While we’re still waiting for ours, prominent tech reviewers have had iPads in their hands for days and have been kicking the tires so to speak. Several hands-on reviews have appeared, and the verdicts so far are unanimous: Apple has a winner on its hands with the iPad!

Just look at these headlines:

“Apple’s iPad is a touch of genius” – Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing

“Apple iPad Review: Laptop Killer? Pretty Close!” – Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal

“iPad is pure innovation – one of the best computers ever” – Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times

“Verdict is in on Apple iPad: It’s a winner” – Edward Baig, USA Today

Some interesting notes I’ve cribbed from the various reviews:

• Battery life is better than expected – as in better than even Apple’s estimate of 10 hours. Both David Pogue of the New York Times and Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing report over 12 hours of heavy use – including movie playback, gaming, and surfing with the screen brightness on maximum.
• Multiple comments about the speed of the device. Walt Mossberg refers to it as “wicked fast”.
• The onscreen keyboard is more than usable and in some cases is a better than some cramped netbook keyboards.
• Calendar and contacts can be synced with Google.
• The email client lacks the ability to create local folders on the device.

I thought I’d be OK with the estimated April 24th Canadian iPad release date, but after reading these reviews I want one in my hands now!

According to the iPad in Canada blog, Apple Canada has reportedly told Apple Store employees that April 24th is a “blackout day” – in other words, no employee is allowed to book the day off voluntarily. It sounds like Apple wants their stores to be fully staffed on the 24th. Maybe for a Canadian iPad release?

iPad in Canada is also predicting that Canadians will be able to pre-order their iPads on April 2nd, although that seems to be a guesstimate based on the lead-time given to US iPad pre-orders. US customers were able to pre-order their iPads 3 weeks prior to the April 3rd launch date.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What Do You Think of Apple’s iPad? (pbs.org)
• iTunes 9.1 Is Available : Comes With iPad Sync Support (mrgadget.com.au)

You can check them out on Apple’s site: iPad Guided Tours

You can read the original Macworld article here.

But look a little harder, and you’ll find some very influential people talking about the iPad in a very positive, almost reverent way. Technology guru Leo Laporte believes that the iPad represents an entirely new class of computing device – one where the technology fades into the background and enables the user to interact with the content. A quick poll of my own associates reveals something interesting – the technologically-adept ones are cautiously interested, whereas the technophobes are swooning over the device.

The iPad, following the iPod and iPhone, is the third Apple device intended to appeal to the general public, and not to hardcore technology geeks. The iPod was designed to allow you to touch your music. The iPhone brought similar capabilities to your voice communications. The iPad is the next logical step: an all-in-one general computing device that can be an ebook reader one minute, a web browser the next, and a multimedia player after that.

The internet is wondering “who’s going to buy one of these things?”. Let me give you some examples:

The Student

If you’re a student (as I was recently), you’re all too aware of the weight of the textbooks you have to lug around campus each semester, not to mention their associated cost. While completing my physics degree, I had nearly 20 lbs of textbooks in my backpack, one of which cost me over $240. So when ereaders came on the scene, I became very interested. Here was a device that weighed less than a pound, could store all my textbooks, and had a gorgeous eInk screen. What more could I want?

Image courtesy Matt Buchanan (Flickr)

Plenty, it turns out. The first problem I ran into was with the display. Yes, eInk was much easier on my eyes than a backlit LCD, but there was a drawback. In science textbooks, color is often used to convey additional information. Take a look at the periodic table for instance – most textbooks use color to indicate which group an element belongs in. Viewed on a greyscale eInk display like a Kindle or Sony Reader, the information is lost.

Next, both the Kindle and Sony ereaders are horrible at displaying PDF files. Sure, you can reflow the text, or view the files in their native formats. But the former throws any referenced figures/graphics out of place, and the latter results in text too small to be read. Panning and zooming is equally painful due to the slow refresh rates of eInk displays.

So what about a netbook? Well, they’re definitely better at rendering PDF files but their wide screens are the wrong aspect ratio for viewing a textbook page – you end up either viewing a very small segment of your PDF, or zooming out until its illegible. If the video driver supports it, you can try rotating the display 90 degrees – but then interacting with the keyboard becomes awkward if not impossible.

A Kindle DX (the only Kindle remotely suitable for textbook reading) costs $489, and comes with 4 GB of storage and a greyscale eInk display. For $10 more, an entry level iPad includes WiFi (useful on university campuses), 16 GB of storage and a full-color display. Beyond ebook reader functionality, you can also browse the web, send/receive email, access your pre-existing iTunes music and video, and use almost any iPhone app available.

