“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.]
an adjustable “external” camera is a much better idea.
With a built in camera, you adapt to the iPad. With an adjustable external camera, the iPad position adjust to you.
I watched the Quicktime video of the iPad presentation today. The coolest and most innovative part was the description of the iWork suite modified to run on the iPad with multi-touch controls. This is a taste of the future of computing – Apple is showing the rest of the computer industry how to adapt high end desktop software to work with multi-touch commands, for the next generation of touch-control computers.
Charlie Sorrel: Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range?
Steve Jobs: Hey, just what you see pal.
F’d Up
It supports your Bluetooth keyboard.
“iPad also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, letting you connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard.”
And here’s your remote
http://iphoneindia.gyanin.com/2009/12/20/turn-your-iphone-into-a-universal-rf-remote-re-remote-control/
next….
What?! No kitchen sink?! No way I’ll buy one…
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…but I might buy two.
Where does the missing camera go? On top of portait or landscape? Pointing to the ceiling when you’re typing with the iPad on your lap? Sticking out so you can aim it at yourself from the different angles you’ll be holding the iPad during usage? I think the lack of a front camera is better than all potential complaints about broadcasting everything but what you want.
What about that Apple patent for turning display pixels into image capture pixels. The display would then become thousands of cameras. That would have some WOW factor.
i might be showing my age, but the ipad is FASTER than the cray-1, which was an 80 mhz cpu. pretty amazing.
Ay Charlie, your brain still shaped for a netbook/notebook.
Charlie, if you want a crazy form of text input you buy one and try text input with your feet.
Charlie, if iPad could make calls you would have spit “many expected some crazy new form of making calls”.
Charlie, Flash is processor abusive and USB is not intended to make computers easier to use.
Charlie, open up your mind willing to see/understand differently please. Buy an iPad first, use it for a month and only then talk about it.
I will agree that the camera is a big miss. If there was a camera that I could use to iChat with (even if only over WiFi) that would be great. Also would like more space (128GB), but that is just me, I would pay for that extra space. I will probably still buy this thing, but I would like to know a couple things…
Will I be able to make my own books to read on the iPad via Pages?
If I am on the road, is there anyway I can grab a document online via my iPhone and transfer it to the iPad? I don’t want to pay for more 3G plans than I have to, seriously, isn’t my wife and I enough?
As a photographer, I would have liked a card-slot of some kind, but I can live without it, as long as the camera cable works.
I can see the iPad being very useful for expeditions where sorting photos and writing news can be done on the train, in hotels, in the pub, etc. The Eepc was promising, but not as practical as the iPad will be.
But what is this Pandora thing? Some relation to Joanna Southcott’s Box? Best not to open it anyway, whatever it contains.
Alex, there is an SD card adapter and USB cable adapter that will plug into the dock connector.
Counting down to jailbreak…
I’m so tired of hearing “I’ll wait for iPad 2.0 when it has a camera for video chat.”
Listen folks. People don’t actually want video chat! Video chat sounds good in theory, but fails miserably in practice. I know firsthand, I’ve had a front facing camera on my Macbook pro for years, used it for video chat maybe 3 times.
Read this article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952314,00.html
No camera a cost-saving measure? I don’t think so. Who wants to hold up a 10″ tablet to take photos? There’s already a product that has a camera, it’s called the iPhone. As well, if there was another camera on the front side for video conferencing, that would drain battery more, and you would have to hold the tablet in front of your face so your buddy doesn’t look up your nose. It’s missing a keyboard? The ultra-thin keyboard has been around for sometime now, and can serve as an accessory to the tablet for people who want to type more heavily. Virtual keyboards are only for light work, not heavy work. I think people’s wish lists are not alway thought through enough from a practical and business standpoint. Think of it from Apple’s point of view. Just like you guys to anticipate a tablet, now you complain about what’s missing. It’s the first generation! Give it a chance. We go through this each time a new product comes out, new and better ones will come down the road. Relax. Between my MacBook Pro and iPhone 3GS, I personally feel the iPad would not fill the gap with features that I don’t already have. Seems to be just a cool factor to purchase at this point. But looks like a cool device for reading, light work, and games!
I hate to say it, but this is not Apple finest hour. This product may be a flop and I don’t plan to buy one at least until they address many of the issues above and more. This product is just to limited and controlled. It should be more like a computer and less like a iPhone/iTouch. Where’s the handwriting recognition?! This is a big mistake!
