So yesterday was the big iPad pre-order day, and it sounds like lots of folks around the web were eagerly waiting to give Apple their money in advance for the upcoming iPad [Product page]. We we’re in that group of people, though not necessarily just because we like to give Apple money. We wanted to be sure to bring our readers coverage on this device which will inevitably be (and already has been) an influence on the tablet boom that we’re seeing. If you’d like to pre-order your very own iPad, Apple is now ready and willing to take your money. We should be getting ours on April 3rd, so be sure to stop back and check it out.

One new bit of info on the iPad front is that the switch on the side, above the volume rocker — that everyone presumed was a mute switch — is actually an orientation lock. If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch in bed or while laying on a couch, you’ll know that it can be annoying if you want to lay sideways and read the page. The screen will auto-rate to landscape view, despite the fact that you want it in portrait. So it’s good to know that Apple added the switch to lock the auto-rotation for these sorts of situations.

So yesterday was the big iPad pre-order day, and it sounds like lots of folks around the web were eagerly waiting to give Apple their money in advance for the upcoming iPad [Product page]. We we’re in that group of people, though not necessarily just because we like to give Apple money. We wanted to be sure to bring our readers coverage on this device which will inevitably be (and already has been) an influence on the tablet boom that we’re seeing. If you’d like to pre-order your very own iPad, Apple is now ready and willing to take your money. We should be getting ours on April 3rd, so be sure to stop back and check it out.

One new bit of info on the iPad front is that the switch on the side, above the volume rocker — that everyone presumed was a mute switch — is actually an orientation lock. If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch in bed or while laying on a couch, you’ll know that it can be annoying if you want to lay sideways and read the page. The screen will auto-rate to landscape view, despite the fact that you want it in portrait. So it’s good to know that Apple added the switch to lock the auto-rotation for these sorts of situations.

I just finished an overview post on the ever-interesting Notion Ink Adam slate over at Carrypad.com. As I researched the slate, I came away rather impressed with it. While we have yet to see production models, what Notion Ink claims to be bringing to the table with the Adam could very well surpass the iPad [Product page] in terms of power/battery life/features is this a result of a small company’s ability to take risks that a large company couldn’t afford?

Most of us are all too familiar with Apple’s practices. Step one for Apple usually involves boiling a product concept down and identifying key uses. Next, they design the product around those key uses and make sure that it works very well for them. Finally they produce a well polished product that generally brings existing hardware together with streamlined software in a way that outshines most products in the category, but because the device is designed around specific uses, they often force their users to do things their way.

Then along comes a relatively small company like Notion Ink. I’ve got to imagine that being small allows them to respond quickly to changes in the market as they are developing their product, which affords them the ability them to incorporate some bleeding-edge hardware (like a dual-core Cortex A-9 CPU, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, and Pixel Qi display.) Additionally, being open about the development of their device leaves the door open for feedback and constructive criticism which will all end up improving the final product.

It’s unlikely that Notion Ink will sell even half as many Adam slates as Apple sells iPads, but I feel that they have a shot at stealing relatively large chunk of would-be iPad users by being bold enough to include things like a swiveling camera and a rear trackpad. Of course much of this potential will be lost if the price isn’t right — as well as how long it takes them to get it to market (neither of which have been announced officially.)

And let’s not forget that both of these devices could fail pretty easily if their OSKs don’t function adequately.

I think this is a big opportunity for Notion Ink, and I really hope they are able to delivery everything that they have been claiming with this product. What do you think, dear reader? Would you take the Adam over the iPad if you could pick either for the same price? Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments below.

Maybe I haven’t been digging deeply enough, but I have seen anyone even mention this annoyance. I’m already a paying iPhone/AT&T customer, and I pay $30/month just for the 3G data component of my cellular bill. In fact, if you are an iPhone user, you are required to have the 3G data plan, which supposedly affords you “unlimited inch data. When you really look at the fine print, unlimited in today’s carrier vernacular generally means a 5GB/month cap on data, but still, I’m paying for those 5GBs of data, I should be able to use them as I please, right?

Yet, if I buy a 3G equipped iPad, the only way for me to use the cellular data is to pay an additional $30/month to AT&T, despite the fact that I’m already paying this fee for one device. Shouldn’t it make sense to be able to tether from my iPhone to the iPad to share the “unlimited inch data that I already have? Why on earth would someone need to pay for something that is unlimited… twice.

