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I have finally broken down and decided to do an iPad review. I also finally saw and touched one for the first time on Saturday so that might have something to do with it too. I would like to say before I start, I am not an Apple fangirl. I just want to put that out there. The only Apple product I have ever owned is my iPod.
For some reason I find Apple as a corporation unsettling. Yes they can make pretty products, but no they are not right for me and I just can't buy into it all. Apple requires a certain lifestyle which I do not have. It's nice to have a pretty product but not if it sacrifices functionality and the motto of "it just works" rubs me the wrong way. The real issue is that so much is sacrificed to make it "just work" and I would rather have function. My PC may be buggy but I can put what I want on it, I trust myself enough to not completely screw it up (and really there is nothing I can do to it a good reformat can't fix) I like having the ability to make my own mistakes. Last month, my battery was almost completely worn out so I bought a new one and I replaced it myself, let's see you do that on an Apple product.
I have digressed from the point of this post, I am supposed to be reviewing the iPad. To set the stage: I arrive at the Apple store, it is full of people and chatter, there are throngs of people crowding around the two tables devoted to the iPad. I hover near the table, pretending to play with the macbook on the adjacent table. Then someone sets down an iPad and I pounce and scoop it up before anyone else can take it. I stare at it for a moment, trying to take in all the details about this device that I have heard so much about and know that Steve Jobs has decreed I should love. The first thing I noticed was the large glossy screen...completely covered with smears and smudges from all the fingers that had fondled it before me. At this point I really just wanted to set it down and wash my hands but I restrained myself.
The next thing I noticed was the weight of the thing. It was heavy and during the time I was holding it seemed to get heavier and heavier. I wanted to be able to hold it in my left hand and manipulate it with my right but it really needed to be propped up on something. Since I was in the store and setting it on the table didn't put it in a comfortable position and I couldn't sit in a chair and prop it up on my leg, I was left to juggle it back and forth between my hands as I tried to size up the thing. I really could have used something a bit lighter and it could have been a bit smaller, the proportions of it seemed off to me when I looked at it but that is just my preference.
Well I stood there for a moment holding the iPad then thought "I should probably try to do some thing on it shouldn't I?" I looked at all the icons, awkwardly spaced on the screen, flicked it to the next screen and stared at that for a moment then continued on. I opened google earth, it was google earth, nothing earth-shattering about it. I tried to play some of the games, they were alright but given that I have played games on the iPod touch there was nothing really special their either. Then I decided to go online, and lo and behold the internet was still there just as I had last seen it on my laptop. It did browse the internet, I didn't exactly challenge it though. It was the internet, it may be a different way to get to it and I could poke at it but I wouldn't say it was “the best way to experience the web.” It was merely just another way to experience the web. I played a movie, it looked good. I looked at some pictures stored on it, the iPad can certainly function as the most expensive picture frame you will ever own. Then I decided to look at the books on it because I kept hearing all about that feature, how it will change the way I read. There were a number of books to look at and I browsed through a few of them. Yes it was fun the first few times I flipped the virtual pages but that got old fast and I like my physical books that I get to flip the pages and see my progress (and borrow from the library so I don't have to buy them from iTunes.)
At this point I had been holding the iPad for about 5 minutes...and I was bored. My curiosity was satiated and I kept flipping through the icons and thinking that I couldn't possible be this bored with this device already, but I was. The Apple employee had wandered over by then and was asking if anyone had any questions and I felt like saying no, it's a giant iPod touch so really what is there to question about it. I tried to imagine what I would do with one. Well, its not really portable enough for me to carry around with me and just pull out when I am bored in line to get my coffee or something. That leaves when I am sitting at home. I usually just carry my laptop around the house with me. I really can't remember the last time I sat down at my laptop and did one thing and one thing only. I like to multitask and the fact that the iPad can't really doesn't endear it to me. I usually watch a video or listen to a podcast as I have another internet window open, plus a document or two, and then I have pidgin running so I can instant message when the urge strikes me. I can browse the internet on the iPad but that is nothing special and having to exit out of my browser to answer an instant message from a friend would be a huge pain. I like to take pictures with my camera and edit them on my computer and the iPad doesn't have a camera of its own and I can't just plug my camera into its non-existent USB port to load the pictures I have taken onto it. I am supposed to read books on it but given that I usually read actual physical books that I borrow from the library I don't see myself rushing out to buy them from iTunes.
I can't see anything I could use the iPad for that would be productive, it really just seems to be a toy for messing around on, which is fine but they seem to want us to think that businesspeople and students and everyone can actually do work on this new shiny toy. It costs $499 at a minimum and not even that once taxes are added and the fact that to do almost any little thing on it requires buying an app. I can't justify spending that amount of money on a toy and a first generation one at that. Next year there will be a new iPad with more features and a lower price and all the people who bought this year's will feign surprise and then buy it. Apple always wants people to buy its newest and shiniest product, even the people who just barely bought it a year before, there's no upgrades, just replacements. If I am going to spend $500 on a product it better not be one that will be obsolete in a year which will be true of this first iPad, really this first iPad has a lifespan of one month, then the 3G version comes out anyway but Apple knows the fanboys will buy this first iPad and then another in a month anyway. I just don't have the financial backing to be an Apple person, you have to keep buying things because you just can't walk around with an outdated Apple product.
I think I could have fun with a tablet but not this one. The most I could think about spending on one would be around $200 and I want a computer OS, not a crippled phone OS for something that isn't a phone. I need functionality to justify what I buy and the iPad is just all frivolity and paying for the bragging rights. I do like touch, I know it is the future but I don't want it in the locked down Apple form factor. I was bored with the iPad after a few minutes and that doesn't surprise me, I had heard that it was like a giant iPod touch and that's exactly what it felt like. It met expectations but didn't surpass them on any level and that is just boring and if Apple wants me to spend then I expect better, it didn't have that wow factor I expect from a new Apple product. I expect to go to the store and play with it and realize that Steve Jobs was right and I can't live without it, but my experience with the iPad left me knowing I had my fill of the device and that I really didn't need one for any reason.
My conclusion: even if I had $500 to my name, I wouldn't be running out to spend it on the iPad. It can't replace my laptop, it's not a smartphone, a netbook can do more than it, and for me there just isn't a need for there to be yet another niche between these devices.
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