the daily einstein

With all the hype of the recently announced Apple iPad, and all the pros and cons out there coming from sensitive emotional humans, I felt it was time to add my two canine cents on the Great Debate and also how I see the iPad being used.

So I’ll cover the various pros and cons and give my take on how they really might affect the experience of the iPad. Background: I am an iPhone 3gs and MacBook user; no I am not in an Apple iCult so I try to give a discerning eye to anything new, Apple or non Apple.

I’ll start with the “worst offenses” and then cover the features I like.

First things first:
the NAME… Of all things haha.
Yeah it’s stupid, what do u expect from a company full of male oblivious enginerds? But whatever, get over it. You are going to throw this in a case and never see the name. Done and done.

Ok next please!:
The obvious No Camera:
This was disappointing in particular to video chatters that use things like Skype and I understand why. But for you skype users, I am sure custom peripherals will be created by the hundreds and hundreds of companies out there looking to make a buck. Just because there isn’t a built in camera doesn’t mean you won’t be able to easily use skype on it. In the meantime, I can suggest the BT-1 Bluetooth webcam. In the very least you have function until something customized to mount to the iPad comes along, which I doubt will take much time to happen. And there the obvious fact u can make a skype call without a camera if need be until u get the option u like the best for your particular needs.
I am guessing the camera wasn’t included because a hardwired camera lacks flexibility in setup so many people will want a different one anyways plus it adds cost which from the presentation seems to be a big focus of Apples. Regardless, they could have mentioned it or planned and created an accessory.
For anyone else that wants a camera other than webcam, really seriously you are never ever going to use a camera to take photos on a big honky tablet computer. Take them on ur cell or heaven forbid a quality standalone camera and load them to your iPad via the Camera Connector Kit, or forgo hardware and try cloud computing and photo websites such as MobileMe, google picasa, flickr etc etc. U get the idea and which soultions work for which camera pics / cell phone shots. I really wish apple had taken the initiative and addressed this, obviously they knew it would come up. Then we wouldn’t have to be guessing over different solutions.

No Flash Player:
This may cause some annoyances, but this will definitely be the way of the future, so who better to start forcing flash out than Apple? I know I know you can’t see hulu! Hulu has lots of rich companies involved, they will come up with a solution, and probably already have one in the works.
We’ll see, it is questionable completely omitting it in my opinion, especially the fact competitors can use it as ammo to buy their product over apples.
Flash uses up quite a large amount of CPU for what it does, and it has needed to go in the trash for awhile. Talk to some developers, search information regarding FlashPlayer technology and then you will see why it was omitted from a device that strives for a lengthy battery life.
I haven’t missed it on my iPhone, But I really can’t say if I’ll miss it on the iPad. FYI, u can still go on you tube, I look up stuff all day on it.

No multitasking:
This one is waaaayyyuu over hyped. The only part I won’t like, and it’s the only thing that bothers me with my iPhone, is that Pandora won’t play while you are using anything else. Drive me crazy. iPod will play though while anything else is running.
Anything else, and you need to hear this point that iPhone users know is true: this new OS works so fast at opening and closing apps that it is very much like minimizing and maximizing on a PC. For instance, as I write this blog on my iPhone, I save, close, open safari, copy links, read other reviews, and then exit and get back to my blog draft extremely quickly at essentially the same speed minmizing and maximizing programs works. All the while listening to my onboard iPod music.
Also, remember that the iPhone OS 4 is being released in march, so while we can’t fix everything by speculating the improvements, this may cause some complaints to go away if it applies to iPad at all, which is being released at that time as well. Remember the iPad isn’t 100% done. For the most part yes, but complete, no.

Now the Fun Stuff!

HTML5: the changes between 4 and 5 are ample, one being video capability. Gaming will be interesting to see how it all pans out and what will commonly be used for that, without flash.

Ereader and iBooks:
I’m so glad I didn’t just buy myself a kindle for Xmas. I’d much rather have an eReader that has all these other computing features. The technology is different, but this is new tehnology. It’s not just a traditional backlit screen that will make your eyes tired. It’s different and improved from the dusty old ones that amazon used research on to make everyone believe their product was superior. This marketing has scared us from any backlit reading technology. Try it out, give it a chance, wait and see how the reviews are for peole that are using it. But whatever u do, don’t think it’s sub prime technology!!! I’m very excited to have an ereader on the iPad. So often I tell myself I will read more, and so often I am told of a good read and by the time I get to a bookstore next, I can’t remember what it was I was going to buy. Now I can download right away to iBooks and read it when I please. And let’s not forget I won’t be killing trees, or filling up my guest room with books and books and more books. Digital space is Much smaller than a bookshelf and less items in my bookshelves means less dusting and organizing and means more time for reading and playing! Pro pro pro.

