Creating an iPad Application

One of the great things about the iPhone is how limited it is; to design an application for it, you just need to take one very simple idea and implement it really nicely. With the iPad, it won't be as simple; you have a lot more screen real-estate and the interaction model with the device is totally different. Can you imagine a fart app selling on this device? I certainly can't.

Instead of scaling up iPhone applications for the iPad, it's going to be more that we'll have to scale down desktop applications. There's an instant disadvantage to any developer who hasn't got established desktop software in their repertoire. Most of our iPhone apps simply will not work on the iPad because the apps' concepts do not fit this new platform. Noel of SnappyTouch has already 'announced' that he will not be porting his existing iPhone app to iPad, and I think that will ring true with many other developers.

The sky is the limit with the iPad platform, and there are some exciting times ahead. As mentioned in the keynote, this will be a whole new gold rush for developers.

"Magic"

And guys, they have a point. This thing could save the publishing industry and the newspaper/magazine industry. It could revolutionize the digital fine arts. It does essentially everything that can possibly fit on a screen that size, almost unconsciously. It is so magic that it does things you’d never imagine wanting something to do.

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That Changes Everything

Some people are claiming the iPad is a large iPod Touch, but I think that nothing could be further from the truth. Precisely because the iPad is larger, it’s not a device you’re going to carry in your pocket. It’s something that’s going to be laying on your desk, or piled on top of a few books on the coffee table. And that changes everything.

Noel Llopis muses as to where the iPad really fits in the market. I agree with pretty much everything except for the demographics; I think the iPad could also be a major influence on college/university students (and hey, I'm one of them).

A Mere Pop-Up Window

Yes, it’s closed–and developers still need to get Apple’s blessing before iPad users can install their wares. But, in fact, that’s really a feature–not a detraction. If we seriously want computing appliances to fade into the background and put the focus on what they can do for their users, such safeguards and gating are necessary today.

Bill Heyman in his post "The iPad Surfaces!". You know, on a related note, one of the amazing things about the iPad is that an entire iPhone-app's worth of complexity and power can be implemented as a mere pop-up window in a real iPad application. This thing blows the doors off mobile computing.

"…nothing will be quite the same again"

You may or may not be in the queue for an iPad in March, April, May or June. Or you may decide to stay your hand for version 2.0 or 3.0. But believe me the iPad is here to stay and nothing will be quite the same again.

Stephen Fry on Apple's new iPad.

'Apple's Tablet Obsession Reaches a Fevered Pitch'

Whatever Apple does announce, you can be sure that the result will be another lemming trail leading up to the local Apple Store. Until Steve Jobs steps down, that's going to be the result of virtually everything the man announces. I'd never bet against him.

Paul Thurrott over at his SuperSite for Windows.

Apple Planning Own Search Engine?

There's a lot of talk now about Apple thinking of replacing Google as the default search engine on iPhone, however the most interesting quote is from BusinessWeek suggesting Apple is working on their own search engine:

Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a “skunk works” looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that “if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.” Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising — and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google — “Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

It reminds me of Steve Ballmer's telling quote from the second Engadget Show in late 2009:

It doesn't feel very optional to be a significant player in the computer business in 2009 and not be trying on Search.

We're possibly about to see Google forcefully uprooted from iPhone OS 4.0, with Apple now owning their own mapping company, advertising company, and now in talks to bring Bing in as the default search engine. Let's hope the YouTube app doesn't get pulled, a lot of people use it regularly. Perhaps it will be moved to a download on the App Store? I guess Apple needs something to do with their new $1bn server farm. :-)

The Apple Licensing Myth

Legends die hard. In the pre-Web days, they got printed and reprinted, told and retold and so became official, like spinach being good for you because it held the iron your red cells needed. After decades of the disgusting veggie inflicted upon young kids - I remember, a scientist went back to the bench and found out there was no digestible iron whatsoever in spinach. You don’t get calcium by ingesting chalk, you need a calcium compound that’ll get through the sophisticated filters in the digestive system. Eating spinach gives you as much digestible iron as sucking nails.

Once top Apple exec, and founder of Be, Inc., debunks the theory that Apple must license the iPhone OS.