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We deserve the iPad disappointment

It's true, there's no way it could have lived up to the hype, but yesterday when Steve Jobs and his crew finished demoing the new Apple iPad, I was left seriously disappointed. Not mad like this guy, but just seriously, seriously disappointed.

For all the reasons the world and his dog have posted, the iPad misses the mark. Just quickly, they are:

• The name: Awful.

• No multitasking: What? On a device with a near 10-inch screen I have to go 'home' and close apps all the time? I can't use streaming apps, or have Twitter pop up when I'm surfing the net. On a 10-inch screen. Really? Wow.

• The big, wide, clumsy black bezel round the edge that screams 'cheap digital photo frame' or, worse, 'Fisher Price Toy' almost as badly as the one on the white polycarbonate MacBook does. Those iSlate concepts were so much sleeker. In the same way the 2G iPhone is far, far sleeker than the 3G/S, it seems to show Apple's once sleek design for such products is going backwards, big time.

• The fact that, really, it doesn't do anything we haven't seen before. Except... OK I'll give Phil Schiller this one, 'a really fun new way to play with a spreadsheet'. Whoop whoop.

• And viewing that last point from a slightly different direction, the fact that it's missing something really innovative. It is. There's just nothing genuinely innovative here.

• Too much 'i': iPad, iBooks. Really? Why not just 'the BookStore on iTunes' (just like 'the App Store' - on iTunes).They even ripped off the iBooks app design from an Apple Award winning developer - after they'd poached all his staff. Real classy.

• The rhetoric and acommpanying cheezy video: 'It's revolutionary'. 'It's magical'. No. No it's damn well not. It's a giant iPod Touch. Literally. It's a bigger screened version of a product you already sell. That's not revolutionary and I don't appreciate you trying to ram such rubbish into my ears. I won't agree with you, no matter how much you say it.

• 'It's so amazing - it's the internet in the palm of your hand!' Yep, we've heard that before, it's exactly what they said about the iPhone. 

• It's disappointing compared to things we've already seen from… Microsoft, believe it or not: Look at this Surface app from Shane Morris. That makes you go 'wow'. it makes anyone you show it to go 'wow' as well. What about Microsoft's Courier concept, leaked (previewed?) by someone late last year. Far more intriguing and seemingly innovative than the iPad.

• The iPad also looks just like HP's slate device (pictured right) that Steve Ballmer showed for a few seconds at CES in early January. Big bezel, eBook capabilities and all. Thankfully the iPad didn't have the damn cover of 'Twilight' on it, but I digress.

Again, while it couldn't possibly live up to the hype, I was hoping, really hoping, for something that lived up to some of the potential that's out there for these tablet things. Something that did something special (just like they're trying to tell us it does), just like the iPhone really did when it was launched. Like the tablet and touch interfaces on this video, perhaps (the first video, not the parody).

But the iPhone launch was three years ago and I think Apple is a different company now. In hindsight, there was no way, no way in the world, that that 'wow' product was going to happen yesterday.

In fact, I'm beginning to think all of the endless Apple hype (that I myself have contributed to - and I do still think their other products are better than most), and the billions of dollars they're making, has told them one thing: They can now, more than ever, cripple their products, hold back on features that are common and relatively simple (yes, multitasking), lock down access to an unheard of degree, claim they're 'magical and revolutionary' when they're not, not even give us decent aesthetics, and still charge a fortune for them. And we'll buy them, in the millions.

The iPad is the result of us accepting what we should not have accepted, and the mountains of hype heaped on Apple. We deserve it. We've thrown so much money and praise at them it's gone to their collective, heads, and they're getting giddy with the idea of creaming more money from the likes of a million plus iPads and several million iBooks.

Truth be told I don't need an iPad (who does?), but sadly I don't actually want one, either. As first-gen products go I think they may have really jumped the shark with this one. There's nothing it can do that the phone I'm already paying $80 a month for cannot. A phone that is, by the way, really pretty amazing, although it's not as pretty as the one before it, still can't multitask properly, the 'Bluetooth A2DP' doesn't actually work with the majority of headphones that are bluetooth A2DP, that I charge pretty much consistently when I'm at a desk, that scratches unless it's sealed front and back in a nice protective blanket… You get the idea.

