iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch Application Development:

Do I Really Need Yet Another Device?

I'm a heavy computer user. Part of this is because I'm in the tech industry. I have a big laptop, a dual-screen desktop, a computer at home, a netbook, and I carry around a BlackBerry.

So why would I want another device, too? The answer is that none of the other devices I own can do what the iPad can do.

Minimalism At It's Best

Have you noticed that the expensive homes that people like to purchase are often devoid of lots of stuff? Kitchens have drawers for everything -- so you don't have anything out on the countertops. Closets have four shirts hanging on hangers. The focus is on what's not there....

Instead of trying to cram everything into a device, so that nothing works really that well, the iPad is a device that's been designed with as few buttons as possible.

The iPad doesn't do everything. It's not going to replace a desktop or laptop computer. And to me, that may be part of it's appeal.

No, it doesn't have a USB port. No camera. No flash support. I can't add more memory to it. The keyboard isn't easy to type on. My model is Wi-Fi only - so some things won't work outside a Wi-Fi hotspot. And it's not dishwasher safe.

Is it more than just an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch? The answer is yes. The iPhone is a great device. It's screen is much, much larger, and it opens up tremendous new possibilities.

Plus, my two daughters love it too. It's a testament to good design that a 2 year old and a five year old can figure out how to use it without much trouble.

I Bought the iPad because of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Last week, we receive a phone call from the president of a major television studio, who found our company using a Google search. He's interested in having us possibly develop iPad and iPhone Applications for their studio, and was flying in a day later.

So... I raced out to the Apple store here in Boulder to purchase one. It was busy, and while I waited a couple of minutes for a sales person to help me, I chatted with a former professor of mine from the CU MBA program, who was looking at them as well.

I raced back to the office to get started. The only downside: you have to have the most recent version of iTunes (a 93 mb download) running on your computer in order to even turn it on.

Designing Websites

Instead of looking at a screen, with the iPad, it's easy to lay the device down on a table, and look at a website with someone else. Zooming in is easy, and as long as your website was designed to be compatible with Safari's browser (and doesn't have too much flash), it's a great way to collaborate.

iPad Screenshot of Web Browser - click image for larger view

The browser is fast, and allows you to have multiple tabs open easily. If there's a flash animation on the site, it displays as a white box. For this reason, I recommend if you have a website with a lot of flash in it, create a static gif or jpg image of the animation to load behind the flash animation, so that users without flash see something other than a plain white space on your web page.

iPad Screenshot of Safari Web Browser - click image for larger view

Displaying Photos

As a photographer with images on display in museums in three countries, it's always a challenge to find a clean, crisp way to show people compelling images. Carrying a laptop is good, but the iPad allows you to import high-resolution images (via iTunes), and then display them easily in albums.

It's really easy to hand someone the device, or place it on a table. The slideshow function allows you to have the iPad scroll through images automatically.

iPad Screenshot of Photo viewer - click image for larger view

iPad Screenshot of Photo Viewer - Album - click image for larger view

iPad Screenshot of Photo Viewer - spreading album - click image for larger view

Reading Books

Over the weekend, I read two 500-page books on the iPad. Not having to read with a flashlight at night is nice: the backlit screen is clear, and easy to read. You can adjust the font size, and read in either a horizontal or vertical view.

I read the new Clive Cussler book, The Silent Sea, purchased for $9.95 through iTunes. I also read a free murder-mystery book, too, called Ransom X. In both books I found a couple of typos... it seemed that perhaps the versions uploaded to the Apple store were rushed and may not have been the final copy. But I also tend to find typos in the New York Times, too, so I'm a bit pickier than most.

iPad Screenshot of iBook Viewer - click image for larger view

Winnie the Pooh is the sample book that is included with the iBook reader system, and my two daughters really love me reading to them before bed. Their favorite part is turning the pages... which consists of a simulated page turn by dragging your finger on the page and flicking it to the left.

