The iPad's Bad 1st Impression, and my wish-list for enhancements

Take One!

I have to admit, I was disappointed with the presentation, for several reasons.

1. The H/W was just a big iPodTouch with a bad name
2. The S/W was nice, but not revolutionary
3. And Steve did not seem into it.

That was my first impression, then I started thinking and remembering back to the iPhone announcement. Then I told others that the iPhone was the rumored tablet, they just need to make a bigger version. With that said I realized I had just gotten what I wanted. a larger iPhone. So my first issue was pretty easy to get over. I understand why they named it iPad and everyone will get over it soon enough, but I was hoping for iSlate.

As for the S/W, the more I looked at it the happier I got with the Apple Apps. They are pretty slick and appear to be very usable. The existing apps do have issues. However, by the time the iPad is out all the important apps will be rewritten to support the larger screen, and be enhanced to take advantage of the extra screen real estate. So the only other issue I have with the S/W is the lack of all the rumored features. Its not the iPad’s fault that its missing the features promised by the rumors, the rumors were just wrong (for now anyway) I think its a safe bet that the version 4.0 of the iPhone OS will be announced during the WWDC this summer and we will see many of the missing features then. Issue 2 dealt with.

As for Steve, we all need to cut him some slack, and he does not have to live up to my expectations of him, he just has to meet or exceed his own expectations. I think there was something missing from the presentation. Steve said the new device had to do things better, and it does, but Apple could have done more. Maybe the presentation should have concentrated on the next release of the iPhone OS, the support for higher resolutions screens, multi-tasking, and then at the end done “Theres one more thing” brought out the tablet for a quick demo.

Part of the excitement of Christmas for a child is knowing you’re getting presents and not knowing what they are. If you wake up Christmas morning already knowing what your presents are, you are not going to be excited. Everyone went into the presentation knowing what Steve was going to announce and he demo’d things we already figured would be there. So of course everyone was disappointed. I know I was. But that is on us, not Apple, unless they deliberately leaked all that info about the announcement.

Wish List!

I will most likely get an iPad, when they are out. However I do have some things I would like done to it first:

1.      It needs to support Adobe Flash, the excuses for it not being on the iPhone wont cut it for the iPad

2.      Magazine Subscription Service to I don’t want old magazines (i.e. paper) cluttering the house

3.      Streaming Music and Video from my Mac to the iPad, i.e. turn the iPad into a portable AppleTV

4.      An App to allow be to markup (maybe some non destructive editing) and add keyword info to photos on the road, that stores the info as sidecars and allow it to be imported with the photos to Aperture or iPhoto when I am back home, (hmm I maybe able to write “an App for That” myself!)

5.      Multitasking or at least fast app switching so the background app is suspended but all it data is saved, so it like multitasking

6.      Add Audio books to the iBooks interface where they belong

7.      Allow tethering of the iPad to the iPhone, so I don’t have to pay for data plans for both devices

None of my wish list items is “Rocket Surgery” so I expect all of them to be done by someone by this summer. So the only question that remains is, can I wait for 3G or should I get the WIFI only version?