We mentioned earlier that we were interested in doing a side-by-side comparison of the Jawbone UP’s sleep analysis and that done by the Sleep Cycle iPhone app. Well, user alexw at the official UP forum beat us to the punch with a sample one-day analysis. As expected, because the UP is attached to you, it’s accuracy is better than Sleep Cycle, which relies on the iPhone sitting on the corner of your bed.

Another user compared the UP to another body-mounted device, and the results were very similar. It sounds like the UP’s sleep analysis will be a much better log of sleep activity than what Sleep Cycle offers, so the UP is definitely an upgrade. The downside at the moment is that several users have noted bugs in the sleep analysis display, which at least for one night, didn’t show up at all in the detailed, landscape-based mode. Jawbone has already released an update for the UP, which is a good start, but on our end, the logged sleep from last night remains missing. Hopefully the update ensures that future logged nights display correctly.

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On Friday, we drove by two Targets, a Best Buy, and an AT&T store to see if anyone was selling the Jawbone UP early. None were. The reports we heard about UPs selling early must have been very isolated experiences, though it seems people had more success at Apple stores, who apparently are more likely to not play by the rules.¹ Both Target stores we visited had places set aside, complete with labels, for the three sizes of the UP initially available, yet employees at neither store could tell me whether they already sold out of their UP stock, or if they hadn’t received any yet. We decided to return to the AT&T store on Sunday morning.

We had sized our wrist using the printable template available at the UP site. This proved to be a waste of time, because not only did the AT&T store have demo units out to try on, but the packaging on each UP box has a plastic template included, so buyers can check for their size when in the store. It’s a nice touch, and shows Jawbone’s attention to detail. So we bought our UP, and set it up in the car on the way home.² We won’t bother to give a full review here, because we found Shawn Wall’s review to be plenty thorough for a product that’s only officially been on shelves for less than two days, but we will respond to some points he made for the sake of completeness.

The rubberized bracelet is bendable to a degree. It’s not the simplest task in the world getting it on or off your wrist, but thankfully you don’t really need to take it off given its waterproof nature.

Jawbone actually calls the bracelet water resistant, and only to a fairly shallow depth. The idea is that you can wash your hands, and even take it into the shower, without worrying about it getting damaged. We even saw a picture of someone wearing it in a shallow pool, so the idea that you can wear it most places is obviously something Jawbone wants customers to understand. But don’t think about taking the UP diving. In fact, the notion of taking this thing in the ocean makes us a bit uncomfortable, and we’d rather someone else tried it first.

When we took a shower this morning, our hesitation for getting the UP wet made us take it off. It’s not like you’ll be missing out on too much activity tracking in those few minutes of the morning anyway. Though, we did notice that the black rubberized band³ attracts dirt pretty quickly, so wearing it into the shower may not be a bad idea after all.

As far as bendability goes, the UP has to be somewhat bendable to get it on and off. But that’s only for the “ends” of the band, and the bendability is temporary. In other words, you can’t bend the UP into a different shape, or make it larger or smaller.

There’s really not much in the way of moving parts here; there is a button at one end that is used for switching modes (more on that later), and the opposite end has a cap that is pulled off to reveal the 3.5mm male jack that is used to sync the device with your mobile phone (currently iPhone-only, but Android “coming soon”).

The one thing we don’t like about the UP is that the button on one end, as well as the cap, is painted silver. We’d much rather have these match the main band colour, as we don’t expecially like the accent color. The cap is only silver on one side though, so if you put it on backwards, it appears black to all but the closest observer. A backwards cap also means you’re not proudly displaying “Jawbone” written on your jewelry; we don’t need to advertise for the company we already supported by buying their product. Depending on how much we dislike the button on the other end being an “off” colour, we may end up painting it black down the road.

One really great feature in regards to sleep is that the bracelet can be used as an alarm clock using vibration. Even better, it supposedly will wake you up out of a light sleep instead of a deep sleep by getting you up a little earlier if it can (by looking at your deep vs. light sleep somehow).

