Hello. My name is Kathleen, and I’m an early adopter.
Hi, Kathleen!
I picked up my iPad from my campus bookstore on the morning it arrived. I’m pretty sure I was the first person to do so, in part because I’d beaten the delivery truck on my first trip to the store that morning, and in part because, when I came back after breakfast, the staff were just getting started unpacking the demo models.
Anyhow, I’ve lived and traveled and worked and played with the iPad for a little over two months now, and while I’m still completely head over heels for it, I’ve got a few ideas about how to make it better.
First, the obligatory fangirl gushing: I love having a device that provides such a flexible multi-channel personal media consumption environment. I read a lot on the iPad, in a range of book and document reading applications (including, as Jason described last week, the fantastic iAnnotate), I watch a fair bit of video, I read and respond to email, I take notes and do some basic writing in Evernote (thanks in part to to Shawn Miller’s guest post about the application), access the files on my computer via Dropbox, and a whole lot more.
That said, there are a lot of things that would make it even better — beyond the obvious lower pricetag. Some of these improvements are small, and some of them big; some of them are likely coming with the iPhone OS 4 update, some of them I’m not exactly holding my breath on.
Multitasking. This one is coming with the iOS4 update this fall, at least in theory, and at least in some limited fashion. It’ll make a huge difference to the ways that I read and take notes on the iPad if I’m able to have iAnnotate and Evernote running simultaneously.
A decent stylus. There are a few out there, such as the Pogo Sketch
contentEditable. This one falls into the “wishing and hoping” category: please, oh please, let the new version of Safari that comes with iOS4 support the HTML5 “contentEditable” tag. Right now, accessing your Google Docs via the web browser works fine, but they’re read-only, and actually being able to edit them natively from the iPad would be a game changer. (There are some applications, like Office2 HD, that allow a range of word-processor-like interactions with both local and cloud-based files, including Google Docs, but native GDocs editing would be better.)
Arrow keys. Another one for the “wishing and hoping” category: when I’m working in a text document, I don’t always want to have to move to another point in the text by, well, pointing; sometimes, especially if I’m just going up or down one row, it’s easier to use the keyboard arrows. Or it would, at least, if the virtual keyboard had them. The keyboard dock does, of course, as does the bluetooth keyboard, but putting them on screen would be nice.
Swype. While we’re at it, maybe we could just make the entire virtual keyboard work a bit more efficiently. This can go one of two ways: either make it more like a physical keyboard, with modifier keys and everything, or make it more fully virtualized, recognizing that on-screen text input need not take place by “pressing” “buttons.” I recently got to play with a pal’s Swype-enabled Droid, and oh my. WANT. (This one’s actually more for the iPhone than the iPad, but I suspect the iPad could benefit as well.)
Search across content. There’s a sort of nominal Spotlight search on the iPad, but it’s pretty limited in what it will enable you to find: the media, notes, contacts, email and other stuff that’s managed by the iPhone OS itself. Apple’s managed to figure out searching within its iBooks (which the Kindle app has not, as yet), but what I’d really like is the ability to search across all of my content on the iPad: all of the books, pdfs, and other documents it holds, regardless of what application is managing them.
And this brings me to the big three, which fall under “not really holding my breath”:
A proper file manager. How much nicer would it be simply to have your files stored on the iPad in some logical fashion, where they could be opened by any appropriate application?
One e-book format to rule them all. I’m with the publishers here: I’ll pay for the books; you let me decide which application I want to read them in. (I don’t expect Kindle-iBooks sharing any time soon, but adding PDF functionality to iBooks is a start in the right direction.)
Open, open, open. And let me decide how I want to interact with my files, my content, my devices. I understand Apple’s “we keep it closed so that it just works!” philosophy—and it does just work—but allowing a means for expert users to tinker with the ways their devices work can allow for much, much greater innovation. Permitting this innovation rather than criminalizing it would benefit everyone involved.
How would you improve the iPad, or whatever your favorite mobile device may be?
