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2. No multitasking.  As I mentioned above, one of the big things we “do” in educational technology is to cut and paste and copy and paste.  Kind of a pain when you have to quit and start and quit and start. This might be mitigated by the media browser in iWork, but still….

On small screens (like the iPhone/iPad) how is multitasking different than being able to quickly switch between apps? If both apps maintain their state and open quickly, would the user even know the difference?

3. No camera. The iPad has a microphone, so kids could create podcasts, or narrate over a movie, but they couldn’t create a movie using the camera.

It isn’t meant for content creation. How would you hold it if it had a camera? Too heavy for one handed operation and too awkward for two handed operation.

I find that on my iPhone I don’t really need multi-tasking. I would like to have some background apps, but that is a slightly different problem.

Yes, background apps, mainly. Streaming music, having a mail client running in the background, periodically polling for new mail, Instant Messaging, Copy & Paste from web browser to text editor… Lots of things.

I would buy one, but if I can’t listen to music and either email, view calendar, or surf at the same time - forget about. my trusty dell m1210 keeps chugging.

The iPhone can do this right now, why would the iPad be any different?

I find that on my iPhone I don’t really need multi-tasking. I would like to have some background apps, but that is a slightly different problem.

Yes, background apps, mainly. Streaming music, having a mail client running in the background, periodically polling for new mail, Instant Messaging, Copy & Paste from web browser to text editor… Lots of things.

I’m confused though. On the iPhone (upon which the iPad is based), you can do all of those things.

I listen to my music all the time while using it. If you mean stream music from another app, then yes, I can see the value in that. But that is not reallly multi-tasking on your part, just the OS’s part. And I already have instant notifications for emails, IM conversations and I copy and paste all the time.

So outside of streaming music from Pandora or the like, what is missing?

What would you with multi-tasking that you can’t do now?

I don’t view it as a multi-tasking issue. It’s more of a multi-waiting, or multi-notification issue. Even with 10 apps on your Mac or PC, switching from one to the other requires some kind of effort. Mouse click. Keyboard. Something.

To go from one app to another on the iPad (as with the iPhone and iPod touch) requires a similar effort. A touch, a swipe, something.

The difference has to do with why you go from one app to another (Mac or PC or iPad). Notifications. When I get an email message, I get notified (because email is running in the background, which is what multi-tasking means in this case), and checks and downloads messages. Ditto for Twitter or Facebook or other apps that somehow need to communicate beyond the device. Add to that calendar notifications or other alerts.

Some of that capability exists on the iPhone, which negates the issue of multi-tasking, per se. Obviously, the reason for a formal lack of multi-tasking is to prevent half a dozen background apps running at the same time and sucking all the juice from the battery. It doesn’t look as though a lack of multi-tasking has hurt sales of the iPhone or iPod touch.

How would you hold the device if it had a camera?

Apple is very shrewd when it comes to stacking on features. Initially, with new products, they stack what is needed (not what pundits think is needed) for a good customer experience. Then, they add the right features at the right time to keep the price tag high, to get new customers on board, and create a migration path for everyone. Look at the iPhone. The first version didn’t have 3G, no MMS, no video. They sold like free steak. The next version added 3G and a few other goodies. They sold like free steak with AAPL stock. The 3GS came with even more. Same price.

As to a video camera on the iPad, you can bank on it for the next gen, next year. It gives us something new to buy. Imagine how clogged AT&T’s sluggish network would be with a few million iPads using iChat for videoconferencing all day.

I suspect the camera will sit up top, so you talk into the device, not much different than iSight on a Mac.

I am looking forward to using it… The only thing is the missing flash player…

Me, too. But Flash is dying. Long live HTML 5.

Count me in the camp that thinks this form-factor creates a brand new market. Call it sofa surfing if you like, but don’t be too quick to dismiss its appeal. I say that because, for all their ubiquity, computers haven’t replaced the “electronic hearth”—television—as the media at the center of most face-to-face social interactions in a household. People are busier than ever but when they gather in one room, it’s still very likely that a TV show is what unites them. And these days we’re all multi-tasking like crazy: watching a show, arguing about watching something else, catching up on each others’ days, snacking, making plans for tomorrow, and discretely sofa-surfing using a variety of little appliances. I often check email on my iPhone while one nine-year old is playing games on an iPod Touch and his twin fiddles with a DS2 and Mom ponders FB on a MacBook Pro. (She wishes she could use my iPhone app for that.)

Someone will complain that all this distracted activity hardly counts as “face-to-face,” but I defy you to force intimacy or your own attention spans on people who are free to wander off, like my teenager who’s more apt to be playing WoW on a computer in his bedroom, or, when he does join us, texting his friends while taking over the couch. What seems clear to me is that, if we all resorted to traditional computers for these preoccupations, our interactions would become even rarer.

Bottom line: we’re consuming a lot of media, even while mostly honoring the offline conception of Togetherness and I think the iPad and its successors is going to play very nicely in that on-again, off-again mode of computing. Frankly, I can’t wait for an instant-on, touch-screen Universal Remote app that runs TV/Cable/Home Theatre/Audio/ and Mac-Mini HTPC(Boxee) from my chair by the fireplace without requiring a pair of freakin’ reading glasses!

