At this point, it looks like a consensus is emerging: The death of the general purpose computer is greatly exaggerated.
The iPad is a great tool for consuming information, but not so good at communications or creation. A month in, I've never heard of anyone doing serious work on an iPad despite Apple's efforts to shoehorn a full office suite into the thing.
However, people love it despite the limitations. The iPad's a device that's just plain fun, and that counts for a whole heck of a lot. Apple will probably sell millions of them, and it looks like they have a good shot at creating an enduring category.
Another prediction: the iPad is going to become a multi-purpose interface device. Look at the interface tools that already exist for programs like Pro Tools. If someone can make a profit on an input device to augment Final Cut that's just a knob with a button, imagine what you can charge to enable a multi-touch adjunct to the same program?
Have gaming interfaces appeared yet? It would be easy to undercut lots of "gaming keyboards." Especially since one has no manufacturing and shipping costs.
The sound studio we use to record dialog for our games has started using iPads both for occasional music stands, and (more importantly) for sharing the live running script and notations across everyone working to record. They seem to love it. It's definitely not being used for pure content creation, but you're right that as an accessory it has many applications.
After some failed attempts to get an iPad delivered to Australia early, I finally succeeded, though barely ahead of the Australian release. It arrived yesterday and I've mucked around with it a bit since.
Within the first hour, my wife was entering birthdays in the calendar and I said that I thought the iPad would prove poor at creating information, but great at consuming it (browsing, reading, watching, etc). Nice to see that early thought validated somewhat by your comment.
I do all my brainstorming, schema creation, and similar "idea sketching" work on mine. Doesn't sound particularly serious, but it's an essential part of my work now.
I've also seen a few pro-bloggers claiming to produce entire posts on the iPad, but whether they've kept it up or not is a different story.. :-) (It would drive me nuts!)
Comments
At this point, it looks like a consensus is emerging: The death of the general purpose computer is greatly exaggerated.
The iPad is a great tool for consuming information, but not so good at communications or creation. A month in, I've never heard of anyone doing serious work on an iPad despite Apple's efforts to shoehorn a full office suite into the thing.
However, people love it despite the limitations. The iPad's a device that's just plain fun, and that counts for a whole heck of a lot. Apple will probably sell millions of them, and it looks like they have a good shot at creating an enduring category.
Another prediction: the iPad is going to become a multi-purpose interface device. Look at the interface tools that already exist for programs like Pro Tools. If someone can make a profit on an input device to augment Final Cut that's just a knob with a button, imagine what you can charge to enable a multi-touch adjunct to the same program?
Have gaming interfaces appeared yet? It would be easy to undercut lots of "gaming keyboards." Especially since one has no manufacturing and shipping costs.
The sound studio we use to record dialog for our games has started using iPads both for occasional music stands, and (more importantly) for sharing the live running script and notations across everyone working to record. They seem to love it. It's definitely not being used for pure content creation, but you're right that as an accessory it has many applications.
I'd wonder how the lag time would compare for a straight FPS.. But if you loaded it up with Macros..
I agree with the point - the iPad makes a great input/interface device..
Highly context-specific macro sets would be where it's most useful.
After some failed attempts to get an iPad delivered to Australia early, I finally succeeded, though barely ahead of the Australian release. It arrived yesterday and I've mucked around with it a bit since.
Within the first hour, my wife was entering birthdays in the calendar and I said that I thought the iPad would prove poor at creating information, but great at consuming it (browsing, reading, watching, etc). Nice to see that early thought validated somewhat by your comment.
I do all my brainstorming, schema creation, and similar "idea sketching" work on mine. Doesn't sound particularly serious, but it's an essential part of my work now.
I've also seen a few pro-bloggers claiming to produce entire posts on the iPad, but whether they've kept it up or not is a different story.. :-) (It would drive me nuts!)