Thoughts on the iPad

Today Apple announced the iPad, a tablet computer bearing a striking resemblance to the iPod touch (colloquially known as the iTouch).

The pricing on the iPad will range from $499 for a 16 GB model to $699 for a 64 GB model.  Judging by that, and the specs released so far, I predict that while it will be moderately successful amongst those that love their iPhones/iTouches and want a bigger screen, that overall it will not be a runaway success.

Why?  Let's look at the price first.  For $499 you can get an iPad with 16 GB of storage, whereas for $399 you can get an iPod touch with 64 GB of storage.  The iPod will have practically all the same functionality as the iPad (they both run iPhone apps), while the difference in screen size is really just personal preference as far as portability goes.

For new owners, it will no doubt be a bit of a quandary whether to buy an iPad or an iTouch.  If you intend to use it as a PDA or portable MP3 player, you can't beat the iTouch for being small enough to carry on your belt or in a pocket at all times.  That kind of accessibility is essential for a personal organizer or MP3 player.  If you're going to primarily use it as netbook/laptop equivalent (which the iTouch can also function as, although the iPad's screen and larger keyboard will make for a nicer user experience) then the iPad will be the way to go if you can afford a few hundred dollars more or if you're willing to forego some storage space, though it should be noted that these products don't have expandable storage (although part of the price-unknown Camera Connection Kit is an SD card reader that plugs into the dock port).

If you already own an iPhone/iTouch and a laptop, then the iPad isn't going to be nearly as appealing.  It's a nice product that inspires technolust to be sure, but the iPhone/iTouch are such great products that spending $500-700 for a larger screen just isn't worth it.

The one application where you could be staring at the screen for hours on end and would appreciate a larger screen is reading books (which already works well on iPhone/iTouch).  But if you already own an iPhone/iTouch, you can purchase a Kindle/Sony eReader/Barnes and Noble Nook, or another dedicated e-reader, complete with a different type of screen specifically designed for reading on (it actually looks like paper), for about $200 (and in a slightly more portable size akin to that of a paperback novel).

Looking further at the iPad specs, apart from disappointing storage, we have longer battery life.  Yawn.  For the size of the product compared to an iPhone/iTouch, it's expected they'd be able to fit a larger battery in the device (which still isn't user-replaceable).  Indeed, in that respect, 10 hours of battery life is actually disappointing.

With a screen that size, video should be great, right?  Well, while Apple's screens always look great, the resolution is still only 1024x768.  So you won't be able to play 1080i (1920x1080) or 720p (1280x720) high-def on it.  Worse still, you're still limited to 480p (720x480) output to a television.

Beyond a bigger screen and longer battery life... there's not much.  The iPhone has built-in camera and GPS, the iPad doesn't (though the more expensive 3G version may have GPS).  There's a new processor in the iPad, but since Apple is notoriously tight-lipped on technical specs, we don't know whether there's been a significant increase in 3D graphics performance, for instance.  There's also wi-fi N in the iPad... which the wireless chip in the iTouch supports but Apple hasn't activated yet.

With hardware that's good but not exactly magical compared to what's already in our hands, software is where I expect we'll see some big changes.  When the iPad finally hits stores, it will likely be accompanied by an updated iPhone OS.  Hopefully the larger screen will have spurred Apple's engineers to creative heights such that they'll have fixed existing annoyances (such as limited number of homescreens and no folders... 140,000 apps, with nowhere to go...), tweaked things, and added new innovations.  Hopefully we'll get better notifications, multi-tasking, wireless N and FM radio enabled in the iTouch.

So to sum things up, the iPad is good news for iPhone/iTouch owners, as it will spur development on the iPhone platform and bring us new iPhone OS features (and hopefully new compatible hardware, such as the keyboard and SD card reader).  But as a buy recommendation, I'd say that at the moment it's really only a buy if you've got spare cash to burn; a 32/64 GB iPod touch is a better deal.  In the meantime, the rest of us will likely hold tight, perhaps buying dedicated e-book readers or sub-$300 netbooks if we feel the need to supplement our iPhones/iTouches with something else.

Replacing a Palm with an iPod touch 64GB

I've used Palm organizers for many years.  With my Palm E2 becoming long in the tooth, I decided to switch platforms and see what all the fuss was about with the iPod touch and the iPhone.

My iPod is a 3G (3rd generation) iPod touch 64GB.  As a replacement for the Palm, it had to to four things exceedingly well: calendar, contacts, to-do, and memos.

Out of the box, as an organizer the iPod wasn't a match for my old Palm.  The Notes application didn't do categories, and the To Do application didn't exist.  The calendar was a bit different, but roughly equivalent.  The Palm calendar has a nice month view where each portion of the days on the calendar is colour coded according to the category of the appointments; the iPod calendar just has a dot on each day where there are appointments, and touching the day will bring up the appointments beneath the calendar.  It doesn't have the same at-a-glance functionality as the Palm, but it works.

