The iPad Touch
Some have been dismissing the iPad as just “a large iPod touch: a great device to draw your inspiration from, but perhaps not the seismic shift in technology that we were expecting.” Hutch Carpenter sees it as much more; he’s sensing a seismic shift.
Writing at Blogging Innovation, Carpenter says it’s Apple’s skill with design-driven innovation that will make the iPad a success. And what is the significant design-driven innovation in the iPad? It’s touch, of course:
In technology terms, it’s just an alternative form of interface. Touch, mouse, tab, whatever. But touch is a vital human sense, and a core part of experience. It’s how we interact with others, how we shop, experience textures and so much more.
Carpenter says the “iPad is tapping into an emerging dynamic of a more interactive, tactile experience with technology and digital information.” The interface is falling away from our awareness as our interaction with technology is subtly altered towards a melding with it. It’s beginning to be experienced more as an extension of us, and less of an explicit interface:
The Wii and iPhone, and before the iPod click wheel, have created a popular introduction to gesture based interfaces, demonstrating responsive feedback behaviours, applying “natural” physical effects like flipping and inertia, similar to the ones we are accustomed to in the real world, to improve usability expectations of an interface.
As new “cultures of use” emerge we are creating opportunities to form a language of gestures, similar to the conventions of “right-clicking” and standardised keyboard shortcuts.
Note the term “culture of use”. Not industry trends. Because the dominant form of interaction for computers and video games is still mouse and buttons. And consumers aren’t asking for touch.
But there is an underlying change in thinking about how people interact with technology and information.
Google’s Nexus One doesn’t have multi-touch gestures (patent problems?) it* does have some interesting 3D effects. Tip the phone and sophisticated sensors dip the photos in the same way. You can imagine one day we’ll tip the phone from side to side to slide photos forward and back.
The forthcoming Google OS, Chrome — demoed last November and greeted with a disappointment not unlike the iPad’s reception — could easily morph into Google’s, or any of Apple’s PC competitors’, version of the iPad.
The revolution is not in the device; it’s in that shifting computing paradigm. Apple’s taken the lead, but they won’t have it free and clear for as long as they did with the iPhone.
* Correction comes from Anna in comments. I’m not surprised that Android does have multi-touch. Now I even recall reading about it not being enabled. I should have checked before posting. Further, a simple Google search for iPad+Google+Chrome turns up lots of chatter, similar to mine about a Chrome iPad. Had I done that search before posting, I would have added links galore! Instead I posted quickly and zoned out to some season 2 Dexter. The larger point, about touch and the paradigm shift, stands as is.
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16 Responses to “The iPad Touch”
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Thanks Joe W. I think the ipad is going to bury kindle. Bezos' error; making Kindle out of reach AND proprietary AND a one-trick pony. Although he made his nut already on his $300+/- device that seems rapidly looking sort of like a swag lamp in the age of fiber optics. My .02.
OK, going to out myself for the geek that I am
:
First off to Joe, an update for the Nexus One is available to some/soon to be available to all that does enable multi-touch…see Engadget here. I think it's now pretty much war between Apple & Google.
Dr. E, as far as the iPad burying the Kindle, that may or may not happen but if it's on price alone, that might not do it. The price point for the iPad with the least (and non-expandable) memory and no 3G is $499. I owned a first-gen Kindle a ways back and one of the best parts of it was being able to purchase new books over the air. For the iPad, having 3G will run a cool extra $150 (plus an extra data plan) and that version will not be released until later. That might be too rich for some people's blood. Just my 2 Abe Lincoln coins.
Pardon me, but people have been touching their iPhones for quite some time. The iPad is nothing but the iPhone…minus the phone…plus a long battery life compared to laptops. Lets not also forget that Apple is play the Microsoft roll by only allowing apps bought through iTunes on to their iPad.
I can't even see flash on the stupid thing….why?? Because Apple doesn't want people creating apps in Flash. How very Bill Gates of them.
Multi-touch browser is what I miss most about my Droid vs my iPod Touch features. The Android OS supports multi-touch it's just not used by default, so maybe there is patent issues Google is avoiding by not having the function enabled.
Rambie,
I think there was a kind of “gentleman's agreement” regarding multi-touch that Google was adhering to until Steve Jobs pretty much declared war on Google. I think that Google starting to roll-out multi-touch is a bit of the gloves coming off, so to speak. As a Droid owner, I think you'll be happy to hear that there appears to be a Droid update coming shortly with multi-touch activated (see here for more info).
o/
Now they just need to add in voice dialing via bluetooth. Thanks Anna.
just 1 cent more anna
think the first mog to bring on free reader devices will bury bezos, apple, and riggio. It is very close. Very. Genl public is unaware and unconcerned about the huge population of the poor who read. For them, all, ALL of what now exists is out of reach.
100? $200? $300? 400 and up? Impossible for most
Elitism, some argue, exists only for those what can exploit markets deemed worthy of $-gleaning. Not for the kids, not for the poor. Just those who have the bucks.
It's an ongoing and sad discussion in education circles where the rubber meets the road in 50%+ drop out rates. I'm far more impressed with those who work in the trenches there, than Bezos and his latest caper. I'd like ALL to have access.
Well, I love my $199 EZREADER, which is smaller and lighter than a paperback, views many more formats than Kindle, and plays mp3s. So all you need is the ezreader and earbuds by the pool or beach. A bazillion books are available free online in pdf format, and you upload them to the device via USB. A single charge is good for weeks (unless you are playing music while reading) http://www.theezreader.com/
I would LOVE voice dialing via bluetooth! I was a big WinMo user until I got my Tmo MyTouch 3G and miss bluetooth voice dialing. I'm hoping to upgrade my MyTouch to possibly a Nexus One in the not-too-distant future.
I'm not “poor” but I don't have an e-reader either. I've seen Kindles, the Sony one, and a few others but not enough to make the purchase. If anything I'd like one to store all the hardware doc files I have at work but they com in TXT, HTML, and PDFs. if it can't load all those formats, I'm not interested.
The Kindle and Sony models have great screens for reading without eye strain, I'm not sure the iPad screen can compete as it's just a LCD. With a LCD there is no way it can on battery life either.
Thanks Anna. I updated the post!
that's cool GD. Nice to have something that works well. There's so much that doesnt. lol. I like hearing about what does.
not to keep promoting this thing, but my e-reader does those just fine. Best of all, I can have hundreds of books with me when I travel. Like an iPod for books.
Both the 5-inch and 6-inch EZ Readers display over 20 formats (some of which are shown on the back of the packaging box). Specifically, the devices support the following open formats: ADE (Adobe Digital Edition), PDF, TXT, PDB, DOC, HTML, FB2, LIT, MP3, EPUB, PRC, WOL, CHM, PPT, TIF, PNG, GIF, RAR, ZIP, DJVU, JPG, BMP. Open formats mean you can download non-copyrighted eBooks from multiple websites. And with the new Adobe Digital Editions firmware (see firmware download section of this website), you can now also buy copy-protected eBooks in PDF and ePub formats too.
Some of the diagrams are color coded so a monochrome screen won't really work for me. However, there is e-paper being developed that has colors. Not the link below (I couldn't find it) said there is one out in Japan now that has e-ink with a few thousand colors, which would be more than enough for my needs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper