iPad — What We Didn’t Get: Multitasking, Notifications, TV Subscriptions, Camera, Tethering, Textbooks, iTunes.com
Apple showed off a ton of iPad goodness today, but despite the accessories, Wifi and 3G options (unlocked GSM), new iWork suite, iBooks app, and the ability to run iPhone apps, there were a few things we didn’t get:
- Camera. Back, front-facing, or otherwise. There was no camera shown off and none visible. While this fits the “big apps iPod touch” metaphor, and allows Apple to do the typical “start limited, add functionality over time” strategy, we still wanted one now.
- Multitasking. Apple only showed one iPhone app or iPad app running at once. We’ve heard it’s running iPhone OS 3.2, and multitasking might be an iPhone (and iPad) OS 4.0 feature, but again, we wanted to see it now.
- Notifications. Did Apple show any form of notifications for email, apps, or otherwise? (Badges aside)? Again, we’re hoping a better version is coming with 4.0.
- Textbooks. We saw the New York Times app, we saw iBooks for novels, but we didn’t see the much-talked-about textbooks… yet. (We’re guessing they’re coming soon though.)
- Verizon. Only GSM/HSPA networking was announced. No CDMA, which would be required for Verizon to support the models shown off so far.
- TV Subscriptions. While print media is jumping all over themselves to get on the iPad, TV continues to show nothing approaching forward thinking. Not surprised, but hope that changes.
- Complex multitouch gestures. So far, the multitouch gestures look like the ones on the iPhone, no swipe 3 fingers and twist in a circle to launch a document. Phew.
- Tethering. No word on whether the WiFi only version of the iPad will tether to your existing iPhone (which would be nice), or if the 3G iPad will allow you to tether another device (we won’t hold our breath).
- HDMI out. Where’s our big fat video out cable so we don’t need an Apple TV?
- Cloud. No mention of enhanced cloud-based services. Apple didn’t even mention MobileMe, never mind the rumored iTunes.com streaming media.
Anything else? We’re not talking just the crazy rumors that didn’t pan out — unobtainium shells and facial recognition — but core functionality and features that would have made sense but just didn’t get included. If you have something to add, let us know!
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Rene Ritchie, Editor
Chad Garrett, Writer
Jeremy Sikora, Writer
Leanna Lofte, Writer
Georgia, Writer
Allyson Kazmucha, Writer
Dieter Bohn, Editor in Chief, SPE
Ok guys! looks like each one of you have a genuine issue here! Multi tasking, flash are all sort of (i should agree) basics of today!! I wonder how Mr.Jobs going to address these time-wise. I suppose it’s not same as the day when Apple introduced iPhone, leaving everyone behind years! Today people are and were more prepared to begin the sprint “with” Apple (example MSI new tablet). So! So! So! IF Mr.Jobs is after all the Marketing Guru we know (or were told), I guess, he knows a thing or two more, that the competition stage is more intense than the good old days, there for can He Leave these gaps open and keep smiling…. It would be up to him.. then up to Apple shareholders..I guess! I’m just hoping, product release day to be much different from the intro-day of iPad (That is IF Apple is smart)!!
cool blog it is!!
This product is not something that I want but right now I am hoping it will open the way for devices that I will actually need some time in the future. I was hoping it would happen with the iPad now but it looks like I will have to wait for at least 3-4 years before what I want is available. I’m looking for something like this that can replace my laptop day-to-day. I want to be able to take it to work/uni and take notes, work on word processing/presentations, use the internet, manage photos, use USB drives to transfer items to other people, etc. If it had the ability to be used like a Wacom tablet, then all the better. I would love to have a desktop at home for power and design work, a tablet (somewhat like this) for when i’m out and a phone for calling. All these items should sync wirelessly or at the very least extremely easily. I would love to be able to view an email on my phone from a colleague, take out my iPad (or variant) on the train home and work on some of the ideas, then when I get home I could quickly, easily and exactly transfer the file to my home computer to work on some of the more detailed aspects of the design. These are just my 2cents worth but they really seem like the kind of thing Steve Jobs should have thought about while he spent the last 7 years(?) working on this product. And no multitasking … just useless. That isn’t OK on a phone so why would it be fine for a netbook competitor? What has happened to things just working on Apple products? And why are the first gen products so faulty and useless? Surely it would be worthwhile to wait another 6 months to a year before bringing it out. I can sort of understand the need for secrecy but it would be really nice if Apple would work with it’s potential consumers regarding the features and specs they are hoping for, even if it just in the last couple of months before the release. They, could at the very least, monitor all the rumour sites out there with mock-ups and listen to what people are saying. It would save a whole gen of the product.
