iPad Wants & Needs

I wrote about getting an iPad not so long after they came out, and put my hand up to say "this thing is here to stay". I respond to my own post with a dose of extraordinary smugness, as two things have happened since. First, Apple sold 7.3 million iPads in 9 months. Second, I'm still using mine. So, with the impending release of the second generation (and rumours of the third already well under way), I've thought about what I might expect for iPad 2 (1.5?), and what I think it actually needs. First off, I can't imagine the next iPad to be much different, hardware-wise. It simply doesn't need to be. Apart from one omission, a front-facing camera, iPad basically has all the features it needed. Hardware features, anyway.

• RAM. More RAM would certainly be a boon; at the moment Safari is very aggressive with its cache-emptying, to the point where switching between a handful of sites can be a pain as each reloads when you nip back to it. And the new multitasking has shown up more clearly the moments when paging delays the appearance of the next app. So yes, RAM would be nice, if not a necessity, as advances in the OS demand it.
• Power. Sure, everyone loves a faster processor, right? Well, the only times I can honestly say I've waited for my iPad are app switching, a faster processor may help this a little, but not as much as more RAM. And if a faster processor affects the battery life adversely, then it would be backward step.
• Battery life. It lasts for days! Literally. A journey to London and back, working on the train, playing and reading over the weekend, and it's down to 50%. And in some ways it's not surprsing; teardowns show the iPad is basically a big battery with a screen on the front. As batteries get more efficient, then great, we'll get more life out of something the same size and weight. But until that happens, there's no need to make device bigger or heavier.
• Front-facing camera. Of course. It's been a glaring omision since day one. And when it gets one, iPad will suddenly be the replacement for a whole many more liveing room PCs.
• Back-facing camera. Who wants one of these? Seriously? Why does every new device have to also be a camera? Bar Augmented Reality apps, I can't think of a single time I'd want to actually use my iPad to take a snapshot. AV is a cool concept, sure, but is anyone still using an AV app on their iPhone? I'm not convinced its a good enough reason to stick a second camera on the iPad. Apple have for the most part been about simplicity in design, and their products generally do one thing well. I'd love to see them break the mould and not put two cameras on it.
• Retina display. This is the area that seems to have caught out the early predictors, and I can see it being where we might see a difference between a 1.5G and a true 2G model. The exact resolution needed to be 'retina' is up for debate, but it's true that the definition by Apple is not just pixels-per-inch, but takes into account viewing distance, which means that it wouldn't have to be quite the crazily high DPI of the iPhone 4. The current iPad doesn't quite do 720p (at a 16:9 aspect ratio, anyway) and so that is the obvious chalk mark for a new screen.
• Thinner, lighter, smaller. The current iPad is actually pretty chunky, it's only Ive's excellent design skills that keep it looking as svelte as it does. Having said that, I wouldn't want to sacrifice that wonderful battery life. If iPad was a serious contender as an eBook Reader then I'd say it needs to lose some weight, but I don't think it is, so it's not so important. I know a 3 year old who can play "Need For Speed" for quite some time without his arms getting tired. Does it need to be smaller? In my opinion, no. The border is necessary until Apple add a way in iOS to disable touch events in the outside inch of the screen (and get rid of the home button). And if they did that, they might as well make the screen bigger, not the device smaller.
• Home Button. The current (developer-only) beta version of iOS introduces gestures that could mean the home button is soon surplus to requirements. As it is, the home button is mostly a pain; it's always in the wrong place, and its a slower mechanism for switching applications than the gestures. The home button going, along with the toggling touch border, would be great improvements.

So it the hardware doesn't really need a big update, does that mean the iPad doesn't need any updates? Not at all, but the biggest changes I think iPad needs, and I want, will come from the software.

Last year, Jobs announced the next version of OS X, Lion, and explained how many features have been inspired by what the company has learnt from developing iPad (and by inference, iOS). This makes sense, and it also makes sense to think in the other direction; having used the first iPad, it becomes clear what features of OS X need to migrate back down to iOS.

• User accounts. If this never happens, it's because of a short-sighted (and greedy) business decision. You cannot, of course, blame a corporation for being greedy; they are essentially the definition of it, but it may well turn out to be a poor business decision. People want to get an iPad to share, or 'for the house', and at the moment the lack of user accounts mean this isn't viable. I'm sure that Apple simply see the device as a personal device, and want everyone to buy one each. But if another company roll out multi-user tablets first, they could well lose out. The alternative of course, is to keep driving the cost down.
• Keyboard. A number row. On the keyboard. That is all.
• App switching. The new gestures allowing app switching without the home button are a much faster way to work. They still need some work, but once they are polished then working on iPad will feel a lot more efficient.
• Notifications. An updated notification and messaging system (messaging as in application-messaging) has been need for a long time in iOS, and rumours are that it's around the corner (although I've yet to see it rolled out to developers). Unified notifications of mail, tweets, messages, reminders and so on will be a big step forward; it's the only place where currently iOS lags behind the other mobile OS offerings.
• Full screen mode. Introducing a 'full-screen' mode, and a 'bordered' mode to iOS would mean it could eventually lose its border, currently necessary to hold the device without indadvertedly pressing something. Once this is implemented, and implemented well, the hardware could then change to reflect the enhancement.

