Accusations of hyperbole be damned, I think the iPad is absolutely a game changer.
If you want details on the specs and demo videos and the like, go somewhere else. I’m not here for that. I’m here to address some of the criticisms being lodged at Apple’s latest device and hopefully shine some light on the purpose of the device, as I understand it, and why I think it truly does represent a technological revolution.
Criticisms
First, some of the complaints being lodged against the device almost instantly:
No support for Adobe Flash.
Adobe is really playing this one up, of course. I think they’re just seeing the continuation of the trend of the last few years and trying to keep themselves relevant on the web. The truth is, Flash is dead and has been for some time. It’s hanging on, mostly due to web developers who don’t want to take the time to learn anything about actual standards (and don’t let Adobe fool you, Flash is not a web standard).
Critics are filing complaints like, “You can’t visit Hulu.com!” and “You can’t play a lot of games!” One article even went so far as to say “Most” websites use Flash.
That’s just bullshit right there.
The iPhone doesn’t support Flash either. Have I missed it? Not a chance. Even on my desktop or notebook computers, if I load a page and see Flash, my opinion of the page instantly drops as I wait for Flash to load into memory and start running whatever annoying spam the page happens to be displaying.
The only almost worthwhile use of Flash is for video, but in that arena, it’s old tech. HTML5 supports video in your web browser, is actually a standard, and is much faster. More importantly, it works on any standards-compliant browser… meaning Safari and Chrome. It works in Firefox just fine as well, but I can’t in good conscience include Firefox in the list of standards-compliant browsers.
No Way to Print
Really? Who prints? I haven’t even turned my printer on in months. We have Robert Scoble’s teenage son to thank for that wonderful insight. You’d think it’d be some old fart complaining about printing but no, it’s some stupid teenager with an even stupider dad. Yes, I subscribe to his RSS feed, but it’s only for ammunition, and I’m proud to be on his Blocked list on Twitter.
Too Expensive
Are you fucking joking? $499. $499. You people were expecting it to be $999 before the event and now you’re saying $499 is too much? $499 for a piece of hardware this advanced is ridiculously low.
Not Good for Games
You’re an idiot. I’ll explain why later.
How the iPad Changes the Game
Remember way way back to early 2007. Like other techie nerds, I had a Windows Mobile smartphone. It was… nice. I guess.
Okay, it was slow and clunky but hey, I had the Internet in my pocket… kind of. I could get my e-mail anywhere! I had to pay about $80 per month to Sprint for that e-mail though. Oh, but I could stay logged into MSN Messenger wherever I went. Though doing so would drain the battery in about half an hour.
Believe it or not, that was the pinnacle of smartphones.
Then Apple gave us the iPhone. Early adopters (read: Apple fans, which I was not at the time) bought up the iPhone right away and loved it. Web apps were pretty cool things, at least as far as specially formatted web pages go. But e-mail was slick, users could browse the Internet (All of it!) and pinch and zoom around the device with just a touch.
In a matter of months, it became clear that the idea of having the Internet in your pocket was no longer some far-flung notion for sci-fi novels. It was here and it was fantastic.
I relate this story often enough that most everyone I know has heard it, but I’ll do so again here. When I purchased my first generation iPhone in March of 2008, it was expensive. They weren’t yet subsidized by AT&T, so I think I spent about $500. Needless to say, I spent the next week or so looking at the device, exploring its possibilities, and wondering if I’d made a good decision.
I met a couple friends at a coffee shop on a Thursday morning. The work-at-home job I held at the time had weekly conference calls on Thursdays at 10 am, so I had to excuse myself at one point to join the call. I pop the little white earbuds into my ears and dial in. During the call, I loaded up the Notes app and jotted down the bits of info relevant to me. Afterwards, my boss needed to go over a specific project with me, so he calls me back and e-mails me a message with a Word document to go over. I get the e-mail instantly and pull up the attachment, flicking through the doc as he explains it to me.
I walked back to where my friends were sitting, laid the iPhone on the table and said “It’s totally worth it.”
It’s not that Apple invented the smartphone. Apple saw that users had a need, saw that some users were trying to fill that need with these clunky devices, and decided to create a device that would fill the need elegantly.
Now, there’s iPhones everywhere. The iPhone has become an integral part of popular culture as well as among tech geeks.
Just try to get some techies together without the conversation turning to someone showing a cool app they found. If you’re hanging out with three friends, and you have a question about anything at all, the statistical odds are good that one of them will whip an iPhone out and look up the answer for you.
The iPhone drastically changed the gadget landscape too, with existing phone manufacturers scrambling to do anything they could do be like the iPhone. Since 2007, “iPhone killers” have come and gone, and Apple’s device still reigns supreme.
So what does this have to do with the iPad? A lot. We’re in the same situation we were three years ago. We just have a different need to be met. (This example can also describe the thinking that led to the iPod, by the way.)
