Mac Memos

Admittedly, it’s easier for Canadians to control their gadget lust for nifty, new products like Apple’s iPad. We’ll get it later, it will cost more and we will have more expensive phone and data plans.

Nevertheless, there might be an iPad in my future. Maybe next year. Or sooner if a second generation shows up sooner. (I don’t know what they have left out of the first generation, but the second generation will be more complete, I think.)

I like the size, the fact that it can run iWork apps, has a mic and speakers. It does WiFi internet, but (unsurprisingly) no Flash. The screen is LED, the battery life claim is up to 10 hours and the resolution is a very respectable 1024×768.

Gaming is of no interest to me and I would have liked a camera, but I hope that the iPad will enable reading of library books as well as the titles from the iBook Store. It can do enough to be of interest to me, that’s for sure.

There will be extras to buy… I’d like Bluetooth earphones rather than corded ones and I think the dock/keyboard thing would be a must, even though there are virtual keyboards onscreen. There’s a cover/stand that will be needed, too.

U.S. prices are $500, $600 and $700 for 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB machines, respectively. Add the cost of the extras, the cost of connectivity and the temptation to buy instantly from Apple’s various Stores and you have a potential threat to your personal economy.

Adobe’s dim view

Obviously Adobe doesn’t like being shut out on iPads and iPods, so here is how they like to show the iPad experience of the internet. Broken plugin icons are all you get on web pages showing Flash video. They have a good point, but maybe iPads are just not powerful enough to process Flash video.

I think it’s more than that, though. I think its a control thing. If Flash was fully functional on an iPad, developers could deliver Flash applications directly. Control has allowed Apple to avoid many of the reliability problems that Microsoft has suffered, so the strategy does have user benefits.

Anyway, Flash CS5 will be able to compile Flash apps into native iPhone/iTouch apps.

I still wish the iPad could do Flash video, though. The HTML5 H.264 video experiments on YouTube and Vimeo are choppy in comparison.