I have decided to discuss multitasking a bit more, sorry for the double post. Multi-tasking is so much more than just listening to music while you work. It means you don’t have to be working on a presentation/whatever, having to save then close it before opening the web browser to check a detail, closing that and re-opening your work. Instead you could minimise/switch to/expose your work open the browser and switch back. All this is an increase in productivity which is what new products should always be aiming towards. Think of the frustration on your phone when you are typing a text message and you need to save it to drafts before looking in your inbox/sent messages or using the calculator or checking google maps or whatever else. If the iPhone brings it out in it’s next release then it is only 3 years too late. Notice the Nexus One and it’s use of multi-tasking and customisation. Why does it take Apple so long to build something that can do what it should have done from the start?
It’s fun to storm so much about a new product that is just being built. I think this is a clever move from Apple to check the intensity of the reaction! How people see it, perceive it and the verdict given to the life of it by who really cares! Just maybe, that it HAS multi-tasking, Video cam by the time it is born….. But naaa… I’m sure there’s not going to be flash support! LET’s SEE!!
Ok, so I only read halfway down so I hope this isn’t repetitive but I just had to comment: Why would this thing have a Camera anyways? An I phone has a camera because you take pictures walking around and crap. You’re not gonna be walking down the street reading something on this thing! A laptop/desktop has a camera for video chatting, but really most people just use it for those horribly annoying “I just got my first mac” photobooth facebook pictures. Do Any of you really use your laptop camera at all?
I wish it wasn’t running the Iphone O.S. too but can you imagine making O.S.X fully touch functional? I’d rather them beef up the iPhone O.S. over time than use a clunky unrefined O.S.
Lack of USB, smart business move. Keeps third party peripherals that they don’t approve of from cutting in on the market. **** move true… But as far as transfering files and what not. Who seriously uses a thumb drive to transfer stuff from their laptop etc to their desktop? Wireless transfer is the future. CD’s are almost completely obsolete and thumb drives are more an issue of security than anything else. Plus the Cable that hooks up to the iPad IS technically USB…. pretty easy to get a converter and hook up a thumb drive through a 3rd party App.
All the being said, if you already have an iphone and a laptop…. This is just an expensive internet couch surfer (or the best Apple TV Remote ever)
It’s an OS built on top of a Mach microkernel… but does it multitask? The world may never know.
I don’t get it? Why would I want this? $500.00 for this? It is an IPod Touch with a bigger screen.
Flash would be cool , But I’m currently haveing issues with it one my notebook anyway and can’t wait for html 5 , Multitasking and replaceing the notebook ? I thought this was being marketed as something to compete with kindle not a pc or notebook.
the next hope is for the windows courier
If no multitasking. It is not for me… that really sucks. If Steve wants to beat the Netbooks he has to offer at least the same functionality… And for who says that a camera is not needed … come on we take pictures everywehere.
I bought the iPad on Satuday and I must say that its a very great product, but not amazing as Apple advertised. I have a Macbook, but is quite big for travel or just read a book in bed and/or couch. I bought the Kindle, and a week later I returned it when Apple announced the iPad.
But, then again, I wasn’t looking to replace my laptop, and I don’t think this is just a novelty. It has great features and great picture quality. I actually like the email better than the Macbook, it just looks better. In class The typing is not bad, but is much better in landscape, obviously. just don’t expect to type a 2000 essay on it, well, you can, but you’ll go insane.
I downloaded an app, forgot the name, but you can handwrite pretty well with it. (Personally, I like to write in class, instead of typing)
Again, I remember reading the forums when the original iPod and the video one, the new Macbook, iPhone, etc… People have choices and they just need to buy something that will fit their needs… Personally, this does mine. Apple may have dissapointed some, I agree with some of you, but I’m sure Apple will fix these issues, and quickly. Just give it some time… If you can afford it and NEED it (I neded it), then buy it. If you can afford, but you’re waiting for something better, then don’t buy it, and buy something else. Just the way this is,
When they launch iTampon 2.0 w/ USB, HDMI, WebCam, and an SD Card slot; then we’ll talk.