When you look at it like that, why wouldn’t a student buy an iPad over a Kindle? (well, you English majors might be able to get away with reading on a Kindle as there aren’t many color diagrams in Chaucer).

The Parents

My parents are both 76 years old and use their computer to send email, and view photos and videos of their grandkids. They really don’t need a 20″ iMac to do all of that, but it was the easiest computer for them to use.

But you know, they could do everything they need with an iPad. My dad doesn’t touch-type, so the lack of a physical keyboard isn’t a stumbling block (although should he desire to learn, he can always use a bluetooth keyboard or a dock). The iPad can handle photos and videos with aplomb, and when my Mom shows the photos of her grandkids to visitors, they don’t all have to crowd into Dad’s office, they can just pass the iPad around.

There’s also the matter of family tech support. There’s much less to go wrong with a dedicated device like the iPad than with a full desktop or laptop computer. And that means that I get my evenings and weekends to myself, as opposed to spending them troubleshooting my parents’ computer.

Summary

There are many other potential markets and applications for an easy-to-use tablet device like the iPad. Until now, tablet computers have been nothing more than crippled laptops, so it didn’t make sense for people to buy them. The iPad is a very different device, with very different use cases than a traditional PC. It’s the first general purpose computer that is going to appeal to non-techies, and that’s a huge thing.

Who’s going to buy one? Lots of people – if not for themselves, then they’re going to buy them for their friends and family – just as I plan to do.

Here’s a quick feature rundown:

• 9.7 ” color multitouch-enabled screen (not OLED)
• 1024×768 resolution at 132 pixels per inch
• 16, 32 or 64 GB of storage
• 1 GHz Apple “A4″ custom-designed processor
• 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Some models include unlocked 3G wireless connectivity
• accelerometer, compass, microphone, dock connector and built-in speakers
• GPS in WiFi + 3G models
• 10 hours of battery life with 1 month standby
• video out support via Dock connector to VGA adapter
• 720p H.264 video support at 30 frames per second

The iPad is expected to begin shipping in late March (3G models will ship in April), and is priced aggressively:

$499 / $629 for 16 GB WiFi / WiFi + 3G

$599 / $729 for 32 GB WiFi / WiFi + 3G

$699 / $829 for 64 GB WiFi / WiFi + 3G

The iPad can run iPhone / iPod Touch applications (at native or scaled-up resolutions) as well as custom software written specifically for the device. Native apps shown included mail, calendar and a photo viewer. In each case the user interface was quite different from the iPhone counterpart (Mail used a two-panel view for instance). It definitely looks as though Apple has built a new, iPad-specific user interface for their operating system – one that takes advantage of the larger screen area and multitouch gestures.

The iPad includes the iTunes App Store, as well as the new iBooks eReader / book store application. The inclusion of iBooks is a shot across Amazon’s bow – Apple has inked distribution deals with 5 major book publishers, including Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan, with more on the way. The New York Times was also on-hand to demo its new NYT Reader iPad application. The app featured a newspaper-like layout with inline video content and was said to “capture the essence of reading a newspaper”. I’m looking forward to giving this a try when I get my hands on the iPad.

Apple also demoed a version of iWork designed specifically for the iPad. You’ll be able to buy each component of iWork (Keynote, Pages and Numbers) individually for $9.99. Each app is gesture-enabled and compatible with its desktop counterpart. Phil Schiller showed how you could use gestures and context-sensitive virtual keyboards to edit a spreadsheet without the need for a keyboard or mouse. A video-out adapter that plugs into the Dock connector will allow you to run Keynote presentations directly off the tablet.

With regards to wireless connectivity, every iPad model ships with WiFi and Bluetooth. The 3G models also include an unlocked 3G modem, capable of working on any GSM cellular network. Note that the iPad uses a microSIM card, so if you don’t have a microSIM card you’ll have to talk to your carrier.

In the US, Apple has inked deals with AT&T for iPad-specific dataplans. $14.99 gets you 250 MB/month, and $29.99/month gives you unlimited data. No contract is required – the plans are pay as you go. These compare favorably to the existing laptop dataplans offered by many carriers, which are typically $60/month. Apple has stated that they are working with international carriers to provide similar plans, which will become available later this summer.

Apple expects to ship the WiFi only iPads in late March, and the 3G models shortly thereafter in April.

