Most punditry that I read on the web suffers from the same flaw: the author is so into their own decision-making calculus that they do not consider that others have different ways of thinking. This author is no exception. She looks at the icons on her iPhone, sees that she has loaded it with social apps, and assumes not just that other people are no different from her, but also that the device itself (a smartphone) is "inherently social".<p>Speak for yourself, social butterfly. My iPhone is my device to use as I wish, and if I'm an individual who loves solitude, then the way I use the device will reflect that.
<i>It’s possible the iPad will allow apps to have push notifications with audible alerts</i><p>that got me wondering about the hardware differences between the ipad and iphone.<p>has anyone looked at the sdk yet that can verify whether the ipad os works the same with respect to push notifications? does the ipad have the hardware to vibrate? when you push the power button on it does it just shut off the display like an iphone or go completely to sleep like a laptop? if it's completely sleeping, does it wake up on a timer to display notifications like calendar alerts? but then how can it handle incoming push notifications from applications if the wireless radios are off? with a month-long standby time i have to imagine it's a pretty deep sleep and can't keep the wireless/3g radio on that entire time. my kindle can only survive about a week with the 3g radio on while not doing anything.
You're supposed to sit on the couch and share it with another person, showing them your vacation photos or cute kitty videos on YouTube or a movie or something. That's a lot more "social" than abstracting human contact behind text messages and webcams.
Good insights in this article, though Apple might argue that they see a social dimension in a pad that can be held on one's lap and shared between people who are physically present (it's unclear if the display is easily viewable off-axis, but I've heard no complaints about it).<p>I agree with electromagnetic that the lack of a webcam is a mistake. Perhaps a later version will allow for multitasking so you can chit-chat via skype or Goggle Voice while surfing or using apps, but it's a shortcoming in the first version. Of course, I expect that part of the reason for the 2 month delay between announcement and availability is to gather feedback of the kind we're discussing here.
"By leaving out two features ..."<p>If you introduce a product with distinct features X, Y and Z, then you'll sell that product to everyone interested in it and who require X, Y and Z.<p>If you introduce product V1 with only X, you'll get the X people, and most of Y and Z people will sit it out.<p>But then you introduce an upgrade, V2 that includes X <i>and</i> Y. Now you'll sell to some of the Y people. But also, some of the X people will buy it again, to have the full experience of X and Y.<p>Then introduce V3 with X, Y and Z. New customers, and a percentage of repeat customers who have now bought the product two and three times.
Your don't trade in your phone to buy an iPad.<p>i.e. devices aren't social, their use is. And their use doesn't preclude the use of other devices. Ergo not every device needs to be useful for everything.<p>e.g. the iPod functionality of the iPad is technically terrible. Does Apple expect you'll carry that thing around to listen to music? But therein lies the rub: you don't. You have an iPod for that.<p><i>My guess</i> is that the camera feature in the iPad SDK has more to do with a bluetooth interaction between mobile OS X devices than future iPad hardware plans.
So I wonder. All these people who claim that the iPad cannot do this, cannot do that. What do they base these claims on, considering they most likely haven't been able to use one yet (other than the very few people who got to use a prototype or demonstration model)?<p>My old Palm Pilot is "modal", but you can still happily switch between apps, do something else, come back and pick up where you left off. It would make perfect sense for the iPad to have a similar system at least, so you could e.g. download a picture from your browser, edit it in another app, then use it in a presentation using KeyNote, all without breaking stride.<p>It would also make sense to have some sort of notification bar or other system telling you that you have mail, tweets, facebook comments, IM messages, whatever.<p>(Granted, playing music might be a different story, as that would make for a heavier load on the processor as a background process.)<p>Did Apple make explicit statements about this? Did they state that this definitely isn't possible? Or are we just guessing?<p>(In case there is actual proof of this, please post a link or so. The articles I've read so far have done nothing to back up their claims.)
I’ve always felt the same way about iTunes. Listening to music, sometimes, is a very social thing. I often find myself tweeting the song I’m listening to, or the lyrics I just heard. iTunes supports none of this.<p>The iPod (line) – same thing. This is where Zune has done some innovating. In realizing that music is social, they’ve created features that let you temporarily share songs and see what others are listening to.<p>There’s no technical reasons why Apple would need to leave these features out. Traditionally Apple hasn't fully grasped the power of the open web, much less social.<p>But things are starting to change. Their acquisition of Lala is a huge deal. I can’t remember them ever acquiring a website — and a VERY social website on top of that. I’m ready for Apple to take these to the next level by injecting social into their products. They should start with the iPod audio player interfaces (iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad). Let us Tweet, Facebook, Copy a Link, Share With A Friend.
The lack of a camera was a seriously incompetent move by apple, especially considering that they've placed one in the Nano, which has none of the potentials for use like the iPad.<p>I'm sorry, but this is 2010, I've rarely seen a cell phone without a camera since 2000. Apple has even pioneered placing them in devices that have no need as a gimmick. So someone at Apple HQ was having serious brain farts when they decided to let the iPad go to production without even a single camera in it.<p>The iPad <i>requires</i> a self-portrait camera for video chat and the ever popular self-pic, but it also needs a camera for taking pictures and recording the environ.
I'm also surprised at the complete lack of connectivity between an iPad and an iPhone/iPod/iPod Touch. It would seem to me to be a very "minority report" type of situation, with a larger device for regular use, and a simple set of gestures to swipe some data over to your iPhone for on the run portability.