EE Times has a detailed analysis of the A4 chip powering the iPad.
The biggest power consumer is the LCD (1-3.5W depending on brightness); the A4 chip consumes, at most, an impressive 520mW.
Another interesting observation is that the iPod Touch was (until now) the first device (amongst the iPhone, iPod and now iPad) to use new CPUs between generations; the iPad is the first to use the A4 chip and the iPhone HD (and presumably the iPod Touch) will have it next.
May 13, 2010
May 12, 2010
Early Adopters
Sunday Business section of the NY Times had an article about early adopters:
Economics professors may say that such behavior is irrational, but that doesn’t mean it makes no sense. People who stand in lines for the latest product may be buying it for what it conveys about them to others, says Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
That’s true of music, clothes and cars, but not so true of dishwasher soap. Tech gadgets fall in between those extremes, he says. A new gadget can be a fashion item — a revelation that Apple embraced long ago.
May 11, 2010
Preliminary iPad Usability Tests
Jakob Nielsen published some preliminary usability tests of the iPad (all 7 testers had previous iPhone experience and one had iPad experience). His summary:
iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.
May 10, 2010
Canadian iPad Pricing
The price-list for iPads:
- 16/32/64 Wifi model: CAD$ 549.00/649.00/749.00
- 16/32/64 Wifi+3G model: CAD$ 679.00/779.00/879.00
- Data-plan with Rogers: $15 for 250MB or $35 for 5GB
May 9, 2010
(Lack of) Flash on the iPad
The iPad was available for sale on April 3, 2010 and Flash sites didn't work in the Safari browser. There was a lot of complaining.
A few days later, Apple went so far as to change the developer licensing agreement and ban Apps not written in authorized programming languages so that applications written in Flash and then cross-compiled to run on the iPhone. There was even more complaining.
There was so much speculation as to why Flash was banned, that Apple released a public statement on the matter.
On May 7th, there was a non-demo of a beta mobile Flash on the Nexus One; there is still no mobile Flash solution available a full month after the iPad has shipped.
Apple's decision is vindicated.
An aside on demos: many years ago, as a software developer, we did monthly demos to a client as proof that milestones were being achieved as stipulated by the contract. Several lessons were learned from these demos as enumerated below:
A few days later, Apple went so far as to change the developer licensing agreement and ban Apps not written in authorized programming languages so that applications written in Flash and then cross-compiled to run on the iPhone. There was even more complaining.
There was so much speculation as to why Flash was banned, that Apple released a public statement on the matter.
On May 7th, there was a non-demo of a beta mobile Flash on the Nexus One; there is still no mobile Flash solution available a full month after the iPad has shipped.
Apple's decision is vindicated.
An aside on demos: many years ago, as a software developer, we did monthly demos to a client as proof that milestones were being achieved as stipulated by the contract. Several lessons were learned from these demos as enumerated below:
- only demo features that work (the current (and any past) milestones)
- practice the demo before hand and perform it exactly as practiced (your demo will otherwise very likely fail)
- the person doing the demo controls the demo (don't let the client touch the mouse)
Delayed Gratification
The iPad becomes available internationally for pre-order tomorrow with delivery scheduled for May 28th; 3G data-plan prices have not been announced for Canada. I intend on buying the iPad 3G model because my parents don't have an internet connection and it will be easier for me to pay for their cellular connection.
On June 7th, a week after the iPads are delivered, the WWDC conference will begins. Steve Jobs will announce the the next version of the iPhone (which rumours say will be designated iPhone HD, and will have a 5MP camera and HD video recording) and the iPod Touch with a camera (I hope it won't be last year's 2MP or 3MP model which didn't ship with a camera due to manufacturing problems with the camera) during the keynote.
At this time, I have decided to wait until after the WWDC announcements before deciding on whether I will be an early adopter of the iPad. I could change my mind tomorrow.
I do not own an iPod. I currently carry a Sony Clie SJ33 as an MP3 player and either a Canon S30 (3MP) point-and-shoot camera or a Canon EOS 50D camera.
An iPod with a 5MP camera would be a welcome alternative. An iPod with anything less than a 5MP camera would be a waste of time for me.
My photo albums:
On June 7th, a week after the iPads are delivered, the WWDC conference will begins. Steve Jobs will announce the the next version of the iPhone (which rumours say will be designated iPhone HD, and will have a 5MP camera and HD video recording) and the iPod Touch with a camera (I hope it won't be last year's 2MP or 3MP model which didn't ship with a camera due to manufacturing problems with the camera) during the keynote.
At this time, I have decided to wait until after the WWDC announcements before deciding on whether I will be an early adopter of the iPad. I could change my mind tomorrow.
I do not own an iPod. I currently carry a Sony Clie SJ33 as an MP3 player and either a Canon S30 (3MP) point-and-shoot camera or a Canon EOS 50D camera.
An iPod with a 5MP camera would be a welcome alternative. An iPod with anything less than a 5MP camera would be a waste of time for me.
My photo albums:
April 14, 2010
iPad in Canada
Apple has announced that due to unanticipated demand for the iPad in the U.S. (and also manufacturing problems) the April international release of the iPad has been postponed to late May.
I was going to buy an iPad for my parents this month, but now with the postponement, I will delay my purchase until, at least July and first see what the iPod Touch upgrade will look like in June. I might even skip the first version of the iPad because of Google's announcement...
When Google announced that they would open source the video codec from On2, I began having second thoughts about buying an iPad (or, at least, the limited usefulness of the current iPad). H264 decoding is done in hardware by the iPad, so if Apple accepted the codec, it would need to design a new asic to handle it.
If Apple announces their acceptance before next Spring (when iPad 2 will be released), then the current iPad becomes obsolete for playing video as most of the internet will move to the Google codec which will become the standard.
Something which was a foregone conclusion before yesterday, now becomes very complex when the near future is taken into consideration.
I was looking at least 5 years (approx. $100/year) of use for my iPad (Apple prefers 2.5 years before it's "not supported"). If Apple decides to postpone choosing an alternative code for another 2 years, it's still not enough of an incentive for me to buy and iPad.
Alternatively, Apple could also support both the H264 and the Google codec in hardware. That is a possibility which makes my iPad purchase more palatable.
And yes, I know I'm breaking rule no.1 of not buying first generation Apple products— I wasn't expecting to pay that heavy a price (namely quick obsolesence), though.
I was going to buy an iPad for my parents this month, but now with the postponement, I will delay my purchase until, at least July and first see what the iPod Touch upgrade will look like in June. I might even skip the first version of the iPad because of Google's announcement...
When Google announced that they would open source the video codec from On2, I began having second thoughts about buying an iPad (or, at least, the limited usefulness of the current iPad). H264 decoding is done in hardware by the iPad, so if Apple accepted the codec, it would need to design a new asic to handle it.
If Apple announces their acceptance before next Spring (when iPad 2 will be released), then the current iPad becomes obsolete for playing video as most of the internet will move to the Google codec which will become the standard.
Something which was a foregone conclusion before yesterday, now becomes very complex when the near future is taken into consideration.
I was looking at least 5 years (approx. $100/year) of use for my iPad (Apple prefers 2.5 years before it's "not supported"). If Apple decides to postpone choosing an alternative code for another 2 years, it's still not enough of an incentive for me to buy and iPad.
Alternatively, Apple could also support both the H264 and the Google codec in hardware. That is a possibility which makes my iPad purchase more palatable.
And yes, I know I'm breaking rule no.1 of not buying first generation Apple products— I wasn't expecting to pay that heavy a price (namely quick obsolesence), though.
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