Logan Leger — Technologist

Yesterday Steve Jobs took the stage, and after triumphantly announcing impressive economic statistics, showcased a new device that everyone has been longing for: a device the internet predicted would revolutionize every industry under the sun and a device that Apple itself heralded as magical.

And so it came: the iPad.

The iPad is not unlike most Apple products that break into a new industry. When the first iPod was released, most received it negatively — “not another mp3 player, please.” But 240,000,000 units later, there’s no denying that the iPod changed the music industry. When the first iPhone was released, nearly everyone had something to complain about: no 3G, no GPS, no removable battery, and a closed ecosystem. And now, after 40,000,000 units, there’s no denying that Apple changed the mobile devices industry.

People hate the iPad. Even fanboys are complaining. About the name, the form factor, software and design bugs, even the concept — almost everyone who has a voice on the internet is claiming the iPad is a failure.

That’s absolutely balderdash. The iPad is the exact opposite of a failure. It’s exactly like the iPod and the iPhone: it’s Apple’s triumphant entrance into a new market, one that they will likely overtake. And here’s why: it is magical.

Looking at it from an engineer’s standpoint, it’s phenomenal that Apple was able to pack all that technology into such a form factor. It’s 0.5 inches thick and 10 inches wide. It packs an 802.11n WiFi chipset with 3G, GPS and a compass. It’s got probably the biggest fully-capacitive display ever mass-produced and it’s an IPS display, which means you can view it at virtually any angle.

What’s even more incredible is the Apple A4 chip. Clocking in at 1 GHz, this magical piece of silicon can decode full HD videos for ten hours — ten hours. To me, the engineer, the single biggest victory of the iPad is the A4 — it’s a technical masterpiece. If this is the same chip that they plan to put in the next iPhone, then no one stands a chance — it’s that incredible.

But it’s not just the hardware: the software is equally amazing. You might think that it’s just an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch — but that’s completely off base. The software has been completely reworked for the form factor. It’s elegant in a whole different way than the iPhone OS or OS X. It gets out of your way and just allows you to use the device — to experience it. It’s an OS imagined to do only basic personal computing — i.e., email, personal productivity, browsing, media functionality — using the most familiar input device known to humans.

If you look at it only from the standpoint of an engineer, the iPad is a truly magical device.

But the engineering triumph isn’t the biggest point of the iPad or why it’s going to be successful. The iPad is going to be successful because of the form factor and the targeted market. The biggest opponents of the iPad — the fanboys, geeks and professionals who rely on powerful computing — are exactly the market for which the iPad wasn’t intended. The iPad was intended for people like my mom and my uncle, both of whom are over 40 and completely technologically illiterate. But they use their iPhones with absolute ease and after a few short weeks were veritable power users, rivaling most geeks. This goes back to the brilliance of software: everyone knows how to point their finger and touch a screen. The interaction is natural. And so this target market — the casual user who just needs basic personal computing — is the exact market that the iPad will dominate. They don’t need full-powered OSes like Windows or OS X. They need the iPad, they just didn’t know it.

The other reason the iPad will succeed is because of developers. The same people who are complaining about the device are the same force that will create thousands of apps to be downloaded — and paid for — by millions of consumers. Because Apple didn’t just create another device, they created an entirely new platform. A new platform with more to offer than the iPhone.

The iPad is pure brilliance, so much that I’m not necessarily convinced that the iPad isn’t what Apple was working towards all along. It’s so hard to believe that when Apple was looking at the future they didn’t see the iPhone as just the first iteration of the iPad. It’s very clear now what Apple sees as the future of personal computing, and as the most powerful entity in the mobile device space, it’s almost entirely likely that this is exactly where the industry is going. And I’m not convinced that that is a bad thing — I’m actually convinced it’s a good thing.

The iPad is sexy, well thought out, well implemented and damn near perfect. Steve Jobs, the man who pontificates and perpetuates perfection, has done it again. Not once, not twice, but for the third time he has produced a device that will change and nearly create an entire industry. Because Apple isn’t gunning for their typical audience with the iPad; they’re trying to dominate a completely different sector they have yet to penetrate. The iPad is perfect, in the sense that the original iPhone was perfect, and it will succeed — we just don’t know it yet.

I was going to write an entire, exhaustive post about what I feel will be announced tomorrow at WWDC, but after reading John Gruber’s post at Daring Fireball, I’m convinced that he’s basically right about everything. There’s only one point I’d like to address that I’m going to directly contradict: his iPhone predictions.