[Image by Flickr user Veronica Belmont / Creative Commons licensed]
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14 Responses to Impressions After Two Months of Using an iPad
msulibraries - June 8, 2010 at 8:48 am
Yep, I’m an iPad fan as well. I had the first (and so far only) one in the library and probably one of the first on campus. I’ve had a fair amount of success working with Pages on the iPad and then shipping the file back to my office pc via mail. I’ve also found two other apps quite useful: Instapaper and Readdle Docs (especially useful for managing pdfs). I use EndNote on my Mac and my PC—I really wish there was an EndNote application that would work on my iPad—not so much as a plug in for Pages but just as a document management tool.It’s not a replacement for my macbook but it’s definitely a tool that has helped me be more productive.
ethan_watrall - June 8, 2010 at 8:55 am
I have to completely agree with you about the stylus. I’ve got sausage fingers, and therefor finger-based input for notes (aka. Penultimate) is akin to a gorilla with finger paints. I desperately need a relatively precise stylus. I’ve looked at the Pogo Sketch, and I just can’t bring myself to buy one. The tip doesn’t seem much thinner than the tip of my finger – which kinda defeats the purpose.
billiehara - June 8, 2010 at 9:05 am
I so very much want an iPad, but I am waiting for the price to drop and for some of the changes you outline above to be integrated. I played with one a few weeks ago, and thought it was awesome……but I need the second generation to get here NOW. :-) Hurry up, Apple!
peril - June 8, 2010 at 11:00 am
Some of the features you’ve asked for can be obtained with a quick jailbreak (more info here: http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-ipad-3.2-with-spirit/ – really all you have to do is download Spirit and hit go, don’t forget to install OpenSSH and change the default password from “Alpine” for security reasons).If you want more info on Jailbreaking a quick Google search will do it for you, or, I can always do a write up on my blog drperil.comFor multitask support you’ll want an app from Cydia called Backgrounder. There are dozens of file managers ;)Once you have OpenSSH installed your iPad’s contents are available to you over FTP and a few other protocols. If you have Transmit 4 you can mount your iPod/iPhone/iPad as a remote volume on your computer and browse it like a hard drive.It’s all really pretty straight forward. If you ‘brick’ your device doing something silly, you can always restore to your last unbroken backup (or if all really fails, factory defaults) by restoring in iTunes. It’s not 100% safe, but if you follow the steps, jailbreaking your device is pretty hard to mess up.For less complicated fun, where media browsing is concerned, there’s an app called Air Video that is totally shwing worthy! It installs a small server on your home computer (which can be setup as accessible via the Internet- it’s pretty secure code, I’m not worried ;). The iPad app then can see all your media on your desktop, and with a tap, live recompresses the video and sends it over the wifi/net to your iPad in surprisingly good quality. The conversion hardly uses any CPU resources on the host box. All my media lives on a 2.4ghz mac mini with 2 gigs of ram and the video conversion barely uses a 3rd of the available memory. It’s simply amazing.
ethan_watrall - June 8, 2010 at 11:04 am
I would also strongly suggest jailbreaking your ipad (as @peril suggests). Its easy (incredibly so) and offers some interesting opportunity for features – multitasking (in the form of the Backgrounder app) being the biggest one.
csgirl - June 8, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Is it possible to use an iPad to write over slides during a presentation, as tablet PCs can do? I really want that functionality for my lectures.
kfitz - June 8, 2010 at 4:34 pm
@peril and @ethan: I can neither confirm nor deny my intent to jailbreak my iPad. It would solve several of the issues I’ve got with it, but it’s the criminalization (okay, it’s not really criminalization per se, but you know what I mean) of the desire to interact with my iPad at that level that annoys me. I’m fine with Apple telling me they won’t help me get out of any messes I get myself into; I’m much less fine with not being allowed to get into them in the first place.(Oh, and @peril — I’ve been running AirVideo, which is awesome indeed, though it hasn’t been playing well with my wi-fi of late. Must do something about that.)@csgirl: To my knowledge, writing over slides isn’t possible with the iPad. I haven’t purchased Keynote, in large part because it’s pretty hobbled as yet. But if someone has other knowledge here, I’d love to hear it!
