Yay! The Apple iPad will be released on April 3rd, with preorders being taken on Friday, March 12th. Gentlemen (and ladies), start your credit cards.
So, the announcement and all of the discussion since January notwithstanding, I still have a few unanswered iPad questions. Here they are:
1) How will you get content created or edited on the iPad off of the iPad?
From what I’ve read, the iPad SDK suggests that iPad apps will have an area where they can place documents or other information that can be read by other programs. So, for instance, you can create a spreadsheet in Numbers-iPad, and then have it available to Keynote.
So, what about writing something in Pages (like a letter or a blog post) and then sending it your computer. I suppose that email will always be a work-around for getting content off of the iPad, but it’s inelegant and it clogs up your inbox.
It would be nice if I could upload the document to my DropBox folder or a Box.net account. However, both of those solutions require a 3rd party to complete the process and I don’t think that’s Apple’s style, especially with programs that suggest content creation (iWord – IPad suite) as much as content browsing.
I guess this would be the right place to use the iWork.com account you’ve been neglecting…oh, since it was announced. Apple seems to be happy to suggest that you pay for a MobileMe account (for instance if you want the remote wipe or Find My iPhone tricks that came out with iPhone OS 2.0). This might not be that different, but it is definitely an unanswered question.
2) Will you be able to “print” from the iPad?
Can you sense a theme here? I am looking at the iPad as a major content creation device. I don’t mean to suggest that it will do more than the announcement gave away (I won’t be recording or editing podcasts, editing movies,etc.). But they are definitely hinting that this could be an excellent content creation machine. If it’s meant to stand on its own – as a way to appeal to Windows users, like the iPhone does – can you print from the iPad? Will it be able to see your printer on a Wi-Fi network (or via Bonjour through another computer)?
Those are just two of my unanswered questions. I’ll post some more between now and April 3rd…you know, when I have one in my hand to test.
Posted by Victor Medina