“The iPad was supposed to change the face of computing, to be a completely new form of digital experience. But what Steve Jobs showed us yesterday was in fact little more than a giant iPhone. A giant iPhone that doesn’t even make calls. Many were expecting cameras, kickstands and some crazy new form of text input. The iPad, though, is better defined by what isn’t there,” Charlie Sorrel writes for Wired.
Ten things missing from Apple’s new iPad:
• Adobe Flash: Who needs Flash, anyway? YouTube and Vimeo have both switched to H.264 for video streaming (in Chrome and Safari, at least — Firefox doesn’t support it), and the rest of the world of Flash is painful to use. In fact, we think the lack of Flash in the iPad will be the thing that finally kills Flash itself. If the iPad is as popular as the iPhone and iPod Touch, Flash-capable browsers will eventually be in the minority.
• OLED: It may be more colorful, but it uses more power than an LED backlit screen when all the diodes are lit up… It is also rather dim in comparison, and making an e-reader that you can’t use outdoors would be a stupid move from Apple.
• USB: The iPad is meant to be an easy-to-use appliance, not an all-purpose computer. A USB port would mean installing drivers for printers, scanners and anything else you might hook up. But there is a workaround: the dock connector. Apple has already announced a camera connection kit, a $30 pair of adapters which will let you either plug the camera in direct or plug in an SD card to pull off the photos.
• GPS in the WiFi-only model: The WiFi-only models don’t have GPS, just like the iPod Touch, but the 3G iPads do have AGPS
• Multitasking: It will not matter at all to the target user.
• Keyboard: Nobody really thought the iPad would have a physical keyboard… The fact that Apple actually has made an optional keyboard for it is the biggest surprise (apart from the iPad’s base $500 price).
• Camera: I figure this is a cost-saving measure on Apple’s part. Too bad, though, as it is the only thing that stops me buying an iPad for my parents, whom I talk to on Skype. There seems to be no other reason not to have a webcam in the bezel other than price. We expect to see one in v2.0.
• Verizon: Until Verizon switches to the world-standard GSM SIM card, don’t expect to see an Apple product on its network.
• 16:9 Aspect Ratio: The Apple on the back, and the position of the home button both tell us that the iPad is meant to be used in portrait mode, at least most of the time. And a 16:9 aspect ratio in this orientation would look oddly tall and skinny, like an electronic Marilyn Manson. It’s a compromise, and a good one.
• HDMI: There will be video out, likely through the dock connector, as Jobs said during his presentation that you’ll be able to hook the iPad up to a projector. But no HDMI out? How do you hook it up to your HD monitor? The short answer is that you don’t. Remember, there are two kinds of people who will buy the iPad. One, nerds like you and me, who care about things like HDMI and also already own a computer that can do that. And two, people who are buying this instead of a computer. Those people will probably still have DVD collections, or even VCRs. They don’t even know what HDMI is.
Read the full article as it contains fuller explanations of the ten points than we could excerpt. Check it out here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Baron Von Raske” for the heads up.]
@BE the same reason that doesn’t work with the iPhone
“And a 16:9 aspect ratio in this orientation would look oddly tall and skinny”
You mean like (ISO 216) international standard sized paper A4 used throughout the world is oddly tall and skinny when compared to fat and squat US Letter used in USA?
16:9 would have been lovely though, I was hoping for a 1280×720 screen. 🙁 Still, won’t stop me buying one.
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@BE
Because you can’t install the driver?
@SkyJedi
I get it. That one doesn’t but…
Someone will make cameras that do work with the iPad – hopefully, wirelessly and not through the dock.
Some will want one integrated in the iPad. Some will not. Choice is good.
I like Pandora, but I’m amazed that whenever multi-tasking is brought up, Pandora is ALWAYS the additional app that they need to run. Christ! The iPhone and iPad already multi-task the iPod music player. Music… the one app you CAN multi-task is the one example always used. Don’t you people OWN any music?
I thought an iChat vid camera would be nice and was disappointed that it wasn’t included. And then I realized that I rarely use the one in my MacBook Pro or iMac. It definitely would be a winner for those on broadband, but I don’t think 3G is up to the task. Maybe Apple will add it when 4G networks get up and running.
Who gives a crap about HDMI output? I do wish they had implemented some type of multitasking. I think it would be more important here than on the iPhone
How long before Mophie or someone else introduces a snap on extended battery/vid camera accessory? With dimensions of the iPad it wouldn’t have to be very thick.
Apart from USB and multitasking (a big one I feel), it looks like a machine that will give the staidness of the status quo a serious push in some very interesting directions (as Apple usually does with its superior products). This will be good for all of us because it means better products (well the only way is up for some of them) from apple’s competitors, and hence from apple itself as it continues setting the standard. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an android based competitor with amazon involved out soonish (amazon and barnes noble must be crapping themselves with the iBookstore doing to books as iTunes did to music distribution- them pair are looking into the abyss I’d say). Kudos to apple though for a fine looking device. It will sell by the truckload!
It’s missing a bottle opener, and it’s not as fast as a Cray-1.
Same old shit from the iPhone launch.
