[gui-talk] Fwd: Review: Apple Ipad

[Steve Pattison]

From:	Dane Trethowan
To:	CUG Members

Hi!

The following review is taken from The Age Green Guide for Thursday, 13 May 2010.

Headline, Messiah or a naughty toy?, by Adam Turner.

The Apple iPad is a stunning device but suffers greatly for its sins.

APPLE'S long-awaited tablet is finally coming to Australia, with pre-
orders being taken for delivery in two weeks. But is the iPad a triumph
of style over substance? Apple worshippers claim the iPad is heavenly,
a tablet carried down from the mountain Moses-style by Apple high
priest Steve Jobs. Meanwhile, Apple's critics see the iPad as the
golden calf ? wondrous and shiny but ultimately requiring you to sell
your soul to the devil in black.

Australian customers have been forced to wait for the iPad after US
buyers quickly ordered the first batch but a handful of those early
iPads made their way to our shores. I was one of the lucky few and
arranged for a friend to courier an iPad from California.

Yet having owned an iPad for a month, I'm still not convinced that it's
computing's saviour. Instead, the iPad is the definitive Apple product
? blessed with a miraculous user experience but blemished by the sin
of omission and lacking key features that owners of other devices take
for granted. So what exactly is the iPad? Basically, it's an overgrown
iPhone, coming in a bit smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. Actually,
it's almost exactly the same size as the Green Guide folded in half
and not much thicker. Weighing 700 grams, the iPad sits comfortably in
your hands and features a gorgeous 25-centimetre display. Don't bother
looking for a built-in keyboard as, like the iPhone, the iPad uses a
touch-screen interface. You can flick, tap and pinch the screen to
navigate your way through the iPad's highly intuitive interface, while
an onscreen keyboard pops up when you need to type something. The
iPad's screen is exquisite ? making it hard not to fall in love with
the device at first sight. Images and colours on the big display are
deep and vibrant, plus the iPad's extra grunt under the bonnet makes
menus and animations silky smooth. It's clearly an object of desire
but what would you do with an iPad? It's a good question, considering
they are priced from $629 to $1049 in Australia. The iPad won't
replace your mobile phone ? it can't make phone calls. It's also
unlikely to replace your desktop computer, or even a powerful notebook
? it runs the iPhone's mobile-phone operating system, so you can only
install the applications available from Apple's iTunes Store. The
iPad's lack of a physical keyboard would make writing long reports or
school assignments a hard slog.

Instead, Apple is targeting the iPad as a replacement for the cheap,
low-powered netbooks that have become popular recently.

At first glance the iPad seems the perfect netbook replacement. It's
great for surfing the web, reading email, checking your calendar,
viewing your photos, watching videos, updating Twitter and Facebook,
listening to music and reading books ? but with a few critical
limitations.

Like the iPhone, the iPad won't handle Adobe Flash content. Flash is
used by many websites to provide video, animated graphics, interactive
content and, yes, those annoying ads.

The growth in iPhone- and iPad-friendly websites is reducing our
reliance on Flash ? as is the rise of new standards such as HTML5 ?
but it will be years before Flash fades away. Meanwhile, you'll be
disappointed with the iPad if you want to play Flash-based games on
Facebook or watch Flash-based video such as the ABC's iView catch-up
TV service. Many interesting interactive websites also rely on Flash
or equivalent technologies, such as Microsoft Silverlight, forcing you
to put down the iPad and go in search of a real computer.

The iPad also falls short of a netbook in several other areas. There's
no keyboard for typing long documents, no DVD drive for playing movies
and music, no webcam for Skype video chats, no memory-card slot for
copying photos from your digital camera and no USB ports for
connecting other devices. If you're prepared to spend more money,
Apple offers solutions for many of these issues. You can buy a
wireless keyboard, a USB adaptor and a memory card adaptor. Of course,
the iPad isn't as portable as a netbook if you need to carry around a
bag full of adaptors and accessories.

When it comes to connecting to the internet, the iPad is available in
two versions. The Wi-Fi-only version lets the iPad connect to local
wireless networks such as your home Wi-Fi network or a public Wi-Fi
hotspot. The more expensive Wi-Fi/3G iPad also takes a SIM card so,
like a smartphone, it can connect directly to a mobile broadband
network. You can't use the SIM card out of your phone, as the iPad
uses the micro-SIM format ? offering carriers the chance to lock in
iPad customers for exorbitant mobile-data prices.

You can't get around these networking limitations by connecting your
iPad to a smartphone via Bluetooth or USB, as Apple blocks the ability
to "tether" to other devices in order to share internet access. It's
the price you pay for living under Apple's benevolent dictatorship.

Talking about using the iPad on the go, it's worth noting that the
trade-off for the iPad's exquisite display is terrible screen glare.
Even on an overcast day you'll be staring at your reflection if you
use the iPad outside, plus you'll see every little smudge and
fingerprint on the screen. On a bright day the screen is all but
unusable in direct sunlight.

So what are its redeeming features? Its key strength is usability and
its place is probably on the coffee table or beside your bed.

Flash limitations aside, the iPad is a great device for casual
computing. Forget about viruses, crashes and constant software updates
? the iPad is one of those rare products that "just works". If your
only computer is locked away in the study at the cold end of the house,
the iPad would be a handy device to have lying around. Want to check
your email or read the paper online? Settle an argument using Google
or the Internet Movie Database? Play games? Show off your digital
photos? All simple tasks when the iPad is at hand.

On the flip side, if you already have a house full of computers, with a
notebook or netbook always within reach, then the iPad might seem like
a redundant extravagance.

Think of buying an iPad as buying a Vespa motor scooter when you
already own a Ford Territory for driving to work and a Malvern Star
for riding to the park. I've had an iPad for a month and, in my tech-
savvy household, this wundergadget lies idle most of the time.

When we do call upon the iPad, I soon come up against one of its
limitations and go in search of a notebook.

Now we've cut to the heart of the matter ? what is an iPad good for?

If you already own a swag of gadgets, perhaps think of the iPad as an
eBook and newspaper reader. More than one Australian publisher is
preparing to unveil an iPad application. Apple has also opened an
iBookstore section of the iTunes Store, which looks set to do for
books what the iPod did for music. Access to the bookstore is
restricted to US customers at this stage, although a quick Google
search would inform any curious local how to set up a US iTunes
account from Australia. You can also read Kindle eBooks on the iPad.
Some people might find it easy to justify the expense of an iPad, such
as photographers wanting to show off their photos or students who
usually carry textbooks. About now it's time to turn our attention to
Apple's secret weapon ? the iTunes Store. Access to the iTunes Store,
to download music, movies, podcasts, games and productivity apps,
gives the iPhone the advantage over competing smartphones. The iPad
offers the same flexibility, with almost all the iPhone apps working
on the iPad.

Your "killer app" for the iPad could be Twittering in front of the
television, reading the paper on the way to work, playing games while
you wait for the bus or reading books in bed. Perhaps it could be
checking the footy score from the backyard, checking the weather
forecast from the lounge room, reading your email on the balcony or
looking up recipes in the kitchen. If you buy an iPad you'll probably
love it, as long as you appreciate its limitations and don't expect it
to be a notebook or netbook replacement. Big is certainly beautiful
but Apple's eye-catching iPad isn't designed to be your one true love.

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782