Of course, that was before a trip to the App Store.  After trying out many of the to-do and notes apps, I decided to spend some money.  While DoBot ToDos was a nice free to-do app, it didn't have a desktop interface, and was fairly basic.  Similarly, Note Me was a very nice memo app, but without a desktop interface.  Neither had an easy way to import data from my Palm.  I was going to have to shell out a few dollars to get the functionality I needed.

My solution for a To Do app was Toodledo ($3.99).  Toodledo offers a feature rich to-do application that syncs my items wirelessly with my free account at Toodledo.com.  I was able to export my Palm to-do items to a file using Palm Desktop, and then effortlessly import them using Toodledo.com.

To replace my Palm memo application, I chose NoteSpark ($4.99).  Like Toodledo, NoteSpark surpassed the rich functionality of my Palm, and allowed effortless import of my Palm memos.  Notespark also allows wireless syncing of data to a free account at NoteSpark.com, and editing of notes from any web browser.

Thrilled to have to-do and notes functionality exceeding expectations, I then moved on to calendar and contact apps.  Both are built in to the iPod, but neither really shined until I discovered Google Sync.  Using it, I enabled syncing of the iPod Calendar to my Google Calendar, as well as syncing of Gmail contacts to the Contacts app.  Google Sync also allows syncing e-mail to the iPod Mail app, but I find that accessing the mobile version of Gmail through Safari offers more functionality.

So there you have it.  An iPod touch plus $9 of software is capable of matching, or even exceeding, the gold standard for organizers set by Palm.  Of course, the iPod touch goes far beyond that in its capabilities.  In many ways, I've found it to be a laptop replacement.

Register your wireless router to enable iPod touch location-awareness

The iPod touch, unlike the iPhone, doesn't have a GPS to help it know where it is. Yet the iPod touch manages to know its location using its wi-fi capability. How does it do this? The term "wi-fi triangulation" has been bandied about, but there's no triangulation involved.

Instead, Apple utilizes the services of a company called Skyhook Wireless. What Skyhook does is maintain a worldwide database of wi-fi hotspots containing their GPS coordinates and MAC addresses. Once you connect to a wi-fi network, your iPod can then submit the MAC address of the network's router to Skyhook's servers, and if that hotspot is registered with them, it will return the latitude and longitude of your location to your iPod touch. (You can also enable wi-fi location awareness on your laptop or desktop, by installing a plug-in here.)

What this means is that an iPod touch can benefit from most of the advantages of GPS-enabled devices without having a GPS. In fact, when in large urban areas and indoors, where it can take a long while for a GPS to acquire a satellite lock, an iPod touch can be aware of it's location in seconds.

To submit your wireless router's MAC address and location to Skyhook's database, click here. If you're a location offering wi-fi access to the public, you'll help improve the iPod's location-awareness. If you submit your home router's info, you'll enable location-awareness for your personal devices at home.  You gotta admit that's kinda cool.

An Inconvenient Truth

I watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Very well done, I highly recommend it. Watching it, though, I was really struck by how unconscionable it is that they've known about this problem for decades, and they've just sat on it, or worse, obstructed the path of people trying to fix it. An entire generation of people have stuck their heads in the sand rather than address the issue. Pathetic.

Watching AIT just three years after its debut, it was interesting to see how prophetic it is. Gore talks about how naysayers have claimed we have to choose between the economy and the environment, and then shows a chart comparing Japanese and American auto companies to demonstrate that building fuel-efficient vehicles is economically beneficial. Flash-forward to the present day, and we know how well the American auto companies are faring!

Global warming is real, and it's affecting our species' ability to live on this planet. What can you do? Well, as a unionist, I've seen and firmly believe in the power of people acting collectively. If we all do something, all our individual actions add up to something collectively huge.

Some suggestions: Buy electricity from Bullfrog Power. Support environmental groups like The Bruce Trail Conservancy. Walk or bicycle instead of using your car. Vote for political parties (such as the NDP and Green) that will actually do something meaningful to protect the planet.

There are tons of sites out there such as Lighter Footstep, One Million Acts of Green, TreeHugger, EcoGeek.org, and GreenLivingIdeas.com. Consult them, learn from them. Do something.

Here's a summary of my green lifestyle choices that I created a while back.

Participated in my first Scrabble tournament tonight...

I participated in the Niagara Region Literacy Council's Scrabble for Literacy fundraising tournament tonight, my first Scrabble tournament ever. It was a ton of fun. Great buffet dinner, followed by three games of Scrabble. Silent auction, penny sale, and door prizes, too (I won a package of gourmet jelly beans -- 28 flavours!).

I had no idea of the scale of the event... there were at least a couple hundred people there, and they had a waiting list for registrations. For next year they say they've reserved double the space!

Scrabble-wise, it was a new experience. It was a team Scrabble event. 20 minute games, they provided the first word, and then each team/table worked together to fill the board. All tiles were face up. Quite a lot of fun... twenty minutes for a game, plus time to score, made me think this team Scrabble format could easily be adapted for use in schools.

So I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year. Next time, though, I'll be more organized, and get a whole team signed up, with our table reserved well in advance.

Overall, I had a blast playing Scrabble, ate a great meal, and supported a good cause. Time well spent.