

The iPad at Work: Observations from a Programmer, Designer and QA Expert - renaebair
http://intridea.com/2010/5/11/the-ipad-at-work

======
nooneelse
I guess I need to somehow stop, but so far I haven't been able to not think
'some mild version of Stockholm syndrome' whenever someone says something
like, "Many users have lamented over the lack of multitasking, but for me,
this 'missing' feature is a bonus all on its own" like that last person in
this blog post.

People can't be this unaware that they can turn notifications off and just
work on one thing when that is what they want. Is it that they can't bring
themselves to do it? Maybe some people need someone else to exert their
willpower for them.

Come on, HN, give me another viable perspective on this before this one
calcifies in my head.

~~~
glhaynes
I think the word "multitasking" gets way overloaded in these discussions. In
this case, it's _not_ that people are happy that their other applications'
processes aren't continuing to be preemptively scheduled by the kernel.
They're happy that all iPad apps always take up the whole screen. There's
certainly a cost to that, but many feel there's a benefit, too.

~~~
nooneelse
Yeah, the connotation has certainly drifted from the technical source of the
term, taking on the weight of a whole interaction style. Imho, OS's should put
controls on applications like mixers have on channels: "mute" and "solo".

A bit off topic, the application of such technical terms to other things, like
people, has a bit of fascination to me. Mostly because so much of how we get
along in the world and our perceptions/reasoning in general are shaped by the
vocabulary we adopt to describe. Anger as heat, a person builds a head of
steam, blows their top. Did the experience of anger change when that metaphor
took hold? Now people might multitask whereas before they might have thought
of it as juggling tasks. The first seems so much more astute; the second not
like something to be done with anything important. Ok, I'm seriously
procrastinating, now... sorry.

------
Humblecoder
So a company that produces iPhone apps think the iPad is awesome, there is a
shock.

------
NathanKP
One interesting quote from the article (the only interesting part for me):

 _It’s like the iPad was a device we never knew that we needed. Until Apple
gave it to us._

That is the job of effective advertising, to make us need products that we
didn't need before. Apple is good at this. I know I don't really need an iPad,
and am determined to wait until the second generation comes out, yet I can't
help but marvel at the effectiveness of Apple advertising and media coverage
which makes it seem like the iPad is something everyone "needs".

~~~
Gormo
I think the Apple fayboyism may be coloring some of these statements. The idea
of a touch-screen tablet is hardly new, and many people, myself included, have
been waiting for someone to develop a device like the iPad for years. Look at
all of the hype that surrounded the CrunchPad announcement, even when we
rightly assumed it was vaporware.

Apple isn't really an innovation company. They're great at executing on ideas
that no one else has yet turned into a viable product, which puts them on the
cutting edge. But they've never came up with something entirely new and
created demand for it where none previously existed.

And I can find plenty of points at which the iPad falls short of my tablet
wish-list, but that didn't stop me from getting one.

~~~
sapphirecat
> many people, myself included, have been waiting for someone to develop a
> device like the iPad for years.

Of all these people, every one of them decided to passively wait, instead of
taking on the task themselves?

As far as Apple innovating, IMHO, they are the current masters of producing
analog interfaces for digital systems. They have to charge a premium for it,
because it's harder. But plenty of people are apparently willing to pay that
premium for that interface, instead of the cheapest microcontroller and a
minimal number of momentary switches, so Apple wins. I don't know if choosing
their own strategy instead of following the race to the bottom is innovative
or not, but it certainly leads to products that stand out.

------
seltzered
So they interviewed a Director, Designer, and a Manager. Have any coders on
here tried integrating an ipad into their life?

I've read a few people discussing how they've making their laptop strictly a
"code" only machine and the ipad for web-browsing/other things. I personally
want something I can write and draw notes in, think of it as the digital
whiteboard you conceptualize your code with. I've avoided just getting a
tablet pc because they're too heavy, bulky and make me deal with a mouse-
derived os (windows) to do things.

