Ok, so I will be the first to admit that I am a Microsoft developer. Sure we work on pretty much any platform across the board, but if you had to pin me down to a specialty it would be using Microsoft products. Why am I sharing this tidbit? Well, it may color the opinions below regarding my first impressions of the IPad.
Yesterday I received the two IPads we pre-ordered for development. They came via UPS in good order and I was eager to get them up and running. I turned on one of the IPads and it showed me the “Connect to ITunes” graphic. I am a little miffed I need to register it before using it, but hey, why not. Luckily I remember that I upgraded ITunes to 9.1 the day before and was ready to go. So I fire up ITunes on my Windows machine and plug in the IPad using the USB connector.
How to register it?
Before I go any further I have to admit: I hate ITunes for Windows. It is slow, unintuitive, and does not make it easier for me to get to my media. That’s right, I see it as a hindrance not a help. And as a Windows user who is not a fanboy of Apple, ITunes for Windows does nothing to win me over to the other side.
So when I plugged in my IPad in order to register it on ITunes, whammo! I received an application fault from ITunes. The error was about an exception with a data services provider. Undaunted, I closed out ITunes and restarted it. Same error. So like any good Windows user I rebooted when faced with the unexplained.
After reboot, ITunes worked a little better. It did not throw an exception, but it hung saying “Accessing Services”. I tried reconnecting several times but to no avail. It just kept hanging. So how could I sync up my new IPad? It seems like ITunes is buggy (no surprise to me) and will not work with the IPad under Windows 7 - 64 bit.
Well, I just happen to have access to an OSX virtual machine on my desktop. Don’t ask me how I built it (there are plenty of tutorials on the web). I thought that since I cannot register it on ITunes for Windows, maybe I can try to register it using OSX on my virtual machine.
Pay dirt. It worked flawlessly. Not only that, but I noticed that ITunes for OSX appears to be more responsive than its Windows counterpart. Registration went quickly, and I was even able to go back to ITunes for Windows and perform a sync.
“So Apple (clears throat), what happened to the ‘It Just Works’ motto that you use to justify your prices?” Apple is in charge of developing ITunes for all its supported platforms, but yet it appears they dropped the ball here. It didn’t “just work” for me and my guess is that it won’t “just work” for many other people.
How to charge it?
So once I got my IPad registered and synced using the USB cable, I noticed that the icon in the top right corner of the IPad kept saying “Not Charging”. This puzzled me. It should be charging since it is plugged into a USB 2.0 port. This is the same port that charges all my other devices, including an IPhone and IPod Touch. What is going on? Is my IPad broken?
As it turns out, the IPad needs more wattage than a typical device and not all USB hubs are able to deliver the necessary power. As a result, most (it appears) USB ports will not charge your IPad. You are stuck charging it via the wall adapter that comes with it.
What is interesting is that if you are an Apple user (meaning you spent ALOT of money on an Apple desktop), you can probably charge it from your machine. But if you have a non-apple machine your are most likely out of luck. I say “most likely” because there is possibly some USB hardware that it works with, but the data is not yet in as to which ones will work and which ones do not.
So I have another big beef with Apple regarding “It just works”. Not only does this not just work on a bunch of standard USB hardware that PC users have been using without issue, but it appears your IPad only charging using your own hardware. That plain stinks. Not being able to charge on any USB 2.0 port is quite the letdown and in my opinion a very questionable design decision.
Update: On a hunch, I did a test. Last night I took the IPad down to 75% power then plugged it into my normal computer USB port. The IPad said “Not Charging”, and I left it overnight. This morning, it was at 100% power. So some degree of charging IS happening and the IPad is not correctly stating the situation. Go figure.
Is it all bad?
No. The IPad itself is very, very nice. The machine is responsive, easy to use, a great form-factor to hold, and I can see many great new uses for it. It is definitely a kindle-killer and will give the popular netbook market a run for its money. Heck, even the digital frame makers who have been charging $300-$500 for networked photo frames should feel threatened. This is one very nice piece of hardware.
It makes me feel like I am holding a piece of the future, and I like that feeling.
What I do not like is the no-multitasking, censored applications, the “it just works” motto, and my inability to just charge from any USB device. I feel some of those issues are not as progressive as the hardware itself, and keeps the hardware tethered and unable to reach its full potential.
But, it is darn nice.
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