Wow.
No really, just Wow.
OK, I’ll expand on that, but just a bit:-) Honestly, when I drove to work this morning, I was worried that the iPad might turn out to be “OK.” Usually, Ok is fine, but this is Apple and the standards are set quite a bit higher. If it turned out to be competent it would have been a total let down. As it turns out, it’s another amazing device from Apple.
Why is it amazing? I’ve been reading the haters online for a while, they all seem to say that any given number of netbooks could “do” what the iPad does, why would you waste your money? With Apple, it is never just about what the product can do, how you do it is just as important. I can assure you that no netbooks works the way the iPad does.
The touch interface is unbelievable. I don’t just mean that it is responsive, quick, etc. I mean that it is an incredible experience to use. Surfing the web on it is a revelation. You interact with the web as though it were a book or magazine, you touch it, you move it around.
I know all this sounds a little over the top, but maybe this little anecdote will help explain what I’m talking about. My manager Michael told us that the original Mac had brought the desktop and mouse into being as a popular way to use a computer. As we move our arm, a pointer on a screen moves in tandem. It does work pretty well, but the iPad is the first computer to do touch screen really well. Before too long, using a mouse will seem as odd to us as using the command line does to most people these days.
He was more right than he knew. I used the iPad off and on over 8 hours today and now using my Macbook feels downright clunky. It’s odd having the screen as just something to look at, it’s weird to adjust things remotely. It feels just plain disconnected. I will have an iPad at some point, I’m going to do well to resist the 3G version for a little while when it comes out. In the meantime, I encourage you to go to an Apple store or even a Best Buy and try just surfing the web with it, the more you do, the harder it will be to put down….