“Text” podcasts: embracing text-based content in the iTunes ecosystem means the ability to deliver daily news & info in a simpler, more user-friendly way than RSS feeds provide. Not only would this interest the big newspaper publishers, it might lead to the rebirth of the Zine, not to mention appeal to comic artists / cartoonists and indy authors.

Apple TV lives: I’ve long felt that the Apple TV gets a bum rap in the media. It is often criticized for its lack of DVR functionality. But if you look at today’s popular set-top boxes like the Roku or Western Digital media players, you’ll see that they too lack DVR capabilities and instead stream video from the network or local computers. Just like the Apple TV does.

To me, it always seemed that the Apple TV was Steve Jobs’ pet project (he referred to it as a “hobby” when it was first introduced). As Jeff points out, when Steve Jobs’ health took a turn for the worse, progress on the Apple TV languished. Now that Steve is back and making deals with the media companies for the new tablet, I expect we’ll see some Apple TV action as well.

Head over to the Decabled blog to read the full article.

Information Week is running a story about Microsoft’s plans to fire back at Apple’s impending Tablet release. Describing tablets as “the PC industry’s hot new category for 2010″, the article suggests that Microsoft will work with its partners to release more Windows-enabled tablet devices over the coming months.

In my opinion, the problem with this strategy is that it is nothing new. Microsoft has tried to make Windows-enabled tablet computers popular for the past 10 years and they have never caught on. As I’ve stated before, the problem is that a desktop user interface does not translate well to a tablet form factor – whether we’re talking Windows, OS X or Linux. When Apple releases their Tablet on Wednesday, I’ll eat my socks if it runs a standard OS X user interface (I do reserve the right to use as much ketchup as I want).

Desktop user interfaces are designed for keyboards and mice. Period. Once you put a desktop UI on a tablet you have to accommodate the lack of a keyboard – so you slap a virtual keyboard on screen, or maybe a text input panel with handwriting recognition. But then you run into problems with the applications themselves – some of which don’t like working with the virtual keyboard, demand more screen real estate, or have tiny menus that are difficult to navigate with touch input. I know this from personal experience – I have a Viliv X70 tablet here running both XP and Windows 7, and it is far from a joy to use.

If Microsoft really wants to compete with the Apple Tablet, they need to do exactly what Apple is rumored to have done – build a touch-enabled operating system for a new class of devices and make it easy for application developers to write apps targeted to that platform. Anything else is just a hack.

Flurry provides mobile application developers with a software agent that can be embedded in any application. That agent then tracks anonymous performance and usage data for the application, which is then relayed back to the software developer. Developers can use this information to improve their apps. Apparently a number of popular iPhone applications utilize the Flurry agent, and through that connection Flurry was able to discern that these apps were running on Apple Tablet prototypes. The new devices run iPhone OS 3.20 which has not yet been released (current iPhones run 3.1.2). Apparently the frequency with which these devices appeared has increased dramatically in January, indicating that Apple may be ramping up testing in preparation for an impending release.

The devices were observed to be running a variety of iPhone software applications, mainly focusing on consumer-friendly gaming and entertainment titles. Flurry has provided a graph showing the tested applications by category. It remains to be seen whether the new Apple device utilizes the same user interface as the iPhone, or runs a new one optimized for a larger format screen.

Update:

I was curious as to whether or not these devices might just be new iPhones being tested as the original blog post was vague on details. The question was asked in a comment on Flurry’s blog, and here is their response:

This is a fair question. We feel confident that we are looking at the tablet device for two main reasons, that I can share with you. Also note that, as a company, we have experience tracking new Apple hardware devices in the past.

1) If this were an iPhone we were looking at, the hardware would tell us when we ask it (via the software). So we can rule out that this is an iPhone. Also, we already see verified iPhone devices testing OS 4.0 and these leave (Apple’s Cupertino, CA) campus, whereas this device does not. This makes sense given the secrecy around the new tablet device as the launch event nears.
2) The apps being tested match up to what the devices is supposed to feature (e.g., news, books, etc.). We cannot share further detail here due to Terms of Service agreements we have with customers that use our service, but feel that if you were able to see the data we see, at the level of granularity, it would be clear to you as well.

Of course the truth will be revealed on Wednesday, but we wouldn’t publish such a report without a high level of confidence.

Flurry is not interested in building a business on rumor, but rather authority, credibility and accuracy.

Thanks,

Peter Farago
VP Marketing
Flurry, Inc.

Posted @ Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:23 PM by Peter Farago