iPad Base Model Review – Every Team Has a Supporting Cast
The big day has arrived: the Apple iPad made it to the Golden Technologies production floor. The math tells me that the partners had this thing for a few days, but it is their prerogative. If you had the opportunity, wouldn’t you play with the iPad before sharing it with others?
The iPad is a mix of uncertainty. Once again Steve Jobs cranked up the promotion machine to deliver a hype that the product is having trouble living up to. So instead of looking at it through the eyes of something l that’s suppose to reshape the world, I going to look at the product in terms of what the product is.
The downside of the iPad
- No Flash Support
- Inability to do document comparison
- Can only run one app at a time
- The inability of the iPad to show Facebook fan page widgets on web sites
- “There’s an App” for my apathy to apps
- No camera – I know it sounds petty, but in an age of convergence media, if something is going to be a mobile media device, it should do more than type and shape things. How many devices should we use, since the iPad has…
- NO USB ports which means…(btw, nice observation from our tech dept)
- NO file sharing (noted from Chris Brogan)
- Can’t read and compare Google Analytics data w/ the iPad Safari Browser.
- This is where I’d put “Can’t create Google Docs (noted from Chris Brogan)” but I’m holding off…
For someone who likes the mobility of Google Docs and hates the fact that an iPhone won’t make them, I’m disappointed that the iPad can’t create Google docs either – and if you’re paying attention at home, scratch getting the embed code on YouTube videos either. But I don’t blame the iPad because they can’t create Google Docs. I blame Google.
Why do I blame Google for the iPad not being able to create Google Docs?
Because Google serves the iPad the mobile version of their applications without giving you the option to view the full site. At this point, the only other sites I’ve seen only offer the mobile site to the iPad are Microsoft.com and Twitter.com.
ESPN.com will give you the choice to either visit the full site or the iPad version.
Most of the other major sites I viewed with the iPad Safari browser gave me the full site:
- foxnews.com
- foxsports.com
- cnn.com
- chicagotribune.com/sports (choice)
- chrisbrogan.com
- Flickr.com – and can get embed codes for pics!
- Facebook.com
- MarketingTechBlog.com
- www.nasa.gov (just don’t type “nasa.gov” because it doesn’t redirect – FAIL)
- wikipedia.org
In short: “Hey, Google, give iPad users a choice!”
So last night I started thinking about the upside to the iPad…
….and I watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on BBC America .
The Cubs’ offense was anemic verse the cagey veteran Livan Hernandez so I was flipping channels. I promise.
Anyway, it was the TNG (The Next Generation for Trekkies) episode where Picard had to get colonists off a planet before a race called the Shelliac obliterated the village so they themselves could settle down. So Picard sent down Data to negotiate the evacuation of the stubborn colonists’. Data had to take a shuttlecraft because there was too much radiation on the planet to use the transporters.
Now this is the point where you’d think I got my inspiration from the fact that the iPad looks like the hand-held devices that the StarFleet used in the episodes, but no!
And for two reasons
- Those StarFleet handheld devices collapse
- The StarFleet devices have cameras
Then I flipped back to the Cubs game and was watching the relief pitchers warm up and it dawned on me.
Not every device has to be the main device. The shuttle craft in TNG isn’t what’s gonna get you traveling the stars, but it’ll get you down to a planet so you don’t have to use the full ship. A bullpen in baseball isn’t going to pitch most of the innings for you, but when done right they’ll finish the games for you.
The iPad is a resource saver
It will never replace my laptop. It will never make me reconsider my iPhone, but it might be that tool to do the in between things.
Places I could see where the iPad would be ideal
- Journalism
- Inventory tracking
- Point of sales systems
- Survey taking / data gathering
- Medical Records
- Medical – showing X-Rays and MRIs to clients
- Insurance adjustment
- Project management
So long as you don’t try to make it the backbone of your IT force or needs, you’ll be able to do great things with the iPad. Like, it’d be perfect for my mom’s committee work, so long as she doesn’t have to upload.
Unless I’m missing something. Are there more uses for the iPad than what I’m suggesting?
Oh yeah…if you’re looking for help with your iPad, or custom ipad / iphone apps, let us know. We do that too.
I had all intention of arguing with you after the first half of your post…
As I got into the second half though, you’re safe… sort of.
I agree, the ipad is definitely not in place to replace a computer. I wouldn’t consider that… but I like to write (you’ll see by the length of my next post) and a lot of times I write less because i’m in a hurry and running off and don’t want to hull around my mac book pro (love my computer don’t get me wrong)
Photographers have made a great argument for it… PERFECT for showing customers their portfolio… GREAT GREAT GREAT way to easily show them 60 some pictures without needing to find an outlet to plugin in their computers.
I think the ipad definately has it’s uses… plus their version of bubble breaker… SO much better than windows mobile
Yeah, photographers will have a great time showing their stuff to their clients…right up to the point where they try to take photos on site with the client and discover that can’t upload them to the iPad. they’ll have to take them with the iPhone and email them to the ipad.
We’ll see what next gen brings, but I think this is too much of a case where they’re trying to spread the features out in hopes of maximizing profit.
I hope the competitors seize this advantage and take Apple to school. You think Jobs would have learned his lesson back in the PC days.
Oh, come on now… a few days? I had it a few hours sitting and didn’t even use it. You guys are too spoiled.
All I know is we got sent a picture of one of our redesigns as seen on an iPad sent from an undisclosed location. And that was a couple days before we ever saw it.
All the same, I’m looking forward to seeing how people enjoy using it at meetings