Introducing the Apple iPad

The Apple iPad has been one of the most eagerly anticipated releases within the technological world for several years. Its impact on the future of computing has been a widely debated subject since its unveiling back in January, and after its release in the US last week, we can finally find out what all the fuss has been about.

Apple’s iPad appears to fill a gap in the current market, somewhere between laptops and smartphones such as the iPhone or Blackberry. It functions as if it were an oversized iPhone – it uses the same operating system – however it is being promoted as an alternative to a laptop for the completion of everyday tasks and for entertainment purposes. The iPad can be bought with a hard drive of 16, 32, or 64 GB, and all models feature a 1 GHz processor.

Much has been made of the iPad’s revolutionary approach to how we use a personal computer – using Apps rather than more general programmes. This is where the differences with laptops are particularly apparent. Using an ordinary computer, it is more than likely that you will use the same programme for reading the news, checking Facebook, watching videos on YouTube, etc, i.e. your internet browser. The iPad revolutionises this approach: instead of using one programme, separate Apps are used to complete each of the above tasks. Each App performs a unique function, rather than a programme that can perform many. It is possible to access the above sites all through the iPad’s Safari internet browser, but this essentially belies the point of the device.

The iPad comes with a range of in-built Apps such as Safari, YouTube, Maps, and iTunes, and thousands more can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. An App that has received a lot of publicity is the iBooks App, with which users can download electronic books from Apple’s store, which can then be read page by page on the iPad’s screen. ‘E-books’ aren’t cheap, costing around $10 each; however it is an initiative that will undoubtedly appeal to many people, particularly those who travel regularly. Comics and graphic novels can also be read through iBooks, and even magazines to which the user is subscribed.

The iPad can be used for work as well as for play. Users can purchase the iWork suite from the Apple store, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet programme and a presentation programme. An on-screen QWERTY keyboard can be used for typing, or users can connect a Bluetooth keyboard.

Beyond the use of Apps, the iPad is also revolutionary in that it is the most complex and powerful device to be run entirely through a touch screen. It is hard to imagine a future in which computing has evolved entirely beyond the use of a mouse to navigate around the screen; however, the growing popularity of touch screen enabled devices, as well as the increasing popularity of voice activation in devices such as mobile phones, suggest this is a real possibility in the not-so-distant future.

Technically, the iPad is not yet at a level where it can completely replace a PC, Mac or Laptop. Some tasks simply cannot be accomplished on an iPad: audio or video editing, Photoshop, and programme development are just a few examples of the kind of technical tasks the current version of the iPad was not designed to undertake. It is best seen as a device that can quickly and effectively complete everyday tasks such as checking email and reading the news, while at the same time offering a huge range of entertainment possibilities, such as gaming, playing music, watching movies and the aforementioned iBooks.

If the positive reviews are anything to go by, Apple have, at the very least, made the most successful prototype yet for the transition from the keyboard-and-mouse-based computing we are used to, to an entirely interactive future.

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Categories: Technology (Articles)

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