Wow, I’m seeing a lot of negative commentary on the new Apple iPad tablet from pundits all around the Web. People are already shouting that this will be a flop and that Apple have dropped the ball this time. A lot of criticisms: no USB, no multitasking, low memory, no Flash support, no camera, no full OS, and so on and on. Everyone seems to be missing the point completely.
iPad Interesting Moments
To familiarize myself with the iPad UX interactions I studied the Steve Job’s video as well as Luke Wroblewski’spost on the various multi-touch patterns introduced by the iPad.
I find it helpful to take these interactions and “slow them down” as a series of keyframe screenshots. Doing so gives you a chance to appreciate the care that went into designing each of these interactions.
Apple Competitors Voice Pessimism About the iPad
In the immediate aftermath of the Apple iPadannouncement, high-ranking executives at notable companies — Apple competitors in some aspects — are publicly voicing their pessimism about the device.
8 Things That Suck About the iPad
Not me talking, someone over at Gizmondo.
A lot of people at Gizmodo are psyched about the iPad. Not me! My god, am I underwhelmed by it. It has some absolutely backbreaking failures that will make buying one the last thing I would want to do. Updated
Insanely great, or underwhelming? Blogosphere reacts to iPad
(CNN) — Within hours of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s breathless iPad presentation — he called the device “extraordinary,” “unbelievable” and “a dream” — the independent reviews from techie types began rolling in.
Some shared Jobs’ rapturous delight. Others snidely slammed the machine on counts ranging from its lack of features to its name. Many adopted a more cautious, wait-and-see approach. We rounded up some of the best commentary from tech bloggers to provide a sampling of what’s being said about the most highly anticipated gadget in months, if not years.
Are iPad’s Limitations Design Decisions?
Apple’s iPad is an early (but big) step toward the future of personal computing. But you can’t move into the future if you are weighed down by the past. So it’s quite possible that several of the technical limitations in the current iPad are actually deliberate design decisions made by Apple to ensure the future of personal computing arrives without the issues of today.
Nice intro to a thoughtful article by LukeW, Chief Design Architect at Yahoo! Inc. Read it all here.
So while people are likely to continue assailing the iPad for these technical limitations, perhaps there’s good reason behind Apple’s decisions. Together they create a computing experience with less UI management, less crashes, less malicious apps, less device management, and thereby less complexity.
Editorial design by Pentagram on the iPad
The new iPad from Apple, presented in typical Steve Jobs fashion as game-changing, will, in fact, revolutionize the way we read magazines. Combining the rich visual content of a print publication, the ever-changing immediacy of a website, and the portability of an e-book reader, the iPad is something new.
Pentagram’s Luke Hayman, designer of, among others, Time, New York, and Travel + Leisure, was asked how this new format would change the world of magazines and came up with five ways off the top of his head.
Read about it right here.
iPad devsugar: Letting go of iPhone visual design patterns
So what does this mean to you as a developer? First of all, it’s time to give up what I’ll call the “Cover Flow mentality”. On the iPhone, when you flip the iPod music application to its side, the presentation changes. It goes from a standard UITableView navigation controller to a Cover Flow view, where you can select an album and browse through it. The iPad kills this design convention. When every way is up, every interface must be consistent. (Update: Apple software demonstrated at the media event shows differences between landscape and portrait presentations.) Sure, you can still use Cover Flow but it’s time to switch to that view by introducing a button or gesture rather than by reorienting the device.
For developers, check it out here.
Questions (and Answers) on the iPad’s Shortcomings
From Time.com. Interesting piece. This is true though:
The weird thing about the iPad is that it has landed us 180 degrees from where we thought we were heading. The iPad interface — like the iPhone’s — tries to do everything in its power to do away with documents and files. There is no Finder or root-level file navigation. It’s apps, apps, apps, as far as the eye can see.
Stephen Fry is a fan
He loves it. And it’s a very nice read for people (according to Stephen, Apple’s fanboys) who focus on the negatives, and try to tell themselves they won’t buy one. Then half a year after the launch they hate themselves for not buying it on the very first day it came out.
No, I don’t have shares in Apple. I came so close to buying some as an act of defensive defiance in the early 90s when every industry insider and expert in the field agreed that Apple had six months to go before going bust. But I didn’t. If I had done I could now afford to buy you all an iPad. Yes, I do like and have tried to champion OpenSource software. How can I square that with my love of Apple? I’m complicated. I’m a human being. I also believe in a mixed economy and mixed nuts.
Awesome. Read it here.