iPad Event – Macworld 2010
12:50pm:
1:00pm:Lights are going down. Word is that there will be no iPad here. We'll see soon enough.
1:03pm: Apparently whoever got a greeen beach ball gets a free iPad.
1:05pm: Jason Snell is on stage with Dan Morenstien, Ted Landow, Ryan Block, and Andy Ihnatko
1:08pm: Everyone has spent at least 20 minutes with the iPad. They are talking about the upside and downside of a 4:3 display.
1:09pm: Andy's first impression is the supurb build quality.
1:10pm: They are making fun of the cardboard cutouts. "they are not event eInk, just Ink."
1:11pm: Bezel should not be a problem according to Jason, Ryan says doesn't think that a bezel is important. Andy says that we should all get some 3M gripper tape to hold on to the pad.
1:13pm: Bezel is not noticeable after the first few uses.
1:15pm: They are discussing the closed nature of the iPad store. Ted is using the example of him using a hypothetical toaster oven and being required to use only buy things from Cuisinart store that work with the toaster, and everything that it's supposed to do works really well, but it doesn't allow the use of toasting anything else, but toast. That toast is the best toast ever and the toaster looks great, but it doesn't do poptarts or anything else. He keeps the toaster.
1:21pm: Andy just compared Steve Jobs to Dr. Doom. "Welcome to this week in Fantastic Four" - Jason
1:24pm: Dan is making the point of having a switch for unapproved apps to work on the i-devices. Allowing all apps, but not supporting anything that isn't from the App Store. Allowing people the option of using the open store, but when the go into the store and say it doesn't work, they flip the switch and all the non-app store apps break. Andy agrees.
1:27pm: Ted - "Even Steve [Jobs] couldn't think of everything the iPhone does today."
1;29pm: Dan - The iPad should be something that everyone uses different.
1:30pm: Andy brings up the fact that at Apple events the furniture is set to a specific hight, chairs are made at an angle so that you get a certain view of the device and Steve. Jason adds that at the iPad event the platforms that the iPad was on high enough that you couldn't look down and type. Also that an Apple employee was watching each of the iPads and if that iPad disappeared so would the employee, permanently.
1:33pm: Dan brings up the fact that the books aspect still isn't ideal because you still can't lend or give books away. We still go to libraries a lot to get books.
1:35pm: Andy brings up EPub, the technology that is in the iPad for books, is being used now by publishers for libraries and that you can lend a book out and set them to expire in seven days when that license reverts back to the library.
1:38pm: The iPad having a centralized store for books is great because right off the bat you can get a book. Today, we need to download all different apps Kindle, other e reader programs. Of course there will still be companies like the New York Times that spend $100,000 to build an app, but most companies can just sell their books on the store. What will periodicals do - Apple can really change the way we read magazines on electronic devices.
1:42pm: The iBook isn't going to be the biggest delivery device for periodicals or comics, it will be built on WebKit - Andy.
1:44pm: Jason makes the point that people are not going to want to do a separate app for each periodical and publishers won't have the resources to do. Right now the Kindle takes an XML feed and displays it without a custom app.
1:47pm: Ryan "I really don't want to read a book on a iPad. All the things that make the iPad great, the vibrant, bright screen make it hard to read for a long time."
1:49pm: Ted "$500 is not a magical price point, there will be cheaper models"
1:50pm: Dan "There will still be people who buy the Kindle and everything else." - The iPad isn't going to destroy the other markets.
1:51pm: Jason "I say no when Amazon wants to open up the Kindle API. It really good as an eReader and it doesn't need to do anymore."
1;53pm: Last ten minutes - Talking about the future.
1:54pm: Dan - In ten years, kids will laugh at us who grew up with the keyboard and mouse. They will naturally just pick up a device and use the touch gestures.
1:55pm: Jason "Is there a class of laptop that people just buy because they can't do email on a touch device?"
1:57pm: Consensus - Yes, the iPad can serve as a focal remote control that you just pick up around the house to do simple tasks, control the thermostat, lights, media, email, just lying around the house. The iPad is launching with the App Store and is based around it. The iPhone didn't get the App Store until a year after being released.
1:58pm: Andy brings up the Microsoft tablet, that they are basically desktop computers with the finger replacing the mouse and that's why it's never been successful. Starwars wasn't the first science fiction movie, but it was the first to really put everything together and hit it out of the ball park. The iPad will bing the kind of credibility of tablets and everyone will buy one in 2011.
2:02pm: Jason - What is your biggest unanswered question?
Ted: 4.0 OS for iPad, Printing.
Dan: Can I used it as a phone. (laugh) about about a camera? iPhone OS 4.0 what will make it really look different from the iPhone OS wise.
Ryan: It feels empty UI wise, how will it look more complete. Multitasking. It's gotta happen eventually how will they do it?
Andy: How easy will it be to get stuff on the iBook Store? Will it be like the App Store or the iTunes Store? If they make it open and easy that unless you specifically break a rule, it will be great if not, well then it's going to be just a few well funded guys.
2:07pm: Thanks everyone for reading, No Q and A.