Conceivably, if the overall 'underwhelmed' sentiment on the web is anything to go by, Apple will not sell as many of these as it hopes and, hopefully, we'll see a much better second-gen product. But the first impression is gone and I bet the ugly betty bezel will stay for a while to remind us of that fact.

Let's not forget though, that the iPad will be put to innovative use by the army of third party developers who have already done some great work with the iPhone/iPod touch, despite the straightjacket constraints of the iPhone SDK.

iPad is not a bad product, it's just not great product. Not yet. Not even close. For me, and after weeks, months, years of anticipation around an Apple tablet (an Apple TABLET!), it needed to be seriously great. It needed to make me go 'wow', big time, but the best we got is an unconvincing 'bless my whiskers'.

Damn it.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2010

Happy new year to all readers of this blog and beyond, I hope you had a chance for some fun, rest and relaxation over the Christmas/holiday period and New year too. I spent a fantastic couple of weeks in Queensland, the bulk of which was up at the idyllic beach resort of Noosa, where the weather was stunning for much of the time. The two weeks off gave me a lot of time to rest, recuperate, reflect on the highs and lows of the year that was (I think I came out just about even), and think about the year ahead and its first few months.

In terms of work:

Step Two: I'm aiming to putting my foot on the accelerator with my work. 2009, was a huge year for me in terms of intranet projects, the 2009 intranet innovation awards and a whole lot more. I worked with and spoke to a lot of great people, learnt a huge amount, and was constantly reminded that there's infinitely more to learn. As a consultancy, we're looking forward to many projects and products in the pipeline, one of which I'll talk about later today, and further developments in the field of...

Intranets: In various posts, my Step Two colleagues and I capped off 2009 with some tentative eyes looking forward. Where are intranets heading? Will they still be called intranets? What will future intranets do? I'm looking forward to lots more discussion and further development on these questions and more, with anyone who's interested. Drop me a line on email (contacts), Skype or Twitter or any other of the links on the first-right column.

There's also set to be a continuation and growth of the intranet strategy, redesign and CMS work we focus on, with several very interesting projects lined up for the start of the year and one client's brand new intranet launch that I'm really looking forward to seeing go live this March.

In terms of other things:

Goodbye 'news': as much as I love being 'topical' (as one of the things my friends call me), I've decided to trial the quitting all 'news' aside from work-related fields, tech journals/blogs, premiership soccer, basketball and a few other interests.

Why? Well, it depresses me, to be 100% honest - both in terms of content and quality, and I don't feel like I'm any better off for reading all the trash that comes out of the majority of mainstream media. Time may prove different and, of course, I'm sure I'll still read links and research that come my way, that come through via channels such as Twitter, and will no doubt pick up on any crisis that occurs. But, as of today, BBC news, the Financial Times, Sydney Morning Herald etc. have been stripped from my RSS reader and browser bookmarks. They're miserable, distracting, often full of second-hand information, and really not worth the effort or time any more, and it's pretty nice to say 'adios'.

Anticipating the Apple Tablet: The evidence is overwhelming, in late January we will see a new, big, tablet-style device from Apple and it might well be called iSlate (although iHope not – it's about as awkward as 'MacBook' was upon launch).

Will it be as big a hit as their little tablet they released in 2007? I hope so, and by that I mean I hope it's as wonderful and beautiful to use as the iPhone is. I still remember when I got my unlocked, 2G iPhone delivered from America at vast expense. Taking the lid off the box and seeing this super-sleek, black and silver device was just the beginning of a relationship that now means any other phone really struggles to even get consideration, let alone become a viable purchase.

More on interfaces: With the iSlate and what could potentially smash the bar for more computer-oriented, touch-based user-interfaces, I'm going to continue learning as much as I can about user interface and experience design. As written last year (see lower half of this post), and put nicely in a further Shane Morris presentation in late December '09, this is 'the age of user experience'. It's growing into the most exciting area of technology development and something that's of real interest and relevance to me both in terms of work and play.

