The 'New' iPad

So we have to learn a new, post Steve Jobs, language.   No longer are we in the world of the next great thing but rather an incremental iPad.  No longer 3rd generation but rather New.  To read many of the reviews of the new iPad it would seem that this means that the iPad is a bad product because there was no great '...and one final thing...' from the late master of presentation.   

What have we learnt from the all the guff out there on the internet?  Well that few people knew what they were taking about and that Apple could teach spy masters a thing or two about keeping a secret.  But mainly the thing we learnt is that the iPad is now a mature product with few great surprises - view the promo video and you see that they spend an awful lot of time talking technical stuff about the new display - and this is not a bad thing.   We now have a product that has set the standards and building on these standards for the '..post PC..' world in which the iPad, more than any other machine, has brought into existence.   To see how much the world has changed just watch an old episode of Star Trek Voyager, the most advanced of the modern Star Trek franchise.   Here we see a time, just 10 years ago, when the production staff having no idea how tablets will work, instead they have different reports on individual tablets.  Nowadays, in a Post PC world we know that all of these things, and so much more, can be contained on one tablet and at the moment that is called the iPad.

For me the killer features of the new iPad is the new chip-set.  I am sure the display is very nice but I have no problem with the display on the iPad circa 2010 nor 2011.  As for the inclusion of 4G mobile telephony I am sure that will be great but as it doesn't really arrive in the UK until 2013 not really much use - I suspect not that much use in the US either. 

This leaves us with a solid product that has been updated like most pieces of technology with the latest bits.  It is no longer earth shattering but mature.  It will deliver huge profits to Apple and become a little dull, much as Apple will become without the genius of Jobs.  Life goes on.   

Simon Marchini 

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted via email from SIMON's posterous

SONY NEX 5N - an unwitting tribute to Steve Jobs

In one of those strange juxta positions that history throws up I received my new Sony NEX5N camera on the day that it was announced that Steve Jobs died. On the face of it there would appear to be no connection but to me the user of the camera and ipad,used to write this, ipods etc the connection became very clear as the day wore on.

Most of my recent technological purchases have been from Apple and I have got used to them just working. An example of this would the wireless keyboard I am using with my iPad - switch it on and away you go - what could be simpler.

Now I know what I am about to say is an unfair comparison but I am going to make it. Getting the camera to work properly was a nightmare by comparison. It was almost like the old days of the PC set up, restart and reset were the names of the game. You can just image what Jobs would have made of the process. Just switch it on, plug it in or connect by WiFi to your computer or cloud service and within 5 minutes you would be up and running.

The way that the camera works would also have been radically different as well. The camera has a touch screen about the same size as the iphone and so it is far to compare how the two function. With the iphone there is a clear vision with the NEX5N it is all menus and sub menus and so on. Once you get the camera to work it is a fine machine and promises to be a first rate purchase it is just the usability is so poor when compared to the iphone, which by the way is a camera as well as a phone etc.

So this is my tribute to Steve Jobs a clear giant of the 21st century, remember Apple only really took off when the ipod was launched so it is far to claim that he is a man of the 21st century. A man who ensured that the mass market computer products were both things of beauty , functional, desirable and probably most important for Apple, profitable. He will be missed in oh so many ways and other technology companies still have a long way to go before they are able to produce functioning products to the same standard as those Jobs helped deliver to the world.

Sent from my iPad

Posted via email from SIMON's posterous