My thoughts on the Apple iPad

So tonight the internet went a bit crazy with the culmination of weeks, no months of hype! Apple finally unveiled its highly anticipated Tablet device they've name the iPad. I thought I'd share my initial thoughts and reaction to the device as undoubtedly the rest of the internet will.


I've never been a huge Apple fan, I have an iPhone 3G but it's the only device I own. If I wasn't able to jailbreak it then I wouldn't own that either. However, with all the hacks and modifications applied it becomes an unbeatable device. It shows what Apple could do if they really tried!

With the announcement of the iPad it seems nothing has changed, it's a disappointing over priced half arsed attempt at a tablet. It seems obvious to me that Apple have deliberately crippled this device so they can easily improve it in future annual product update cycles.

At the end of the day, the iPad is basically a big iPhone without the calling, SMS and camera functionality. The biggest surprise here has to be the lack of a camera, I mean seriously... cameras have been standard in devices for years. How can Apple think it acceptable to leave one out of this device and how much are you willing to wager that they'll add one to the next iPad? The iPad would have been ideal for making video Skype calls with its internet capabilities after all, to say nothing of the popularity with video blogs.

It seems Apple have produced an awesome piece of hardware but just not bothered with the OS too. Why create a device with this much power and a screen this large and then slap the iPhone's OS on to it? This means no multi-tasking, but perhaps the biggest crime is NO FLASH support! In a machine this size web browsing is a big part of the experience. If you can't use Flash then it effectively renders the iPad useless. It's such a massive let down! Just look at the top of this post, don't you think it looks ridiculous with the small icons separated out across that massive screen? Apple haven't even tried to customise the firmware for this device!

Then we come to the price, why do Apple think it is appropriate to charge an extra $130 to have a SIM slot added to your device? You can't even use it unless you pay a monthly subscription to a mobile data provider! The slot should be part of the standard hardware, I simply cannot believe that it isn't.

The iPad has far too many things missing and adds nothing new to the current offering to make me even remotely interested. I'm not going to rule out ever owning one, in a year or so when they release an update that should have been what this is and the OS is improved and I can jailbreak it. Then I might be tempted. This reminds me very much of the original iPhone, a great idea but fatally flawed in its execution.

I'll pass for now, come back when you've got it right Apple!

What’s on your iPhone?

A friend made a blog post with all the apps he has got installed on his iPhone which you can read here:

What's in your iPhone

So in reply to that blog, here is my response. This is what's on my iPhone:

Page 1

The first thing to notice is that my iPhone is jailbroken which means I can customise quite a bit on the phone. The most obvious thing is the wallpaper, having a custom wallpaper is normally only possible on the lock screen. Now whenever I see an iPhone with a black background I can't help but feel it looks boring.

Another thing you may have noticed is the reflective dock and the different image for the dock. Also the carrier logo (02) in the status bar at the top is the actual O2 logo rather than the dull O2-UK you would normally see.

Two of my app icons are also different if you look closely. The Clock app is actually showing the correct time and the Weather app has the current weather for my location displayed.

I think the only other thing worth mentioning here is the Cycorder app, this gives the iPhone 3G video capability. No need to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS for that!

Page 2

Nothing much of note here, Tioti TV+ is great if you need remote record for your iPhone. Far better than the offering from Sky! Air Sharing is great for carrying documents around if you don't want to have the hassle of a USB stick.

Page 3

It's the games page, PapiJump is a great little game that is simple yet addictive. Peggle and Flight Control are my favourite games. But probably my most heavily played title has to be B-gammon, I simply love Backgammon and play it as much as I possibly can. It's the only app that has been on my iPhone from the day I got it!

Page 4

Another app page here, and of course some gratuitous cleavage as well. These tend to me my rarely used apps, though Tweetie should really be promoted! WunderRadio is great for listening to radio stations via the iPhone too.

Page 5

This is the page where I keep my "work apps", so there's a weight converter a noise level meter a couple of gobo libraries. A lighting rig remote control (Luminair), a dip switch tool to save my brain working out the binary arithmetic and finally a gel swatch library.

The more observant among you may have noticed there's a bit more cleavage here too!

Page 6

The final page of apps! This is my Jailbreak page, it has Cydia the package manager and installer. Winterboard which lets you customise the theme as I explained earlier and ToneFXs allowing me to have custom SMS alerts etc.

I also have StatusNotifier which puts little icons in the status bar when I have new mail, or my phone is on silent. There are other icons too, it's rather a handy app. Oh and of course more cleavage :-)

I love my Jailbroken iPhone, it gives me all the things Apple should have done!