AdzTechBlog

Looks like Amazon doesn’t have to much to worry about after all.

According to the feature list of the Apple website, the UK will not be getting the iBooks and iBook Store at launch.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the UK consumers view on the iPad as this was touted as one of the major features. Seeing as Steve Jobs said he is beginning talks over 3G connectivity outside the US, I’d assume the same talks will apply to book publishers, so its probably just a matter of time before iBooks makes it other countries iPads. Still plenty of time for this all to change though.

So what is it, think of an iPhone, but add 6 inches to the screen. You get the picture. It has a 10 inch multitouch, LED screen dominating the front with a an inch bezel around it and the same home button at the bottom, seen on the iPhone. It measures in a 0.5 (aprox 13mm) inch think so is relatively thin, but thicker than an Amazon Kindle, and 3mm more than an iPhone. So its not too bulky. Under the hood is a custom made 1Ghz processor which according to Engadget is an ARM processor. So there should be plenty of omph.

OS is the new iPhone OS 3.2, this will be the big deciding point of whether Apple are onto a winner or not. So what does the OS look like? Well its just the iPhone OS a bit larger. The default apps have had an upgrade so now the widescreen email program has a list of emails to the left and the actual email to the right. The calendar app has had a major over hall so it now appears like a diary, and the photo’s app has been updated to take advantage of the bigger screen. Apple also showed off an iPad version of iWork (Apples office suite), all looked relatively easy to use and had context specific menu’s popup (pop up menu’s appear to be a major new part of the OS).

All current iPhone apps will also work on the iPad, and will be synced when you plug in to iTunes. The apps can either be viewed at their native iPhone size or stetched to fill the entire screen. This of course has different affects depending on the app.

So is it good or bad? Well Steve Jobs likes to see this as a netbook killer. But I don’t see it. As with the iPhone, the iPad appears to be a very content viewing device rather than content creating. Yes iWorks looks like it will allow you to create documents and things, but you are still locked into Apples own iTunes/App/iBook stores (yes books, more in that in a second). Theres no USB port for linking to say a camera or even an iPhone, you’ll have to pay more for an adapter to copy photo’s direct from a camera. I see this device aimed at casual users who need a bit more screen real estate that the iPhone offers. I personally have a laptop at home which is kept in our living room purely used for browsing the net without have to go into the office and start up the full PC. The iPad is the perfect replacement for this. You’ll get access to relatively cheap games too and other useful apps,  but its not good for working on the move or replacing a full laptop.

iBook, ok I’ve given this a section on its own. E-Readers are slowly growing in popularity, with Amazon currently leading the way with its Kindle. I am in the process of drafting my Kindle from a UK users view, review at the moment, so won’t dwell here. iBook is a new app on the iPad which is basically an e-book reader. It has its own book store for purchasing books too. Now, part of reading a book is the way your imagination is captured, the pages almost disappear in your hands. For me this is where an e-reader would struggle, but the likes of Amazon and co have gone to great lengths to design a product that seems to vanish in the hand. And it works, the devices might not be the sexiest on the planet, but they do what they are ment to very well. iBook instead employs fancy graphics like 3D page turning and book covers opening etc, pages are also coloured to look like textured paper pages. All of which I believe will distract from the book you are reading. Plus the screen is a back lit LCD, this causes problems when reading for prolonged periods of time. LCD’s tire your eyes after extended periods of use, hence why its recommended to take a break from an LCD every hour. I believe reading on the device will be a little uncomfortable for prolonged reading. Time will tell with this, but I can’t see iBook touching a dedicated e-reader for this.

So thats a brief overview from whats been announced so far. I would like to point one thing out. The iPad, I stated earlier, looks more for consuming media rather than creating it, but it only time will tell what third party app developers will come up with. Its possible Adobe could release iPad versions of its Photoshop tools, and already demoed was an iPad version of Brushes, an very popular iPhone drawing app which works really well with the big screen. So as with the iPhone, the iPad will be made or forgotten about by what apps the community can come up with rather than the device itself.

Conclusion? It looks good, it has the potential, but out of the box is very limited. But I guess all PC’s start of this way aswell, it will all come down to what the app developers can do with it. I do think it will make a very good casual internet/media device. Say for when you watching TV etc. At $500 for the base 16GB model with WiFi up to $830 for the top 64GB model with WiFi and 3G (at an extra monthly cost), pricing is a little steep but probably alot better than might have been expected with Apple products. Of course UK pricing isn’t available yet but I’d say change the dollar sign for pound and you’ll get the idea.

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