Thoughts on games, work, and… well, mostly games

iPad, uPout

Okay. Listen up. Here’s the news.

One. The iPad browser doesn’t do Flash, it probably never will, and you don’t need it. The sun had already begun to set on Flash as web glitter long before the iPad came out, and it ain’t the only video game (get it?) in town. HTML 5 isn’t there yet, but it will be eventually, and the tools will come with it. And when HTML 5 is the preference, you won’t need everything it does either, though you’ll complain just as loudly when we collectively decide that it isn’t needed anymore, either. I’m so sick of hearing this complaint. But I’m biased, because a Flash-enabled web has enhanced my life in precisely zero ways. It offers nothing I can’t live without.

Two. The iPad doesn’t need memory expansion slots. You don’t need to store so much media on the iPad between connections to a larger device.

Three. The iPad is not just a big iPod Touch. Whether you realize it or not, you interact with devices differently based on their size and shape (more on that in a bit), and you can do things on a larger device that you can’t do on a smaller one. (And vice-versa!)

And finally, if you’d let yourself get used to the keyboard, you’d do just fine. If that doesn’t work, make yourself get used to it. C’mon. You’re a big boy/girl probably.

Want

I want an iPad but probably won’t be an early-adopter. Not because it’s lacking anything, really, but because 1) it’s too expensive (and the price will go down) and 2) I want more than one.

I want one for the living room, and one for my bedroom. I want one in the kitchen, and I want one in my briefcase. I want one upstairs, and I want one downstairs. I want one in my car, and I want one in the bathroom. That’s, like, $5,000.

(Did you ever consider that iPads can be stored in bookshelves?)

Here’s one of many things I think nobody gets about the iPad yet: like a book, newspaper, or magazine, it doesn’t have to boot. Or yawn itself awake from sleep, or come out of hibernation. It’s the closest thing to an appealing, instant-on, all-purpose computer we’ve seen. That’s important because it brings it that much closer to being the ubiquitous device that all the sci-fi shows and movies have led us to expect. It won’t be long before people begin to appreciate how damned convenient it is, and, just like TiVo and the TV it parrots, they’ll wonder how they ever lived without it.

(Did you ever think about mounting an iPad on a wall?)

Here’s another thing I don’t think anyone gets about the iPad: you don’t have to open it up, you don’t have to use two hands to manipulate it, and it doesn’t make your crotch dangerously hot when you’re typing a blog about it on the couch. When I think of how much writing I’ll be doing on the couch… I’m using an old Gateway laptop to write this. It’s big, its battery is too old to replace, it’s heavy, it’s hot, and (ironically) it’s a convertible tablet with no touch sensitivity and a stylus that doesn’t work. And it’s the smallest laptop of anyone I know. But if I want to move from my current position, I have to grab the thing with two hands and lift it, then shift my weight so I can sit up and put it somewhere out of my way so I can stand. When I sit back down again, I play that sequence in reverse. Aside from the heat, the effect on my blood circulation, and having to open and close a lid!?, it’s my least favorite thing about laptops. (And netbooks, which improve on this situation by making the keyboard (wait for it) SMALLER!?)

(I can have the Internet next to my cereal, rather than the other way around.)

Flat, thin, light, stackable, minimalist, solid-state computers are good things. Even if the iPad doesn’t stick, it’s going to help galvanize that very important fact in our minds.

Where It Falls Short of My Ridiculously High Standards

I don’t see a way to write code on it. I’m really curious to see how long it takes for a compelling Remote Desktop app to make it onto the iPad and be free.

And as for reading books, that’s tricky and important. If nothing else, we’re about to find out how important grayscale E Ink really is to people. I really like my Kindle. My book intake has skyrocketed since my wife gave me one for an Anniversary gift. And when the Kindle isn’t handy, I’ve used the Kindle App on my iPhone to read. It’s not as nice. Especially at night, long reading sessions result in a troubling oscillating afterglow in my vision when I turn it off.

I’ll have really conflicting feelings when my Kindle and iPad are in reach at the same time: like having to choose between the really smart girl and the girl that glows.

The Potential Dealbreaker

It has to support both me and the Super Wife. That means support for more than one Exchange account, and a calendar that we can collaborate on. I’m not saying that it needs a login screen (that would be a dealbreaker), but the iPad must understand that it will be shared between spouses.

< 60 Days

Super Wife and I are driving to Detroit this weekend. I really wish we had a 3G iPad for those 22 hours of driving. After that, I’ve got a lot of things I want to blog about, and this laptop is crazy uncomfortable. I want to reiterate that last point: my computer is uncomfortable. I want to read my video game news every morning at the kitchen island on an iPad instead of an iPhone. I want Super Wife and I to be able to pass an electronic calendar between us with one hand each.

There are a lot of reasons I want an iPad, and few of them have to do with apps. Instead, they have to do with all the things I’m grumpy about regarding my current computing lifestyle.

Is that marketing?

(Update: this piece by Carmi Levy at Betanews resonated with me; he seems to share many of my usability frustrations.)