So, what have we learnt? Personally, I'm not very excited by the new iPad hardware coming in April. Its likely to be a teeny bit nicer in every way, but no hame changer. The hardware due in September? That might be more interesting. But what really excites be at the moment, is what we can expect from iOS 5.

Is iTunes 10 a glimpse into OS X 10.7?

My first thought as Steve unveiled the new iTunes 10 icon was probably the same as many: that's gonna stick out like a sore thumb nestled between Mail and iChat. And now I've has the pleasure of downloading and installing it, indeed it does! Next, it fires up, updates my library (quelle surprise) and whilst I wait, I notice how close to the top of the screen everything is. Where have the window controls go... ah! There they are! Okayyy...

iTunes has often been a little glimpse into the future of changes to OS X chrome and UI design: it's ideally situated in that it gets more regular updates than other applications, and has the excuse of being the flagship media player, and so it's allowed to not always play by the rules. iTunes was the first to have it's rounded corners squared (with Safari following), and the first to have the new graphite scroll bars. This time though, I think we might be getting a look at what the fabled OS X 10.7, or at least the post-Aqua UI, may look like. Lets look at them one at a time.

First, those windows controls. Although I don't think it's 100% decided, I suspect this is a test to see how the new style might go down. Remember the Great Safari Beta 4 Tab Test? So maybe this one won't stick either.

Second, that icon. A whole new set of application icons for OS X 10.7, following the iTunes 10 style. I really hope it grows on me.

Third, the lack of coloured icons. Look down the left column, so much easier on the eye. This simplification points towards an overall subtler look-and-feel (the last couple of revisions of OS X have moves towards black-and-white icons in the menu bar). Even the Preferences dialog has monochrome icons. If application icons are going to be as colourful (gaudy?) as this iTunes one, the lack of colour elsewhere will be a welcome contrast.

Forth, a new menu list style. A larger title area, with little notches instead of indented separators. Subtle, but a pleasant change and one that would seem odd if it wasn't the way forward.

Finally, of course, those scroll bars that we've had for a while: flatter, more subtle than the aqua ones we know and love(d).

I may be way off with some of these, but on the whole, I think we're getting a little glimpse into the future, post-Aqua user interface of OS X. Or will that be OS XI?

When is a toy not a toy?

There have been a number of devices – what one might cruelly dismiss as gadgets – that I've acquired over the years, that after the initial wow factor, left a slight feeling of disappointment. All too familiar you may think, but the story doesn't end there. These specific gadgets, after their initial peak and trough, built up a sort of subtle underpinning of usefulness, such that three months later they'd become invaluable tools that I'd find myself taking for granted as much as street lighting and free rubber bands. In order, these gadgets have been my first Powerbook, my first iPod and my first iPhone. Woah there fanboy!, I hear you cry! But please, let me finish, and then you may reign down your cynicism upon me from on high: the fact that these are all Apple products is irrelevant to my point. Well, mostly irrelevant. What each of these devices had in common was that it sought to perform a task, and sought to do that task to the best of its ability. (A bit like a companion cube, if you will. Don't worry, I know they don't really have feelings.) When I got my very first iPod (which I bought from the flagship store in San Francisco, I'm not doing myself any favours am I?) I got it back to my hotel, fondled it, marvelled at it, plugged it in, filled it up, and then... I listened to a few seconds of music. Wow, I thought, I can listen to music. And then I put it into its little case and carried on with my life. Three months later, having my entire music collection wih me at all times, and it being a joy to access, was second nature. The device had done its job, and it had done it beautifully.

My first Powerbook, after marvelling at its sleek design and portability, was just a laptop. But three months later, having a laptop that was on in two seconds, lasted for over a week on a charge and never crashed or wasted my time was the norm. Its purchase wasn't a Damascus-bound moment, but I'd certainly never want to go back. I mean what kind of a name is Saul, anyway?

The same with the iPhone, I mean, it's just a phone right? So you unbox it and you put your numbers in and then... you make a phone call. But three months later when you've not only won the pub quiz but successfully navigated your way home, and found a takeaway on the way, you realise it's more than just a toy.

Any of these gadgets, if you'd been shown one or played with one for a few minutes, you'd have managed to get straight over that peak and into the trough. Great, it's lovely, but it's just a music player/laptop/phone. See you around. And some gadgets are indeed just music players, laptops or phones. But sometimes one comes along that fulfils its purpose so well that it becomes embedded in your routine. And that for me, is when a toy is not a toy.

So of course there are some that are toys. Or just aren't very good. I remember having a weird Amstrad organiser pad thing, and being desperate to make it work for me, to no avail. I had a Palm Pilot, and I tried ever so hard to integrate with my life, too hard I'm sure. If you're reminding yourself to use and organiser, and setting reminders on your organiser to tell you to use it, you know there's something wrong. Same with my first mp3 player too, which spent more time being shipped to and from Singapore than actually playing music. The list of gadgets that turned out to be toys is much longer than those that didn't.

Surely you can see where this is going?

It's one thing to go and play with an iPad in a shop. Or to have a few minutes of borrowed time. Woo! Oh. It's a tablet. Thankyouverymuchandgoodbye. But let it in, and give it three months. Heck give it three days. I strongly – strongly – suspect it's not a toy.