one inch frame
the personal site of eric a. Farris
Some quick thoughts after the Stevenote where the iPad was introduced:
The lack of multitasking doesn’t really bother me. There are times I miss it on the iPhone, but full-screen apps should be full-processor apps. My problem with no multitasking is with apps that don’t resume. That’s a failure with the app, to me, not the OS.
1024×768 on a 9.7” screen is a great resolution, but it’s not 16:9 HD. Apple missed an opportunity, I think. Even TV out isn’t HD.
That said, this will be an amazing device to watch TV and movies on.
A $499 price point is perfect, I think. I don’t need 3G on a device like this, and I’m glad it’s a option. For those that do, the unlocked-ness and contract-less-ness is also a very good idea. That price point puts it at the high end of the netbook range, which is exactly where this machine should compete.
The device appears to be running iPhone OS 3.2, not the 4.0 that I was hoping for. But that does seem to indicate a bump for the iPhone soon.
iBooks could mean the death of the Kindle. The fact that it’s using ePub is a win for all of us (many Project Gutenberg titles are ePub right now). ePub is an extensible format, so I’m thinking that Apple must have added some DRM on top of it, not unlike what they did with MP4 and AAC.
iPad is a horrible name. Just horrible. It does reflect, though, just how close this is to an iPod Touch. I really hate that my laptop is a “MacBook Pro,” too. Also a horrible name.
Just like with the iPhone/iPT, it’s the SDK that’s going to make this thing. Apps using the big screen are going to be really something. So much could be done with all that extra real estate.
iWork on the iPad was the real surprise here. The interface is very intriguing, not so much for those apps, but for apps going forward. It’s obvious with this that Apple wants to take their OS, at least a version of it, into the single-app full-screen future.
The other surprise, and a very pleasant one, is the keyboard dock that’s available. It’s no thin client, but it’s certainly a very thin PC.