Inverted Reality

One month with the Apple iPad

"What's your experience been like with the iPad so far"? People ask me...

Some of my answers:

I feel like I'm in a sci-fi movie every time I use it.

I feel like I'm using technology that is five or ten years away, and shouldn't be available yet I get the same feeling when using the iPad, that I got when I used a mouse on a computer for the first time.

Revolutionary or evolutionary? both. This is the next thing in the computing space. We've been using computers, with keyboards, mice, etc, for ages now. This is the big ticket. Multi-touch, portable, fast, aesthetic, smart, convenient. My main computer is a Macbook Pro laptop. In the last month I reckon I've used the laptop a handful of times.

The iPad caters for 80-90% of my computing now. Most of the things I do are in a web browser, email client, calendar. The only thing the iPad cannot do is edit HD video, which I still do on the laptop, and develop web pages/site

Don't hate it until you try it. I've been carrying it everywhere, on the bus, on the train, at work, in meetings, on the couch, in bed, it's just so convenient and makes anything 'internet'y' so accessible. Truly a "magical device".

One day of fame

Well, sort of. It's not hard in a small city like Perth, Western Australia.

Yesterday was the global release of the Apple iPad. I thought it might be an idea to go line up at the local store before it opens to ensure I get myself the latest hot tech gadget. So I did. On my way to work, I stopped past Nextbyte in Nedlands (an Apple reseller). I arrived at 7:15. The store was expected to open at 8AM.

There were three guys already standing at the front door waiting. One guy arrived at 5AM! The others sometime after. I was standing in line hoping the store would have enough iPad stock to hand out the model I wanted. The owner came out, yeah we have heaps of iPads (over 100).

Soon after, The West Australian (local newspaper) arrived, took photo's, asked questions, interviewed, etc. Soon after that (7:45), Channel 9 news arrived with camera in tow and took loads of footage. They filmed us waiting outside, walking in the store, buying our gear, leaving, etc, etc. The news made the front of The West's web site, and also www.watoday.com.au And that was my day of fame.

Later in the evening they had footage of us in the shop buying iPads on the news. Yay! Here's some snippits of the web sites I saved: [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Australian iPad pricing and date

SYDNEY, Australia—8 May 2010—Apple® today announced that iPad™ will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday 28 May. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday 10 May. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore. -snip- Pricing & Availability iPad is available in Australia for a recommended retail price of AUS$629 inc GST for 16GB, AUS$759 inc GST for 32GB, AUS$879 inc GST for 64GB for Wi-Fi models and AUS$799 inc GST for 16GB, AUS$928 inc GST for 32GB and AUS$1049 inc GST for 64GB for Wi-Fi + 3G models. iPad will be sold through the aaApple Store, Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorised Resellers. The iBooks™ app for iPad including Apple's iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store on 28 May. Apple plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. Apple will announce availability, local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.

Time BOM

Check out this new App from Shift Jelly. Time BOM Yeah, it's an iPhone/iPod Touch app. It's simple, it just displays the time, date, and weather for your location on the display, in any orientation, with a couple of different themes. Here I have it sitting in my super awesome MiniDV tape case (iPhone holder)... yeah that's my sik idea by the way. Shift Jelly is an Australian app developer, support their stuff! This app was only $1.19!

New Apple iPad Blog

I've set up a new site. http://www.ipadicle.com/ (it rhymes with Radical, but is spelt completely different) I plan to add all iPad tips, tricks and news on the site, as well as hopefully gain some discussion. The idea is to make it a one-stop-shop for everything iPad. From Developers to regular users, hopefully it will become a useful resource!

iPad Hands on in Australia

This is an absolute exclusive! Here at Inverted Reality, courtesy of leopardtricks.com, we're very lucky to have the opportunity to get an exclusive hands-on with the new Apple iPad prior to release world-wide. First impressions are, this thing is just a pleasure to look at and hold, it's sleek styling and sharp display are most certainly top notch. It scrolls like butter, it's just fast at everything. We tested a few of the built in apps, but focused on mobile Safari, we fired up the New York Times web site to see how it could handle a great deal of content on it's display. As Steve demonstrated in the official keynote, it loads fast, and navigates well. We absolutely believe that this device will be very popular. Using an iPhone'esque operating system instead of a full blown OS is without a doubt the way to go here. Multi-tasking (or lack of) just isn't an issue as apps open and close blindingly fast (just as fast as you could switch apps pretty much) You sure are in for a treat! On to the most important part, the photos! [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Fanboy