It seems everyone is in an uproar about a new iPhone, apparently named 3GS, but I’m not convinced at all. For one, I think that Steve wants to put Apple on a two-year product release cycle—or at least something similar. It seems very intensive to release a major product line upgrade every year and frankly, Apple has failed to do that with all of their products—there’s no reason to start now. Two years makes sense because then everyone who purchased the 3G would be eligible for an upgrade. Sure, for the previous two years Apple has released a new product in the line, but that’s because the original iPhone just didn’t cut it—Apple needed the 3G.

I also don’t think it seems very Apple-like to release a new product and then sell out the existing stock at a lower price. In fact, that seems very contrary to Apple’s established panache. I’m not even entirely convinced yet that Apple will make multiple lines of the iPhone. Maybe to some it’d make sense, but given the relative failure of the Mac Mini, I think Apple will try to stay as far away from such a concept as possible. Maybe something like the iPod Mini. It’s possible that something similar to the iPod Touch will be produced. Imagine just an iPod Touch with cellular capabilities. That I could buy, but not for at least another generation (the iPhone line still need to mature a bit, I think).

I do think that the necessary upgrades that Gruber mentioned (more RAM, more storage, iPhone video recording and maybe some extras such as a frontal camera) will be included in the next update, which I imagine will be released at next year’s WWDC. I imagine that Apple wants to focus on two things specifically this year: OS 3.0 and Snow Leopard.

I’ve heard some pretty raving things about OS 3.0 and I think it’ll basically put the Pre under. As my friend Richard said: “It has hallmarks of a maturing OS.” I think 3.0 will pave the way for major upgrades in the future that will continue to exert iPhone hegemony. I also think that Apple, AT&T, et al will have a major announcement in regards to iPhone tethering. I can’t imagine that the big telcos would give away free data, but there might be some special pricing involved.

Of course, Snow Leopard is a much needed upgrade. Computing trends are changing and OS X needs to keep up. I agree with Gruber on the fact that OS X seems to be the foundation of Apple’s business for the foreseeable future. Just the other day I was joking about how crappy it’s going to be when Apple has to use OS XI—it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

As far as a tablet goes: No. Well, at least not yet and probably not in any of the current hypothesized form factors. I think Apple will do with the tablet what it does best: revolutionize.

I thought the easiest way to preserve my songs without deleting them would be to move them to an external hard drive. I searched online for an easy tutorial on how to do this, but I didn’t find any. I did a little playing around and I came up with my own solution which I’m going to share with you now.

Step 1: Select all purchased music.

Open up iTunes and select the “Purchased” playlist in the left-hand sidebar. Hit ⌘-A to select all of the songs. Alternatively, you can backup only a portion of these songs by selecting those specified songs.

Select all in the purchased playlist.

Step 2: Drag and drop.

Open up your external hard drive and create a new folder. Drag and drop this selection from the iTunes window into this folder. A copy dialog will appear and your files will be on their way to the folder on the external hard drive.

Drag and drop selection to the folder.

Introduction

While I was sad as anyone when Apple dealt the cult a double whammy—the absence of Steve Jobs and their hereafter corporate absence, I did follow the Philnote (is it blasphemy to say this?) with just as much excitement as any other fan boy—well, almost as much.  Overall, I was quite intrigued by the new products.  Yes, I didn’t see everything I would’ve liked, but it’s glad to see Apple is still doing what it does best: innovation.

