Adam Fields (work stuff)

You’re not looking at the iPad the right way

It seems pretty obvious to me that the right way to view the iPad is in relation to the Mac and the iPhone, existing in an ecosystem where they can each seamlessly be peripherals of each other.

About eight years ago, I wrote this in reference to the way in which the burgeoning market of personal computer electronics were starting to work with each other and play off of each other:

‘I think the real point here is that it’s a mistake to take the view that all of these technologies are “products”. They are producers, consumers, and translators of various digital services, all of which are merely models of real or imagined concepts. They might be modeling music, or images, or a committment to be in a particular place at a particular time. As a general rule, the value of modeling lies in its openness to manipulate the model. While a photograph is just a photograph, a digital representation of a photograph can be used by other services, protected against loss, replicated, and made easily available to others. When you buy a digital camera, you’re not buying a camera in the traditional sense, you’re buying an entry point (a producer) into that network of services, which is largely useless until you also acquire other devices and other people with devices that can also access that network of services.’

Viewed this way, why would you need a camera on the iPad? Your iPhone has one. (Also your Macbook, and you probably have a really nice digicam or dSLR, and you’re probably surrounded by cameras, but the iPhone one is going to be most likely to be with you). To be sure, a dedicated camera in the iPad would be nice for videoconferencing, but I don’t see a real need, and I think it’s unlikely that you’ll have your iPad and leave your iPhone at home.

Let’s look at another scenario. The first thing I thought of when I saw the iPad demo was that it would make a great multiplayer game board. You want to play a game with your friends, so you whip out your iPad. But there’s no good place on the iPad to put individual player hands, or anything that needs to be hidden from view of the other players. Taking turns doesn’t help, because it breaks the experience. So - enter the iPhone. Pair your iPhone with the board, and it can display just your hand. With an iPad and 2-4 iPods touch or iPhones, you’ve just replaced a whole bunch of board games and a deck of cards. I imagine a UI that will let you flick cards or pieces from your hand onto the board (iPad), where you can then position them and confirm your move (of course, there’s no reason every game shouldn’t also have an integrated chess clock).

Furthermore, there are already apps that will let you use your iPhone as a mouse for your mac. The iPhone display is too small to use this for serious desktop work, but the iPad could be a detailed control pad companion for mac applications. It would be like a graphics tablet, but much more interactive and smarter. I haven’t even really begun to consider how this should work, but I think this may be a very big use.

A lot of people seem to be responding to the iPad with a general feeling of “I can’t see what it’s good for”, but my reaction is “what isn’t it good for?”.

I guess I’d better get busy on building some of this stuff. I find the UI potential for a device like this very exciting.