Apple’s marketing push for the iPad is going into full swing now that the launch date of the device is only days away. There’s the TV ad, for instance, but what caught my attention today was the series of “Guided Tour” videos Apple posted on its website yesterday.
Each video features a narrator telling you about the iPad’s various feature, while an anonymous pair of hand (and crossed legs to support the device, which seems to be the only way to hold it comfortably) demonstrates exactly how to use the feature being described, including how various gesture controls work within that app.
Needless to say, the narrator is quite enthusiastic about how easy, simple, and innovative everything is, though I suppose if they were strictly relaying information this would be a third-party walkthrough, not an Apple marketing tool. In most cases, iPhone owners will already be familiar with many of the gesture controls and interface elements, but the iPad does have quite a few unique features owing to its greater screen size.
Not all of the claims made in the videos are completely defensible. Saying that a keyboard that’s “nearly the same size” as a standard one makes for “effortless typing,” for instance, doesn’t really convince me, especially when the guy doing the demo is hunt-and-peck typing fairly slowly while you’re saying it.
Seeing all the features detailed and laid out in this way definitely does make me want an iPad even more than I did before, though. A lot of the elements seem, upon reflection, to fill gaps present on the iPhone’s OS. Meaning that things I wish I could do on my iPhone, but can’t for lack of space or other reasons, are implemented on the iPad.
My favorite elements are the iPhoto integration in the Photos application, which should help make iPhoto much more interesting, the iPad camera connection kit, which finally means I can shelve my 30GB iPod Video with its camera connector on trips, and the much-improved YouTube app, since using the iPhone version is one of my favorite time-killers.
If you’re still not sure what all the fuss is about, or if you’re just getting anxious waiting for the delivery guy to show up at your door Saturday morning and want the next best thing to a hands-on experience, check out Apple’s Guided Tour series of videos. There’s 11 in total, covering topics from Safari to the iWork suite, and they’re much more rewarding than either the iPad announcement event or the iPad video that features Apple execs waxing poetic about how awesome the thing is sitting in front of a white background.
For many iPhone users held hostage by AT&T’s second-rate 3G network, the announcement that a nationwide rollout of the AT&T 3G MicroCell will begin in April sounds like a long-awaited promise of coverage rescue finally coming true.
Photoshop
iMovie
Screen Sharing or Remote Desktop
Hulu
An Improved iTunes App
The simple if unsatisfying answer to the question of when to buy a new Mac is when you need one.
While Steve Jobs just pronounced Apple a “mobility” company at the iPad event, it’s actually been one for awhile. More than two out of three Macs sold are laptops, and if you are in that majority you should definitely wait for Arrandale.
There’s something else HP is selling, the Envy 15 laptop with USB 3, and that’s the second reason not to buy a Mac right now. USB 3 has transfer rates of up to 4.8Gbps, though real world rates won’t be nearly that high, but then USB 2 doesn’t reach its theoretical maximum of 480Mbps, either.
Something not to expect this spring, and that is suspect this year, would be Macs with Blu-ray. Just last month, it was attributed to Steve Jobs that Blu-ray is still a “mess,” and that Apple is waiting until Blu-ray sales “take off.”
The rumor mill surrounding the Apple tablet is so intense as to possibly beat out the hype surrounding any other Apple product to date, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one being talked about. Today, a Korean source reported details about the upcoming iPhone revision, which many expect to arrive in late June or July.
Looking for people who is interested in auto sport to become a TestFlight pilot for up-coming new release of
PC Games on Your iPad, Courtesy of HTML5
The iPad is already a strong entry in the mobile games realm, with its large, high-resolution display, touchscreen interface and support for external devices like keyboards. Plus it has the iPhone/iPad development community cranking out innovative games all the time, too.
Gaikai was shown running on an iPad (on Touch Arcade), and playing World of Warcraft on the device. Whether it’s a good thing to put WoW in the hands of addicts wherever they happen to go is another question entirely, but the promise of PC games running untethered on a device in your lap is intriguing indeed. I’m not a WoW player myself, but Starcraft II is landing late this July, and I somehow doubt it’ll be accompanied by a native iPhone port at the same time.
But will the gatekeepers at Apple allow Gaikai to invade its playground? The move could potentially have serious consequences on the App Store’s economics, since conceivably, Gaikai could stream any game to the iPad and other Apple devices, not just ones sanctioned by the Mac maker. Gaikai’s Dave Perry says Apple basically can’t block the service.
The reason being, Gaikai is HTML5-based technology. That means that its browser-based player will work fine on mobile Safari out of the box, unless Apple goes out of its way to shut down access to Gaikai specifically, which would fly in the face of certain recent correspondence by Steve Jobs himself regarding the closed nature of Flash versus the open nature of HTML5.
Gaikai shows the way to sidestepping iCensorship altogether, at least in terms of streamable web content. At this stage in the game, Apple has basically painted itself into a corner wherein it has to condone anything done using the HTML5 standard, versus rich media that uses browser-based plugins like Flash and Silverlight. It won’t work for all apps (like the one that allows you to sync wirelessly, for instance), but it should allow content providers to publish whatever kind of iPad and iPhone-targeted material they want without blocking fears.
We’ll see the Gaikai North American beta launch in the comings weeks, and then we’ll find out just how much openness Apple can tolerate. Hopefully it’s just enough to see me playing Civilization 5 on my iPad this fall.