Positive

1. iLife Updates.
   Not only did some of the iLife apps receive imperative updates, but all of them got some cool new features.  Frankly, some of these have just got me flabbergasted.   
   • iPhoto: Faces and Places are great, and will help expand the functionality of iPhoto.  Ryan of 37Signals is right: this is great for their domain as it enables people to view and act upon pictures, not just view.  Facial recognition has always stunned me and it looks like iPhoto’s is pretty accurate.  I’m looking forward to playing with this.  Places looks neat, but it means I need to add GPS to my camera or use the iPhone more.  Dr. Macenstein was right to place this under “meh”—I don’t really want to do either.  Direct Facebook integration is also great.  (I LOLed at the “Johnny Appleseed” profile.  Did they seriously make that for Apple?)  Do you know how long it takes to tag each individual photo?  Looks like those photos I owe my friends is going to be put off a little longer—sorry guys, just blame Apple.
   • iMovie: Precision editor, travel maps, video stabilization and full-screen library are the notable updates.  It’s amazing how bad iMovie ‘08 was—I’ve opted to use it infrequently because of this.  The precision editor fixes the problems I had with editing movies, because it gives me more control over editing my content.  The other three are just really cool.  I’m interested to see how well the video stabilization works.  Phil said it takes a while to render but that it’s well worth the wait—intriguing.
   • GarageBand: I don’t use GarageBand much, so I can’t comment on any personal utility I’d derive from these updates, but what sticks out is the lessons.  They’re both a great idea.  I looked at the tutorials on the product page and was quite impressed.  I’m not a music maven—although “Tim” seems to be, but I can see how these would be useful.  Hey, I might even try them out.  What I like about them is that they’re not all installed—saves space—and you can download more from the “Lesson Store”—Apple’s learning.  The other great idea is the Artist Lessons.  Sure, they’re $5, but they look worth it.  The samples on the product page are fantastic: high quality videos (HD for download), simple instruction and great teachers—holy crap, they have Sting.
   • iWeb: As with GarageBand, I don’t use iWeb—Coda and Textmate for me.  However, the updates, again, look nice.  RSS is ubiquitous so it’s nice to see that added.  Also, Facebook integration is a good idea because it saves users one more step.
2. iWork Updates.
   Overall, the iWork updates are very impressive.  As a frequent iWork user—I’ve replaced Office completely, I was very satisfied to see the updates.  In general, these updates do more to flesh out the applications; i.e., it makes them more full-featured and better able to compete with Office.  I’ve just finished looking through the updated product pages on Apple’s website and am particularly impressed with such features as: Pages—fullscreen; Keynote—iPhone app (that’s just cool), magic move, chart animations; Numbers—formulas, table categories.  Overall, I’m impressed with the new themes and theme chooser.
3. iWork.com
   I understand why people might raise contention with this, but I think it’s a great step forward to the future of technology—cloud computing.  While I’m rather dubious myself about whether I’ll pay for this service, I can see the potential use for it.  If it’s affordable, I might consider it.  I’m still rather confused why Apple isn’t using the Google strategy, though.
4. iLife and iWork bundle.
   What a great idea.  I wonder why it took them this long to release this.
5. iTunes DRM-Free.
   And all of the world rejoice.  I guess they finally gave in.  Certainly the $1.8 billion “tax” didn’t hurt.  As I pointed out on Twitter, Steve Jobs: 3—Music Industry: 0.  Now I just have to decide which songs I can afford to upgrade.
6. MacBook Pro 17-inch.
   The final installment of the MacBook Pros much needed upgrades.  As with the others, it looks to be a great computer.  Two caveats for me: I think the large spaces (where the speakers are) on the sides are unaesthetic; the trackpad didn’t grow linearly with the screen size.

Negative

1. No hardware line updates.
   It’s no secret: AppleTV, Mac Mini, and Apple Displays need updates.  They’re lagging behind the competition.  I’m surprised there were no updates here.  Perhaps they’re waiting for micro-events coming soon or, perhaps, a major release at WWDC with Snow Leopard and line updates.  That’d be major.  I think their absence also contributed to the AAPL decline.
2. Matte screen on MacBook Pro.
   Regarding the $50 surcharge: . . . what?
   Regarding its absence in the lower lines: . . . what?
   I.e., this doesn’t make any sense to me.
3. No Snow Leopard.
   Apple, it’s time.  According to the timeline, we’re due about now, at the latest at WWDC.  Don’t be like Microsoft and delay.
4. No iDVD upgrade.
   While it didn’t need a tuneup as bad as the other apps, an update would be nice.
5. iTunes DRM comes with a price.
   Is it a price I’d pay?  Yes, I will.  Is it one I think I should pay?  No, of course not.  I already own the music, why do I have to pay for it again—even a nominal fee?  Music industry (or Apple): that’s a cheap shot.
6. No Steve Jobs.
   Sorry, but he’s just one of my heroes.  We all miss him.

Conclusion

Personally, I rather enjoyed the keynote.  It’s good to see Apple is still Apple, despite the personal difficulties that Steve Jobs is going through.  While we don’t know the future of the company and Steve’s involvement therewith, this keynote did one more thing for me: It assured me that Apple can survive without Steve.  It seems almost heretical to say that, but it’s something we’ve all been pondering since his virtuoso return.  And Phil Schiller answered that today.  It’s been rumored that Steve has been preparing his surrogates to take over the company when he abdicates, and it’s now very clear that he has—and that they can.  Did we see any ridiculous monstrosities while Phil was on stage?  No.  It was a cool, charismatic presentation—uncannily Steve-like.  Even as invested as I am in this company, I feel like the ship would be safe in the skipper’s hands.  What do you think?  As pedestrians, are you concerned with the future of the company or do you feel similarly?  What do you make of the stock price fall?  I’m curious to know if this is unique to the community—it certainly seems so—or if there are others who align with this view.

One more thing: lulz, MacRumors Live.