Ditto to the many criticisms about the lack of camera. I, too, won’t be buying one of these until one is added.
What were they thinking?
Anyone who has worked on product development knows that at some point you have draw a line. The Perfect is enemy of the Good. Apple had its priorities, and without a doubt COST was right at the top. Cost involves more that component costs. It includes design, engineering, software development, etc etc. Have no doubt that Apple will pursue perfection with the iPad, but they’ve met their goals with v1. Apple has $30B to give this product time to mature. Hold off if you want, but don’t be surprised when you start seeing these puppies everywhere you go. And get ready for an avalanche of accessory hardware and new sophisticated apps to make the iPad “just right” for anyone.
Like the other readers, I cannot believe that they didn’t include a camera with iChat. That would have pushed the product over the top for me and made it a “must have” instead of a “must wait” for the camera. Yes, it’s very cool, but it makes you wonder what they hell they’re thinking during the design phase.
A camera on the touchscreen side would be kinda difficult to implement. The iPad can be held in vertical and horizontal positions so when you turn it chances are your hand is going be covering the camera.
Perhaps the web cam could be an accessory you plug in. Just saying.
Im getting fed up with all the ppl talking about what the iPad
(or idevice for that matter) is missing. I feel as if Apple has brilliant strategy.. just like they did with the iphone.. they start with an “under-powered,” revolutionary idevice, People go crazy about it and haters talk about all that the idevice is missing… ( I ask myself.. how do they even know its missing.. did they design or engineer it?.. no) .. 12 months later they refresh the idevice and they add *some* of the features the idevice *was missing*, again haters hate and bitch about features that its still *missing*.. 12 months later they do it again.. everybody is in awe but there are still *missing* features and the cycle goes on until eventually no features are missing and they have to completely overhaul the idevice. In this matter Apple can keep they hype and *freshness* of their idevices and continue to sell them over the years. Its stupid to add all the features you can possibly think of and try to top if off in 12 months adding more features thus overwhelming the “average joe” customer.
On another note.. the iPad might just be the tablet equivalent of a netbook and hopefully in 3 years from now the iSlate will return as a full fledge tablet equivalent of a macbook.. one running a fully touch enabled OS X. thus keeping the cash flow.. flowing Just my thoughts..
oh and another thing… im PRETTY SURE the OS in the iPad is not final since it was mentioned it was buggy, and I have seen a vid or 2 with some glitches here and there… so they might make some surprising last minute changes to the UI.. .. I guess we’ll just have to wait
what kind of fan boy wrote this? multitasking not important? imagine reading a book and an IM come in. Or you are in a middle of some IM and you can’t do anything else?
From what I hear about ATT service in USA, actually this will help Verizon sell MyFi’s so it’s a good thing for Verizon
I think the HDMI issue will be resolve by some kind of dock. If you are connected to a TV, you will want some power connected, and also some sort of remote control
As soon as I read the lame argument about Flash Charlie lost all credibility and the rest of the article did not get any better. The Apple blinders this guy is wearing apparently give him such a bad case of tunnel vision he cant see all those little blue squares which I see every day while surfing the web on my iPhone or iPod Touch which makes them NOT a leader in phone surfing. The absurd assersion that the iPad will kill off Flash has to be a joke. Dream all you want but this less than revolutionary and deffeniatly not magical device is no iPhone and it will not kill off Flash. It is a neat but flawed device that will never have enough people buying it to influence anything. One day Flash will be gone and something better will replace it but unless you have your head firmly burried in the sand as Charlie does that is a long way off as too many sites use it and they are not going to change just because Apple has some problem with it. You Tube and Vimeo (as they say in the movies – Never Heard Of It ) not withstanding. That said I will be buying the base model. Why? because I have over 200 iTunes movies and more than 30 different TV series and it beats watching them on my iPhone 3G S 32GB or iPod Touch 32GB 1st gen. But I will be transferring them using my ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10 inch netbook and Seagate FreeAgent GO 500GB portable drive as the iPad should have had at least 128GBs available as an option. And I will doing everything else the iPad can’t do using my netbook!
Sorry Apple, but no camera, no sale. Skype is waay too important to drop just to get an iPad.
What a HUGE mistake.