So, that's enough just to kick off 2010, but undoubtedly there's plenty more to come. I'm hoping it will be a great year. How about you?

iPhone suitable for legal folks who need document management access

Apple has posted a case study today of DLA Philips Fox, a large Australian law firm that's using iPhones right across the business. Not only is it used for email, calendar and mobile web (and as a phone, of course), it's also being used for document management, with a custom-designed application.

The other interesting aspect gleaned from the video - 'after the 5 minute training session with a new employee, off they go and you never hear them again.' So very little training is needed.

Intranets and internal systems on mobile devices is something of a special interest for me, but aside from the odd example, there's really very little progress with it in the grand scheme. While this example is clearly very favourable to Apple (being a case study published by them), it's good to see custom business apps like this being designed.

The iJoypad - the iPhone peripheral that needs to happen [interfaces]

Games are one area of the iPhone App store that surprises me, even though they're actually the biggest category of apps available.

They're a surprise because I think the phone's touch screen is simply rubbish for playing all but the most simply controlled of games - iShoot, iDig It, Noughts and Crosses, Flight Control, Harbour Master etc. In contrast, I've bought and played a couple of racing games, flying games, Wolfenstein Classic... even the Terminator Salvation platform game, and have felt that those games have really suffered from the poor options available with the iPhone's on-screen displays.

Modern consoles - from PSP to XBOX 360, have a d-pad, an analogue d-pad (or two), shoulder buttons, double shoulder buttons, and four further action buttons. At least. The iPhone struggles with even a quarter of that, yet sophisticated (in the complex sense) games need sophisticated controls, and the iPhone can't deliver.

This is why something like the iJoypad needs to happen. Check the video below for the pad in use with the Sony PSX/PS1 emulator and Wipeout XL. Awesome. But at the moment that game on an iPhone would require all sorts of terrible controls and tilting or shaking that don't work.

A snap-on peripheral would open the floodgates for gaming on the iPhone, and would simultaneously destroy, or rather completely and utterly decimate, the Sony PSP. (The iPhone's processing power already completely trashes the PSP, it just needs a decent graphics chip, which is highly probable in a future version.)

If Apple is serious about gaming on the iPhone, then please, please, please design and release something like this.

[engadget]

Perhaps the iPhone Security and Password lock isn't worth it, but then again...

A while back I wrote about iPhone security, and why you should always passcode lock your iPhone. I still do it, even if it's a bit of a pain sometimes.

But this latest report about the iPhone's security is pretty worrying. Free software and even a YouTube video explaining how to bypass all of the iPhone's security, including its much lauded data encryption (a new feature which you have to enable in iTunes). It's on the front page of lots of news sites, including SMH. From "iPhone encryption proven to be useless":

‘‘I don’t think any of us [developers] have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before, which is why it’s hard to describe why it’s such a big threat to security,’’ said Zdziarski, an iPhone app developer, who also specialises in iPhone forensics.

Not good. Hopefully Apple will address this problem soon. The iPhone's push into the enterprise will take a hammering if there's a significant data theft somewhere because of slack enrcyption systems.

Despite the problems, I'm hoping, optimistically perhaps, that this guy is right (also fro SMH):

Alan Hashem, director of Sydney-based IT consultancy Insight IT, has provided iPhones to about 12 of the company’s 15 staff, four of whom have the new iPhone 3G S model. They use the devices to access clients’ computers remotely and fix technical support issues.

Hashem said he was concerned about the iPhone’s security vulnerabilities but did not think there was a high chance that someone with the skills to perform Zdziarski’s hack would steal his employees' iPhones.

He said the handset’s features and third-party applications made it worth the risk.

‘‘We’re at a lot more risk with computers and desktops,’’ he said.

It's a shame we have to weigh up the risks. Nothing is 100% secure, sure, and most will not have the skills to hack the device, so I'll still keep the password on. But I wish we could feel a bit more confident in it.

How a UI can make or break a new service or product [Interfaces]

One of the inspirations for me reading and writing a lot more about user interfaces (UI) was the increasing appreciation of how far intranet design has come.

As we spend hours upon hours looking at computer screens at work, we're sub-consciously weaving in and out of an interface that overlays complex system architectures, working from point to point as we complete tasks. Although actual Web sites and services are driving innovation in this field, the sophistication of intranet sites has also come on leaps and bounds.