The last couple years have seen the PC market change dramatically. The last two holiday seasons have seen stores pushing netbooks; small, low-powered, usually lightweight, usually very portable, computers, most of which run Windows XP with some new models running Windows 7.
Consumers have been snatching up these computers to meet their need for a device that’s not a desktop computer, but not their phone. Sure, they can get online with their phone and run all sorts of apps to accomplish various tasks, but sometimes you just need… a little bit more, right? But you’re out and about and can’t just run home to get this done. Or even if you are home, it’s not so serious a thing that you need to stifle your creativity by sitting at a desk in your home office, typing away in boredom.
I’m exaggerating, but you get the idea. We’ve been wanting a device to fill this niche. The market proves it.
Apple repeatedly stated they would not make a netbook. Ever. On Wednesday, they rounded up the reasons why:
In order for a third category of device to exist, and to successfully fill the gap between a smartphone and a computer, it must do some things better than either of the previous devices.
To expand on that, there are some things your smartphone does better than your desktop and some things your desktop does better than your smartphone. For example, I much prefer to check Twitter on my iPhone, and my desktop can’t very well travel in my pocket and track my current location so I can check in on Foursquare. Likewise, I wouldn’t want to type a blog post the size of a short novel on my iPhone’s tiny onscreen keyboard and it would be impossible for me to write my own applications on the iPhone itself.
Likewise, a third device must clearly be more appropriate for certain tasks.
Additionally, we must consider that the desktop computer eventually met needs we never could have imagined having. In the same way, developers of iPhone apps have created new experiences we never wished for before they existed, but couldn’t live without now.
The iPad is a device that can actually fill our current need perfectly.
What are our needs? They’re going to be somewhat different for each of us. For me, I want something that is fast. The iPhone 3GS is pretty fast, but I don’t have that model, so mine is a little slower. Even the 3GS, though, is still limited in its processor power as part of the balance between speed and battery life.
I also want something that I can be creative on. Sitting in my computer room (how droll that the computer demands a whole room unto itself!) absolutely kills my creativity. It’s a miracle I’ve made it this far into writing this post without getting distracted. I’m passionate, so I press on. I long to be out somewhere that will inspire me, or at least allow me to relax while I write. I have a laptop, but it’s old, heavy, running old software, and requires that I carry a cooling pad and power adapter with me since it gets a battery life of about shit there goes all my work.
Finally, I’m ready for a different kind of game. (Come on back Kotaku assholes who said the iPad isn’t good for games. Now’s the part that matters to you.) Call it age if you’d like, but I’m just not always interested in games that require a huge mental investment to enjoy. That’s not to say I don’t want a challenge, a rich story, or advanced graphics. I just don’t always want to have to study a game before I can enjoy it.
So, to sum up, I want speed, portability, and games that are easy to get into but still challenging.
iPad, ahoy!
Google this: “Apple A4 processor”
While you’re at it, search on YouTube for “iPad hands-on”
Apple has developed their own processor to handle the system, graphics, and audio processing needs of the iPad (and potentially future mobile devices) while keeping power consumption super efficient (10 hours of use, over a month of standby!). The hands-on videos give us the proof: the iPad is friggin FAST! You touch it, it responds. Instantly. Games are getting at least 30 fps and responding to the accelerometer very accurately. Pages load fast, HD video is smooth. It’s just plain fast.
Portability? How much more portable can you get. There’s the aforementioned 10 hour battery life. That’s 10 hours of browsing, watching video or listening to music. Yes, it will vary depending on what you’re doing. If you’re playing a game, it’s going to put more strain on the battery, but 10 hours as an upper limit is unheard of on such a capable device. 1.5 pounds, 0.5 inches thick. I can take the tablet, by itself, to wherever I feel like working. I don’t need any accessories with me, though I certainly intend to get the slick case they feature on the product page at apple.com.
And games. Games took off in a big way when Apple unleashed the App Store. Chief among developers who have embraced the device to its fullest is EA. I enjoy loading up SimCity on my iPhone on occasion. Today I began to imagine SimCity running on a faster device (it can chug a little on the iPhone) with a nice big touch screen, tracing paths for my roads and rails, grabbing buildings and plopping them down where I please. Then I began to imagine more “hardcore” games. Command & Conquer for the iPad? Yes please!
Games shown yesterday were merely iPhone games stretched to fit the larger screen. I can’t wait to see what developers will do with the dramatically increased processor power and larger screen. The iPad is going to be absolutely killer for games and will surpass the iPhone in terms of original ideas for new gaming experiences.
Closing Thoughts
So there it is. Those are my thoughts on the iPad and how it will revolutionize the way we work and play. I’m saving back the money so I can get one right away and I’ll of course post more about it then. (In April, as I intend to get a 3G model.)
