MacTalk - The Apple iPad: 3 x 5 Points of Opinion

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In the twelve hours that have passed since this morning's Jobsian address I would say that for at least six of those I've spent my time postulating, debating, admiring and damning Apple's latest offering, the almighty "Moses' Slate" (AKA iPad).

It would seem that I am the highest ranking Mac-nerd among my circle of acquaintances and thusly instead of continued regurgitation of my opinions I felt it best to often them publicly through the most wide-spread medium available to me, MacTalk, where I have no doubt they'll be ripped to shreds, flamed upon and ridiculed but that's what the Internet is for really now isn't it.

Originally I was filled with nothing more than burning outrage and hatred but as my mind has matured in all of half a day I decided to put together not one list of ranting negatives but instead three; one good, one bad and one just wishing for things. So lets, without further ado, embark upon this journey together. Please feel free to hold my hand, I understand.

Five wonderful reasons to love the iPad

It's a giant iPhone - Odd that I'd list that as the first positive I'd imagine most of you are thinking but what Apple have done is very clever in further latching in to its ridiculous smartphone market share. Keeping things the same means it's all very familiar and easy to understand. They're further taking the nerd-like qualifications one did in yesteryear require to operate technology and putting it in to the hands of your parents with no difficulty at all.

Battery life - *If* Apple are correct in their battery statements a 10 hour continuous usage cum 1 month standby time is just amazing for a product such as this. This all comes down to their in-house developed tech (processor, battery, etc) and I see it as a huge bonus and selling point.

Price point - By announcing the iPad at half of the continually rumoured price point Apple has moved it from a "would if I could" to a "I can afford" mentality amongst its consumers. At US$499 (base model sans 3G) it distinctly presents itself as a product below its MacBook range rather than massacring it's product range. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple themselves planted the rumoured US$999 price to tout it's actual cost as a huge plus.

Apps - It already has 100,000+ apps available for it! Sure they may not be designed specifically for the iPad but they're ready, available and easily used. This is a big advantage over other tablet devices that run shrunken versions of full OS's that have you trying to work with ready available apps on a screen size rendering them unusable.

Convenience - I'm a MacBook Pro owner but I can't stand using it on my lap on the couch or watching a movie while sitting in economy. All I've wanted is the convenience of a portable web browser & media unit that is actually viewable. This is the iPad's bread & butter with a few other added bonuses (eBooks, photos, apps, etc) and for the couch bums and frequent flyers I can see the iPad being the "must buy" item of the season.

Five reasons the iPad is just dumb

It's a giant iPhone - You see what I've done there, same item, two lists... now that's fence-sitting journalism! There's no special version of OS X at work here, sure it's an updated version of the iPhone OS (3.2 actually) but it's basically plugging your iPhone in to a 10" LCD more or less. Why does this sucks so much? Well it's mainly your more computer savvy person who'll dislike this but in a nutshell it means the iPad automatically incorporates all of the iPhones issues, one of the biggest remaining to be no support for Adobe Flash.

The UI sucks - Apple's UI designers have taken a little rest on this one. Yes the new apps that have been custom-created for the iPad present a new look on existing OS X apps (iCal, Mail, Address Book) but to be perfectly honest they're the ones I'd rather they have left alone! Why do I want to have three different UI experiences to read my email?! Instead I think efforts could have been focused on improving the general icon layout and perhaps introducing some sort of categorising method for the numerous apps littering your screen. This of course may change when the product is released.

No camera - I read on another blog earlier today that this was apparently "no big deal" but I'm going to have to vehemently disagree here. There is no better place to put one and I can't see the reason not to! I could understand should Apple not have their own video enabled IM client but they have iChat, not to mention how great this would be for Skype and all of iChats far superior competitors (Adium anyone?).

No multitasking - A long standing complaint of the iPhone but one that I could tolerate due to its size and processing capabilities but on the iPad it's something I'm not willing to forgive. 90% of users are going to have this on their couch, I should be to have an IM client running, be browsing the web all whilst there's some music playing in the background. Yes, Apple themselves have the ability to create background apps (iPod app on the iPhone does it) but I want to see them all at once, easily switch between them and choose what I want running even if that does suck up battery life.

Connectivity - Why on Earth do Apple have to insist we use nothing but the dock connector? Just one USB port (in addition) would have made things so much better and done away with the gaggle of dongle adaptors you'll accumulate and learn to hate before you know it.

Five suggestions to those that will never listen

A new Dashboard style home screen - Call me crazy but the "home" screen of your iPad, should, in my mind be an overview of your custom experience. For instance I'd like to see the weather, my days appointments and the top emails in my inbox. I think the home screen would be the ideal place for Apple to put their completely useless Dashboard widgets that no one cares about in OS X. Let me run 4 or 5 widgets that I can drag and place and have the ability to access app data.

The name needs an iSnack 2.0 rethink - Yeah, yeah, we've all seen a million tampon jokes today but this is close to the worst name Apple have given a product. Yes it's short, perhaps the word "snappy" was even thrown around in a focus group once or twice but it's pathetic. At least it wasn't decided by a stupendous pool of clowns presiding over Australia's most famous branding screw up, but at least Kraft had the balls to go back to the drawing board and Apple you too have time! I know you wont but the option is there for the taking!

A pen - Undoubtably there will soon be a 3rd party accessory that allows pen input and people will hate this idea thinking I'm taking thing back to the dark ages but if I'm carrying this thing around with me each day I'd like to take notes and draw diagrams like I do every day on a notepad. There is no way a software keyboard is going to cut the mustard nor is a finger painting app that was demoed today. I'm not asking for handwriting recognition (which is already in OS X BTW) just a little freedom in input options.

Wireless syncing - This could be the secret ingredient in iPhone OS 4.0 but I doubt it. I don't understand how this could not have been implemented, especially as the iPad incorporates 802.11n. They can do it with the AppleTV and it's reliable enough for backups, ala Time Machine, yet transferring a music file to a portable device is apparently impossible.

OS X Desktop as a CTO option - I can guarantee this will never happen but I'd pay an extra $50 for it! In a similar way to Sony introduced Linux installs on their Playstation's having the option to install the full OS X experience would be a welcome one for many. I guess we'll just have to wait for it to be jailbroken for that one to come true

For me, what was 24 hours ago an overhyped rumoured "must buy" has turned in to a very definitive "I'll wait & see". An eBook reading application is hardly a media revolution by any stretch of the imagination and there are too many pros & cons, not to mention not having actually held one yet, to make any rash decisions. Fortunately for those like me Apple has made the decision for you by not allowing pre-orders, a move alone which has me dubious as to how reliable shipping dates and hardware will be, but that's another topic altogether.

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