This feature worked well for us this morning, though to be fair, we didn’t sleep all that great last night anyway, and noticeably tumbled around a bunch. In this case, we were quick to feel the pulsing vibration of the alarm, but we wonder if it will wake us on days that we have a deeper sleep. Today, it woke us up 15 minutes early. We’re considering doing a side-by-side test of the UP and Sleep Cycle iPhone app to see how consistent the two are, or if one tends to go off before the other. For now, though, we expect the UP to handle our alarms equally well, if not better, with the only concern being whether the vibration is strong enough to rouse us from a deep sleep.

One of my favorite feature of the device is found in this area. You can set your bracelet to remind you to be active if you are sedentary for too long. The time range is user defined. This is great as it can remind us programmers to get out of our chairs once an hour

We’re rather fond of this feature also. We have it enabled during business hours, and its a great reminder to get up and do something, even if it’s just to pee or get some fresh water.

I do not own another pedometor, Fitbit or anything else along those lines so I cannot speak for the accuracy of the UP. It feels like the numbers are too high though.

Whether they’re too high or not, all we can say is that the “lightly active” category is cake during an average weekend, and that’s not even with workout scheduled. From noon until night yesterday, we scored over 8k steps taken, which means we can easily up our steps goal to the next level. We’ll have to see how our weekend activity compares to the average workday to see whether it’s worth adjusting our goals at this time, though.

The food diary portion of the application is well… a little underwhelming in my opinion.

We haven’t played with this feature too much yet, and honestly, we’re not too tempted considering there’s no way to count calories. We’ve used other apps to compare our caloric intake to our ideal goal (at least 3k calories a day), and the fact that such a simple feature is missing makes us feel like we’d gain little from the UP app’s inclusion of a food log. Maybe once this feature becomes more robust, we’ll be more likely to keep up with it.

Game mechanics are a huge portion to an offering such as the UP, and I feel they currently fall a little short.

We agree with Shawn here, and don’t like how simply accepting a challenge means others who accepted the challenge can suddenly see your progress. We’d prefer “private” challenges that don’t involved any reporting, or at the very least, allow users to select a username instead of their registered (true) name. Sure, the public feed only uses first names, but we’d still prefer a nickname.

The problem of the food log and the game mechanics points at the one flaw the UP currently has, and that’s a very simplistic piece of software. If Jawbone maintains a regular release schedule of updates and bug fixes, however, we can truly see the pair being a useful lifestyle assistant for some time to come.

More thoughts to follow as we spend more time with our new bracelet.

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Firstly, Jawbone products are good. Sure, we had problems with the Jawbone 2 earpiece because of a particular weak link, but overall their products are stylish and innovative. We don’t use a bluetooth headset at the moment, but we did receive the Jawbone Jambox as a birthday gift this year, and we love it. When we heard about Jawbone’s Up device, which tracks lifestyle actions, we were immediately intrigued, because we knew the engineering behind it would be good, and better than devices like the FitBit that the Up challenges for market space. Which brings us to our second point: the Up is a bracelet, which means there’s no need to hang it from your belt, waist, or pocket. Instead, it sits on your arm where, unless you’re a bracelet aficionado, is likely bare at the moment anyway; a perfect place for a device that tracks what you’re doing.

Scary Orwellian conspiracy theories about user tracking aside, the Up is the perfect N=1 logging system. Not only does it track your movement, but you can configure it to ensure you’re getting enough of it by having the Up remind you to move. This follows Cornell’s findings about sitting and standing at work. We use a standing desk at home, and tried one at work for several weeks, and while we believe it definitely has its merits, there’s something to be said for simply moving more; standing around, while perhaps beneficial in certain areas, is simply not as good as getting the opportunity to move. Regardless of what desk type you use, the Up can remind you to get more movement in, as it will vibrate to alert you when it senses minimal movement for a particular amount of time.

At night, we’ve relied on the iPhone Sleep Cycle app as our alarm clock for well over a year. The concept is simple: the app tracks movement in the bed using the iPhone’s hardware, and will set off your morning alarm up to half-an-hour before your alarm was set to go off, based on your movement patterns. In other words, if it senses movement 30 minutes before your alarm is supposed to go off, indicating that you’re likely no longer in a deep sleep, the alarm will go off. Otherwise, it will wait within that 30-minute window and sound the alarm when it does notice movement. Worst case scenario, the alarm will go off at the time you set it to, but in our use, we’ve rarely run into that problem, and always hear the alarm a little early, suggesting that the app is working as intended.

