Yan Pritzker photographer, entrepreneur, software engineer, musician, skier

What the iPad is good for

Posted 29 January 2010 @ 1pm | Tagged analysis

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This is going to be one of those thinking-out-loud, trying to justify dumping half a grand on a new toy posts. So bear with me :) How I plan to use the iPad…

• Watching movies and surfing in bed without annoying MBP fan noise and overheating.
• Taking it with me instead of the MBP when I go on vacation. This will depend on whether light dev work is possible on it (jailbreak + terminal + vim?). Or a TextMate port?
• Using it as a photographer’s tool – if it’s easy enough to offload from SD card to iPad, then it may become a very nice tool for getting large screen previews during photo shoots.
• Sharing photos with friends, family, and clients (on a photo shoot). Again, this implies that iPad will have some type of Lightroom Lite that can handle my photo albums, because iPhoto doesn’t cut it for me.
• As an accessory screen to my normal desktop. For example – leave a twitter client running on it, or something with news headlines. It could work as a non-disruptive peripheral vision information accessory to my normal desktop/laptop setup.
• Reading books? This one I have doubts about, because of the stupid glossy screen. Have you ever tried to use an iPhone without a matte cover? It sucks. Now imagine applying one of those matte covers to a 9.7″ screen. Welcome to air bubble and finger smudge hell.

Other thoughts

• With its lack of multitasking and inability to run native OSX apps (rather than native iPhone apps) – surprising given its powerful processor, I can see the iPad may not be targeted toward power users per se, but with a bit of jailbreaking, I bet it can be made quite useful.
• Where to stick it? Am I going to carry my big laptop bag around for the iPad? If not, where does it go? Doesn’t fit in my pocket, and seems too small for a bag of its own. Will we see the return of the eHolster? Will I have to acquire a Jack Sack man purse?
• The 3G versions are probably going to be useless. AT&T can’t even handle the iPhone. In San Francisco, I’ve had Edge outside the city work faster than 3G inside the city. When the iPad hits, the network will crumble completely unless AT&T steps up its game significantly. I wouldn’t mind paying $20 more per month if it means they get the network infrastructure right. I know they’re kind of in a rough spot having to maintain competitive data plan prices, yet supporting Apple’s mobile devices which get very heavy use. Anyway, I am convinced 3G and mobile broadband in general is a general fail, and with city-wide WiFi around the corner, and WiFi on planes, frankly there’s just no need for it.

Interesting, there are several posts on how will you carry your iPad

Yes, AT&T is in a tough spot, but that’s business. I agree with you regarding 3G vs WiFi. WiFi is almost everywhere in 2010. Personally, I’ve already decided to get the WiFi-only version instead of the 3G. And where WiFi is unavailable, you can always use a MiFi or similar device.

a couple of thoughts/questions.

I can see using it as a companion for digital photo shoots.
Which is a great idea!
However, is there a way to link it up to your camera where it
shoots a stream a photos live after they are shot?
I’ve noticed that on America’s Next Top Model they do that.
I was wondering if that would be possible for the iPad.

I saw the set-up with a stand and keyboard and I thought it was
inventive, and I can totally see you using it as a newsfeed/twitterfeed
type of thing. I thought about getting a mimo for that.
But using a stand alone device is much more intuitive since it runs
off its own processesor.

I’ve read that the iPad and CDMA iPhone is suppose to be coming
to Verizon in June. Have you heard anymore about this?
Verizon already carries quad-band phones so i don’t understand
what the bid deal hold up is. I’ve read that if the iPhone goes to VZW
that people would drop AT&T right away.
I don’t understand why people would buy 3G service when AT&T
can’t handle it.