The screen size changes the touchscreen experience. It is more 'natural' and in proportion to finger size than the iPhone screen so working with websites is tremendous IF there is no flash. About half the sites have flash (I have discovered) including the BBC site which is like a giant flash repository. Can't see movies, stream any radio or tv and often can't see photos or interviews or the news synopsis. This is very frustrating as the BBC is my home page site. Something has to give: flash or apple's refusal to embrace it. But for first time users, this could be frustrating and for -say- and academic recommending links to her students, use limiting.
BUT the interaction with the internet and some Apps is like a window on the world of learning. You peel back the layers and engage with the material in an almost tactile way. This is potentially the best learning device I have ever used.
I shared three extension gestures for learning: draw a square to pop up a note; draw a ? for contextual help, and draw a spiral for drill down to more links and connections and maybe drill up to front page. These suggested themselves before I had touched an iPad. Now I can see the immediate value. Now, if I want to write a note I have to 'copy' the text, come out of the App or web page, launch notes and then 'paste'. It's okay but fiddly and you are not guaranteed to go back -eventually- to the same place.
Also, with a front- facing camera this would be the perfect Skype tool. It makes calls really well. So it needs a camera and maybe two cameras (one for vc and one for collecting information). You could go on a field trip and gather data, take pictures, write notes and build your project right on the spot. I would also imagine an iPad loaded with the relevant text books would be almost as cheap buying just the books (not withstanding the massive drop in weight lugging them round). This must be an option that many universities are considering.
The App store is closed in the UK so no apps until I sort out a US iTunes account. This is merely, temporarily, annoying but it limits what I can say as I am working off the core apps that came with the iPad and my iPhone apps. There has been criticism about the way iPhone apps scale, saying they look 'wrong' on the iPad, and scale pixillated. Not in my experience. My giant Tube map of the London subway looks great floating over the screen, and searching out train times using the Network Rail app is a pleasure as the lists are more legible. There are one or two that don't work at all but these do NOT convert over. Can't wait to see a real App that has been build for the iPad.
Mobile Me invisibly synchs my diary and address book and the 'two page' calendar layout is fabulous. It is a shame you cannot use your finger to turn the pages like a paper cadendar. i am sure that subtle change is on the way. I love the idea of sitting with someone and saying: 'I will just flick through my calendar to see what is available' and out comes an iPad!
Touch typing with the built-in key board is okay. But as a touch typist I tend to rest my fingers on the keys. If I do this the iPad goes mental and begins spewing out gibberish. I have to remember to 'hover' just above the keyboard. When I do this, I can type quickly as the key board appears to be full size in landscape mode. But hovering is tiring so this is not the keyboard for my magnum opus. I would prefer to use the plug in keyboard that attaches to the iPad (when it is available) and type normally.
Reading is no problem. I have no access to the books app so I am using my iPhone Kindle app. Amazingly the app allows me to upload all my books and then read at a time and place of my choosing. I have the Kindle app on my iPhone, Kindle, laptop and desktop and when I read a few pages on any book, in any medium, for as long as I want, the Kindle app synchs the others to the 'last page read'. That is simply delightful.
I will keep on experimenting (playing) and let you know how I get on. I may even have to charge this beast eventually! It draws so much power that plugging into my USB hub only synchs the iPad rather than charges it. It needs more oomph! for charging.
Game changer: quit possibly. This will depend on the apps exploiting this wonderful interface. Roll on the UK app store; roll on OS 4.0 and roll on enhanced screen commands and a camera.
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Welcome to the "European Early iPad Adopters Club", Nigel.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about posting some guidance on how to overcome the restrictions of not having a regional iPad store. Might be worth doing so as the European launch is another month out.
Please note that there is an excellent BBC iPad app, which could replace your favorite BBC browser homepage. The Tube Map is already out there and is pretty neat!
Hi Nigel and thanks for sharing your initial reactions and experiences with your shiny new iPad. I’m sure it is very addictive and really is giving you a new window into the whole online world.