The problem with Sleep Cycle is that it requires the iPhone to be sitting on the bed, so it’s detection of movement isn’t as precise as if the iPhone were attached to your body. Some people may also not like the idea of their iPhone sitting next to their head all night, what with all those radio waves. More practically, the iPhone can be pushed off the bed, or your bed is too small for you, your partner, your cats, and all those pillows. Or maybe, -something- iOS 5 will cause Sleep Cycle to crash, or you’ll somehow accidentally exit the app by pushing the Home button. In any case, Sleep Cycle is obviously not perfect, and much of these faults are addressed by the Up, since you wear it 24/7. And, like Sleep Cycle, the Up will track your natural sleep pattern based on your movement at night, and wake you up with a vibration once it notices you’re no longer fast asleep.

Available Sunday in the basic colours,¹ the Up will replace Sleep Timer for us, and hopefully serve to better track our sleep. The software also offers “challenges”, which are novelty proposals to get you to do something you otherwise might not, whether that’s simply moving more, or getting enough sleep.² And further, the Up software includes a food log, which we hope that Jawbone expands to include calorie tracking. We hope to pick up the Jawbone Up this weekend, and write more about our experiences with it in the upcoming weeks. If we can tie this experiment in with paleo/primal living, even better.

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Talking about stands for the iPad that would work just as well regardless of iPad orientation, and regardless of whether your work surface is a tabletop or your lap, we proposed a unique design back in May:

…a more convenient accessory for the iPad would be a well-designed “clip” that attaches to Apple’s bluetooth keyboard with a stand for the iPad in either orientation. This would be a fairly small gadget, would complement existing iPad accessories, and allow one to use the iPad in a lap environment without forcing the user into a given orientation. There are several accessories that exist to incorporate a physical keyboard into an iPad user’s workflow, but nothing yet that’s this versatile which maintains the iPad’s flexibility for supreme mobility when a physical keyboard isn’t needed.

Shortly after we wrote that, we placed an order for the InCase Origami Workstation, which we’ve used ever since. Our only complaint with the InCase solution is that because the Origami Workstation wraps around Apple’s bluetooth keyboard, there’s wasted space in our briefcase when we travel. Before, the bluetooth keyboard could be slid between papers, or sit battery-side down against the briefcase wall, but with the Origami Workstation wrapped around it, the keyboard is a larger “wedge” that takes up more room. It’s not a huge deal, but when space in the briefcase is at a premium, we’d prefer a smaller footprint.¹

Fortunately, there’s a solution on the horizon that’s a much closer match to what we described back in May. Before funding ended, we managed to support Kickstarter project WINGStand, which is a two-part clip system that attaches to an Apple bluetooth keyboard, allowing you to rest an iOS device on the resulting stand. As soon as our WINGStand arrives, we’ll be sure to comment on real-world use. But, if you missed the Kickstarter campaign and can’t wait to pick one up now, there’s a web site set up to take orders.

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Last year, we talked about heat issues with the iPhone 3GS. That was before we got an iPhone 4, which may very well have better heat dissipation than the 3GS, but not by enough. One of the reasons we wanted a white iPhone 4 was because the surface would reflect more light and thus help, even if minimally, with internal heat buildup.

As far as motorcycling goes, the iPhone 4 isn’t much better in high-temperature environments than the 3GS was. We tend to use the iPhone 4 in a soft case attached to our motorcycle’s handlebars, where a silicone front allows us to control the phone even with our gloves on.¹ The problems remains, however, with heat building up in this case, even when the case is not fully zipped to allow some hot air to escape. We’re not convinced that even outside of a case, the iPhone wouldn’t overheat if it’s in direct view of the sun; even in the shade, the iPhone 4, in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, gets quite hot under use, be that simply talking on the phone, or running an application making use of 3D graphics (like our GPS app).

Suffice to say, using the iPhone 4 as a year-round GPS device on a motorcycle still leaves much to be desired. We’ve explored several case alternatives, but as far as all-weather cases go, most have their issues:

• They don’t allow touch-screen access while the phone is inside.
• They have poor attachment points for use on a motorcycle.
• They tend to produce heat build-up.

