I have an aunt that has never had a computer in her entire life. The only kind she has ever used were the Apple II computers in the elementary school lab before retiring from teaching. But, she’s recently started mentioning that she wants a notebook computer to write letters to her friends. I have an old iBook from 2001 that I was going to set up for her but it turned out to be dead. I planned to set her up with a Power Mac since it was the only other Mac I have that I don’t really use.
And then Apple announced the iPad.
It will be just about perfect for my aunt and other people like her. I don’t think I am going out on a limb by saying that no one makes an easier to use computer than the iPhone and iPod touch. My two and a half year old daughter is able to use an iPod touch to do just about anything she wants. She plays her favorite Pixar movies (Finding Nemo is her current favorite), looks at family photos, and plays great educational games like Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. My daughter is able to accomplish all of this because with the iPhone she is directly interacting with objects on the screen. There is very little about using the iPhone OS that is abstract – unlike the Mac or Windows. This is great for people that aren’t very familiar with computers. They don’t have to learn any of the conventions associated with traditional windows, icons, and pointer user interfaces. There is no need to know when to single click, double click, or right click. Just tap. Need to make something larger? Stretch it with your fingers. Flick across a web page the same way you would a piece of paper on a smooth table top.
My aunt wanted a notebook computer so that she could move around her house with it. She didn’t want to have to sit in the same chair at the same desk to write letters. The iPad will give her all of the mobility that a notebook would. But when she isn’t using it to type on, she’ll be able to use it in positions she’s familiar with. She can read the local newspaper’s website on the kitchen table just as she would with a newspaper. She can sit in a comfortable chair in her living room and read a book. And she can look at photos of her grand-nieces and grand-nephew anywhere in the house. Even if they were taken only minutes earlier halfway across the state.
For the times that she is typing, however, Apple offers a keyboard dock. When Apple first revealed the keyboard dock I thought it was pretty lame and that I would just use a Bluetooth wireless keyboard. But, after thinking about it, the keyboard dock is perfect for people like my aunt. With it you can use the iPad at a desk just like an iMac or MacBook. And, unlike a Bluetooth keyboard, it doesn’t require batteries! The keyboard dock will serve as a nice place to store the iPad while not in use and it’ll also charge the iPad’s internal battery.
What about the Internet? If I had given her my old iBook or Power Mac, she would have had to sign up for Internet service from one of her local providers. That starts at $20 per month in her area and at that price it’s slower than AT&T 3G. She would also most likely need to get a wireless base station that would add even more to the expense. Not to mention the added complexity of setting up and managing a base station and finding a place for it and the modem that it has to connect to. Most likely, she wouldn’t have bothered and her letters would have been sent only by the postal service instead of e-mail. With the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G, she’ll be able to access the Internet for $15 a month. And if she decides she doesn’t always need Internet access she can just not pay for the next month and resume service whenever she wants. Because the Internet access that AT&T will offer for the iPad is pre-paid and doesn’t require a contract. I really do think that this wireless deal with its low cost of entry and ease of use could be revolutionary.
There are details about the iPad that we don’t know about at this point. And a few of them may be show-stoppers for people that are looking to use an iPad as their only computer. People will want to be able to update to the latest and greatest system software and they’ll need to be able to backup the data on their iPad. I don’t think these two things will be an issue for my aunt, though. A great way to work around these two issues (assuming Apple won’t have their own solution by the time they release the iPad) will be for her to visit her sister, my mother, every now and then and sync the iPad with iTunes. iTunes will check to make sure the software is up-to-date and will create a backup just like it does with the iPhone.
I’m excited to see how the iPad affects the future of computing or takes us past computing. It’ll be interesting to see people who have never used computers before – older generations like my aunt and younger generations like my daughter – interact with the iPad. Watching them use it as their only real experience with a PC will be like looking at a character out of a science-fiction movie.
