Apple iPad Hands-On

As you no doubt saw, Apple has finally lifted the curtain on its long-awaited tablet, the iPad. You can see our announcement here but I had a chance to get my hands on the new device just a few moments ago. Read on to see my thoughts on the hardware, software, and strategy that Apple is taking.

First and foremost, Apple has done what it does best. It has made one sexy piece of technology. The 1.5 lbs unit feels so good when being handled. Instead of feeling like a giant iPhone, it’s more like I’m holding a high-quality digital picture frame mixed with a closed, thin hardcover book. The screen is gorgeous but I did notice my finger didn’t slide across it as smooth as my iPhone. The capacitive touchscreen is in full effect and works really well, as you’d expect. While I did notice some glare when observing a fellow journalist using it, my own usage didn’t seem to have any kind of glare issue. The accelerometer is greatly improved over the iPad's little cellular brother and yields portrait to landscape switching instantly. Apple is also claiming 10 hours of battery life and a month of standby (we’ll see). Overall, the hardware is clean, solid, and an impressive showing.

The software on the other hand is a bit of a mixed bag. As predicted, the iPad is running its own version of the iPhone OS. It uses the same Springboard app launching system, but it has been upgraded for this device. And just like an iPhone, it doesn’t multitask. Multitasking is pretty much vital to computing. Just about everyone who uses a computer is used to it doing more than one thing at a time. Apple tried to solve this with its Push system on the iPhone, but it isn’t the same -- and with this device using a full-fledged 1GHz processor, there’s no excuse anymore. The company also didn’t mention anything about the iPad supporting the Push system either.

That isn’t to say the applications that were showed weren’t impressive. The revamped YouTube app not only works like a cleaner version of the website, but also supports HD videos. The email and calendar apps were also very impressive and give Outlook a run for its money. The new iBook app is the Apple solution to e-reading. Supporting full color and even videos, the new book store is filled with classics from all of the major publishers. With the 10 hour battery time, this could give e-readers like the Kindle or Nook a bit of competition. 3rd party apps from the App Store are fully supported even if they’re designed for the iPhone. The iPad simply scales them up and it actually works pretty well. Starting today however, developers will be able to start creating iPad native apps via the SDK on Apple’s site. My only beef is that like the iPhone, the iPad is a closed software system, unlike the versatile Android platform from Google. So once again, the big A will have full watch over what is available for the unit and can turn down anything it doesn’t like. Why is this bad? Because the company can prevent something cool from seeing the light of day for whatever reason it wants.

As far as gaming, I did get a chance to play the custom version of Need for Speed on the iPad. Unlike the iPhone, the driving actually feels really smooth and due to its size the larger device gives a much better sense of control over the car. In the past, there have been games that work really well on the iPhone and others that don’t. Puzzle and tower defense games have shined on the device due to the minimal and simple inputs required by the user. But things look shooters or even RPGs have struggled to nail that great feeling of control and it’s easy to see why: the touchscreen. I’ve played a lot of games in my life across a bazillion platforms with different controllers, and after playing and spending a lot (maybe too much) of my money on iPhone games, there’s just no replacement for a controller for certain types of games. All Apple needs to do is announce a Bluetooth wireless control and I’d be sold, but that seems to go against its philosophy and I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.

I’ll wrap-up with a bit about the strategy and pricing. Here’s where Apple is making a smart move. The company could have charged a grand for this thing and people would buy it. The WiFi-only 16GB model is half that at $499. The pricing does go up to $829 for a 64GB model with a 3G antenna, but that’s still cheaper than the predicted price. Match that with the no contract data plan and you have a very aggressive pricing model from a company who usually just assumes everyone is rich and can spend a ton of money on a laptop.

Overall from what I’ve seen, the iPad is one attractive device. Apple has done what it does best: It announced something that’s really cool but has glaring caveats like no multitasking and CIA-level lockdown on the software side. And I still want one.