A possible option is to forgo all-weather cases and use the iPhone 4 as a GPS device only when the weather is expected to be good, which means not going on trips requiring a GPS when even the slightest chance of rain is possible. We could then mount the iPhone 4 in a way that allows a good part of the iPhone 4 to be exposed to the environment, which should help with heat dissipation. Still, the iPhone 4 may still overheat when directly in the sun.

We’re considering the Mirage 2 windshield for our F800GS, which comes with a GPS-mounting panel. We could hack it up to mount the iPhone 4, and possibly even throw something together that would be water-resistant. The problem is putting something together that could be modified later for future iPhone models, so we don’t need to buy a whole new Mirage 2 platform when we upgrade our phone. Since the GPS panel on the Mirage 2 seems like it has some depth to it, we could potentially throw a cooling fan on the inside, to help cool the iPhone.

We’re still curious how others have mounted their iPhones to their motorcycles, and how well they worked in high-temperature (above 80 degrees fahrenheit).

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Our 2G iPhone, operating exclusively on T-Mobile, once started having issues making/receiving phone calls, and when a call was able to connect, it was quickly dropped. To determine whether the problem was with our iPhone or T-Mobile, we put our SIM back into our aging Sony Ericcson T610 backup phone, and verified that it, too, had issues. So, we took the Sony into a local T-Mobile store, explained the problem, and had our SIM card replaced. Everything worked again.

Fast forward a few years and we’re on an AT&T family plan with two lines. One phone is an iPhone 3GS, and the other an iPhone 4. Despite the fact that both phones have been working fine in our house for the last year, suddenly neither phone can reliably make or receive a call at home, and calls that do connect drop after about a minute or two. The problem showed up one weekend, seemed to have gone away, and suddenly came back later in the week. We’ve had dropped calls with AT&T before, but nothing like this.

AT&T customer support said they could “send a reset signal” to both phones in an attempt to reset the SIM cards, but that the phones would have to be off in order to do this, else the SIM cards could be damaged. This sounded ridiculous, and we ultimately passed to see if the problem went away on its own, which it did for a day or so. When it returned, we took our phones into the local AT&T store, and asked them if they could reset our SIM cards, or outright replace them. The fact that this was happening to both our phones convinced us this wasn’t an issue with Apple hardware, and just to cover all our bases, we made sure that both phones were running the latest iOS version.

So AT&T agreed to replace our SIM cards, but the customer representative wasn’t too sure this would fix our problem. So, he gave us a free AT&T microcell, which normally retails for $200. We didn’t need to sign a contract extension or anything, as apparently other people were having signal problems in our town. Mind you, our phones don’t have signal issues most of the time; we’re routinely at four bars in our home, and even when we experienced the dropped calls, the signal strength wasn’t dropping (based on the iPhone display). Still, the AT&T representative suggested we try the microcell out and see if it fixed our problems.

When we got home, it appeared that the SIM card replacement did the trick. The 3GS held a call for some time, but then the call abruptly dropped, and from then on, wouldn’t maintain a connection. We tried the iPhone 4, and it seemed to work, but then after a short while, it too started failing. This was all while we waited for our microcell to register with AT&T, a process that the instruction manual says can take around 90 minutes.

When the microcell went live, we noticed two things:

1. We were at five bars.
2. Call problems seemed to be gone.

Strangely, we also noticed that sometimes, a phone would drop the microcell signal and jump back onto the cell tower signal. We speculate that this is because our microcell is located in our basement, at a window (albeit with a view of the sky). Placing the microcell in the basement was necessary because that’s where our FIOS box is, along with our Apple TimeCapsule. We don’t have a problem with a wireless signal in our house (though it’s admittedly boosted on the first floor thanks to an Apple Airport Express), and usually, the microcell signal is still giving us five bars on the second floor of our house.

So the microcell appears to have fixed our problem, but it’s still too early to tell, as the issues we were having came and went before, too. What we can say is that the microcell appears to be a nice option if AT&T signal strength is normally poor, but it’s at the expense of bandwidth¹. We’re concerned with the phones switching between the microcell and nearby cell tower (which is about a mile away), and why sometimes, the complete signal is dropped.

