Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic bosc pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Facelift project work. Lunch at You See Sushi with Eric D and Scott E. Facelift project work. Dinner at home with Patrick: tacos, hot water. Apple announced the Apple iPad today. This device isn't for everyone, but it fits a niche, and I think there's definitely a place for it. It shows a lot more data than an iPhone or iPod touch, and it's smaller and much easier to handle than the MacBook or iMac. If your needs are simple and you, for example, want to (read/watch/listen/view) a/an (email/book/webpage/song/video)—particularly (in/on) a (couch/airplane/garden)—no other single device is better. Some complained that it's not a full computer, but there are people in our world who don't want or need a computer but they do want the things this device offers. For some, having a computer is more than they can handle. Here's an example: You can fit the iPad into a traditional cookbook stand for displaying recipes and cooking videos in the kitchen then take it upstairs to your favorite easy chair for checking email and reading a book. Is there any other device than can claim the same and has the same kind of elegance in UI? I can't think of anything that could. Yes it costs more than a Kindle, but it also does a lot more than let you read e-books and send email using an experimental web browser. People make comparisons to Kindle and netbooks but I think this is really the creation of a new product category that didn't exist before. It beats out Kindle for people who want to do more than read e-books. It beats out netbooks for people who don't want to deal with computer viruses, Windows/Linux/Ubuntu, or heavier and more cumbersome form factors. The iPad weighs the same as the lightest netbooks—1.6 pounds—but it doesn't have the awkwardness of the hinge. I think it will steal market dollars from a lot of other products without directly competing with them. (Most iPhone and many iPod touch owners don't need to buy meatspace compasses, levels, alarm clocks, voice recorders, maps, cds, dvds, newspapers, photo albums, travel guides, and so on.) I can picture someone loving their Kindle for what it does really well and also buying an iPad to let them do other things. I can picture someone loving their netbook for what it does really well and also buying an iPad to let them do other things. I think that there was so much hype leading up to this device that (judging from comments on Facebook) most people immediately found themselves disappointed without realizing that it has a lot of interesting possibilities. I won't be buying one right away; I rarely buy first-generation hardware. But I wouldn't rule one out for the future.—On an unrelated topic, I left this comment on Jenn S's Facebook stream: "I've always wanted a web app that would let me enter my home airports and show me potential destinations in degrees-gained-per-dollar based on the current forecast and perhaps taking into account historical weather data. Essentially, a warmest-bang-for-the-buck feature. It could work the other way around, too, for people living in hot climates seeking cooler places."