Otherwise I’ll leave it behind, use it a little round the house, but eventually wonder why I bought it in the first place. However, I will be reluctant to carry three devices with overlapping features, so for the iPad to work for me, I will need to ditch the laptop. When I travel, I need a mobile phone, for voice and all the other things smartphones are good at and I need a laptop for all the things laptops are good at: email, word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, custom apps and so on. The same will be true of the apps.Īll good reasons then why iPad will succeed. Our fingers are capable of fine control on their own.Īpple’s device wins here plus it has a UI designed for multi-touch, rather than a desktop UI with pen input bolted on top. They are fine of course as an optional input mechanism, for writing or drawing, but not as a required item. Styluses are horrible, expensive, easily lost, and destroy much of the advantage of having a tablet. I also think that Microsoft’s big mistake with Tablet PC was requiring a stylus. Ever tried to use a laptop while eating a meal, flying economy, for example? Or quickly fire up your laptop to get an address from an email, while walking down the street? It’s a horrible experience and the tablet concept is much better in these scenarios. I think laptops are too big and bulky, and that the clamshell keyboard idea is desperately awkward when you are travelling. I wrote a piece on the subject back in 2003 when it still looked possible that the Windows tablet would take off. The design looks great, as you’d expect from Apple, and I’m a fan of the tablet concept. Here’s my instant reaction with a few pros and cons. Keyboard dock for the desk, virtual keyboard for when you are out and about. Large multi-touch screen, claimed 10 hour battery life, flash drive of 16GB up to 32GB, browse the web, play music and video, read eBooks. Apple has announced the iPad – essentially a large-size (242.8 x 189.7mm) iTouch.

How to get itunes on chrome os