Up and to the Right

No time for a full review or even blog post. Just some bullet points since it’s Easter Sunday and I need to go dress up in a bunny suit and dance for kids in front of the local five and dime because a man’s gotta earn a living.

Business Ramifications:

• Advertising: The Popular Science app is most notable to me not for content but the advertisements! They look gorgeous and sexy–and many are full page. You think to yourself “Crap, this is what I pictured online advertising to look like about 20 years ago. How did it take this long?” The iPad is a real game changer for advertising. The platform and SDK frameworks allow for unprecedented beauty and interactivity which will vastly accelerate the ability of companies to pursue global branding campaigns, which is where the real ads dollars are. Prediction: CPMs should and do go up. If they don’t, you’re getting screwed over.
• Cloud: Dropbox and/or MobileMe etc. is a must have complement. Given the totally wireless nature of the device, when you’re using it you have this feeling you are using the first device that can truly take advantage of the cloud without seemingly like it’s trying to.
• Content Beauty: Overall everything looks damn sexy on the iPad in a way that HTML and its plugins have never been able to attain. Whether you are browsing through the NPR iPad app or booking a flight through the new Kayak iPad app or looking at plain old web content through Wikipanion (a Wikipedia viewer) or Craigsphone (a Craigslist viewer) it suddenly feels like you traveled ahead 5 five years in a (hot tub?) time machine to gaze the future. Does HTML suck or does the iPhone OS SDK rock? Or are folks developers finally paying attention to UI because the device psychologically is more akin to paper? What’s going on here? I have my suspicions, but I promise you it looks better.
• $$$: I am much more inclined to pay up REAL MONEY for apps. iPad apps are not just “FREE” and $0.99. I feel myself gravitating to the $4.99, $9.99 and even higher price points because I can see the value. This is very promising for software developers. Since the device is new and burning a hole in my oversized iPad pocket I am also throwing down money on apps left and right which is great for those with iPad apps around launch.
• Gaming: Addicting.
• Allocation of Time: I will spend more time consuming long form prose content (probably some verse too), web video and playing games now that I have an iPad. I will spend less time solely watching TV, but more time on the couch with the TV on while I am on the iPad. I will spend less time on my laptop aimlessly browsing the web, checking Engadget for the millionth time. I will spend more time aimlessly opening apps on the iPad.

iPad Device, Software, UI:

• Gut Feeling: This is the most excited I have been about computing since circa 1990 (when my buddy upgraded his 386 and we installed the latest version of Test Drive and it came with 256-color graphics!)
• Usage: It’s definitely a device for consuming content and replying to quick emails, etc. not creating long-form content as we suspected. I am writing this blog post on my MacBook Pro from the comfort of my bed. There would be no comfortable way to do this with the iPad. (Believe me, I just spent ten minutes trying–even using the bluetooth keyboard, a bookshelf two pulleys, two lines, a counterweight, and a block and tackle.)
• Multitasking: I suspect it will come with iPhone OS 4.0. I don’t really miss it for now.
• Speed: Perhaps because I have an old, pokey iPhone 3G, the iPad feel so fast it even makes a laptop feel like you’re riding a three legged burro up K2.
• UI: Overall awesome. The new iPod app made me feel like the dude in the Maxell ads who gets blown away. Gorgeous. You can read about the overall UI in any number of reviews elsewhere, but one thing I’d like to add is that the home screen looks and feels slightly awkward to me. I suspect SJ feels the same way, but was willing to live with this to get the device out X months faster because he knew he had a winner on his hands. I imagine the dock and homescreen will become more pleasing to the eye in proportions and overall look/feel and also more useful with iPhone 4.0.
• Weight: It’s probably a little too heavy to replace my Kindle for reading a book in bed. Maybe too big of a screen too. I kinda dig the E-Ink for eye-strain reasons too, but I am sure many folks will have their own opinions. I see it better for web, magazines and newspapers than War and Peace.