Everyone has had their say on the iPad. I don’t pretend to have anything more important to say about the device itself. So I’ll comment on the comments instead. Howmeta of me.

Is it awesome or innovative or whatever? What does it matter? There were plenty of more capable MP3 players before the iPod, and a whole market filled with smart phones before the iPhone. People talked shit and we all know how that panned out for Apple. Of course it remains to be seen if Apple will enjoy a similar success with the iPad, but I have a feeling it will do well. There are a lot of people who wanted a bigger iPod, with eBook functionality. This device was clearly made for them.

Unsurprisingly, there are people who are actually angry with Apple that this isn’t a more “full OS-featured” device. But what gets me is that Apple never promised that it would be that. Apple never said a word. People made assumptions based off of entirely unsubstantiated rumors, and they are disappointed that what they’ve been presented isn’t what they had in their heads. But complaining about what it isn’t - especially when what it would end up being was never said or even hinted in advance - is kind of… well, asinine.

Then we get into the land of development complaints. “The iPhone / iPad / iPod need to not be closed” and “The App Store approval process hurts developers”. My answer (after a prolonged and audible sigh) is “The iPhone / iPad / iPod is not a fucking PC.” It’s an entertainment device (sometimes with a phone attached). Some people might use it as a work device (project management apps, work communication, etc.) - but that is quite clearly the minority user base. One look at the top selling apps in the App Store show well over 2/3 of the titles are games.

Now let’s think about the other devices we know which are used for games: Nintendo Wii, DS and Gameboy, the Playstation 3 & PSP and the Xbox 360. You know what all of these devices have in common? They are all closed. If you want to release a title on those systems you have to go through an approval process - all of which actually cost money for the developer every single time they submit the game. This applies to both physical media games and the download only titles. Oh, and the download only games are also only distributable through their closed systems. Want to release your downloadable game for the 360? You have to do it via Xbox Live. How about for the Playstation 3? You’re looking at the Playstation Store or nothing at all. How many gaming developers are railing against Nintendo, MS and Sony because of these measures in comparison to newly arrived iProduct developers? And why should Apple’s device be any different?

And more to the point, how does Apple fare in regards to people hacking their device in comparison to the console game makers? Modification of the Xbox 360 results in either MS blocking the affected machine from ever connecting to the internet again or banning the user’s account permanently from getting online, regardless of the device. And Sony’s PS3 still remains largely unhackable - and even less “open” once the newer hardware revisions took away the ability to install Linux (which has received its own share of disproportionately loud complaints from a microscopic percentage of the overall user-base). And yet, how many reports do we have from users who have “jailbroken” their iPhones / iPods of connectivity blocking from Apple? At least with Cydia, people can access an open library of Apps and software mods which hasn’t been met with great resistance from Apple.

Most importantly, closed systems lead to greater stability and less chances for malware. Do some apps crash on the iPhone? Sure. But compare the frequency of crashes (let alone the ones which lead to a required reboot of the whole system) on the iPhone to your average desktop computer. And does anyone even know what a BSOD for the iPhone even looks like?

I’m known as an Mac guy, and I am sure many are thinking this is some sort of apologist article for Apple where I am just oversimplifying the complaints so as to rationalise their “mistakes” in order to justify my expected purchase of an iPad on launch day.

Wrong.

The fact is, I’ve been wanting to buy a tablet PC for over a year now but held off in the expectation that whatever Apple would release would meet my needs. I wanted something I could sketch on wherever I went. Toting around a laptop with a Wacom tablet is far from ideal, and after using monitor tablets for a few years, I don’t like the prospect of going back to an “eyes off” drawing tablet again. Brushes and Alias Sketchbook notwithstanding, the iPad doesn’t look like it is going to fit my needs due to a couple of key issues: lack of stylus and lack of pressure sensitivity. Companies like Pogo seem to have the stylus situation resolved (more or less), but pressure sensitivity is far more problematic. Apple would either need to implement this, or open the API to allow a stylus to measure the pressure and relay the info back to the tablet – two options I don’t see happening any time soon.

I made assumptions about what the iPad would be. For the most part, it ended up being what I thought it would be, albeit without the ability to draw on it - which was my key requirement for purchasing the device. The difference between me and a lot of other people, though, is that while I am not going to buy an iPad (at least until pressure sensitivity is in use) I am also not griping at Apple for breaking promises which were never made, or simply following rather standard practises which other companies in the same industry follow without as much chagrin.

So anyway, what do you think?