YTC017 - iPad Musings

My thoughts on the iPad...

...are going to have to wait!

Seriously, I need to spend some time writing a proper blog post but in a nutshell.

Initial knee jerk reaction was I hated the Home screen - all that wasted space and the icons look all wrong - plus I was surprised to see the bezel take up so much space. I expected the screen to take up more space.

Thinking about it - The home screen will look different when iPhone OS 4 comes out but they probably wanted to show the similarity to the iPhone (Why they didn't put six icons in the dock is beyond me - it supports up to six)

The bezel makes sense when you hold it. Look a a photo of the video. It's there to place your fingers so they don't obscure the screen.

The form factor and size looks perfect and at half the weight of the MacBook Air (which I seriously regret selling) it will be superb for effortless browsing and media consumption.

I still need to watch a good quality version of the keynote (especially how they've re-written iWork) but from what I've seen, the iPad looks a delight to use.

The overriding impression I get is one of huge potential especially with the reduced price point and relatively low barrier to entry. Note I did say relatively!

The name is fine (can we please stop with the comparisons to another product) and iPad conveys very well it's potential. It's a pad to do anything with. They could not have called it an iBook and it's more than that, an iSlate is no good either, you don't just draw on the thing. It's really down to what developers want to make it do.

So I'm pretty delighted with what I've seen so far and considering it's a first generation product, just imagine what the next couple of generation machines will bring.

But please, lets lose the hard wired syncing at the next release.

Does it really matter what it looks like?...

Some interesting comments from my previous blog post about the iPad/iSlate/iThingy.  Looks like most people who responded are in favour of the device being kept a surprise until the event itself.

The problem is, if people do post pics, even blurry, out of focus ones, it's so hard not to click through to the link.

I woke up this morning to find Tweets about yet another "photo" of the device. I managed to resist for all of 10 minutes before clicking on the link to take a look! Well, human nature isn't it.

What I saw was a very passable image of what the device might look like, but it was switched off. 

That's when I realised, it's not really what the device looks like that matters. I can virtually guarantee it's going to be thin, black and with a screen of 10" or so. When switched of, it's going to look like a thin, black slab of glass.

No, what matters is what it does (and looks like) when switched on. How does it function, what are it's core capabilities, how responsive is it, how do you interact with it.

All these can't be conveyed in a single spy shot. 

We'll just have to wait until the special event to get the full picture...

PS Gruber linked to this excellent list of predictions by David Weiss - Prediction Score Card It saves me writting a prediction blog post! If you want, you can see my predictions on this updated card - Dons Take.

I'll give you my score after the event!

Update on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 8:26AM by Don McAllister

Just as a word of warning. I bought the Predictions app to support David after using the PDF. It's crashing like a good un on my iPhone even after a re-install and powering down the iPhone. Might be just me being unlucky but I just wanted to mention it. 

YTC016 - Macworld Expo 2010

The link I was referring to for the concept device is this

I didn't post it to raise expectations, I just thought it was a damn fine concept piece. If the actual thing is 25% as cool as this, I'm happy with that ;-)

YTC015 - Studio Audio Gear

I've decided to only upload in 720p to YouTube. 1080p seems a bit excessive for a talking head video? Also, the smaller file sizes are much easier to handle and upload, as well as taking less time for YouTube to process in HD. Don't think anyone will be too upset! This is the first one at 720p.