There's So Much To Love About The iPad
Pretentious, I know, but I've been reading Great Expectations on the iPad recently. I'm not normally in to the classics, but I got gripped on this book. And it's free!
While reading it, it's hard to get away from the fact it's in "olde" English. There are lots of words on each page I could only guess at the meaning of, had I been reading it in a traditional book.
However, with iBooks on the iPad, if I get stuck on a word I just long-press the word and choose Dictionary to be shown the word's meaning:
I had no idea what "ague" was. Nor what an "accoucher" is.
It's the little things like this that continue to amaze me with the iPad. There are a few words it couldn't find, but you have to give it credit for getting even the above right (from what I can tell it's not looking online for the answers).
Aside from the stock apps like iBooks, there's also the gems such as Flipboard (get it, if you haven't already!). There's something special about seeing your own words and photos in its newspaper-like layout.
I bet my great great great grandad had no idea his photo would one day be displayed on a digital newspaper over the internet.
Then there are the treats like finding your 2 year old's doodles on it.
Not great examples of what makes the iPad so great, but it's the myriad little things like these that make it truly amazing. It's the one piece of geek kit I've bought that I can honestly say I can't imagine being without it. Yeah, my ThinkPad's great. Sturdy. Reliable... Boring. But the iPad is just magical and an endless joy.
It will be an interesting year or two coming up as we see if anybody can even come close the iPad with their own tablets. While I'd like to be "out there" and own an Android-based tablet instead, I just can't see them coming close. Especially having suffered as an Android phone user for a year or more.
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I don't have an iPad, but I do have an Amazon Kindle, and it also has a similar function where you can just highlight a word in a book you are reading and the definition is displayed.
Like you say, it's these "little" features which make devices like this a joy to use.
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Jake, you knew when you wrote it that someone would question it, what have you suffered through as an android phone user?
I have the HTC Desire android based phone and it is a great phone and so much more. I guess I see the android based devices moving forward (due particularly to their openness) and the ipod/ipad devices staying relatively stagnant. Especially when you factor in price.
Of course this brings up the whole apple vs (name your item here) argument, but really, I compare my children's ipod touch to my android based device and I see no advantage of the ipod. I have only seen the Galaxy Tab once so for sure not a fair comparison to the ipad. The android based devices just seem to be more open and available.
I guess not being a fan of apple products, especially after suffering through trying to keep 2 ipod touches synced with our home PC for the kids (and getting prompt after prompt about how upgrading the OS on the ipod will completely wipe out all the music on the ipod...
I recently installed Kindle for android, but the smallish screen (3.7") just doesn't work for reading a novel.
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Hmmm, good question. I didn't think anybody would question it, as I can't actually put a finger on exactly what it is about my HTC Hero that made me say that.
My major annoyance with it is the sticky trackball, which makes the phone intermittently unusable. That's a hardware issue (I assume) so I can't count that.
I don't know what it is. It's just a sense that it's not as polished as the iOS devices. Every single aspect of iOS seems to have been thoroughly thought through and makes it a pleasure and a breeze to use. I can't say that about the Android, which doesn't seem to flow as well.
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I picked up an ArchOs 5 Android 'device' and have to agree that Apple is light years ahead in terms of usability. Granted, the ArchOs is running Android version 1.6 but my 3 year old iPod Touch runs circles around it. Say what you will about their locked down App Store, but I find the Apple apps to be much higher quality than what I'm finding in the Android Marketplace.
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On a tangent Jake; as a developer, and a webby one at that, what are your thoughts on apps vs the web?
I'm amazed that we've had mobile web for so long now and all it takes is extra html to support it, and what happened? nothing. Come iOS and Android and everyone's rushing to develop apps. so a seperate app for this platform a new one for that. It must take a lot of support, and flies away from the inclusivity of web standards - if you haven't got a particular device you may be left behind if a particular app from one platform isn't available on another.
Your question about the coming tablets is interesting because of the big shakeup that's going on. I'm interested in the blackberry playbook for their take on "you don't need to do apps for the web". Obviously apps are useful for device specific functions (requiring GPS, Graphics acceleration etc) but I would like to see more device agnostics.
PS - think of an alternate reality where IBM decided to bring out a tablet running 'NotesOS' - optimised to run an efficient eclipse based notes client as a shell. Fully synchronised, web browsing built in, access to a huge legacy installed user base - what more would you want? And would then answer your newest post too :-)
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"efficient eclipse based notes client"...
...now thats an oxymoron if I have ever seen one :D
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My take: it will take time for apps to truly move to the web. Tons of them are games actually. Even those can go to the web eventually, check out some of the in-browser plugin free games at the Chrome app store.
As for these info apps, really just shells around existing websites, there is no strong reason for those to exist once you can create an optimized web version of it.
Then there is utility apps that need local storage or interface with the iPad's hardware. Those will stay for a long time.
Technically, many of the apps can go to the web, and in the future even more. Don't forget though that it is hard to make money of web apps, and relatively easy to do so with apps. I spend close to a 100$ on apps now, admitting many are games, yet some are not. I never would have spend that money on websites.
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As with anything it's horses for courses. Apps are always going to be able to do things that the web can't. Or, rather, do it much slicker.
Take the iPad's Twitter app. It's amazingly rich and fluid. A pleasure to use. They tried to do something similar with the "new Twitter" site. Doesn't (can't?) even come close though.
A web app is never going to be as rich or as natural-feeling as a native app.
A Notes-based mobile OS? Erk ;-)
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