It’s so funny- the critics say there is nothing new or exciting- “just bigger”- they are forgetting- multi-touch, orientation sensors, accelerometers, etc- are all Apple’s IP and innovations. The beauty of this device is the true scope of the way it can be used.
Multi-tasking IS important. Hope it’s coming with 4.0 – probably by the time iPad (iTouch!!) is released. I like to take notes, specially while reading. Be nice to swish from the book I’m taking notes from to put them in Pages, whatever. Other such tasks require multi-tasking – hence the f**king word!!!
Camera, conferencing, kinda important. Probably left out because of power usage. Or, maybe in iTouch 2.
Still, buying if I can find the cash. Oh yeah.
The iPhone is not touted as multitaking either though it runs certain apps in the background while using others…
A pen input option would be useful to artists, especially if it could link to desktops running graphics apps. Half the price of a Wacom Cintiq and you get a free computer too.
Apple recently mentioned pen-input in a patent application so hopefully it will appear in the future.
Ubermac said: “People are like children…. I waaant my caaaamara
think… It’ll record how many hairs u have up ur nose”
========================
Are you retarded? Nobody sounds like a child here. Have you ever bought a product with specifications in mind? My specification is an isight camera before I buy.
The iPad may fit the needs of millions of people. GREAT! It just doesn’t meet my minimum needs yet. But I am confident it will in the relatively near future.
Now whose really being the child, child?
It would be interesting if when Apple adds the camera and GPS to a future iPad if they would also open up for third party add-on cameras and GPS receivers for the earlier versions.
For me it is a great device and it will do well in the market. Also this is a first generation device. A 1.0. I will get one, but not right away. For me it is missing flash support, camera, and usb. Another thing that was not said was a SD Card Slot that is on all the Macs now. These are the 4 things I am waiting for and I am sure that Apple has already made plans to add some if not all to Version 2.0. We will see next year when 2.0 comes.
He’s WRONG on Assisted GPS:
• GPS: The Wi-Fi-only models don’t have GPS, just like the iPod Touch, but the 3G iPads do have AGPS
Apple specs show:
Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
He’s also wrong on video out:
HDMI: There will be video out, likely through the dock connector, as Jobs said during his presentation that you’ll be able to hook the iPad up to a projector. But no HDMI out? How do you hook it up to your HD monitor
You use the same AV connection kit that you hook up to your iPhone. It uses the 30pin connector to Component out, that is RedGreenBlue, which can be hooked up to your HD monitor thru a $10 adapter. I’ve done it with my iPhone. The output specs for the iPad are:
Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable
So, it’s 576p or 480p.
Did you know there is a book out on Steve Job’s presentation skills? Business schools are using his presentation skills as a teaching model. Notice how he starts slow and builds excitement throughout…until Oh, and one final thing.
Think of using planned presentation skills to present the iPad, which is a product line…over four years. Years of annual enhancements and new features to stay a year+ ahead of the competition, who hopelessly chase the Apple product. Make sense? People are already talking about version 2.0!
The big thing that it lacked was something different. What struck me during the keynote was the lack of applause and ‘oooh’s from the audience. It seemed like all the presenters were trying to say that the same features that an iPhone has on a larger screen were somehow something completely different.
They kept saying, “all this without a keyboard or a mouse”, but very little was ‘better’ than a keyboard and a mouse.
I’m anxious to see how easily it is to type on. Because that is what I can’t do easily on the iPhone – type a text document or a response like this on a web page. Some sort of tactile response (key clicks) or something that provided more keyboard like response so I could touch-type (notice in the keynote, Steve is hunting and pecking, staring at the keyboard.)
Of course, I’m still gonna buy one. I don’t need no stinkin’ camera.
Mike F. ,
“Would really liked to have seen GPS …”
Did you read the bullet points?
• GPS: The Wi-Fi-only models don’t have GPS, just like the iPod Touch, but the 3G iPads do have AGPS
OK, about these “ten things” the Pad “needs”. Five of them are just so much talking points. Flash, for example, the iPhone is one of the leaders in phone surfing without it. OLED and HDMI – great stuff, stuff that nobody in “this” market has. Yet. GPS and Verizon? Looking for a way to flesh out your “list of ten”? The Keyboard question … did they miss that part of the presentation?
The Camera would be another non-starter, if there was at least ONE simple USB port. The rest? USB and Multi-tasking are highly desirable. 16:9 might – maybe – have made it pocketable.
Apple has to save a few things for future upgrades — say around Christmas 2010 <HOPEFULLY>
The only multitasking I’d want to do is listen to one of my radio apps while doing something else (reading or Web surfing), but once they get the capability for the iPhone it’ll be there for the iPad as well.
As for the camera, I’m not interested — maybe they’ll come out with a version that has a camera but still have one without for those of us who don’t video chat.
re iPad as a “gamechanger”: I knew iPhone, and you sir are no iPhone.
Camera shamera… I like the iPad as it is, but I’d really like to see true multi-tasking (not the generic close and re-open where you left off multi-tasking), printer support (does not have to USB, can be wifi printing), and more memory… I think 64GB is going to fill up quickly, unless Apple soon announces a cloud-based iTunes system!
Will I be able to listen to music while I use the internet apps (Safari, Mail, etc)? That would be a deal breaker for me.