David Hurst – expert PHP/MySQL developer

Well, the excitement of the launch of Apple’s worst kept secret is over but the hype is probably just going to get worse. It would seem opinion is divided, with some believing Apple’s collective genius has once again solved all our technology needs, whereas others feel the iPad is overrated and something of a disappointment. After having a few hours to reflect, I’m afraid I fall into the latter camp.

Firstly, I have to ask myself what gap in the market the iPad is filling? According to Steve Jobs’ launch keynote, it’s the space between a phone and a computer. Specifically, it needs to be able to browse the web, do email, video, music, games etc., and it must do all these things really well. He then said that netbooks currently fill this gap and they don’t do anything well. So, in Apple’s opinion, the iPad is to occupy the netbook sector and be a lot better than a netbook. Is it? What would I want from a device like that?

I’m typing this post on my netbook. It’s a Packard Bell ZA8. It has a 1.2GHz 64bit AMD processor, ATI graphics, 140Gb hard disk, 2Gb RAM, 3 USB ports, VGA, a card reader and a webcam. It’s running Ubuntu Linux and can therefore multi-task perfectly and run any Linux software I wish. I can completely customise the interface, access my hard disk, plug in a DVD drive or any other USB accessory I like. (It came with Windows Vista on it, which also offers all these things – it ran Vista OK too.) I can plug in my mobile broadband dongle, go online anywhere, video conference – it’s just a smaller more portable (and less powerful) version of my main laptop and desktop, and that’s what I want from a device in this market sector. It cost £300 and it has a better than average keyboard and screen resolution for a netbook. The only downside is the woeful battery life, but at least I can change the battery if I want, and I can upgrade the disk and memory too.

How many of these things can the iPad do?

The Screen
The resolution of the screen is 1024 x 768. When did you last see a new laptop or monitor with that as a native resolution? Consumers want widescreen, not 4:3. Can you imagine how dire widescreen movies will look on this thing? They will play in a tiny strip. This is a massive oversight.

Processor
It’s a custom Apple chip called an A4 and running at 1GHz. Of course without knowing the IPC rate or cache values, it’s impossible to gauge how powerful this chip will be. Apple are pretty good at matching processor power to equipment, so likely it’s fast enough to do everything the iPad does. No doubt it plays smooth video too. My netbook is fine with DVDs, and with video streaming, as long as the canvas size of the video is not too big. Full screen BBC iPlayer doesn’t work on my netbook, but I imagine the iPad could do that… if it had Flash… which it doesn’t.

Disk Space
The iPad is available with 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb solid state disks. 16Gb is peanuts these days, and most netbooks offer 100Gb or more. What’s more, the netbook, being basically a cut-down PC, gives full access to the data on your disk, whereas the iPad runs what is basically the iPhone OS and unless they have made changes, that does not currently have any sort of file navigation or management.

No doubt the iPad will be syncing all its data with your desktop and that puts iTunes or whatever software package in control of what you store on your device, and that seems too limiting for a netbook. Frankly it’s annoying on the iPhone and I can only imagine it will be worse on the iPad.

USB
USB is an essential part of modern computing. The iPad doesn’t have it. That means no DVD drives, cameras, flash disks, backup drives etc., whereas my netbook can interface with all these things.

Webcam
Why is there no webcam? Surely a device like this is ideal for Skype and video conference? I can’t believe Apple thought about this and decided the iPad could do without a camera. It’s much more likely that they couldn’t get it in on this version.

Multi-tasking
I ditched my iPhone for a Palm Pre for the simple reason that the iPhone OS does not do multi-tasking. You might think this isn’t a problem, but I quite often spend an evening with my laptop or netbook out, browsing the Internet whilst chatting to friends on MSN or other IM networks. You won’t be able to do this with iPad, and I believe that’s a big let down on a device like this.

My Conclusions
Apple made a big thing about how cheap this device is, but the cheapest one has only a 16Gb drive, no 3G connectivity and still costs more than my more capable netbook. The 3G connectivity will be essential, because without it and without any USB ports, the only way you’ll be able to get online is via WiFi, and that means finding a hotspot. Plus, the 3G costs an extra $130, whereas mobile broadband dongles in the UK are now very cheap. The 64Gb version with 3G is a whopping $829. That’s an expensive netbook!

The iPad is not really a computer like your desktop, laptop or even netbook – it is a cobbled gadget. An iPad that runs OS X would have been an attractive proposition, but I don’t see any value in using a phone OS on a computer. Yeah, sure, it’s a great piece of design. It does what it does really well. Some of the apps look fab. But get past all of that, and it’s really just eye candy. Are you really going to want to scroll through loads of photos on your iPad? Bear in mind that you won’t just be able to hook up your camera to it, so you’ll have to first download all your images from your camera to your computer and then sync with the iPad. Sounds like more work to me rather than making things simpler.

What about music? Well, I already have an iPod, and I phone that can play MP3s. Heck, even my car stereo can play them. How many places do I need my iTunes, and do I really want a personal music player with a 9.7″ screen?

What was the real motivation for making this gadget?

Could it be that Apple sat and looked at its 75 million iPhone and iPod Touch users, and the 125 million app store accounts, and then thought… “how can we squeeze more cash out of these people”? They then looked at the Amazon Kindle and Sony’s reader and decided to make a book store and a larger iPod to put it all on. Then they dress it up as a tablet computer and tell us that it’s the thing we need to fill the gap in our computing life.

Apple fans and gadget fans everywhere will rush out to buy these things without really thinking about whether or not it will actually be worthwhile to have. Apple fans always do. And true to form, Apple will treat its early adopters with usual contempt by bringing out a version 2 with all the features version 1 should have had in short order, and probably with a lower price tag. The thing is not even ready to ship for another 60 – 90 days. What’s wrong with it? Is it not finished? Are there manufacturing issues? Are Apple waiting to see how many people pre-order before they really commit to production? It doesn’t make sense to me.

I love Apple computers and I love OS X, but I hate what Apple the company has become, and the iPad appears to me to be nothing more than a giant ruse to make money. It’s easy to get carried along on the tidal wave of hype and spin, or to be seduced by the touchy feely goodness of the thing, but I won’t be rushing out to buy an iPad I’m afraid. I know that as soon as I get chance to touch one in the Apple store, I will want it, but that’s all it’ll be: a want, not a need. I don’t need an iPad. It doesn’t neatly solve any computing gaps in my life, and is therefore nothing more than a toy. I’ll stick with my trusty Packard Bell netbook. The battery may be crap, but I can forgive it that and carry a spare in the comfortable knowledge that I can do almost everything I would ever want to do with a computer on a device that is small and portable.