Has anyone had similar issues with AT&T connectivity? It’s strange that this problem appeared spontaneously, and that it hasn’t been consistent. No outages were reported by AT&T customer service, either.

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The iPhone Blog posted a poll today asking how people tend to use the iPhone’s virtual keyboard, and surprisingly, after 3k votes, portrait-based use is currently in the lead. We guess that this is based primarily on the amount of screen real-estate left after the virtual keyboard is displayed, as the landscape keyboard hides so much of the screen. If the same poll were held for the iPad, we would assume the results to be different: the landscape keyboard, while still hiding more of the screen than the portrait-based version, still leaves enough showing that enough of the working document can be seen to still be useful. Further, the iPad, simply being a larger device, lends itself better to a higher quantity of words typed, whereas the iPhone is generally used more for quick snippets of data input.

The fact that the iPad’s landscape-based keyboard is more popular is evidenced by the number of cases and stands that put the iPad in a landscape orientation in which the rear of the device is slightly elevated. This makes sense from a matter of comfort, but what if the user wants to use a physical keyboard? In this scenario, Apple’s bluetooth implementation works splendidly, allowing users a platform much better suited for considerable text input, if only for the tactile feedback of a real keyboard. The problem with this setup is that because most accessories are built around the landscape-based virtual keyboard as the ideal method for data input, users are typically forced to keep their iPads in landscape orientation, even when a physical keyboard is used.

Take Apple’s Smart Cover, for example. It works as a great stand for when the iPad is to be propped up in landscape view, effectively emulating the screen of a notebook computer. The Smart Cover is not, however, smart enough to realize that some users prefer portrait orientation when using a physical keyboard¹. Often, we wish our Smart Cover didn’t fold up on the long-side of the iPad, but rather the short-side, which would allow us to have a portrait-based stand. The Smart Cover is only one example, however: look at the enormous number of case options for the iPad, and see how many of them work well as a stand in portrait view.

The forced-use of landscape orientation remains problematic when using the iPad on a lap alongside a physical keyboard: people’s laps simply aren’t long enough to accommodate both devices when the iPad is oriented for a portrait view². Some stands, like the official Apple iPad dock, are designed specifically for portrait view, because the dock connector is at the bottom. This is the option we opted for with our original iPad, but we didn’t replace the dock when we moved to an iPad 2 because the dock is oddly-shaped for travel, and serves a very niche purpose; for lap use, like when we’re lounging on the couch, the iPad dock is useless³.

Kickstarter project goDock attempts to solve the issue of multiple-orientation-use of the iPad on one’s lap. Unlike most keyboard/iPad cases that lock the screen in landscape orientation, the goDock is more of a sleeve that holds both an iPad and a keyboard, and then allows the user to place the iPad into an insert in either orientation, effectively simulating a notebook computer experience, albeit with the flexibility of adjusting screen orientation. The goDock is a unique accessory, and would replace one’s current iPad sleeve, which isn’t necessarily fitting for everyone⁴.

We can’t help but think that a more convenient accessory for the iPad would be a well-designed “clip” that attaches to Apple’s bluetooth keyboard with a stand for the iPad in either orientation. This would be a fairly small gadget, would complement existing iPad accessories, and allow one to use the iPad in a lap environment without forcing the user into a given orientation. There are several accessories that exist to incorporate a physical keyboard into an iPad user’s workflow, but nothing yet that’s this versatile which maintains the iPad’s flexibility for supreme mobility when a physical keyboard isn’t needed.

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One of the common quips about the iPad is that it’s nothing more than a “large iPod Touch.” It’s a statement the naysayers are fond of making, along with those who lash out at anything made by Apple as though Microsoft were still the only developer putting out a useful, solid operation system anymore; it’s not 1999, people.

We’ve now had an iPad since Friday, the day the 3G iPads were released, and we’re quite happy with it as a replacement for our now-sold 17″ Macbook Pro. We’ve fielded numerous questions, but the most common is, “Why would someone want an iPad?” And that’s a loaded question, because it comes with a pre-established bias. But let’s answer it anyway: “Maybe you don’t. Not everyone would.”

