In 10 years of reviewing tech products for The New York Times, I\u2019ve never seen a product as polarizing as Apple\u2019s iPad, which arrives in stores on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis device is laughably absurd,\u201d goes a typical remark on a tech blog\u2019s comments board. \u201cHow can they expect anyone to get serious computer work done without a mouse?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis truly is a magical revolution,\u201d goes another. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine why anyone will want to go back to using a mouse and keyboard once they\u2019ve experienced Apple\u2019s visionary user interface!\u201d<\/p>\n
Those are some pretty confident critiques of the iPad \u2014 considering that their authors have never even tried it.<\/p>\n
In any case, there\u2019s a pattern to these assessments.<\/p>\n
The haters tend to be techies; the fans tend to be regular people. Therefore, no single write-up can serve both readerships adequately. There\u2019s but one solution: Write separate reviews for these two audiences.<\/p>\n
Read the first one if you\u2019re a techie. (How do you know? Take this simple test. Do you use BitTorrent? Do you run Linux? Do you have more e-mail addresses than pants? You\u2019re a techie.)<\/p>\n
Read the second review if you\u2019re anyone else.<\/p>\n
Review for Techies<\/p>\n
The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a half-inch-thick slab, all glass on top, aluminum on the back. Hardly any buttons at all \u2014 just a big Home button below the screen. It takes you to the Home screen full of apps, just as on an iPhone.<\/p>\n
One model gets online only in Wi-Fi hot spots ($500 to $700, for storage capacities from 16 to 64 gigabytes). The other model can get online either using Wi-Fi or, when you\u2019re out and about, using AT&T\u2019s cellular network; that feature adds $130 to each price.<\/p>\n
You operate the iPad by tapping and dragging on the glass with your fingers, just as on the iPhone. When the very glossy 9.7-inch screen is off, every fingerprint is grossly apparent.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an e-book reader app, but it\u2019s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries (sorry, media pundits). The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can\u2019t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces). And you can\u2019t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine \u2014 not even a Mac or iPhone.<\/p>\n
When the iPad is upright, typing on the on-screen keyboard is a horrible experience; when the iPad is turned 90 degrees, the keyboard is just barely usable (because it\u2019s bigger). A $70 keyboard dock will be available in April, but then you\u2019re carting around two pieces.<\/p>\n
At least Apple had the decency to give the iPad a really fast processor. Things open fast, scroll fast, load fast. Surfing the Web is a heck of a lot better than on the tiny iPhone screen \u2014 first, because it\u2019s so fast, and second, because you don\u2019t have to do nearly as much zooming and panning.<\/p>\n
But as any Slashdot reader can tell you, the iPad can\u2019t play Flash video. Apple has this thing against Flash, the Web\u2019s most popular video format; says it\u2019s buggy, it\u2019s not secure and depletes the battery. Well, fine, but meanwhile, thousands of Web sites show up with empty white squares on the iPad \u2014 places where videos or animations are supposed to play.<\/p>\n
YouTube, Vimeo, TED.com, CBS.com and some other sites are converting their videos to iPad\/iPhone\/Touch-compatible formats. But all the news sites and game sites still use Flash. It will probably be years before the rest of the Web\u2019s videos become iPad-viewable.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no multitasking, either. It\u2019s one app at a time, just like on the iPhone. Plus no U.S.B. jacks and no camera. Bye-bye, Skype video chats. You know Apple is just leaving stuff out for next year\u2019s model.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money \u2014 with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you\u2019ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who\u2019s going to carry around a third machine?<\/p>\n
Review for Everyone Else<\/p>\n
The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch.<\/p>\n
The simple act of making the multitouch screen bigger changes the whole experience. Maps become real maps, like the paper ones. You see your e-mail inbox and the open message simultaneously. Driving simulators fill more of your field of view, closer to a windshield than a keyhole.<\/p>\n
The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes. For example, when you turn a page, the animated page edge actually follows your finger\u2019s position and speed as it curls, just like a paper page. Font, size and brightness controls appear when you tap. Tap a word to get a dictionary definition, bookmark your spot or look it up on Google or Wikipedia. There\u2019s even a rotation-lock switch on the edge of the iPad so you can read in bed on your side without fear that the image will rotate.<\/p>\n
If you have the cellular model, you can buy AT&T service so you can get online anywhere. (Cellular iPads aren\u2019t available until next month; I tested a Wi-Fi-only model.)<\/p>\n
But how\u2019s this for a rare deal from a cell company: there\u2019s no contract. By tapping a button in Settings, you can order up a month of unlimited cellular Internet service for $30. Or pay $15 for 250 megabytes of Internet data; when it runs out, you can either buy another 250 megs, or just upgrade to the unlimited plan for the month. Either way, you can cancel and rejoin as often as you want \u2014 just March, July and November, for example \u2014 without penalty. The other carriers are probably cursing AT&T\u2019s name for setting this precedent.<\/p>\n
The iPad\u2019s killer app, though, is killer apps. Apple says that 150,000 existing iPhone apps run on the iPad. They either appear actual size \u2014 small and dead center on the screen \u2014 or, with a tap, doubled to fill the screen, a little blurry. Still, all the greats work this way: Dragon Dictation, Skype (even voice calls, through its speaker and microphone) and those gazillion games.<\/p>\n
But the real fun begins when you try the apps that were specially designed for the iPad\u2019s bigger screen. (When the iPad section of the App Store opens Saturday, it will start with 1,000 of them.)<\/p>\n
That Scrabble app shows the whole board without your zooming or panning: a free companion app for your iPhone or Touch is called Tile Rack; it lets you fiddle with your letters in private, then flick them wirelessly onto the iPad\u2019s screen. Newspaper apps will reproduce the layout, photos and colors of a real newspaper. The Marvel comic-book app is brilliant in its vividness and panel-by-panel navigation. (Oops, maybe that app belongs in the review for techies.)<\/p>\n
Hulu.com, the Web\u2019s headquarters for free hit TV shows, won\u2019t confirm the talk that it\u2019s working on an iPad app, but wow \u2014 can you imagine? A thin, flat, cordless, bottomless source of free, great TV shows, in your bag or on the bedside table?<\/p>\n
Speaking of video: Apple asserts that the iPad runs 10 hours on a charge of its nonremovable battery \u2014 but we all know you can\u2019t trust the manufacturer. And sure enough, in my own test, the iPad played movies continuously from 7:30 a.m. to 7:53 p.m. \u2014 more than 12 hours. That\u2019s four times as long as a typical laptop or portable DVD player.<\/p>\n
The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they\u2019re absolutely right.<\/p>\n
And the techies are right about another thing: the iPad is not a laptop. It\u2019s not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it\u2019s infinitely more convenient for consuming it \u2014 books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience \u2014 and a deeply satisfying one.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you\u2019ll love the machine.<\/p>\n
The only question is: Do you like the concept? <\/p>\n
Resource<\/b>:
\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/01\/technology\/personaltech\/01pogue.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 10 years of reviewing tech products for The New York Times, I\u2019ve never seen a product as…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1096],"tags":[196,70,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technology","7":"tag-iphone-app","8":"tag-iphone-application","9":"tag-ipod"},"yoast_head":"\n