BluePrints Reviews: Apple iPad

So as you've probably guessed from reading this blog, the three of us aren't the biggest fan of Apple products. We recognize this part of us, and to be as fair and balanced to our readers, our personal pain and suffering towards the product would have to be put aside. Thus the other day we stepped into the Apple store to see the iPad up close and personal. To keep us sane, we did use the Motorola Droid to take our photographs.

Our goal in doing this was to see if it was really "magical" and/or "revolutionary". The first thing you see as you approach the store is that every sign was dedicated to showing screenshots on the iPad, and several were put out on tables to be seen. After a short wait, we picked up one for each of us and began looking at it.

I do want this review to be fair, so I must tell you that like other Apple products, the screen quality is impressive. The image quality looks great and it's probably one of the easiest touch screens to use. Your gestures just flow over the screen as you navigate around the device. The apps load very fast, but that is to be expected due to the lack of multi-tasking. Rendering was smooth too. In the maps application, you can peel back the map like a page on a book giving it great reflective dimensionality in any direction. One part I personally liked was how photos that were geotagged had corresponding push pins over the map in the areas they were taken, and the closer you zoomed in, the more detail of where the photos were captured appeared.

That being said, the revolution is non existent. The iPad does not do anything new. It plays music and movies, has a web browser, displays photos, and does applications. But that's all old news. Tablet PCs, netbooks, even most phones accomplish these tasks. Even that great screen I mentioned was only a full screen ratio (4:3) so movies would either not be able to fill up the device's display or you'd have to stretch the image. The iPad was also heavy. It did feel very sturdy to hold, but became uncomfortable over time. Ultimately you'd end up putting this on a desk [top] or even in your lap [top] (hint hint, see what I did there? Props to Travis for the original connection). Even when we had it on the desk, typing was more cumbersome than I had hoped it would be. The keys were large but with no shape or heptic feedback, I just couldn't see myself typing on this very long. While we're on the subject of hardware, let it be mentioned that there is NO camera. The conclusion I draw from this is that even the things that it is supposed to be doing well (photo sharing) isn't that great at all.

It is very reasonable to believe that a common use of this device would be an internet browser, so we prepared a list of some sites to visit and see how they looked on the page. This is the part you just can't ignore the facts. Flash is used in over 70% of web pages and it is blatantly obvious as you surf the web. Watching movies or even TV shows is great on this device, so naturally it would be great to visit sites like Hulu but courtesy of Apple, impossible to do. It is Steve Jobs' policy for usage on their products to be Apple's way or the Highway.

On the software front, Apple added the iWorks app suite to it so that you can view and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I personally focused on using these apps while in the store. Yes, they did show samples of some stunning office documents and presentations, but overall I found it too hard to use because of the iPad's (aka iPhone OS') over simplified user interface. I had to look all over just to find buttons to make stuff work. This problem extended to other applications like the Mail app where certain windows would show be default in certain orientations and finding the "Compose" button never felt intuitive. I do want to give props to the guy before us who left his email account signed in on the iPad.

The assessment: seeing as the price range of this device will (when WiFi+3G models release) create a price range of $500 - $830, I just can't imagine why I'd put even $1 of my own money in getting a product that isn't new. There is nothing magical about limitation, and absolutely nothing new to write home about that "revolutionizes" the industry. I know that like the others that went with me, we are immune to the pull of an Apple commercial and the shiny little fruit on the back of the device (no, I'm not referring to the Apple Genius holding it up). We don't get impressed by something because we're told we should or "everybody else likes it". We get impressed when it actually pushes the boundaries of the technological frontier, and this new niche in the Apple product line up will not cut it.