7 Responses to Apple’s New iPad – First Impression

1. Diego Petrucci says:

   January 27, 2010 at 7:21 pm

   Am I the only one who thinks the homescreen is a perfect example of bad design? The icons are tiny and the screen is almost empty. Looks like they said "oh well let's just transfer the icons into the iPad, not resizing them, and never think of them again"

   Everything else looks quite good.

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   • patrickj says:

     January 28, 2010 at 1:08 am

     I'm not sure – I've been so caught up in the specs and the features and abilities and such I haven't taken a really good,long look at that part of things. I will scrutinize even more now though

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   • kazemizuhi says:

     January 28, 2010 at 12:48 pm

     Agreed. From the sparse home screen, oversized bevel (though the reasoning is understood), lack of multi-tasking etc. it just seems to fall shy of truly revolutionary.

     I just keep telling myself "this only the 1st gen, wait for the 3GS…". Here's hoping.

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2. sysrage says:

   January 27, 2010 at 8:07 pm

   Enormous letdown in my opinion. I was hoping for something revolutionary. I didn't listen to the entire event, but what I've seen is far from revolutionary. Unless there are some serious changes to the iPhone OS and SDK that were not mentioned, the iPad is a mere novelty. Not even close to a game changer. Why would I spend $500+ on a giant iPhone that doesn't have a phone, doesn't have a camera, can't multi-task, and restricts me in major ways? iWork? Seriously? How do you plan on getting any serious work done when you have no (official) access to the filesystem? I get 'cloud' computing is the next big thing and I'm sure there will be some way to upload your work to MobileMe or some junk. For those that think this is a great idea, good. I'm happy for you. I was hoping for a lot more (that Apple could have easily delivered). I'll spend my $500 on a laptop that allows me to do what I want. Not a glorified e-reader.

   Sorry for so much negativity. I just feel let down and frankly, without the announcement of major changes to the iPhone OS, Android phones look a whole lot more attractive. As I'm sure you know from my comments here, I absolutely love my iPhone. However, that love hinges on what I can do with my phone after it's been jailbroken. To me, the phone is near worthless without iRealSMS, LockInfo, ProSwitcher+Backgrounder, and access to the filesystem with iFile, Safari Download Manager, and Attachment Saver. These are all features that should be available on any 'smartphone'. We've seen them done via the jailbreak community for a very long time now. Apple is making an incredibly mistake by deciding to not only not implement these features themselves, but also continuing to make it more difficult for us to jailbreak.

   I know, the fanbois will say 'good riddance' and most others will think I'm a bit over the top. That's fine. I am being a bit crazy. I'm very disappointed. I love my phone and was really hoping Apple would give me a reason to stick with it. Unfortunately, if they won't even give a tablet device multitasking ability, it's pretty obvious the phone won't be getting it anytime soon. Let alone the other features. Yes, I know it's a bit early to say it won't happen for sure. Just seems pretty clear to me. They still have until June. Here's to hoping.

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   • patrickj says:

     January 28, 2010 at 1:12 am

     I don't thin k you're over the top or have any mean words for you. I don't think it's revolutionary in and of itself if that makes any sense. I hope it will be revolutionary in how well its interface and design are executed, as with most Apple devices.
     I do think there are a lot of big weaknesses at the moment – multitasking, app organizing, and so on. I feel optimistic that Apple will address most or all of those shortcomings though, and in the not too distant future – hopefully in OS 4.0. So yeah, hopefully by June.

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3. Lesley says:

   January 28, 2010 at 12:48 am

   I want one too. The two things I'm disappointed about are the lack of multitasking and decent apps organization. I do believe that Apple will be fixing those when they get around to releasing iPhone OS 4.0. I would be highly surprised if they don't.

   Even without those, it will fill a niche for me. It will replace my Kindle, as I find the lack of backlighting annoying on that. I like to read in bed after my husband has gone to sleep, which means no light in the room. Right now, I read on my iPhone using the Kindle app once the lights are out, but I would prefer something larger.

   It will also make a nifty kitchen computer. I currently use my iPhone when I need to refer to a recipe, either using Evernote or one of the recipe apps. But the iPhone is a little small to make a good cookbook replacement, and my MacBook is too large. This will be a nice size. I'm going to be renovating our kitchen this year, and I'm going to ask the designer to build in a stand for the iPad.

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   • patrickj says:

     January 28, 2010 at 1:13 am

     Cool. Glad you've already got a couple of major use cases for it. And when you're done designing your kitchen, can you please knock up some plans for my place?

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