Tech Report
Apple's iPad
Austin Troya
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Final Approach
The iPad has many features directly rivaling the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble's newly released Nook. The iPad includes an interactive and stylish ebook reader named, of course, iBooks. The notable difference between the iPad's reader and that of other ebook readers is the color screen and multi-touch technology. The iPad also uses a standard format of ebooks and, although unconfirmed, it is rumored that users will be able to import their own ebooks, whereas the Kindle uses a device-specific format for its books.
The iPad is missing several features that are second nature for other developers. First and foremost, the iPad is meant as a reading and web-browsing device and yet it lacks Flash support. Flash is used for YouTube, Hulu, and almost all videos and slideshows embedded in websites. While you are accessing the Internet via WiFi or 3G, how about chatting with a friend via Skype? The lack of camera doesn't stop you from talking to someone, but how much effort would it have taken to integrate a webcam into the iPad? None. Almost all other Apple devices have a camera: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and all the Macs and Macbooks. Finally, Apple developed a new fast and efficient chip for the iPad but didn't use it to its fullest extent. Many thought that with the new chip, the iPad would run OSX and not the iPhone OS. Being more of a netbook than a smartphone, it would make sense that the iPad would allow users to multitask. I can guarantee that people are going to want to listen to Pandora while reading a book. It would have been easy to add a gesture for switching programs, just like on Macbooks.
M y opinion of the iPad is that Apple should have considered more of the user feedback while designing it. I wouldn't buy this one, but depending on how much Apple can fix before releasing the second generation of iPads, I might be convinced to change my view.
The iPad is missing several features that are second nature for other developers. First and foremost, the iPad is meant as a reading and web-browsing device and yet it lacks Flash support. Flash is used for YouTube, Hulu, and almost all videos and slideshows embedded in websites. While you are accessing the Internet via WiFi or 3G, how about chatting with a friend via Skype? The lack of camera doesn't stop you from talking to someone, but how much effort would it have taken to integrate a webcam into the iPad? None. Almost all other Apple devices have a camera: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and all the Macs and Macbooks. Finally, Apple developed a new fast and efficient chip for the iPad but didn't use it to its fullest extent. Many thought that with the new chip, the iPad would run OSX and not the iPhone OS. Being more of a netbook than a smartphone, it would make sense that the iPad would allow users to multitask. I can guarantee that people are going to want to listen to Pandora while reading a book. It would have been easy to add a gesture for switching programs, just like on Macbooks.
M y opinion of the iPad is that Apple should have considered more of the user feedback while designing it. I wouldn't buy this one, but depending on how much Apple can fix before releasing the second generation of iPads, I might be convinced to change my view.
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