Thoughts from an iPad

Daniel from AppleInsider:

Beyond lacking a camera, iPhoto and iMovie seem to work well enough on the original iPad, although it lacks the horsepower of the newer iPad 2, and the additional memory of the newest iPad. It also lacks a camera, so you obviously can’t use the recording features of the latest iMovie.

I could be wrong but I think the iPad 1 lacks a camera.

Paul Taylor, disappointed:

The new iPad will simply be called “new iPad”, maybe because the name is strong enough to carry its legacy unto another flood of eager Apploids, or maybe because there really isn’t that much new to it.

This makes sense. Apple called it the new iPad because there isn’t much new to it. Except, oh wait, thats not true at all. Not a single device has a screen resolution even close to the iPad’s retina display. And I’d bet they won’t come close for another year, at the least.

Marco:

When implementing these features, I felt like iOS had given me far too much access to Address Book without forcing a user prompt. It felt a bit dirty. Even though I was only accessing the data when a customer explicitly asked me to, I wanted to look at only what I needed to and get out of there as quickly as possible. I never even considered storing the data server-side or looking at more than I needed to.

When I had to access the address book I felt the exact same way. Most users, however, don’t care. Going back to Apple’s basic concept: it just works. Location, unlike address book, is time-sensative. There is a specific time associated with the location. Depending on how wide of a span worth of data you have, the creepier you can be (e.g. calculating speed, possible routes, destinations, etc). He goes on:

But Apple can, and should, assure users that no app can read their contact data without their knowledge and explicit permission. I don’t know why this hasn’t always been required, but it probably isn’t a good enough reason to justify the erosion of user trust in iOS apps that this could cause.

Come on. I’ll meet you half way: give users an option to decide this on an app-by-app basis, but not by default. A little toggle in Settings.app to lock down the address book with a bunch of on/off toggles for each app that pop-open below.

And he goes on:

Apple needs to change the Address Book API to require user permission first, like Core Location and Push Notifications do. I don’t care how many applications break as a result.

Consider this from a development perspective, oh mighty developer. Every application that uses a single ABAddressBookRef or any related function breaks. Except wait, they linked to AddressBook framework. So when AddressBook framework can’t talk to Apple’s hooks, AddressBook framework causes your app to crash. The only way to see this is to update your dev tools and realize none of the function hooks exist anymore. Or maybe they do exist, but Apple is blocking the thread so that it can popup the UI alert. The only way this is possible is to deprecate AddressBook framework as is, for the whole course of iOS 5.1, or even iOS 6. And provide the new alternative as the “go to” method. In iOS 7, they can finally remove it. Alright, sounds good. 2 years later.

John Gruber:

It’s always shocking when you actually run out of battery on the iPad.

He goes on to say that even when you get the 20% warning, it’s not as much a warning as a friendly heads up. Something like this might affect you in the future.

I couldn’t agree more. When I use my iPad it shocks me how long it can last before I need to plug it in. It’s really amazing, too. I notice I usually plug my iPad in every-other time I plug my iPhone in. And I plug my iPhone in maybe every other day. So with that logic, my iPad can last around 4 days, sometimes 5, depending on usage. I always cycle my batteries – I’ll never leave a device plugged in overnight, with the exception of calibrations (such as the first charge, etc).

He goes on to talk about his previous assessment of LTE. Again, I agree completely agree with his reasoning. Why else is there no iPhone-size Android device with LTE? I think the LTE chips are too big, which is why Android phones are so big, and their battery life is horrible.

John Gruber:

Why not run the iBookstore the way they’re running the Mac App Store? The fact that Mac apps can be sold directly doesn’t seem to be slowing the growth of the Mac App Store.

When it comes to Mac apps, Apple had no choice but to allow external sales. Mac apps have always had that exposure, and Apple knows most users would rather have all their apps under an account where they (a) don’t worry about serials (i.e. digging through old emails), (b) don’t wonder which apps they bought, (b) can re-download with 1 click anytime.

So naturally users will generally want to use the Mac app store. But with the iPhone there was never another official way to install apps, so Apple could set the standard. Code signing, limited APIs, etc. But more importantly, their store is the only way to install apps - and it’s better for everyone.

They’re doing the same thing with textbooks. Up until now you either used a standard e-book, or wrote a custom app. Standard e-books are ugly and boring. Custom apps are big projects, but allow 100% customizability. Apple went right in the middle - they made a tool easy enough for authors and publishers to use, but they kept their standards as high as the iOS app store.

Complain about it all you want, but textbooks is a godsend for publishers and independent authors.