The New iPad - Resolutionary

Just some random thoughts about last nights iPad (3rd Generation) launch.

iPad - So no new name - probably a good move as we'll get away from this ridiculous emphasis on numbering schemes (iPhone 4S vis iPhone 5 anybody?). Wouldn't surprise me if the next iPhone is the new iPhone.

Tim Cook - Played a larger part in the proceedings than I expected. One the whole, he did a great job. Wobbled a bit here and there, but a solid performance.

The Retina Display - Seems to be all we wanted and more. The number of pixels on such a small screen is staggering. I especially loved the video of the wireframe of the iPad panning up and covering the HDTV to show the extra pixels - really well done. I truly believe that this will need to be seen to be fully appreciated.

iOS 5.1 - Very muted introduction. I take it Siri will go down very well in Japan. Could be a major differentiator in selling the iPhone over there.

No Scott Forstall on iOS 5.1 - No surprises due to the limited number of new features. Fully expect him to be rolled out for the first sneak peak at iOS 6.

4G LTE - Quite surprised due to the non availability of 4G service in most places, but gives them a good head start on the competition. We just need someone in the UK to deliver a 4G service - I'll not hold my breath.

10 hours battery life - Impressive with the extra horsepower of both the improved graphics and LTE - but they had to keep this benchmark.

Quad Core Graphics chip - Not a full quad core processor but providing the raw power where they need it the most, and where it will be utilised immediately. It won't hurt that people will see quad core and leave it at that when comparing with competitors.

Voice Dictation - This is the main component within Siri that I was hoping would be ported to the iPad. No indication if you need a network connection for this to work. Voice dictation could prove a tremendous boon on the iPad.

iSight Camera - Strange they've brought the name back? Overall a huge improvement on the camera on the existing iPad.

Apple TV - 1080p is welcomed but the UI seems a bit contrived and I have to say, a bit of a veneer over the old Apple TV. Downloaded the update following the keynote and was surprised the new UI is only for the top level menu. Apple still treating this as a hobby unfortunately.

Movies in the Cloud - Good move and would tempt me to purchase loads of movies… if only the Movie industry would bring the prices down to a reason level. If the movie industry would get a clue, Movies in the Cloud could act as a catalyst for people to buy movies instead of renting them. But not at £13.99 a time (IMHO)

iPhoto for iPad/iPhone - Very impressed with the new iPhoto. A great indicator of things to come.

iWork Updates - Still waiting on the other shoe to drop for iWork. They released new updates but mainly for compatibility with the new iPad. I fear we will still will have to wait for Mountain Lion in the summer, before Documents in the Cloud becomes a reality and we have seamless transfer and compatibility of documents between the iPad and the Mac.

Well they are the major thoughts that spring to mind. So on the whole, a pretty strong performance overall.

MacJury #1102: A Weekend with the iPad 2

One of the reasons I decided to go and get an iPad from the US was so that I could take part in interesting and fun discussions with esteemed panels.

This is one of them!

I skyped into one of Chuck Joiners excellent MacJury panel last night, to discuss the buying process, our iPad configurations and initial experiences with the iPad 2.

Some of the comments surprised me, I have to say!

You can check out the podcast for yourself - MacJury #1102: A Weekend with the iPad 2 - and thanks as always for the invite Chuck.

Well I've only gone and done it!

I've been mulling over if I should wait for the iPad 2 to hit these shores two weeks after the US, get one shipped out, or go and get one myself.

Well, I priced up the trip to the US based on the assumption I'd need to fly out on the Wednesday, spend the Thursday mulling about and then start queuing nice and early for the launch on the Friday. Then fly back on the Saturday or Sunday.

Eek!

That would be a 4 or 5 night stay. Plus, to keep the costs down, I'd need to fly with a stop on the way to New York, as the direct flights were expensive. The thought of flying through Philly again filled me with dread (No offence to the City, but the airport transfer is horrible)

So I'd sort of dismissed the idea.

Next option would be to get one shipped out. I checked out the US Apple website to get pricing on the model I wanted, and discovered that the actual launch isn't until 5pm on Friday afternoon.

Really!

So that means I could fly in Thursday night, have a kip, and then into the City first thing on Friday to get my place inline, then fly back out Saturday and home for Sunday afternoon.

Simples!

A quick check on Expedia followed, and although I couldn't get a direct flight from Manchester, I was able to get a shuttle to Heathrow, and then a direct Virgin flight to New York. Never flown Virgin before! A two night stay in a cheap hotel near the Airport and sorted!

So hopefully, I'll be arriving back in the UK with two iPad 2s on Sunday.

One for me, and one for a lucky ScreenCastsOnline member.

I'll be giving away a 16GB WiFi iPad 2 on the show at the end of April.

So I'd better get working and prepare for next week's extended show as I'll have to have it finished and uploaded before I go on Thursday.

Although it might seem a bit crazy to go all that way, I'll actually use the travel time to do some work, heck I may even record the following weeks show on the iPad 2 on the Sunday in my hotel room!