niolonra - June 8, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I love my iPad too, though that I got one surprised some peers. A student of mine had it, and I was jealous, and impulsively got one the next day. You see, Im a PC :)1) All of the above points are spot on, especially the arrow keys. One of the “.?123″ keys could be switched to arrows, as well as an apostophe, which you can see Ive stopped using. I would also like to see a text replacer feature like the Blackberry has had for years. I could set it to replace my common abbreviations, but also to replace my common typing and spelling errors, and to capitalize “i” in the middle of a sentence for example.2) I love iAnnotate, but also use GoodReader, which I can wirelessly map to a drive letter on my harddrive, then sync my files to GoodReader for review. No editing though… And I am baffled that no one at Apple uses Google Docs and noticed this until after the iPad was released.3) The other plus points are that it is very lightweight, the battery lasts all day and more, and the redesigned calendar and contact apps for example are visually pleasing. Wireless coverage at my school is … less than 100%… which means the iPad is often limited. For example, I keep my task list on a tiddlywiki ( http://tiddlyspot.com/ ) but cant always access it. However, a real file structure might make storing and updating a local copy possible.Im hesitant to jailbreak it though. While it did it on my iPod Touch years ago without a problem, I look at new tech now through the eyes of the average faculty member. Sure, I could jailbreak it, but most faculty could not. Thus, I try to use only the functions I know everyone could (for a while at least).
davehamilton - June 8, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I too picked mine up on day 1 and have used it everyday. I get it, it could replace a PC in my life. I have converted my life to Evernote which could use a filing system.The keyboard needs apostrophe and when I’m typing seems to just jump down a line at random times.I need some arrow keys to move to the exact point in my notes .. try correcting one letter.The video / iTunes support is excellent but I still get many docx, xls, ppt files from students I can’t open correctly. Cut and Paste is a pain when you have to open 1 app and copy, close it, open another find your place to paste .. etcWe need a pdf reader linked to a note pad .. have it automatically make a APA citation to start the note.The book readers, both iBook and Amazon are most excellent, the ipad is just a little too damn heavy for reading in bed.
kfitz - June 8, 2010 at 10:04 pm
@niolonra and @davehamilton: Someone did clue me in to the apostrophe trick early on: hold down the comma key on the main keyboard for 1+ seconds, and the apostrophe should pop up, pre-selected (i.e., when you release, it’ll type, without taking you to the punctuation keyboard screen). It’s great, but still not ideal; that pause in typing is often enough to throw my rhythm off.
njm2065 - June 8, 2010 at 10:23 pm
I love my pogo stylus, but worry about the lifetime of the tip. I use it for both the iPod and iPad and for the record, is about 1/8″ in diameter, a big difference from a fingertip.Multitask would rock. Can’t jailbreak- it is a college machine.
catlkelley - June 9, 2010 at 8:48 am
I have a Pogo stylus but I find that it isn’t much better in terms of precision than my finger is. However, it is more natural to write holding a “pen” of some sort than using my finger. I am not 100% sure of this, but I think that the problem with precision is a function of the screen technology (capactive touch, designed to be used with a finger) rather than the instrument used for writing. I’m also not keen about the lack of openness. But as a technology administrator using an iPad paid for by my university (part of an evaluation project), I am NOT going to be jailbraking!! Violating the terms of a software license would be a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy and that is just not going to happen. Nor could I condone jailbraking of university-owned devices by anybody at our university. Regardless of the legality of it, we couldn’t provide quality support on products that have unauthorized modifications. Instead, I will play with (er, make that “evaluate”) the iPad for now to get ideas, but won’t recommend any wide-scale adoption until the Android versions start rolling out in a major way.
joshhibbard - June 12, 2010 at 1:34 pm
I would also want a dual camera like the iPodOS4 with video editing applications.
gmich - June 18, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Great post. I’m loving my iPad as well and using it daily. A quicker and easier way to get an apostrophe is to swipe or flick up on the comma key — that’ll give you an apostrophe with no pause.