You can download thousands of free books, too, and you can also download Kindle software to the iPad, too, although the Kindle reader for the iPad seems only to support books, and not newspapers and magazines.

Watching Videos

If you have young kids, you know that a car trip can either be a source of a lot of fun, or a lot of anguish. With the iPad, our 5 year old told me that the hour and forty-five minute drive felt a lot more like a 15 minute trip.

Before we left, I went to the Sesame Street Website, and subscribed to their weekly podcast. The iPad downloaded all of the movies, so it could be used offline.

iPad Screenshot of Video Player - click image for larger view

The iPad can use headphones, but it also has a speaker that works pretty well. Our older daughter was able to select and start each video and hold the iPad so that her little sister could see the screen, too.

With a 10 hour battery life, the iPad was a hit in the car.

Lots and Lots of Apps

There's already a lot of applications that have been designed specifically for the iPad. USA Today has a great news reader.

iPad Screenshot of USA Today news reader - click image for larger view

Bloomberg has an amazing graphical interface for the financial folks. The Netflix app allows you to manage your que, as well as watch videos.

My favorite app though for the iPad, though, is the iFish Pond application. It's $1.99, and is also a big favorite for my two daughters. You can move your hands through the water and see the water ripple in reaction; you can feed the fish (or scare them if you touch the water nearby).

iPad Screenshot of iFish Pond application - click image for larger view

Other great apps include Pro Keys, a piano simulator, and the Calculator XL, which turns the iPad into a retro-looking calculator.

iPad Screenshot of calculator - click image for larger view

Twitteriffic is a great Twitter application that leverages the larger screen size, and AstroGizmo is an amazing way to hold your iPad up and see the constellations and planets.

iPad Screenshot of AstroGizmo - click image for larger view

My Congress is an app that allows you to find your member of Congress, and see news, information and how they voted. EyeWitness is an application that brings the most compelling news photo each day.

And all of the 150,000 iPhone and iPod Touch apps work, too, on the iPad. My five year old has been enjoying the Simon Classic memory game. Some of the apps look a little fuzzy if you blow them up to use the whole screen, but it's nice to have everything available.

iPad Screenshot of Simon Classic - click image for larger view

A few apps don't work so well, however. The Men's Health application seems to just be a scanned in version of their magazine... and the text was very difficult to read. The Time Magazine app is solid, but what I didn't realize is that for $4.95, I was only downloading a single issue. I'm already a subsciber to the print version, so the one-time download of content is fine to read once, but it would be more ideal if it updated itself with content (like the NY Times and USA Today applications).

iPad Screenshot of Time Magazine app - click image for larger view

The Associated Press (AP)'s news application is also top-notch, and has an intuitive way for navigating stories. Plus, it can customize the news based on your location, so I can get the AP stories local to Boulder, Colorado, for example.

iPad Screenshot of Associated Press News app - click image for larger view

Mail Program

The mail program is a bit weak. Definitely not as good as a laptop or desktop-based mail system. I'm a heavy email user -- I receive 800-1000 email messages a day. My biggest complaint: no way to mark all of your messages as "read" or do a bulk delete.

iPad Screenshot of Mail application - click image for larger view

The Mail program does display HTML emails nicely, however. What I wound up doing is creating a special, dedicated email address just for the iPad, so I could email from and to the device, but not have to worry about trying to download hundreds of emails each time.

For email users that don't receive the heavy volume of email that I do, the iPad is a great secondary device, but because of the on-screen keyboard, it's probably not ideal to replace your laptop or desktop computer any time soon.

Calendar

The calendar has a beautiful interface, and I was able to get it to synchronize with my Google Calendar fairly easily. Again, this won't be my primary calendar, but it's wonderful that I can see my calendar quickly and easily through the system.

Summary

The iPad is not meant to replace your laptop or desktop computer. It doesn't do everything. And that's the the point.

If you're looking for an intuitive, well-designed device -- you can't miss. Enjoy!