How Long Until I Buy An iPad
Despite having successfully convinced myself I didn't need an iPad and that I merely wanted one it's now getting to the point where it's only a matter of time until I cave in and buy one. We're talking days.
A couple of things have swayed me.
Firstly, that the kids have had their hands on one and they love it. The iPad in question was loaded with kids jigsaws, bedtime books and colouring apps. Whereas at first I adopted the stance that "It did me no harm not having these gadgets as a kid" I accept that it's all very different now. Why should I hold them back when it's inevitable that their future is filled with technology? They still have access to normal jigsaws and colouring books and I can't see the iPad meaning I no longer read them a bedtime story every night.
Secondly, an up-coming project involves developing an "iPhone app", so having some hardware to compliment the SDK's emulator won't go amiss. Heck, it's now a business requirement that I have one! All I need to do now is convince the company secretary of my need for one.
One question while I have your attention - can I reliably test an iPhone app on an iPod Touch to get a real world feel for it outside the emulator, without splashing out on the phone itself?
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There's no issue with testing on an iPod touch unless you're developing something that interfaces with the camera, compass/heading or relies on location services with < 100m accuracy.
You definitely will want some sort of device to test on. The simulator is pretty good, but runs directly off your Mac's hardware (it's not emulated) and makes no attempt to throttle itself to simulate the speed of an actual device. Things like rendering a non-trivial UITableView (list) are an order of magnitude faster on the simulator than they will be on even the fastest iOS device.
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Thanks for confirming Jeff.
It's good to know Mr ASBO is reading just in case I get stuck ;o)
In fact I'll probably drop you a line and farming the work out to you if time doesn't allow me to do it myself. I'm assuming you take on paid dev work?
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Are you sure there's no way to throttle the iOS emulator? I've got to admit, that's one thing the Android emulator does well -- at first I just confused it for piss-poor emulator performance, until I realized that it was actively showing me what my app would run like on a real phone...
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Be sure to checkout the mobile tools over on OpenNTF. I forget which project it was, but I was able to port Notes Views to the iPhone/Touch in just a few minutes and they looked great.
I have to stay out of the Apple store or I know a new iPad would be following me home. I can't justify it, but they are gorgeous!
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I caved in and got mine delivered on Friday. I haven't looked back since. It's a bit heavier than I expected, but it's a gorgeous display an although it's a "big" iPod Touch it feels like so much more with some of the iPad-specific apps available.
You can get a lot of kid's books as an app for about 2.99 USD. Books like Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss. The actual hard copy is more expensive, if you don't already own it, and the ability to flip through the book digitally is very enticing.
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Funnily enough it was Cat in a Hat that had the kids gripped. Funnier still I was only just reading them Green Eggs and Ham last night, which Felix seems to love.
The only issue I have with the ebooks is I don't want to teach the kids American. No offence meant, but if they're learning to spell and/or pronunciate then an American book/voice might not help too much.
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Business reasons aside, it's simply brilliant as an information/media consuming device. My guess is you will need more than one in the house eventually!
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Agreed - get it you won't regret it.
I have actually just lost mine again to my company secretary - playing angry birds.
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Hi Jake, you can do a lot of testing in the simulator and on your iPod Touch but ideally you should test your app on several devices (iPhone 1st generation, iPhone 3G, Phone 3GS and iPhone 4) to make sure that you test your app against the different hardware specs available.
I have only prototype developed one single app so the above recommendation is based on what I remember from reading blog posts from far more experienced iPhone programmers.
Good luck with your project.
By the way: I can definitely recommend the iPad :-)
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That sounds expensive. It would cost £1000+ to get all that hardware to test with. I might try and convince them to support iOS 4 only ;o)
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True, but then you can use adhoc distribution to send your app to beta testers running some or even all of the different hw models.
With regards to iOS4 only: remember that iOS4 can be installed on 3G and 3GS too :-)
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Testing on an iPad should be ok - the device will show iPhone specific apps at their native resolution (with a large black band around them, as the iPad screen has a lot more pixels), or "doubled" to fill the whole screen. So you'll have a really good idea of how the app will look on the iPhone.
Note, however, that the iPad is still stuck at iOS 3.2 or so, whereas most iPhones are up to 4.0.1. iOS 4 is coming fairly soon to iPad, so the situation won't last too long in any case.
Older hardware is a bit of a concern, as others have noted - I have an iPhone 3G, and man, it's quite laggy even with the provided applications (Safari, iPod, etc). You also need to be sure that your application doesn't depend on hardware that's missing from your iPad - some models don't have GPS, etc.
All in all, though, I suspect the iPad should work fine for your purposes. I haven't bought one myself, as I can't quite figure out what I would do with it.
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I really want one too, and have crafted all of the arguments in my head about why I don't actually need one.
The only sticking point is the lack of multi-user support. An iPad is definitely something that would be shared with my wife (can't really justify getting two when we both have laptops as well) but the lack of support for separate accounts for mail, apps like Facebook etc is a problem.+
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"It did me no harm not having these gadgets as a kid"
That comment rings so true especially after our visit to Beamish yesterday.
http://www.beamish.org.uk/Home.aspx
I am and think I always will be amazed in my lifetime at the rate of speed of technological progression in my short 44years on this earth. I started of being entertained with Northern street games such as British Bull Dog and kickey the tin, then I think came the tv games console for tennis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-THUXZ1aE4
Then came the Atari I think, which took pages of text to produce a Union Jack, then the Commodore and so on and so on. As I said so many times yesterday, what will the next 44years bring but thank goodness I don't have to suffer the outside loo anymore.
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I was in the same position as you Jake. I wanted one but convinced myself it was a want not a need so didn't get one. Fortunately though I got issued one at work and I must say I love it and if I didn't have one I would buy one with my own money :)
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I have played with iPad when it first came out and I was very impress with the interface and its very user friendly from the beginning since its functionality is almost exactly those that are found on iPhone or iPod Touch. However, the weight and size is what holding me back from buying one. Besides, the first generation is always the testing ground and flaws will generally be improved on the second and later models. I am patiently waiting for iPad 2G to come out.
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