…so I may as well join in, and post an opinion of the iPad before I’ve seen or touched it.
First, let us look at why the iPhone is successful – it comes down to the simple fact that it’s the first handheld device to be designed for human beings. I previously owned a HP device running the mini version of Windows and a Palm Tungsten C; both of which devices and their software were designed for people willing to learn how they work.
I never used either device very effectively, because the initial cost of training myself was too high for me to pay it. The preferred text entry mechanism on both was to use a stylus to write in a very specific way: you essentially had to choose between being able to write normally and being able to write into the device; you couldn’t (or at least I couldn’t) do both.
The iPhone didn’t demand I rewire parts of my brain I was already using for something else; using it doesn’t negatively impact me. This is an extremely negative way to look at it, but it really is the main distinction: a device which allows you to get to the web, call your friends, send and receive email, etc has always been a good idea. And in theory it’s been done before, but all the previous attempts had such huge drawbacks they couldn’t be used.
Anyway, onto the iPad. I think it has a very good chance of doing for laptops and netbooks what the iPhone did for smart phones/PDAs – being one that humans can use. I suspect there will be at least 2 in our house soon after they are launched.
What total nonsense. I genuinely couldn’t work out how to make a call the first time I picked up an iPhone, and I wasn’t even very drunk
Then on OSX there’s this weird and supposedly intuitive idea that if I want to know what the weather is doing I move the mouse to this pixel there in that corner… I call shennanigans on this whole belief that Apple design more usable products.
It will be a success, if it is a success, because (a)Steve Jobs tells everyone it should be (b) it will look pretty, (c) it will have adverts with cool dancing young people. I can’t see it personally, because I think they’ve got an uphill struggle to persuade many people they need a completely new toy that doesn’t do anything their current toys don’t – with the phone, they just had to convince people to spend £100 a year more than they currently did on their contracts, but this sounds like a tougher proposition.
As I said, the iPhone was designed for humans: maybe that’s why you were having trouble.
As to OS X, I think it is far too complex and I quite agree that things like Dashboard and Hot Corners are unusable widgets. I don’t think the iPad will have those problems.
The value proposition of the iPad to me is: £550 or so for a thing that’s better than my current laptop (or any I could buy) for doing the things I usually use it for. Given the amount of time I spend using my laptop (vs how much I used my pre-iPhone phone), this is a much easier purchase to justify.
Nah, I don’t see the point of it. But then I don’t see the point of the iPhone, either, so maybe I’m just weird. But that’s what it is – a big iPhone, without the ‘phone.
And if you want a tiny computer you can get a more powerful machine, with a keyboard, that supports all the software you already use, and is roughly the same size, for less than half the money. And humans can already use it, ‘cos it’ll use whatever interface they already know. And you won’t get fingerprints on the screen.
Nope, don’t get it at all.