I think pretty much everyone in the tech and design communities has read Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash open letter by now. Published early this morning, it outlines a clear case for the rationale why Apple has deliberately chosen to block Flash from the iPhone/iPod/iPad ecosystem — not only as a plugin in their Safari mobile browser but as a development platform for “native” apps as well.
When I was very young (6? 7?), my dad bought me a Casio SK-1. Twenty years later, I’m still a synth geek (obligatory link here). I absolutely love synthesizers and electronic music, and I can trace it all back to that first Casio SK-1 where I could press a button, sample whatever was making noise in the room (usually me), and then play it back to my heart’s content.
Now, on the iPad, I am able to relive my glory days as a budding synth aficionado. Retronyms’ Synth app for iPad lets you sample several seconds of audio from the built-in microphone and play away. It also sports a number of built-in sound presets along with some cool delay and distortion effects. I was quite impressed by how playable this is — you really can play melodies and even chords directly on the screen. My only complaint is that the sound quality of some of the sounds leaves something to be desired. But really — at 99 cents, I’m not going to complain.
This is a must-have app for anyone who loves synths. If nothing else, you’ll waste spend several hours having the time of your life. So grab a copy, press the yellow button, sing into the mic, and make some noise!
When the iTunes Music Store came to market in April 2003, there wasn’t anything else like it. The simplicity and elegance of buying songs and syncing them to your iPod, combined with attractive and industry-sanctioned pricing, was a revolution.
Today, Apple has embarked on a similar journey in the publishing world with the iBooks Store, and, while it’s a great service on a fantastic device (the iPad), there are some major reasons why this time Apple will be competing in a very different climate.
l was typing up a white paper for my company on the iPad the other day while sitting outside of a local market. It was a very interesting experience. A couple of school kids walked by, and I overheard them chattering all of a sudden: “wow, there’s an iPad! Cool! It’s like a big iPod!” I noticed other people walking by now and then glancing over their shoulder like “wait, is that a…?” The final surprise was an older gentleman who, on his way into the market, stopped dead in his tracks, walked over to me, and introduced himself. “Is that an iPad?” “Yep.” We chatted for a bit, and he informed me that he was waiting to buy the next version or so after all the bugs are worked out.
I don’t live in Silicon Valley. This was just a grocery store in suburban Santa Rosa. I think I can safely say that Apple has enormous mindshare these days with the success of the iPod, iPhone, and to a lesser extent, OS X-era Mac product lines. If the iPad is not an huge success, it will be because this type of product is simply unwanted, not because Apple doesn’t have the marketing muscle to push it into the mainstream. I hope for the sake of the entire computer industry that it does succeed.
According to some estimates cleaned from data captured by Distimo, games are clearly the most popular category of application for the iPad (in terms of developer focus that is), accounting for over a third of apps in the App Store. Educational titles came in at less than 9%. I hope that number increases significantly in the coming months.
I’m pretty happy with the overall experience of the Calendar app on the iPad, but, strangely, it’s missing some crucial features compared to the Mac version of iCal that makes it difficult to use for wide-ranging scheduling sessions.
I’m typing this in the WordPress app on the iPad. I’ve been using it since 10am. I’ve synced it up with iTunes, checked out all the native apps, and played around with some downloads from the App Store. I even took it outside. Here are some initial thoughts.
Update: more photos here along with unboxing pictures!
I’m here at the Apple Store in the Santa Rosa Plaza mall. It’s 8:51 in the morning, so we don’t have long to go until the store opens. The lines have formed on both sides of the store, so it looks a little less hectic than it might be otherwise. There is a whole mix of different people here, from young dudes to older ladies.
I talked with one gentleman who has been in line for an hour. He’s here with his son who’s saved up money to pay for half of a shiny new iPad. I ask “so, why are you getting this?” “Movies, and also I’ll probably be getting Pages too. It’s on the App Store for $9.99.” Well well.
I just found out about this via a Tweet showing it running on a live iPad. iMockups looks like a fantastic way to create quick mockups and wireframes for Web pages or apps. After my previous post about OmniGraffle, it now looks like there will be at least a couple of tools in this category I will be looking at very closely.
Well, well…despite Apple’s mind-boggling security measures, Arrington manage to snag some time using the iPad at a few third-party developer locations. And his review is, well, surprisingly positive. He’s an Apple fan to a degree but has been known to blast Apple on some of their more questionable moves (specifically the tight level of App Store control). So with this kind of glowing recommendation, I can imagine some of TechCrunch regulars as well as other well-known tech communities out there may have their ears perked.
