So, I've been thinking a bit about why I want an iPad. As I've kept up with the coverage post-announcement I've seen lots of "It's just a big iPod Touch", and I can't really disagree with that. However, I don't think most people realize what they are saying when they say it is "just" a big iPod Touch.
Here's my big thought: the iPad is what Apple was building, and they just released the iPod Touch (and iPhone) along the way. All three of the devices use Apple's iPhone OS, which in reality is just OS X with a touch user interface (UI) instead of the typical mouse/keyboard interface. The key here is the touch user interface, it's the "revolution" so many people have been expecting from Apple.
The iPhone and iPod Touch have taught many of us how to get things done by touching a screen. They've taught us how to scroll around by dragging, how to zoom by pinching, how to twist things and tap things. And we've loved them. What they haven't done, though, is teach us the full potential of the touch interface. There are too many constraints due to the small screen size and slow processors/memory. Think of them as a sneak preview into the future of computing.
The iPad is the beginning of the true future of computing (as envisioned by Apple, at least). With the larger screen, and more powerful hardware, Apple is finally able to execute on the power of touch. If you haven't, go and watch the keynote. Pay particular attention to the iWork demo, especially the demo of the Keynote app. When Phil Schiller grabs one slide, then decides he wants to move more than one and simply taps the others to add them and then drop them all off wherever he wants, that is the perfect example of where things are going. There is a physicality that is possible with touch that until now has been absent from computing. Grab an iPhone and browse around the web; to do so you will be touching, grabbing, stretching, the websites. Now, envision that type of interaction with enough space to actually do things with both hands.
I've seen people around the internet opine that the iPad is simply going to be for consumption, that it's just a fire-hose for delivering Apple sold content. I disagree. Sure, it will be a great way to consume, but I see a new way to create. Go back to that keynote and check out the Brushes demo, that's where things are going. Think back to the most complicated report you ever made in school. You know, the one that you included all those graphs, and diagrams, and images. The one that spanned pages and pages, maybe even had chapters and sections with sub-sections. Now, imagine being able to physically design it. Instead of being bound to moving graphs around the page with the mouse between you and the graph you can just grab it and put it where you want. As Steve Jobs said over and over in the keynote, it will "just work", and as Jon Gruber said afterwords, "The iPad is what they’ve been building toward all along."
So, that's why I want an iPad, and why I actually can see myself being motivated enough to maybe write some apps for it, because the iPad really is the future of computing. Or, at least, it's progress.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 