Until then, no thanks. It’s just a bigger iPhone that I can’t talk on. A NetBook is a far more useful product for as long as the iTampon lacks those absolutely critical features.
This is the stupidest thing since the electronic *** scracher. I got one, screen SHATTERED!!!!!!!!!! **** you Ipad! >:(
@ Frank O.
Yes, that’s the point. I am a student and thought the IPAD is this what I want, to read my scripts (PDF) at the couch in the sleeping room. It’s worse to read things with a laptop on the couch or bed…
Surfing is amazing what i saw and pretty fast… Surfing in the couch what a pretty thing… When I am goggling or read interesting things i do not need flash and a camera…. I need a brilliant screen and resolution… And the cool things like (scrolling zooming)…
It’s not a Laptop and not a replacement for a PC! I think it’s just a reader for PDF,E-Book and elementary e-mail and chatting functions…
THe photo gallery i can use it as a digital photo portfolio scanned and photographed things like blackboards….
And of course the best thing for my presentations…
And I need not UMTS why? Every campus has WLAN… And I have a traffic limit over 20 GB / month… So surfing with 20GB FLAT amazing… And of course at home I have a unl. flat …
Sorry for my bad english I am german
Best regards
Nils
@ Dustin and everyone else
There is a USB adapter, and an SD card adapter, and a video out to composite adapter. And please don’t compare this product to a 300.00 throw away netbook computer. OS 4 provides multitasking and will be out this fall. The iPad wasnt designed to take over a laptop, or there would be no need for the base model MacBook.
And for those who think this is just an Huge iPod touch… you have sadly been misinformed. The ability for this product to create and edit, Word documents, Excel sheets, and more puts it closer to a laptop then an iPod.
And for anyone that says ‘why cant it have flash’, please read the memo from Steve Jobs regarding the downsides of flash and the security risks. HTML5 is where its at, and shortly, it will be the new standard.
and as for the moron with the shattered screen… you gonna blame Apple for that too?
no multitasking no flush…. now there is an multitask in apple stote to download, but its not for free and you can use just three certain apps in it. This is unbelievable how naked ipad is…..
iPad 2.0 will be awesome coupled together with iOS4. Especially if the new iPad has iPhone 4G’s Face Time feature for video calls.
Of course that would mean iPad would new phone, camera/video capabilities included also. But I believe iPad will become sleeker and eventually combine and eliminate the need for a phone and a laptop!
One device for everything! One data plan for everything! One!!!
No more cell phone data plan, no more satellite tv data plan, no more home phone plan…only an iPad data plan.
TV, radio, movies, netflix, books, magazines, newspapers, internet, everything digital until December 21st, 2012 when the Sunspots render anything digital obsolete!
I want one before the end comes!
PS The first book I’ll read on it is The Bible…probably Revelation!
What would be really cool is if the Elgato TV tuner was built right into the iPad. Portable telly. I’m sure it will happen one day.
hi there jake it will be cool if apple has the Elato tv tuner built in and up the storage capacity of 64 gb 128 gb or 256 gb ssd or 512 gb ssd flash drive soo you can have a solid state flash apple tv or tivo useing flash memory verses hard drive becuase macbook pros ofering up too a 512 gb ssd what a great idear puting a 512 gb ssd into a apple ipad oh by the goole search for ipad and ipen they show a 24 inch ipad with a resolution of 10,000 by 8,000 and has 1,024 bit graphics card 100 terabytes of ram and a whopping 4,095 terabytes of light speed ram disk or 4.095 petabytes and powered buy a nasa/intel core less cpu whats 0 core coreless cpu processer any way
Quit bitching. If it doesn’t have the features you want. Don’t but it. Personally, mine does most everything I want it to. But nothing does everything, well not everything well, anyway.
John Paul.
I use my laptop camera extensively. Its how I speak to my wife and family when I am abroad.
Dear All, is the Ipad support power point presentation viweing and editing. and /or word