I'm really looking forward to the hp/palm, notion ink offerings.

~~~
jaaron
I'm a coder and I have an iPad.

I haven't yet used my iPad for coding. I don't think I will. I do have a
really great ssh/vpn app for the iPhone/iPad, so in a pinch, I can get to my
servers and make a fix or check a log file. But other than that, I don't
expect to use my iPad for coding. I'm just too bound to emacs and a keyboard
to see it being a reasonable use of the iPad.

However, for almost _everything_ else, I've been using and preferring the
iPad. I had already relegated all RSS feed reading, Twitter and Facebook
(anything that could distract me from coding) to my iPhone. Now using the
iPad, I'm even more efficient with my time and the experience is more
enjoyable. And as a general entertainment device, the iPad wins across my
entire family: my wife and 5 year old daughter both love it.

All that said, there are definitely some areas in which I feel the iPad is
deficient. I expect these to be resolved over time, but it's something to
consider:

\- Google Docs just doesn't work on the iPad. Considering how much I use
Google Docs, this is a major blow to the usefulness of the iPad.

\- The email client is weak. If you get a large amount of email or are on
several mailing lists, then you'll still fallback on using some other web or
desktop email client. I really wish I could use the iPad as my main email
device, but its just not suitable yet.

\- GMail for the iPad is actually decent except for one bug: you can't
properly scroll when composing long emails that span one vertical screen
space. Again, this just makes GMail useless on occasion.

\- Some multitasking would be great. Honestly, I like the focus you get when
you're dealing with one app at a time. But I would really like to be always
signed into Skype and GTalk. I would like to be able to load more than one web
page at a time and switch between them without requiring them to reload (ok,
that's more a memory problem than a multitasking problem).

Also, I got the wifi-only version thinking I wouldn't really want or need the
3G version. Now I would strongly recommend the 3G version if you can afford
it. The iPad is just so much more mobile than a laptop that I take it
everywhere if I can. The battery life is amazingly great for a device like
this. So having access everywhere would make the iPad even better.

~~~
Poiesis
_\- GMail for the iPad is actually decent except for one bug: you can't
properly scroll when composing long emails that span one vertical screen
space. Again, this just makes GMail useless on occasion._

I don't have an iPad, but is this an issue of the non-obvious "use two fingers
to scroll a textarea" that I and others deal with on iPhones?

------
mattmaroon
Wait, people who get paid to make iPad apps like the iPad? No way! Next you're
going to tell me that Senators who get campaign funding from Con Agra
generally vote in favor of agricultural subsidies.

------
scrame
Who cares? Whats the point of writing even more drivel about the iPad, it
really doesn't matter. The fanboys already have one, and the people who don't
want them or don't care certainly won't have their mind changed with this
fluff.

edit: haha, I bet I was downvoted by the guy who wrote and submitted the
article. It is drivel, dude.

~~~
renaebair
I can promise you that I didn't downvote you! Not my style :)

Maybe hard to believe, but the three people I interviewed for the article were
really that in love with their iPads. Maggie (QA) actually came to me with the
idea for the article, because she wanted to talk about how she was using it
professionally. So I got a couple people together that were also using it for
work to give their opinions as well. But I do wish now I had tried to balance
out the article with more opinions. Another guy at our company came out with a
post on his personal blog last week, in favor of the kindle over the iPad, and
I should have asked him to contribute to the article!

Thanks for reading though, I really enjoy the feedback!

------
hockeybias
Yea. Rah. Rah. iPad.

~~~
tvon
There is a new generation of tablets upon us, expect to hear about them (from
many manufacturers) a lot in the coming months.

~~~
cwilson
I can't wait to hear about all the copy-cat tablets with crappy UI/UX,
horrible battery life, and operating systems that were not meant for the form
factor! Oh, oh, I hope they have flash too so I can get angry and throw it at
the wall when it crashes constantly. Give me as many features as possible.
Kill the iPad!

