What might the iPad mean for me?

I have yet to actually see an iPad but there is already so much to read about it.  Some love it, some hate it.  MacUser magazine have just published a nicely balanced article on the iPad - in advance of it's UK launch.  It really placed the iPad into context for me.

The points they made were simple and practical:

• fast Apple apps and web browsing
• small text is easily readable without zooming as on the iPhone
• books and magazines look really good
• illustrations look great
• colour text works well

But:

• you need to have some means of propping it up when reading
• it wont wirelessly sync
• videos are displayed in 4:3 or letterboxed 16:9
• there's no alarm clock
• holding and typing is awkward
• the iPad uses iTunes to sync and store most material.  So you still need a computer
• it can't ise Adobe Flash
• (at the moment) it can't multitask (that comes with the next OS upgrade later this year)
•  

They conclude that there probably isn't an over-riding need to buy one at the moment if you already have an iPhone or computer (3rd party apps that may well change this).

The ring fencing via iTunes is regretable.  The same limitation exists for the iPhone - adding the problem of trying to sync to 2 macs each with separate iTunes installed.  (The Dropbox iApp is one great way around geting material onto your phone.)

This week I have been asking my media students what they think of the iPad.  They generally said (in this order);

• they wanted one
• it'll be useless for editing

None really thought about what they could publish or broadcast on it. As MacUser states

"...the iPad is about consuming media."

I would add that it's about presenting media. As a keen photographer, and with an old fashioned love of radio, the possibilities of delivering these in some multi media form on the iPad, and it's Android equivalent, look awesome.  Content may be king but finding compelling ways to present and deliver that content is also important.

What the iPad does is to advance the quiet innovation that Apple ushered in with the iPhone - an easy system of making micro payments. They recently extended this further by permitting micro payments from within the applications.  All of which raises the rather basic question - what exactly is an application?  What is the difference bwtween a website, a magazine and an application?   Could the answer be 'money stream'?  Is this the reason for the publishing world's frenzy over the iPad?


How should my teaching and the materials I generate reflect the likely development of these platforms?  Is the iPad robust enough to be used in education?  I replaced the battery in my MacBook this month.  It cost £100.  If the iPads are similarly priced then running costs might well be rather high.

I look forward to using the iPad in the UK soon.  The UK price of the iPad is yet to be released.  I suspect that the price break will be keenly sensitive.   I also think that without a deal with Adobe over the implementation of Flash on both the iPhone and iPad, Apple will lose the initiative in this new market they've created. See more from MacUser.  Things are going to move very quickly in this new market and we may well know by this time next year.