I was reading some of Chris Pirillo's tweets.. he's a tech nerd that does a live video tech show, runs some sites, runs a convention, does all kinds of stuff.... recently he's been tweeting about being a 'fanboy' or should I say, NOT being a fanboy. It's got me thinking, am I fanboy? I'm a pretty die-hard Apple fan... I love Apple products! I stalk the rumor and official sites for updates, new products, gossip etc... I could be a fanboy. I've not always been an Apple fanboy. Sure my first experience with a computer was an Apple IIc which my mother bought me when I was nine years old. I must have been the only kid in my entire school who was handing in homework that was done in a word processor and printed on a dot matrix printer. HAH. When Apple announced they were moving to Intel processors, and I had my first experience with a Mac running OS X. I dropped my cash on the bench and forked out for two brand new 15" Macbook Pro's. Revision A, pre-ordered. That was an easy $9k.

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Blogging and iPad

So I'm looking to get myself an iPad, if it's a great device, I'll get two (one for the wife, she loves books, mags, etc). I was thinking about what it will be like to blog using an iPad. A little different I would imagine. I've blogged using my iPhone from time to time, but rarely, it's not so easy with the tiny keyboard and screen. OK for small posts, or processing comments, etc. The iPad has a stunning screen and should be adequate for blogging on the go. Still with the software/virtual keyboard, which may or may not prove odd to type lengthy posts on, but we will see. The beauty of the iPad is obviously the form factor, battery life, display, and the completely awesome multi-touch interface. These things are appealing to me as someone who primarily uses the internet to carry out my tasks. I even write my doc's using google docs. I do not have MS office installed (or any other office suite) Would the iPad replace my Macbook Pro? No. I use my Macbook Pro for things the iPad just can't do (yet). Like coding web pages using coda, editing images in pixelmator, editing HDV movies of the kids in iMovie, etc. Who's to say that some of these apps couldn't run on an iPad? I reckon coda could, if it was designed for iPad. I can see the iPad being a fantastic bloggers tool. A great way to read your favourite blogs, administer and write on your own blogs, heck even blog about the iPad! I'll leave you with a couple of cool iPad things I've come across lately: iPad Safari (web browser) walk through: Wired Magazine on iPad:

iPad is just iTunes enabler

or is it? Bringing us the iPad is one of the greatest moves Apple has made since the iPod, and here's why... Think about what the iPod offers us already. Music, movies, TV shows, games. All delivered easily and reliably through iTunes, Apple's digital delivery store. Sure you can load your own music on it, you can check your email on it, you can surf the web on it. Heck, with the iPhone you can even make phone calls. Don't forget about Apple's core purpose for these devices. Delivering digital content to you via their app store / iTunes. Making money. Now think about this... Just how profitable do you suppose iTunes / app store is for Apple? Lets not forget that the iPod single handedly resurrected Apple from a really deep hole. Of course it's profitable. It's also controlled, scaleable, reliable, and simple for the average Joe. Just what you'd expect from Apple. Have we forgotten that the core of all these Apple products is paid (and some free) digital delivery via app store and iTunes? Yeah there's free stuff, it keeps the punters happy, and pulls in the customers. Lets look at the iPad. It's much like an iPod Touch, only, larger and more powerful. When it was announced to be running an iPhone-style OS, I immediately wondered why.. but it's becoming more clear all the time. I bet Steve is sitting at his desk thinking to himself "If only all our devices ran an iphone-style OS". Why you ask? Some reasons:

• Apps for the OS are designed strictly to Apples rules and guidelines. They must be approved before they hit the app store. They even get age classifications. You couldn't possibly install a "bad app" that might wreak havoc on the device. It pretty much makes the device really use friendly and renders any support arrangement almost useless.

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Apple iPad announced

Well Apple have done it again. They've gone and made yet another product that we are all going to want, even if it doesn't perfectly meet our requirements. It's a new wanky gadget. It's the Apple iPad. It's a giant iPod Touch. Yay! http://www.apple.com/ipad/ Do I want one? I don't really know yet. I can see some uses. It has a 9.7" screen (as I predicted last week), and runs an iPhone'esque operating system.