That answer isn’t side-stepping the argument, either. The reality is, if you’re already happy with an existing portable computer, or you don’t need a portable computer in the first place, then the iPad isn’t for you, just as a roadster isn’t the ideal car for a family of four. If you’re in the market for a portable computer, however, and what you need it to do is the same thing 99% of computer users need a computer for, then the iPad fits the bill splendidly. It’s a fantastic entertainment and news device, is great for writing, and the distribution system for apps makes the iPad a headache-free device which you won’t need to reformat every six months because something’s broken.

And for techies who need the latest and greatest, and have the disposable income to make that need a reality, then the iPad is an obvious choice over an existing sub-notebook: it’s snappier, has a great app library w/associated distribution system, has a longer battery life, and has a data connection built in.

With four days of iPad use behind us, we’re not disappointed with the device at all, and look forward to the benefits that OS 4.0 will bring later this year. One side-effect of using the iPad, however, is our changed perception of using the iPhone. Quite simply, the iPhone no longer feels as revolutionary, or as spectacular, as before. Indeed, we’re making an effort to not run iPhone apps on the iPad, because most simply don’t look great when scaled up. That’s not to say that the iPhone still isn’t the best smartphone on the market, but merely that the iPhone now feels more like a phone with cool features, and less like a backup computing device; the iPhone feels almost cluttered now, what with its dense app icon distribution on the SpringBoard, and the lack of “whitespace” in apps.

In this respect, the iPad has set for the computing industry a new standard. What early, greyscale sub-notebooks were to their later, more powerful notebook brethren, the iPod Touch is to the iPad. In other words, the iPad isn’t a big iPod Touch, in much the same way the modern Mini Cooper isn’t just a bigger version of the old Mini. Yes, there are keen visual similarities, but one was effectively a prototype for the other. In the end, the Touch is a smaller, more restricted version of the iPad, which is a more apt description if any can be made, and it pinpoints the answer to the aforementioned question as to why one would want an iPad: early iPod adopters didn’t ask why they should pick up an iPod instead of one of the many non-Apple mp3 players on the market. Rather, the reason was obvious: the iPod was better, not because it offered much more functionality, but because it was highly polished. Those who didn’t see this would end up buying an iPod a year or three later. Same with the iPad: if you don’t get it now, just wait a couple years when the early-adopters have made the reasoning all to clear.

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We love this quote by Ed Finkler, which we spied over at Daring Fireball:

When folks need an elevator, we should give them an elevator, not an airplane. We’ve been giving them airplanes for 30 years, and then laughing at them for being too stupid to fly them right.

Finkler pretty much identifies what’s so great about the iPad. Not necessarily for power users, but for the non-computer nerds out there (i.e. 99% of the populace). An interesting thing we noticed is that most people (Apple fans and otherwise) weren’t particularly enthralled by the iPad when it was officially announced last month, but many have warmed to the idea since, despite the fact that Apple hasn’t revealed anything further on the device.

The iPad is already being called a “task-oriented” device, rather than what most computers are today: complex, prone to user-induced slow-down, and a great method to run multiple tasks at once. The benefit to this latter factor, however, remains questionable, and it’s certainly not a stipulation that 99% of the population needs.

The “old way” of thinking, insofar as computer development goes, is to build upon what’s already been done. Look at Microsoft: how many iterations of DOS were there before Windows, and how long did it take before Windows 95 stood on its own with DOS as a secondary consideration? And even though a windowing system made more sense to the average computer user, it wasn’t necessarily less complicated, because the underlying system was still exposed to a degree. Even OS X, which we consider the most usable desktop OS for the non-nerd isn’t entirely sensible out-of-box. For instance, we haven’t met a new OS X user yet who understands without our mention that closing a window in OS X doesn’t close the program. It’s not just as case of “Fuck, multitasking is hard,” nor one of simply staying attuned to visual indicators on the dock that a given applications, even sans windows, is still resident in memory. It’s an issue of multitasking (that is, at the user level) being mostly unnecessary in the first place. So why burden the user with cleaning up finite memory space, when all they want to do is write a letter while listening to some music in the background?