IWork: this was a surprise to me and I’m glad to see if I need to do some actual work, I can! And don’t forget u can also open and save pdfs and the office counterparts: excel, power point and word.

MobileMe:
Okay this isn’t new but it’s great and you can use the iPad on it.
On sale at amazon right now, it’s around 70 bucks for a single user per year. It gives you a mac email address, 20 GB of data storage for backing up important documents, music, photos, etc. It also allows public sharing to give others access to select files. It syncs all of your devices: iPhone, Mac, and presumably iPad including calendars, contacts, email, etc. A really nice feature that proves beyond worth the small fee is the iPhone Finder (which would be cool if they offer for the 3g iPad). You can login in from any computer into your MobileMe account and through GPS find where your iPhone is. You can also remotely display a message on your iPhone how to contact you to return your iPhone, and you can also lock the phone and clear the personal data ( but keep it on your online MobileMe account for later). There’s more MobileMe does but those arey favorites.

Other pros:

Compass

3G GPS

Accelerometer

Ambient light sensor

Runs 3rd party apps like iPhone does

Runs apps you have already downloaded for iPhone

Speakers

Microphone

Slideshow feature: like a fancy digital picture frame while in it’s docking station

Multitouch screen like iPhone

10 hours usable battery life (a month standby)

No contract for 3G data plan!!! I know i know should be a given but let’s just be glad for now it’s capable and not forced. Prepay by the month right from the iPad if you only want to pay for the feature every now and then, like while going on a road trip for instance. 15 bucks limited data, 30 bucks unlimited data for the month.

google maps in satelite and terrain as well that look amazing on the iPad screen.

I’ve seen a few complaints about no HWR (handwriting recognition) but they don’t know that’s what 3rd party Apps are for! There’s already an app called Writepad for iPhone, and we know from the apple presentation it will also work on the iPad. I’m also sure now that there is a tablet, there will be many more HWR apps coming out soon for those who desire. There are also already multitouch screen capable stylus pens out there (pogo, true touch) that will work in case you don’t like to handwrite with your finger.

Biggest negative?
Definitely has to be that no webcam function was included. They obviously have reasons for why they didnt buy i also strongly feel that Apple should have been a step ahead of this and designed a sleek external bluetooth webcam that attaches to any edge of the iPad, and can be safely packed away in a pocket of the iPad case they designed. But they are exclusively leaving it up to aftermarket product design, which may be quality designs, but may also take a bit of time to design. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with this. I am hoping a quick turnaround will give us all a few nice options.

But overall after reading all day the pros and cons, I am confident the iPad will be a common household item.

And now I get to talk about how myself and my persons will most likely incorporate the iPad into our daily lives.

With the ever increasing popularity of removing traditional cable television from the home and using xbox and computers, and accessing hulu, boxee, joost, netflix streaming, you tube and displaying on the tv, we feel it is time to start seriously using these great solutions, whether we remove our cable or not. We already use xbox live to play video games, download xbox movies, access our netflix account and facebook.

So now what we will do is use our slightly aged MacBook as our tv computer, and occasionally unplug it to sync anything from our iPhones or iPads that we can’t do on MobileMe. It hardly holds a charge anymore and has lived a good life and still works well otherwise. It will look nice displayed near our xbox too. A lot of people use Mac minis for this purpose as well. Some people use apple tv, but it’s not required and lacks at times. (see ny times artcile link below for an inspiring article on tv freedom).

And taking hints from said article and other reviews, we will buy a Hillcrest Loop remote for $99, and set up boxee, hulu, joost, you tube, iTunes for movies, and others on our computer and see it all on our big beautiful tv.

Then our daily use computer becomes our iPad, we still employee our MacBook for other permanent needs, we have an ereader with the iPad, and it’s an easily portable computer for work, school and play. We can web browse email, do large screened blogging, social networking and make spreadsheets, presentations and documents, as well as play video games and access Apps we love on large screen while our iphones recharge for the night! All this while someone else is using the tv and/or macbook which is quite often for one reason or another.

So excited to only be spending 499+ and plus the 99 Loop tv remote to be adding way more than just another computer to the home, which is what we have been reluctantly considering doing the past few months.

And if and when our MacBook dies, we’ll be able to get another one!
The cycle of an Apple life.

We can’t wait to have all of our technological ducks in a row.

Okay, enough of this typing: time for some cookies!

-Einstein the MinPin

Useful links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/technology/personaltech/10basics.html?_r=1

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/top-ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-apples-ipad/

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