I'm sure by now you are sick as I am by the relentless news about the iPad, Apple's latest definition of the future of computing. I read mostly tech news and I've been following the rumours and the reviews of the iPad and here are my thoughts.
It all started when people started to ask
Steve Jobs about what Apple's answer will be to the pervasive
netbook. And for the record I hate netbooks. I think jobs is right by calling them nothing more than under-powered cheap laptops. Their keyboards are small, the screen is small, their processors are slow, you'll be lucky if you can do anything worthwhile on those things. So netbooks are bad and Apple has developed a reputation for changing some of the bad things in this world.
It all started with the iPhone, the phone that was designed to change the industry, the way we communicate. Prior to the iPhone there was Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola. And they dazzled us with their designs, I remember the N95 with its double slider was all the rave back then until the iPhone showed up in the US with people sneaking out of work to get in line with the rest of their friends who took the day off to get the iPhone on launch day. With its slick design, thin candy bar form factor, smooth touch surface and apps. Yeah apps were the game changer for Apple. They changed the market. They changed some of our behaviours and in a few years they have taken over as the market leader among all the mobile devices manufacturers. It helped that they already have the iTunes store and a lot of people used to buying music, movies online from apple so the app store was successful because of a previous Apple invention.
The iPod was instant love. In a world where mp3 players were uninspiring Apple stepped in to change all that with design. The iPod is an icon. It was not just another mp3 player it was an iPod, it played music on this gorgeous white device with an intuitive control and a store that turned many away from torrents.
When you trace it back it kind of feels like it was all part of the plan. Everything we have now was just building on what we have become used to. The iPod, the iTunes store, the iPhone, the app store and now the iPad and the iBookstore where Apple will be attempting to change the world of computing once again. Whether they success or not well time will tell.
After much exposure to reviews and videos of the device, i can see myself wanting one. Its much better than a netbook. I can see myself reading lecture slides off of it, poking people on facebook and twitting from it. I guess it unties me from the desk where i consume information. And for consuming all things media this is a great device. I think it will do very well in the campus environment. I don't need to print my tutorial sheets anymore. And when you get bored you have thousands of apps, to keep you occupied.
From a technical standpoint i don't like that the iPad is closed. You can't modify the device to do anything that the manufacturer does not provide. You don't have access to the file system, you can write scripts for this device so in that sense its closed and i fear that this will become the future of computing since most people just love to copy Apple so that saddens me.
Apple has taken it upon itself to move technology forward but always at some cost. I remember when the floppy disk was omitted from the first iMacs in '98 i thought it was silly but we needed to let go of the old and embrace the new (USB ports). I just hope we won't be sorry.
-ONWARD