Why’d consoles become the gaming platform of choice when PC gaming offered better gaming opportunities well before, say, first person shooters (FPS) ever grabbed the public’s attention? How many now-legendary FPS traveled through gamers’ hard drives before Goldeneye became a flashing success on the Nintendo 64? PC gaming didn’t catch on because it was difficult, not in the gameplay sense, but in the setup sense. Under DOS, it wasn’t just a matter of installing a game, it was a matter of wrangling enough free memory to play it. For those of who who can’t remember tweaking the shit out of config.sys and autoexec.bat, you have no idea what lengths gamers will go through just to play the awesomest title ever. Messing with those two files became an art, one that’s now lost to time.

The point is, when it comes to consoles, you pop a disc or cartridge into the console, and can start gaming only moments later. When it comes to mundane computer tasks like laying out some pictures to send as a homemade Christmas card, users shouldn’t have to jump through a half-dozen screens just to install a new program after coming home from the computer store. Nor should they have to worry that once they’re done, they’ve left something running that will slow their computer to a crawl days later, because it ends up being one of ten things they didn’t realize stayed running in the background.

The iPad is simple. All apps come from one place, and that place doesn’t require any physical travel. There’s no messing with a file system hierarchy, and when you leave a program, it’s closed down or simply doesn’t affect other tasks in the background. It’s not only simple, but straightforward.

A machine for everyone.

We’ve said before that the iPad should serve most computer users admirably, without the need for another computer. Truth is, it’s not just grandma and grandpa who could benefit from the iPad. If you think about it, most college students can do everything they need to with an iPad also. The only stipulation are those who study computers and need more oomph, like Computer Science majors who need a platform they can develop on. For everyone else, the only potential obstacle is specialized software, but with the power behind the A4, we’d argue that most specialized applications could probably be ported to the iPad without issue. How long before CAD programs, analytical software, etc makes it onto the AppStore? Sure, there will always be a small segment of the computer-using populace that will have to rely on an incredibly specific software package that the respective developer refuses to port, but with accessibility the AppStore offers, and the support Apple provides for an external iPad keyboard, the sky is ultimately the limit for most programs.

While some applications will still shine brighter if they can be run on systems with larger screen sizes, this too isn’t necessarily an issue: an A/V cable may provide video-out for just these types of applications. For everyone else, including those who currently rely on 13″ screens for daily work, the iPad is already capable of serving as a lightweight workhorse. And for those that do need more powerful machines, there’s always the local school lab, office computer, etc.

If the iPad proves itself successful (and we think it will), it’s only a matter of time before the iPhone/iPad platform is expanded to devices with larger screens. For all we know, the iPhone heralded the birth of a new computer interface altogether, and it may not be more than a couple years before Apple’s primary computer lineup looks more like the iPad, and less like a Macbook.

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We weren’t exactly surprised with Apple’s revealing of the iPad today. Aside from our dislike of “iPad,” the device does look pretty good, though it’s clearly not as revolutionary as many people hoped. While usage reports are sure to trickle in soon, we’ll take this time to look back at the post we made last week on what we thought the iPad should have, likely wouldn’t, and what would be nice for Apple to include.

Our must-haves.

Readable screen size: Check. As expected, the iPad sports a 9.7″ screen, just under the 10″ rumoured size. When we first saw the iPad in Steve Jobs’ hands, we actually thought it looked bigger. From the virtual keyboard size alone, we think the screen size is adequate, though admit that the virtual keyboard takes up an awful lot of room in landscape mode.

User-defined multitasking: Sadly, no mention of this was made. This is perhaps our biggest let-down with the iPad reveal, because jumping back and forth between apps and the springboard is cumbersome at best. Fortunately, with Backgrounder already existing on the iPhone and iPod Touch, once a proper exploit is found on the iPad, we can assuredly rely on the dev-team or other hacking group to come up with a homebrew solution. Still, a pity Apple didn’t announce additional multitasking for the iPad out-of-box.

Update: A key point some people have made is that while multitasking wasn’t featured in Apple’s presentation today, there’s no reason that Apple couldn’t reveal multitasking in the 4.0 OS announcement in a couple months. Remember that the presentation today was all about the iPad itself, not intricacies of the OS.

Decent text-input: We were bummed with the idea of having to rely purely on the virtual keyboard for text input, because though the size of the keyboard in landscape mode looks adequate, it takes up too much of the screen. Losing almost 50% of one’s screen-realestate in a 9.7″ display is losing a lot. When we saw images of the virtual keyboard in vertical mode, however, with the new iPad Pages app up, it looked like there was still plenty of screen left to preview written content. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if the keyboard in this mode is large enough for quick typing.

