Let us first preface this post with the statement that we’ll probably still buy an iPad because we do find it revolutionary… in software, not hardware. Part One of this editorial will focus on the amazing software that Apple included in the iPad. The mainstream media has put too much focus on the hardware and not enough on the magical software that they have developed. We’ll tackle the hardware in Part Two because we think it’s important to address. Think of it this way, Apple’s new iPad is a batter at the bottom of the 9th, 2 outs and a full count — he has to score in order to win the game. We don’t know what will happen yet because the last pitch (iPad product launch) hasn’t been thrown. So, we’ll leave the world of hardware for a moment and talk about the software that will make this device amazing.

Steve Jobs said in the keynote that, if a tablet is to succeed, it has to be better than its two closest competitors — the smartphone and laptops.

“Those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks… better than a laptop, better than a smartphone.”


So they set out to build a device that could out perform both sides of the equation and came up with the iPad. They looked into netbooks, but as Steve has said before, they’re just cheap imitations of PCs that run crummy software:

“Some people have thought that that’s a netbook… the problem is, netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re slow, they have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software.”

After realizing a netbook wasn’t the way to go, and from the success of the iPhone and iPod touch, they decided to build a tablet… not just any tablet computer: one that would make you want to use it even more than your iPhone or Laptop. Here’s what Steve said had to be better:

  • Browsing
  • Email
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Music
  • Games
  • eBooks

So let’s take a look at the apps that go along with those categories:

Safari

The browsing experience is very similar to the iPhone but is immediately better due to the tremendous increase in screen real estate. You still get features like pinch zooming, tap to focus a frame, and landscape or portrait viewing modes. The other real difference: the new processor — and we’re assuming RAM increase — make these functions incredibly smooth… unnaturally smooth. We seriously cannot believe the processing capabilities of Apple’s A4 chip. In this aspect, browsing online will definitely be better on the iPad than a desktop or a smartphone. You have the already amazing browsing experience from the iPhone, desktop-like rendering speeds, and a 9.7 inch multi-touch screen that will immerse you into a site. BUT, we still have to address the lack of Flash playback. We watch Hulu, the TV networks media players, YouTube, and other Flash-based content on our desktops. There’s not really a chance that you could avoid it in a typical browser session. The fact that the iPad doesn’t support Flash would keep this category from taking on the desktop, thus missing Apple’s goal.

Mail

Thank the almighty Steve that the email app is better on the iPad than it is on the iPhone. The iPhone’s Mail application has been criticized so often that we’ve lost count of the negative reviews… there’s no unified inbox and you have to click through countless navigation buttons to go from one account to the next. It’s unfortunate to see that the iPad doesn’t have a unified inbox… we were able to zoom in on the product video and there is a specific “Mailboxes” button. We get to see our inbox and messages at the same time at least. The device puts focus on a message, just by rotating it into portrait mode: something you can’t do with either the Mac app or the iPhone app. It also includes Apple’s predictive text technology. This is something they’ve been working on since the introduction of the iPhone but it’s never really made it over to the Mac side in full glory. With the introduction of Snow Leopard, Apple software received predictive text technology, but it doesn’t appear to be nearly as powerful as what we find on the iPhone and now the iPad. We really like the current layout of Apple Mail (the desktop client) and hope that we’ll see more from the iPad client. We love having our Gmail IMAP folders on the left to file stuff away, the inbox at top center and the message field below. Hopefully, the iPad version of Mail will allow a little customization. Only that will allow it to replace our desktop email client… until then, we have to say that this is just a good start.

Photos

We would describe the Photos application on the iPad as a wonderful multitouch picture frame that will serve as the best possible device for sharing your albums with your friends and family… seriously. You can quickly pinch to expand an album to peek at the pictures inside and find out if that really is the album you want. You can see a full list of every photo in your Library just like the iPhone and the desktop iPhoto app. It also has impressive slideshow features with beautiful transitions and the ability to play a song as you’re going through the show. Apple definitely got this one correct; neither the iPhone app nor iPhoto will make sharing your photos as great as the iPad.

Videos

As with any video player, size does matter. The 9.6 inch LCD in the iPad is sufficient for mobile browsing but cannot compare to watching movies on a TV or even your laptop. Putting size aside, it separates your Movies and Videos out of your iTunes library like the iPod touch… we’re not sure why we just can’t have an iTunes app that can handle everything like the Mac side of things. Wouldn’t it be easier that way? The Videos app lets you browse through your movies, TV shows, music videos (Wait… music videos? We still don’t have a Music Videos Library section in the iTunes desktop app.) all from one visually pleasing interface. It has a nice, dark background behind the movies unlike the default white background of iTunes 9 (you can actually change that). Moving on to the YouTube app… it appears to be built from YouTube’s browser feeds but has been re-designed with Apple’s visual flair. If you’re bored, it would be a great way to waste some time. The video features of the iPad easily out-perform the iPhone, iPod touch and are easily the best on the market for mobile video playback. Does it beat the home theater experience? Yeah, right.

Music

The iPod app on the iPad will definitely set a new level of media player capabilities when it comes out. The picture to the right doesn’t show it, but every time you select an album, it creates a beautiful overlay (much like clicking a picture on our site) that shows you the track list and much more information. We found it stunning. You can also play the album in the Cover Flow view just like the iPhone and desktop apps, but it is much more intuitive on this device. The iTunes Store actually has a wonderful browsing experience much better than the iPhone and more visually pleasing than the iTunes desktop app. We may actually spend time browsing the store more often on this device. This music experience will be a game-changer, one that we hope will make it back to the desktop and the iPhone.

Games

The App Store changed the way we viewed mobile gaming, and it will continue to evolve with the iPad. iPhone and iPod touch gaming has taken over the App Store, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. If you really look at gaming on a Mac, you realize that it’s pretty much non-existent. Platforms like Valve’s Steam are taking over the PC game markets with ease. Xbox, Wii and Playstation gamers are pretty set in their ways… so we think that adding another device to the portable gaming market will be a great move for Apple. Considering the internal hardware capabilities of this device, we expect even better games to come out on the App Store, and we can’t wait. This device doesn’t compete with any platform device, but if you’re comparing it to Mac and the iPhone OS, it will dominate.

eBooks

The iBooks app is e-reading done right. We covered this a lot more in-depth in our iBooks app post. To recap, we think the iPad has set a new standard for the eBook readers to follow. It has a 9.7 inch touchscreen that allows you to read in full color and in low-light situations. Not many other eBook readers on the market can do that. Sure, you only get 10 hours of reading with the iPad, but I’m with Steve on this one: “Who reads for ten hours… you just end up plugging it in.”

Productivity

We’re adding a category here that Steve didn’t mention in the keynote. We think productivity will be a huge reason for iPad purchases in the near future. With examples like Apple’s new Calendar app (see the picture to the right), the Address Book, and even the addition of a fully functional iWork — we’re going to see this device used in the mobile productivity market much more than the iPhone ever was. For those who don’t want to carry around a laptop all the time, this may be the perfect device.

So, that’s the software as we currently understand it. Once we get our iPad here, we’ll be doing a full rundown of each Apple application as well as the new apps that pop up to take advantage of Apple’s very powerful tablet computer. Remember, this is only Part One of this post… next, we’ll be talking about the hardware. You won’t want to miss it!