Justin Michael is the system administrator of a medium-sized business in Scottsdale, AZ where he lives with his girlfriend and a helpful cat. He enjoys technology, design, writing, and using third-person introductions.

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✎ Initial iPad Impressions

In no particular order…

  • “iPad?” Seriously? Wow. Okay.
  • The home screen is the very definition of wasted potential. I don’t get it: the home/lock screen on the current devices already leaves a lot to be desired, so on this “magical” new device they simply add more spacing between icons? The fuck? It’s not like there hasn’t been great work done in this area already, and Apple certainly has no qualms about borrowing ideas.
  • I can’t believe there’s no camera, front or back. And iChat wasn’t anywhere to be found, either!
  • The lack of multitasking is infuriating. I really expected a slick, intuitive implementation here that didn’t involve window management. Something like those fancy popup panels from the status bar at the top, but for different apps running in the back. Tap on one, you get music playback controls from the iPod/Pandora/etc. app. Tap on another, you get a little tabbed chat interface. Tap on another, there’s basically the iPhone version of Tweetie floating there for you. All without exiting the app you’re currently in. They could throb gently when they had something new for you to look at. But no.
  • $499? And the top-of-the-line model is less than $900? Awesome! Glad I was totally wrong!
  • There are several metric tons of potential here for third-party developers, even with the limitations mentioned above.
  • Bluetooth keyboard support. Finally.
  • VGA out via a special dock cable is surprising but very welcome.
  • iWork is surprising but very welcome.
  • The reported speed (fast, fast, fast) is surprising but very welcome.

Still not sure if I’ll get one.

(I’m totally going to get one.)

Text ✎ Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 11:31 PM