ReplyDeleteAs you continue to use your iPad I’d be interested in getting your additional comments on two specific areas; use of text and text input, and the ergonomics of the iPad and the seeming requirement of different devices to match our different modalities of working at a desk, sitting/lounging and standing walking about. I’ll cover the first one here and the second one in a separate comment to make it easier to respond to:
The first area I’d appreciate your insights on (and those of others here) is the future of text input, specifically the typing and input of text issue. Seems to me that we will continue to use text as much more than ever and we will augment our ability to communicate with all the other media (animations, video, sound, etc.) There is much discussion of the decline or elimination of text and reading as being "so yesterday" but I think this is simply the typical initial phase of technology innovation where we hear a lot of about how the big new thing is going to replace what came before; TV was going to eliminate radio, etc. But when we look at history this never happens and we eliminate very little. New disruptive innovation certainly changes the role of the previous ones (families don’t sit around listening to radio shows anymore) but they never replace them. So too with text I think. We’ve been using it for a quite a while now, it is very compact, effective and efficient and will remain so.
And so I think one of the challenges of tablets (not unique to iPad) is that they will be limited when it comes to any significant amount of textual input, just as you’ve discovered. Speech to text and voice recognition help but have limitations in their application as it doesn’t work to have everyone talking out loud all at once. Though with the way many use their cell phones this doesn’t seem to be a problem to some! Wireless keyboards solve the problem too of course but I don’t think they will be too predominant because you have to carry them with you and you’ll never have them when you need them.
What I think we WILL see however is the emergence of things like "skeletons” and “sleeves” which you can plug your tablet into and have the addition of a keyboard, hard drives, and other features. These are effectively a new form of "convertibles" that would at least give us dual use of a tablet/laptop. Pop the tablet into the convertible sleeve and you have the benefits of a traditional laptop, pop the tablet/screen out and you have the benefits of a tablet. I'm also one of those people who likes to read when I'm eating alone or just have a display visible while keeping my hands free and so I have the problem of needing to prop up my book, eReader or tablet to read and keep my hands free. The convertible sleeves would solve that too.
So as you use the iPad more Nigel, I’d be very interested to get your continued comments and reflections on how it sorts itself out in terms of writing/typing for text input and how you find yourself needing to revert to a separate keyboard, either on your laptop or with a dedicated keyboard for the iPad. My suspicion is that the iPad and other similar tablets are creating a new third category of device many of us will choose to carry around along with our laptops and smart phones, but interested to see how your usage evolves in this regard.
Wayne
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Nigel, the second area, somewhat related to the previous one on text input, that I'd appreciate your comments on as you continue your experiential learning with your iPad, is that of the ergonomics and aspects of HCI (Human Computer Interaction). I've been very surprised to so little discussion and awareness of this factor in our use and acceptance of the iPad and tablets in general.
ReplyDeleteTablets like the iPad require and enable a fundamentally different bodily position when you are using them. They are much better when you are "lounging" in a comfy chair or on a couch rather than sitting at a desk.
And there is also the "social" HCI factor for when you are in a meeting or sitting with a group of others and don't want to have the barriers of all those vertical screen "walls" dividing you or will let you pass around what you are looking at on your tablet at the cafe. Yet tablets don’t really work too well when you are standing or walking about. The Kindle and other dedicated eReader devices are similar.
I think the addition of tablets such as the iPad is a good thing as we have not had a good solution for this very common and comfortable "lounging" position. I love how my Kindle has liberated my use of the device in these settings. But I’m not sure this factor of ergonomics is being recognized or talked about much?
The down side of all this is that so far we need to have a different device for each situation we are in; laptops/desktops when sitting at a desk, smart phones when standing/walking about and tablets when “lounging” in comfy chairs and the like.
Of course I think this will eventually be eclipsed when we don’t need screens anymore and have either glasses or contacts or implants which provide us with all the visual input we need and don’t have any dependency on our positions. The text input thing though is a real challenge that I’m not sure I see disappearing anytime soon.
Sorry for the lengthy comments (such a surprise coming from me!) and really appreciate you sharing and articulating your experiences with your iPad. Look forward to hearing more as you spend more time with it.
Wayne