When you look at other modern UIs, be it your computer's main operating system, your phone, even my TV has a Playstation 3 style "Home" interface with hundreds of options, we're navigating complex systems that have been designed so well that we can actually use them.

In many devices the UI is so advanced that it allows us to navigate and interact easily, either by buttons, touch, gesture, movement, voice - even brain pulses at the very far end of the spectrum.

As Alexander van Elsas writes in a great post, the UI on a product or service often means make or break for it. Van Elsas talks about another interface inspiration of mine - the iPhone.

The iPhone operating system was written from the ground up to be a touch operated interface. There is no keyboard, there's only three actual buttons (home, power, volume). It has to work, and it does. Very well, with an exeption. Van Elsas nicely describes its pros and cons:

The iPhone UI is definitely revolutionary. It is one of the best UI’s I have seen in any handheld computer. The touch screen and the simplicity and consistency of the design are incredible. But to give you an idea how incredibly complex UI design really is, I believe the UI of the iPhone also makes it one of the worst mobile phones I have ever used. Actually, I should have probably said MOBILE device.

The reason for my bold statement is that that very same interface everyone loves doesn’t function well when you are mobile!

Try making a phone call while you are walking around, literally. The touch screen provides no tactile feedback, the buttons displayed are way too small for selecting contacts, letters or numbers, and the amount of actions needed to select a contact and actually make the call are too much.

In my opinion,  the design is optimized for an immobile user (meaning standing still). The touch screen forces the user to use his eyes as the main sense.

The UI sucks you and your attention into the device, and shuts off a number of other senses. All that is left is a tunnel vision. Try it, you’ll know what I mean. Walk, start trying to type an SMS, listen to your surrounding, try not to hit anything etc. It’s Impossible.

I have to agree here, to a point anyway. Discounting the iPhone 3GS's wonky voice control system (very hit and miss whenever I've tried it), it's impossible to operate the iPhone without looking at it. (As an aside, what's alarming is that being able to text while driving increasingly seems to be some sort of acid test for mobile device reviewers. Really, its not a good idea with any phone!)

I have managed to master two thumb texting on the iPhone (while looking at it), and can do it while walking around without bumping into too many people. Great. It is a minor thing in comparison to the overall leap that Apple made with the iPhone UI. Small annoyances that sit atop a mostly magnificent piece of software and UI design. It's a leap that many manufacturers are trying to copy, with limited success.

But aside from the lack of a physcial keyboard, Van Elsas does highlight another reason why the iPhone is not great for wandering around and using; the fact that it's a "handheld computer".

I don't know too many computers that you can operate without looking at them somehow. It's true, the iPhone is great, but flawed in that respect. Still, it's a flaw I can happily live with for the moment.

What's a bad example, where the interface really does ruin a device? Well there's one competitor that springs to mind immediately - the Nokia N97. While there's a host of flaws that reviewers haven't liked, the Symbian OS and interface, shoe-horned into the N97 and patched up to work with a touch-based interface, is probably the most common 'dislike' that's coming under fire.

Should you get an iPhone 3GS?

On Saturday my girlfriend, long-suffering her Sony M600i, bought a brand new, very shiny and black iPhone 3GS 16GB (on the aforementioned Vodafone $69 1GB plan). She loves it, and is super-pleased to have ditched the old Sony, which looks like a relic in comparison.

The decision to get a 3GS becomes less clear if you've already got an iPhone. In a good review, TechCrunch's #1 Apple fan MG Siegler (@parislemon) says the decision really isn't all that simple for the 3G version, but if you have a 2G (which I do) you should take the plunge. Hmmmmm... Read his full review here.

One thing we do benefit from here in Australia is the fact that the iPhone 3GS (and 3G) is already available on three networks - Telstra, Vodafone and Optus - and will soon be available on the "3" network (who may yet have the best plans, although their 3G coverage is strictly for metro areas). In Siegler's review, AT&T, a company pretty much hated in the US, is the only provider and this affects the decision, while in the UK it's limited to O2 which is pretty good.