... the lack of a camera facing the user.

Make that any camera, period. I agree, missed opportunities. The rest of the issues (no Flash, HDMI Out, or even native USB port, ...) I could probably learn to live with. The weird SIM card form factor probably doesn’t matter much in the US.

It really is, for all intents and purposes, a blown up iphone (that you can’t use to make phone calls with). I think I’ll pass for now.

The launching and the much awaited ipad has been blown out of proportions. There’s no surprise that there are very few takers.

it is funny though that Steve jobs argues that there is no need for Flash as HTML 5 will replace it!!!
Now just guessing that for a good while many browsers won’t support fully or correctly HTML 5 - how quickly doe he want the iPad to start selling!

The launching and the much awaited ipad has been blown out of proportions. There’s no surprise that there are very few takers.

You mean to say that amongst a certain, small, minority group of people, there are very few takers. There is, however, a large group of people for whom the iPad is perfect. That is Apple’s audience, not you.

People who are complaining about the limitations just don’t get it, IMHO. When the iPod came out it only worked on Macs. When the iPhone came out there were no apps and no 3G. Both of those, however, defined a new platform. And platforms take time to evolve and catch on.

The iPad will be my children’s first computer. Already my 4 year old can work my iPhone.

The launching and the much awaited ipad has been blown out of proportions. There’s no surprise that there are very few takers.

How so?

Apple said zero prior to the introduction. Zero. They simply announced the iPad and put up specifications and images on the Apple site. A few hundred people have actually touched it and used it—most of those who did were highly impressed. The actual product launch has not occurred yet.

“Very few takers?”

You have the cart in front of the horse. There will be long lines when the iPad is ready for sale. Schools will snap them up like manna. Geeks will avoid them because they’re tethered to the past of Flash and USB and other artifacts not befitting a computing appliance that’s actually easy to use. The rest of us will stand in line. Young, old, rich, poor, experienced and especially the computing neophyte; those masses of people turned off by PC complexity (Mac or Windows), and just want to get things done simply, quickly, easily.

It isn’t so much that the iPad is the future of casual computing. It’s all about touch and ease of use. The iPhone proved that a complex device can be made simple, usable, valuable, and combine ease of use with productivity. The iPad merely extends the touch revolution.

I have no doubts we’ll see plenty of Windows 7 tablets/slates/pads in 2010. I will be surprised if any line forms to buy them.

Please don’t bundle all geeks in there, grrramps 😉

I know many people like myself that wanted to buy one instantly after the presentation was over.  Between the availability of iWorks, and the fact that The Omni Group will be releasing all of their productivity apps on the iPad there is going to be a wide appeal for the iPad 😊  And we have not even begun to see the apps released for it yet.

Bottom line is I need/want something bigger than my iPhone, but more portable than my MBP (which really needs a flat surface or a good amount of leg room to be able to use), the iPad will do very well in providing ultra portability without ultra eye strain. 😊

Please don’t bundle all geeks in there, grrramps

Nevin, are you officially a geek? Is that a tacit admission?

😉

What season is it up there?

Most of the iPad criticism seems to be based on what it doesn’t have (hardware and software), rather than what it actually does for the target user. To paraphrase, we don’t buy a drill because we want a drill. What we want is a hole. The drill is what helps us to achieve the objective—the hole. Specifications, size, cost, capability, bits, handle, battery, power cord, and so on, are things we may consider, but the objective remains—a hole.

I suspect that most computer users—home, offices, schools—are less interested in the hardware specs or whether Mac is better than Windows or Linux, than they are in getting things done with apps that can be used appropriately.

The winds of change are upon us. Again.

Spot on grrramps.

It’s early days, but this IS the start of a new ‘third category’ which is long overdue. Nobody knows for sure how it will pan out in the future, but I too suspect it will be a storming success.

iPad is perfect for the non-tech majority who don’t like or don’t want to use a computer, but are forced to because there are no other sensible alternatives. It’s also ideal for some techies, like myself, who are not hung up on specs and when we’re done working with our computers, don’t want to continue using one for other things which shouldn’t require a computer; now we can break free: PCs/Macs for serious productivity or specialist tasks, and ‘pad’ appliances for everything else.

In fact that’s probably selling it a bit short. I reckon we will be amazed at the productivity and business applications which surface for these devices.

>>>I have no doubts we’ll see plenty of Windows 7 tablets/slates/pads in 2010. I will be surprised if any line forms to buy them.

Some people like tablet PCs, but in the real world they fail - people seem to lose sight of the fact that traditional operating systems are just not designed for a touch interface.

Some of the iPad detractors are dismissing iPad (without having used one) on the grounds that it resembles a scaled up iPod touch - well, it does, but if you expand your thinking a little, you can see that having a much bigger screen, beefed up touch OS and new apps designed for multitouch, it is an entirely different animal which is much more than the sum of its parts.

I’m all over the iPad like sugar on Halloween. In fact, I may end up getting two — one for myself and one for my wife so we won’t argue over it.

My wife isn’t into computers. But she uses her iPhone for mail, games and some light surfing. The bigger iPad, she already knows how to use it, as Jobs said. It’ll be perfect for her.

I won’t rehash the arguments here (and all over the place). Me? Phht. I just want one. 😊