PS: It looks like there will be a limit of just 2 iPads per customer on the day, so I won't be able to take any requests for additional iPads to bring back with me - Sorry!

So How Did I Do....

The iPad 2 event has come and gone. So how did I do....

• Faster - Check
• Thinner - Check
• Lighter - Check
• Dual Cameras - Check
• No Retina Display - Check
• More internal memory - TBA but I'm pretty confident they will have upped the internal RAM to at least 512MB to cope with the faster processor and HD video editing, etc.
• Subtle changes in styling to make the original iPad look outdated - Check

So on the iPad 2 itself, I think I can claim 100%

The other items I mentioned didn't make an appearance, but I did qualify myself by saying that Apple may just concentrate on the iPad.

Surprised that iOS 5 preview didn't happen though!

Some thoughts following the event...

I won't go into detail about all the announcements, the interwebs are awash with people regurgitating the specs, so I'll leave that to them!

Form Factor

Wow! That's thin! Thinner than an iPhone 4. Have you seen how thin an iPhone 4 is? A lot of the iPad 1's appeal is how it feels in the hand, albeit slightly heavy for some people. Couple the thinness of the iPad2 with the slight reduction in weight, it should make it easier to hold for prolonged periods.

Performance

I never really had an issue with the performance of the iPad 1. The boost in performance of both the CPU and the graphics will just mean that it will support more sophisticated apps.

Cameras

Seeing FaceTime demo'd made me realise just how much better it would be on the iPad rather than the iPhone. Hey, it's lighter so you can hold it up further. The inclusion of HD video is a bonus but we'll need to see how that looks when the device hits the streets. I have my doubts, especially if they've not used the same camera as in the iPhone 4.

Oh, and PhotoBooth will sell a shed load more of iPads on it's own.

iOS 4.3

The updates to AirPlay look fantastic and will transform how the iPad is used in the home to consume media. Stream from Mac to the TV and control via iPad/iPhone4, stream from iOS device to the TV and stream from the Mac to the iPad/iPhone 4 - all bases covered.

The personal hotspot for the iPhone 4 will probably make me go for the Wifi model of iPad, unless the carriers screw us over on the pricing or availability.

Smart Covers

Very smart! I saw one tweet saying that Apple probably spent more time designing Smart Covers that some of it's competitors spent designing competing tablets. I currently use the Apple case on my original iPad and while it's functional, it's pig ugly. Nice to see Apple give us an option to actually see the iPad whilst giving it some protection.

The magnets are a stroke of genius and building them into the case of the iPad itself, shows the attention to detail and innovation Apple are renowned for. Not forgetting including software to detect if the cover is closed or not.

Sheer brilliance.

I'm not too sure how the cover will behave when carrying the iPad, but kudos to Apple for coming up with the design.

Video Mirroring

At last. Full video mirroring for all applications. Long overdue and will be a boon to educators or anyone who needs to demo their iPad.

iMovie and GarageBand

Setting the quality bar high and the price point low. Both applications look very impressive and Apple are making huge strides in data manipulation using touch.

Live Feed

I'm sure there is more that I haven't touched on, but I'd like to comment on the absence of a live feed for the event.

Poor show Apple.

Not so much that there wasn't a live feed, despite the fact that they have provided a live feed for the past two events, but more so at the utter disregard for the Apple fans.

Would it have hurt to issue a note stating that the event would not be broadcast?

It's ridiculous that, in this day and age, that we have to cobble together information from live blogging, especially as they have proven that there is a robust and eminently usable live streaming capability.

Poor show that they don't treat their fans (and customers) with a bit more respect.

Rant over!

Availability

So will I be getting an iPad 2..... of course I will, it's my job.

When will I get one?

Well although the US launch is 11th March, the UK isn't scheduled for release until 25th March (assuming that the date doesn't slip). There is also no online ordering until the 11th March in the US.

So I have two options:

• Get one shipped over to the UK - I have a friend who has offered to get me one on launch day and ship it over. That will incur extra charges and a short delay.

• Take a mini break and fly over to the US for launch day! - Slightly more expensive (!) but I could get it on the day and bring it back.

Of course, if I did over to get one, I might as well get two and give one away in a ScreenCastsOnline members prize draw.

What would you do?

Why am I not using IWork on the iPad?

A new wordprocessor appeared for the iPad today - IA writer for iPad. It's a very clean, minimalistic writing tool that's meant to just get out of your way and allow you to concentrate on just creating text.

It's very good!

One thing I liked especially was the seamless integration with DropBox. Link the app with your DropBox account, create a new file and it will sync with the cloud. Want to retrieve it on my Mac and it's already there before I lift my fingers from the iPad.

Just how it should be.

This made me think about iWork for iPad.  I just don't use it.

It's not that the applications are in anyway bad (although I have to say, they are prime candidates for a ScreenCastsOnline show) it's just the difficulties of transferring files in and out of the iPad. Horrendously compromised and a huge barrier to using the apps.

Please Apple, when you're adding in AirPrinting functionality to iWork, please add in iDisk sync, or even better, Dropbox sync!