I like the idea of the iPad… a lot. But it would have to be better and by that I mean a camera or two (Skype, AR), Flash (you could see a plug-in icon whilst Steve Jobs was viewing the New York Times) and decent connectivity with external devices.

The keynote seemed to focus on this ‘third category’ (please, no comparisons or jokes about the Third Reich), which is kind of odd. I mean, sure… mobiles are pretty useless for reading content/viewing websites but laptops do a fine job (my Macbook is a lovely device) already. OK, so the iPad looks lovely but your point about the content/consumer relationship is a valid one. Ultimately unless you’re only planning to consume with this device, you’re not going to see any advantages with an iPad over a combo of mobile and lappy.

That’s never stopped anyone buying something because it’s cool though… and hopefully the iPad will develop into something more useful (for me) very soon.

Thanks very much for the perspective – my comments are of course based on the keynote, which is unlikely to be underselling it, as this video shows –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA

I hope you’re right – I don’t ever want things to be ‘not as good as they could be’ – the bluetooth keyboard would be nice (would be nicer on the iPod Touch, especially if Apple made a foldable keyboard – mini laptop!)

But I’m still completely unconvinced by the potential of this device to repair that break in the producer/consumer divide – as I said, by far my biggest complaint about it. It breaks that in a way that Netbooks don’t, that even, as you point out, mobile phones don’t! (I wonder if, like the iPhone keyboard, I’ll still be about 40% faster typing using predictive text on a number pad – even on my N97 which has a QWERTY keyboard, I use the number pad on screen to type… T9 is possibly the coolest development in typing interfaces in decades )

Anyway, like I say, I’m glad to hear that from a developer perspective (or at least, your perspective as a developer) it look’s like it’ll work… Would’ve been nice to be able to dual boot it with the Window touch OS, or some future Linux touch version (is there one yet?)… Maybe the jailbroken version will kick ass, and the hackers will save the day again

I’d srsly doubt it’d have the oomph and storage without removable cards or somethign would still restrict it to the Air ‘poser’ category (I call it the iToy)…yes my partner has an Air (as well as a MacBook Pro, the previous Mac Book, a Touch, several iPods) and I’ve had to play with it and it freezes like crazy. SLOW. I’d guess the iPad would either be similar or very restricted – hence no multitasking…

Doubt video or audio DJ/VJ apps would appear then.

You’re really complaining about the lack of a camera? Doesn’t every cell phone you own have a camera?

From what I’ve read, the onscreen keyboard is no worse than what I’m used to on my iPhone and I manage to send a large number of emails and tweets from there. According to reports, the iPad will work with the Apple bluetooth keyboard as well as the keyboard dock. But most of the time I don’t have to carry one when i don’t need it.

The audio in solution will likely get address through the dock connector as it has been for the iPod Touch. Likewise quality audio out. Granted USB would have been nice. But getting all of the drivers to run properly is a chore. Even on a Mac.

The iPhone SDK isn’t bad, so I don’t see that as a huge limitation on programming the thing. And it’s open in the sense that I can compile and run any piece of software I want on it for $99US.yrs., Not as good as free, but I used to spend far more than that on development tools. Yes, I have to use the App Store to sell things, which means I need Apple’s blessing. But selling software anywhere but your own site requires someone’s blessing. The same is true for other media. Just look at the recent Amazon Macmillian kerfluffle. After looking at some of the stuff that Google is doing with HTML 5, that’s a brilliant solution as well. The Google Voice app really does feel like an app, not a web page.

As a developer, musician, and artist, multitouch excites me in much the same way a graphic display and a mouse did in 1984. I think it’ll be huge. Will the iPad be perfect. I doubt it. But it’s an important step. And they could wait forever to get something perfect. I’d rather pay a little now and get started. I have some big plans for it as a controller. But I’m reserving judgement until I get my hands on one.

And yes when Apple muscled in on podcasts with iTunes that’s when they were doomed – well the indie ones were since they are all about ‘premium’ pro broadcast content, and this whole idea of creativity and the little man having a voice is actually wrong, if you look at what they DO rather than what they SAY – like the featured podcasts etc, who was allowed onto iTunes, etc.

Less Ghandi as per one of their ads, more Mussolini…

That’s not to say Apple is useless, I’ve had many iPods since the iRivers and other devices were more crap than Apple’s – although don’t get me started on iTunes, it is a simple product which can actually do a lot and it seems they are adding stuff to it rather than taking stuff away…weird how they seem to be doing the opposite in the other divisions?

I’m sure people will do lots of cool things with the iPad. There’ll be loads of cool apps, and much merriment will be had. These things are never black and white, good/bad, angel/demon scenarios. Apple aren’t stupid. They aren’t about to release something that’s completely useless! And as I said, they’re welcome to release whatever they want – if they described this as ‘a badass MIDI controller that you can read your email on, and if you’re really persistent, type short emails back’ then I’d be thinking it was an awesome realisation of that description

And Apple’s closed system probably will be a bit of a hinderance, but there is audio control software available for the iPhone already. I’ve seen guys control MoogerFoogers with their iPhones, and there’s apparently Protools control software out there, too. So I don’t know that things are completely hopeless in that regard…

…and I was thinking the same thing about a virtual Kaoss pad…

I agree that touch interfaces for music application will be so awesome – the idea of the Kaoss pad as a plug in rather than a hardware thing is so so awesome. Especially if we had pressure sensitivity as well – the 3rd touch axis – could be all kinds of fun. But if you’ve got that without a keyboard, you’ll need a stand for it, and you won’t be able to type commands, and there’s no support for additional peripherals unless the software to power them goes through the app store. We end up with an insane situation like we have with the iPhone where I can use an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with a Nokia N-series phone, but NOT with the iPhone or iPod touch! And the people with the know-how can’t just write the software to make it happen, because Apple don’t want them to, even though the software available for jailbroken iPhones shows that it’s pretty easy to do…

So YAY for touch interfaces, BOO for crappy development strategies.