Of course, with the announcement of an iPad dock/keyboard accessory, our desire for the iPad grew considerably. We’d still be happier with iPad integration with a bluetooth keyboard, but until the jailbreak community gets BTStack or similar running on the iPad, we can certainly live with an Apple accessory, even if it will only work with the iPad.

Update: The word from the blogosphere is that any bluetooth keyboard can be used with the iPad, so one doesn’t need to buy an iPad-specific keyboard. We wonder if this means that iPhones will support bluetooth keyboards also. Better yet, from the pictures we’ve seen with the dock keyboard attached, the virtual keyboard does indeed disappear. Assuming the same is true for linked bluetooth keyboards, the iPad will truly be a bloggers wet-dream, multitasking aside.

Our need-nots.

Cellular data connection: The iPad will be released in wifi-only versions (in 60 days) and in wifi/3G versions (in 90 days). Proof that Apple doesn’t consider 3G a necessity for the iPad, but more of a luxury. Of the units that will sport 3G, the iPads will be unlocked, with an initial data offering via pre-pad AT&T. We have no qualms with this other than the lack of tethering support with an iPhone. With a 250MB plan for $15/month or unlimited for $30/month, we’d expect a discount for existing AT&T subscribers, or at least a discount if we’re tethering with an iPhone. Alas, tethering doesn’t even seem to be an option yet, but perhaps more will come to light in upcoming weeks as AT&T makes their own iPad/tethering announcement.

Also, for those of you who thought Verizon would come in to save the day: we told you so.

GPS: We didn’t think it would happen, and Apple only mentioned the existence of a compass. No real surprise here, since the iPad is too big to use as a standard GPS device.

Ports: We’re looking at an iPod connector here, to tether the iPad to one’s Mac computer. Not really unexpected.

Our nice-to-haves.

No desktop tethering: The iPod connector means that the iPad is still designed to hook into a full version of iTunes to serve up non-iTunes media, which is a disappointment. On the other hand, with the keyboard dock, the iPad can easily become a stand-alone computer for many people, including grandma and grandpa, who probably don’t care about importing their home media library anyway. The downside for many is that the largest storage offered for the iPad is 64GB, and with no external storage options, this means that for power-users, desktop tethering is still mandatory. Overall, it’s rather surprising that more storage wasn’t offered in an even more expensive model, but 64GB is more than enough for general travel.

Front-facing camera: The iPad has no camera at all, which is pretty much what we expected. Lack of a front-facing camera, though, will be a disappointment to many. One of the nice things about the MacBook line is the integrated iSight camera, which is a huge boon for professionals to still be able to see their kids while on the road. We entirely expect to see an integrated iSight in a future iPad model, but maybe Apple just wants to role out big features at a time, especially since they still want to position the MacBook line as a mobile product for professionals.

Greater cloud connectivity: No mention of the iPad’s use of the cloud was made, though we naturally expect the device to leverage Mobile Me in the same way the iPhone does, and definitely expect iPad versions of existing Mobile Me apps to be released around the time the iPad ships.

Conclusion

With the exception of more multitasking, our expectations were pretty much dead-on for what Apple thought was important and what wasn’t. We’re surprised at just how accurate some of the purported “leaks” were in the past several weeks, and how bad some of the hype got. Overall, we think the iPad is a decent version-one product, with definite room for growth. We’re disappointed at the lack of data tethering with an iPhone, and would prefer to see bluetooth keyboard connectivity, and even an iSight, but none of these are excuses not to get an iPad. As a device for writing on-the-go, the iPad seems to fit the bill pretty well, and is a traveler’s dream, coming in at half the weight of the MacBook Air. While the iPad won’t replace a full-on Mac just yet, Apple did well in positioning the iPad between its Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch products, adding yet another Apple gadget to our lives.

For us, the iPad probably will replace our MacBook, though only if we pick up, say, a Mac Mini also as a sort of server for handling some of our larger media files. The big question for us now is whether we want to wait for a 3G iPad, or if we’d be plenty happy with a wifi-only version.

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