use at the moment. In fact, the only thing I’ve really used my phone for since getting the iPad is making phone calls. The exception is when I go somewhere without the iPad, the iPhone once again becomes the trusty fall back device that it always was.

The Supposed Issues

Over the last week, I’ve had quite a few friends and colleauges contact me to ask about the iPad. Some are looking for an excuse to buy one and others looking for confirmation that they really don’t want one. Both groups have the same thing in common. They have heard lots of bad press and want to know my opinion on it. So I will address the major (non)issues that I have been asked about.

“It’s just a big iPod Touch”

This one is a strange complaint. Because it’s not far from the truth. It has a massive touch screen and easily ten hours of battery life. This is what makes it so great. It’s the biggest touch screen device I have ever used and the extra screen real estate makes for applications that just aren’t possible on the smaller profile devices.

“It doesn’t have a camera”

No it doesn’t. Not forward or backward facing. Now, I’m not too fussed about it. Although I use Skype for video calls, I prefer to do it sitting at a desk with a fixed camera. If it did have one, I’m sure I would use it, but I’m not missing it really.

I can also see that having a rear facing camera could have had some great augmented reality potential. As that third category of device though, it just doesn’t seem all that necessary to have at this point.

“It doesn’t have a phone”

I thought this was a funny complaint. Even if you are wearing a headset or using bluetooth, I can’t really see the point of having a phone in an iPad. My phone fits in my pocket and can go with me anywhere. I wouldn’t be spending my days swapping SIM cards even if it did work as a phone.

“It doesn’t have a real GPS”

This I hear a lot. I’ll clear it up for anybody who hasn’t had this answered. The Wifi only model uses Wifi triangulation to find your position. Everywhere I have used it it’s been extremely accurate. Surprisingly so. The Wifi + 3G model has A-GPS. Assisted GPS is a fully functional GPS receiver that can supplement it’s information with the cell network in order to achieve faster GPS lock.

“It doesn’t have USB”

On a portable device like this, I see very little need to have USB devices hanging out of it all of the time. But for everybody else, the Camera Connection Kit supplies a USB adapter as well as an SD card reader. For those that complain about carrying the adapter, I ask you whether you were planning on carrying a USB cable?

“It doesn’t play Flash content”

As a web developer, a linux user and a Mac user, I have been avoiding flash for years. I have a Flash blocker on my browser and it is rare for me to come across a site where I need to unblock Flash. I have not yet seen a phone that can run Flash well. I think the right call was made here. Without this stand, nobody would feel compelled to change their websites to suit the iPad (which is happening at a rapid rate). Mac and Linux users are reaping the benefits of this.

I understand that some people like to play flash games and watch flash video, but I find almost all the video I want on YouTube and, when I do feel the need, I play native games which are much nicer anyway.

“It’s a closed, crippled system”

This is a funny argument. There are 200,000+ apps in the app store and I have not struggled to find an app to suit my needs in any real life scenario. The system is evolving and changing and it’s stability at this point in time is fantastic. Other examples of closed systems that nobody complains about are: PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii.

My Actual Issues

Having said that, I don’t think this is a flawless or perfect product. I know it’s a first revision of an unproven product type. With that in mind I think it is a job very well done. That being said though, there are some decisions that I just don’t understand and some limitations that are frustrating.

Tethering is a big one. While I can appreciate the situation over in the US with mobile carriers, in Australia my provider gives me free tethering through my iPhone. I use it all the time with my Macbook, so why should I not be able to use it though my iPad? I have no desire to buy another SIM and purchase more data to use my iPad. It would have been trivial to include and it’s hard to defend Apple against those that accuse them of looking out for one mobile carrier in the USA.

The need to physically plug the iPad into my Macbook is annoying. I’m not too bothered with my iPhone as I drop it in the dock and normally only sync audio podcasts. But the iPad is great for watching video and it’s a little irritating that I have to wait for a large podcast to download onto my Mac before I can plug it in and sync the video across to my iPad. I’m really hoping that this has a solution coming soon.

Probably the biggest hurdle in getting the iPad to be truly productive is the lack of a filesystem. Moving files on and off the iPad is a pain. Moving files between applications on the iPad is non existent. I am supportive of alternate file management, but the iPad is being held back by having NO common storage. I would love to see a “My Documents” directory that would sync wirelessly to the cloud, or my Mac. Let’s hope Apple are working on this one.

Springboard. Great simple interface for a mobile phone. Overly simplistic on the iPad. There is so much screen real estate on this device. Real estate Apple has done a wonderful job with in such applications as Calendar and Pages. Spotlight and the dock are two things I think could have been improved upon greatly.

As a developer that has iPhone 4.0 running on my iPhone, I am really missing folders and multitasking on the iPad. These features will make the iPad more useful. I just hope that what we see isn’t an exact copy of the iPhone functionality. More screen, I’m sure things could be done to utilise that space.

My Conclusion

Despite that seemingly long list of gripes, I really am extremely happy using the iPad. I wrote this entire review on it, partly on the couch typing on the screen and then with the wireless bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard makes a big difference when typing out long documents.

Many people will find it hard to justify the purchase of an iPad as it doesn’t really fill an existing hole. Instead it makes it’s own hole in between my iPhone and my Macbook and sits very nicely in it. If it is taken away, that’s when the hole will be noticed. And believe me, I have no intention of it going anywhere.

It’s great to read on, productive to work on, fun to play on and makes my day just that little bit nicer.