So it’s been roughly a month since I’ve had the Apple iPad. Unlike the iPhone, I wasn’t anticipating this release. Well, that’s not true… when the rumors were swirling, I was extremely excited. When the announcement came, I was less excited. I, along with others, see this as a replacement for something. I was already mobile with my iPhone and this wasn’t going to be powerful enough to replace my MacBook Pro. So what was the tablet going to be used for?
I decided it would be wise for the Trail Blazers if I got one to understand the hype and see how our business could apply to the use of the iPad, for both engagement with fans and for our own internal business purposes. Once getting the device, my eyes were opened up.
A lot of people that haven’t used an iPad very much rightfully say “It’s just a big iPod touch”. The key word in there is BIG. The screen is amazing. The iPhone changed behavior, consuming/engaging with content and the full web, **ehem excuse me, the flashless web, wherever and whenever you wanted. It made some interactions possible that was difficult before or impossible (geo aware services, GPS, up to the second Twit Pics, mobile broadcasting). You could do some of these things, but you had to have a laptop strapped to your back at all times.
The iPad is about changing the presentation of the content. You are now able to view multiple pieces of content (video and written word) in a presentation that doesn’t make you multitask in each one of the apps. I don’t think we’ve seen too many apps that have pushed the presentation yet (I like what the NPR app does, Popular Science app) and I’ll do another post with the apps that I’ve found to be good and bad, but that is on the software developers to create those experiences. The hardware that is there (especially the real estate) to make completely new experiences available.
With being able to consume more content at once, the viewing of video is amazing. It is a completely different experience than what I’ve had before. We have a 46″ screen at home (great for communal viewing), I’ve been streaming shows to my laptop for a couple of years ago (anyone remember the Venice Project, aka Joost when it was in beta), and have watched many of episodes of The Wire and The Office on my iPhone. This experience is more intimate. I control where the screen is, what angle, how far to hold it from my face. I don’t have to have to concede watching Ugly Betty, there’s no keyboard to remind me I’m on a computer and the screen is a size where I’m not leaning in the whole time to block out the rest of my peripheral vision. The iPad makes this a unique experience that I can see a lot more solitary watching of movies/shows in the future. (Yeah, who knew we could find a way to NOT talk to each other more in the household when it comes to media). Side note, I would get a stand or something for the iPad on the lap if you are watching a lot of video on it as your arms might get tired after 3 hours.
Reading books have actually been surprisingly good. I have a Kindle and love it. Or loved it. It felt like I was reading a book with the E Ink technology, so I was skeptical about iPad’s backlit screen. That’s actually been one of the strengths. With a Kindle you need a light to read at night. I can dim the screen on the iPad way down at night so it doesn’t bother anyone else, but I can still read the screen. I haven’t had any sort of eye strain after reading 5 hours straight and after 15 minutes I forgot I was reading on a computer. Between Kindle and the Apple Books app, that’ll be for another review, but most of my books are on Kindle and they have some nice features in that app that I enjoy.
I also have made a concerted effort to use the iPad as a laptop replacement. I’m able to use a bluetooth keyboard seamlessly and great success, however, there isn’t a great way to navigate without touching the screen. I know that’s the point of the touch screen, but if you’re using a keyboard with it, it would be nice to have “Command+tab” to be able to cycle through things. (Side note about navigation, I’ve found myself about to touch my laptop screen as a way to navigation or close things out, it is just more natural). The rest of my experience using this as a laptop replacement is pretty good. Web Surfing has been solid. I haven’t run into too many sites that have been inaccessible due to flash. The speed is really good, however my iPad suffers from bad WiFi connectivity in places my laptop and iPhone don’t have issues.
One of the components that I bought for the iPad was the External VGA Video Connection Kit. Don’t buy it. Wait. This only works with apps that have unlocked this feature. You can’t mirror your iPad display to a larger monitor (you should be able to do this). I currently run my MacBook Pro with an external monitor when I’m at work and love the extra space. Why not allow that for the iPad? You can’t play iTunes movies on your Flat Screen TV (DRM issues), or any other VGA monitor that I could get my hands on. The only apps that work so far: YouTube, Keynote (for presentations) and Image Slide Shows. That’s it. If you know of others, put them in the comments… I would love to check them out because the Connection Kit is useless right now.
Word Processing is pretty good with Pages. I have yet to print something here at our office because navigating our network printers is a nightmare. I have cranked out several proposals using the blue tooth keyboard and haven’t missed MS Word at all on my MacBook Pro. Being able to export to Page Format, PDF or MS Word .doc has come in handy. And the new iwork.com has been easy to use, but there should be some Google Doc integration or plugin that you can export to. I know that this would be in direct competition, but would go a long way.
I also would like to see some sort of file structure that I can save and open all sorts of file types. Right now there are a couple of apps out there that does this, but the cost is somewhat expensive. In fact, that has been a gripe. There wasn’t a lot of QA that went into apps that were released for iPad when it first came out. TONS of bugs and several html coding apps just didn’t work and were $9.99 (CodeMonkey and HTML Edit to name two). There needs to be a trial period for these apps if their price is going to be over $4.99. You can plunk down $30 on apps and still not have something that works. You have to rely on user reviews on the App Store and sometimes those aren’t the most reliable… I know, people lie on the internet, crazy… Being an early adopter it is understandable to run into glitches. Totally get it. But if the Apple Store is going to really scrutinize the apps that go up, let’s make sure they work. And please, add a trial version for software.
The presentation of the hardware and what it can do is amazing. It will be up to the apps to determine how useful this will be now and in the future. In fact, my Facebook consumption has dropped off dramatically because there is no Facebook app. I have found myself engaging with Twitter more (TweetDeck looks great on iPad, freezes a ton though) because of so many more apps out there to try out. This just seems like a miss for Facebook. You have to remember “Oh yeah, I should check Facebook now”… and pull up Safari surf over to FB and login. As opposed to it being right there as an icon. The iPhone app ported over to iPad is a poor replacement. It doesn’t utilize the screen size that iPad brings.
This is what kickstarts me again in getting us at the Trail Blazers to do at least one Trail Blazers mobile app (with an iPad specific version). In the future, this is how people will engage with your brand. There will still be an online component… but an app has the ability to be mobile, and a consistent experience that reminds people to engage with you. Our e-commerece will be done through the app, our community building, content creation and consumption because it provides a better experience.
After a month I’ve learned for 90% of the populace, you can get an iPad and use that as your primary computer. You can surf, email, word process, blog, minor photo editing/sharing and other typical computer tasks. When I had to jump into coding and graphic creation I had to get on the MacBook Pro. I’m not the typical computer person though. I pound on my laptop pretty heavily, so if I was able to sparingly use my laptop, I think most will be really happy with the iPad. Check out apps, there are some amazing ones (BTW my EA Sports Madden Football for iPhone looks better for iPad than iPhone, I can’t wait for the next edition). Don’t get the connector kit, do get a bluetooth keyboard. The 1 millionth iPad was just sold (faster time period than the iPhone) so this is going to evolve. I think it will evolve quickly as more apps push the envelope on what you can do on it. I will do another post that includes what I think we can do with the iPad here at the Trail Blazers and would love to hear your input.
