Apple Briefs

I was very excited in the days leading up to Apple’s event last week. But I didn’t get to follow a “live blog” of the event, and I haven’t had a chance to watch the presentation since. So I have been coming up to speed slowly. Looking at Apple.com. Reading news sites and blogs.

The experience has been quite a surprise for me. I expected some poor reviews and an unenthusiastic segment. But I never would have predicted the reception that the iPad received.

One group seems enthralled with the iPad. Count me in that corner (unashamed Apple fanboy here). But others think its an absolute dud, destined to live out its life in obscurity like the Apple TV.

The most common objections seem to be:

• It’s just a bigger iPod Touch!
• Netbooks are the same price, the same size, and so much better.
• There’s no camera (I won’t touch on this one, but I do find it interesting that so many people want to do video chats with a camera that sees up your nose and show mostly the ceiling).

The one comment that seems to appear more often than others is, “why would I need an iPad if I have an iPhone and a MacBook?” Of course, you can replace “iPhone” with any top end smartphone and “MacBook” with netbook.

But couldn’t we just as easily ask, why do I need a MacBook if I have an iPhone and an iPad?

Let’s set aside two types of users for the moment. First are the large firm business users. The road warrior who needs to use Exchange and Microsoft Word while flying from one city to another (because work never stops and IT said those are the applications we have to use). The iPad won’t replace the road warrior’s laptop. It almost certainly could — someday. But not today. Windows is too entrenched in the corporate culture for most businesses.

Second are the pro design users. The woman you see editing a video in Final Cut Pro at the local Caribou Coffee. Or the man you see designing a brochure in Adobe InDesign at Panera Bread. They won’t be selling their MacBook Pros anytime soon.

Now that we have those two groups out of the way, what about everyone else? Me, for example. I am occasionally in the second group, but most of that work is done in the office.

A MacBook, iPad, and iPhone all offer the same set of fundamental tools. Email. Web browsing. Chat and social media. Address book. Calendars and task management. Games. Movies.

The iPhone really runs into a wall in two places: (1) entering and manipulating data; and (2) reviewing large amounts of data. Add those two capabilities, and a device would meet the needs of most people.

I haven’t used an iPad yet, so this prediction is based entirely on Apple’s advertising and a few reviews from people who used one at the launch event. But it appears that the iPad takes a big step in the direction of satisfying those two capabilities.

When I first read about the iPad and watched the videos, I said to myself, “that looks great – wouldn’t be be amazing if it had iWork?” I look forward to seeing how well iWork really performs on an iPad. I do a lot of work in page layout mode. Will the iPad support that? Only time will tell. But the ability to do lightweight document drafting on the iPad will really cut down on the need for a laptop on many day trips or short overnight trips.

The iPad also has a screen large enough to comfortably review much more data than on the iPhone. Large webpages can be read on the iPhone by holding it 6 inches from my face. But almost every other app uses larger fonts and larger controls, limiting the amount that can be displayed.

But there’s an even more compelling thing about the iPad. It’s simplicity! Imagine device where you can do everything you’re used to doing on your computer…without any of the hassle of owning a computer.

Many people see this as a drawback. But it’s seen by some as a tremendous advantage.

The iPad is great for people who just want to do cool, useful things on a mobile device and don’t care about the underlying technology. Many of the criticisms seem based on the notion that the desktop metaphor we have been using the past 20 years is always superior. But maybe it’s time for something else.

And maybe – just maybe – that something else is the iPad.

I am a big fan of dictation. Why writing long documents I generally type. I am pretty fast with a keyboard and I can just cover more ground typing than speaking. But sometimes I need to write something that comes across as more casual…conversational. At those times, I find dictation to be a useful tool.

I have used the iPhone’s built-in Voice Memos application quite a bit. I’ll record some thoughts or dictate part of a document and transcribe it by hand later.

Of course, hand transcription is a fairly slow process. So I was quite delighted to hear about Dragon Dictation for the iPhone. My wife uses Mac Speech Dictate and really likes it (or should I say used? we lost the headset during an office reorganization). I figured that applying the same technology to the iPhone would be a sure winner.

But having used it, I am a little underwhelmed. Perhaps the microphone just isn’t up to the task. Or maybe it’s that – unlike Mac Speech Dictate – there doesn’t seem to be any learning going on. But, whatever the reason, the errors are plentiful. And strange enough that if you look at an email transcript a few hours later, you might not be able to figure it out.

And then there’s the time limit. You can only record for about 20-30 seconds in one go. That’s enough time for a few sentences, but not something as long as a letter.

Right now I place Dragon Dictation in the “novelty” category. I’d gladly pay for a good transcription app for the iPhone. But what I don’t want to do is pay per word. Hopefully someone will come out with a reliable dictation iPhone app that I can use for a one-time fee. If you know of such an app, I’d love to hear your recommendations.

I stumbled across a nice iPhone site for lawyers recently: iPhone J.D. It doesn’t limit its coverage to lawyer-related tips and news, so its a nice resource for finding out more of what you can do with your iPhone. I have already purchased the F.R.C.P. iPhone app reviewed on the site (and I payed a premium for it since the price has gone up by $1 since it was reviewed in early December!). Well worth the money even after the price raise. The F.R.C.P. is definitely something that should be searchable and this app does it. I’m not a big fan of the icon, though. Needs more pizazz.

Things have been pretty busy around here lately, but I wanted to take the time to point out a great article on the iPhone 3G by John Gruber over at Daring Fireball. I especially like the first part of the article, which discusses the place of the iPhone in the Grand Scheme of Things. It’s a great read, and I couldn’t agree with it more.

According to recent reports, the 3G iPhone has been quite the success in its first month: as many as 3 million 3G iPhones sold and 60 million applications downloaded. The top sales spot went to Super Monkey Ball (to the surprise of no one who had been following the blogosphere prior to the iPhone 2.0 launch).

Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch seems to believe that this success will be short-lived because there are no killer apps on the iPhone:

While the initial impulse is to download as many apps as possible to try them out, there is a limit to how many apps you can juggle on your iPhone. It is not much different than a PC. You have tons of apps, but how many do you actually use on a regular basis? For most people, that number is probably no more than ten apps, and on a daily basis, maybe 3 or 4 tops.

I think we’re past the point where a single application will define the market and be the reason everyone buys into a platform. On the other hand, I don’t think an application has to be used every day to make a platform compelling. It certainly helps, though. For instance, I use OmniFocus on a pretty regular basis. But it’s applications like Shazam that have given me reasons to use a phone that I never thought I would have. Is that a killer app for the iPhone? Probably not, but it’s the total package that I am buying. And right now the iPhone has a total package that no other phone can compare to.

One month later, here is what is on my iPhone:

• OmniFocus
• WeatherBug
• NetNewsWire
• 1Password
• Ebay
• Shazam
• HoldEm
• Trism
• Morocco
• Labyrinth LE
• Koi Pond
• More Cowbell
• Remote

Whats on your iPhone?