Way back in July of last year, I wrote about why I didn’t think it made sense for Apple to launch a tablet with any carrier at all, let alone Verizon as it was rumored at the time. Briefly — in that article I made the point that releasing the tablet with the capability to tether to an iPhone through bluetooth would increase the ability for Apple to market the device to existing iPhone users, instead of asking them to sign up for another plan. I still think this idea makes sense, and Apple may have actually considered it, but in the end AT&T probably wouldn’t have any of it as they are major jerks when it comes to tethering.

If you consider the sheer number of iPhones out there, you’ll see why it makes a lot more sense from Apple’s point of view to allow tethering from an iPhone to an iPad, rather than asking users to sign up for an additional data plan. Apple has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 million iPhone’s. Sure, not all of those are in use, but there are a lot of people out there who are already on AT&T with their iPhone and their required $30/month “unlimited inch data plan. I’d say that all of those people are less likely to buy a 3G equipped iPad than someone who is not already paying for a cellular data plan.

If Apple went the tethering route, they could have reversed this situation. Instead of owning an iPhone (and subsequently already paying for a data plan) and being less likely to purchase an iPad because of it, iPhone users would actually be more likely to purchase an iPad because they’d be encouraged through the idea that they could simply tether and use their existing data plan to connect to 3G with their iPad.

If the past is anything to go by, there is a good chance that the ever active iPhone hacking community will figure something out for tethering to the iPad, though an official solution would be much appreciated, and make sense on a number of levels.

OK, they didn’t actually mention Origami once but as they talk around the target usage scenarios for the iPad, all I hear is praise for the market that, just a few months ago was a non-starter and is exactly what Origami was aiming for. The true personal computer is here, the sofa tablet is here, the comfortable web experience is here, the consumer-centric OS is here and it’s everything that Microsoft was aiming for with Origami but couldn’t deliver because they were 4 years to early. Technology and operating systems couldn’t turn their dream into reality and it died in a concept called Haiku.

Of course, now that the space between 4 and 10 inch is news, everyone is happy to praise it’s potential. Oh brother!

Despite my moaning (really, I should have shouted louder three years ago!,) the round table that was recorded on the Charlie Rose show (U.S. public broadcast) is a good one.

Charlie Rose had The Wall Street Journal/All Things D’s Walt Mossberg, The New York Times’ David Carr and our own Michael Arrington on his show Thursday night to talk about the Apple iPad

Source: Charlie Rose. Via:Techcrunch

Jenn of Pocketables.net pointed out today in a tweet that Apple is advertising the iPhone as a multitasking device. On the “Why you’ll love the iPhone” page, we see the following quote:

And since iPhone multitasks, you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

The way that they’ve worded it is indeed true. The iPhone can make calls and use a single application while doing so, however, Apple is pretty clearly playing with the concept of multitasking here, and almost seems to be trying to annoy critics who frequently cite the multitasking argument when talking about the iPhone. It is almost as if Apple is saying “Well technically…”

Apple/AT&T usually reserve the “ability to make calls and use the web at the same time” gambit for criticizing Verizon’s network, but here they’ve used it in a whole different light.

If the above scenario constitutes a multitasking phone, then just about everything, including the lights that are lighting the room in which I’m sitting, could claim to be able to multitask. The lights, of course, have the revered ability to “produce light and heat at the same time”, so yeah… the iPhone multitasks about as well as a light bulb. Even the earth has the impressive ability to not only rotate around the sun, but also revolve around it’s axis at the same time.

Jenn of Pocketables.net pointed out today in a tweet that Apple is advertising the iPhone as a multitasking device. On the “Why you’ll love the iPhone inch page, we see the following quote:

And since iPhone multitasks, you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

The way that they’ve worded it is indeed true. The iPhone can make calls and use a single application while doing so, however, Apple is pretty clearly playing with the concept of multitasking here, and almost seems to be trying to annoy critics who frequently cite the multitasking argument when talking about the iPhone. It is almost as if Apple is saying “Well technically… inch

Apple/AT&T usually reserve the “ability to make calls and use the web at the same time inch gambit for criticizing Verizon’s network, but here they’ve used it in a whole different light.

If the above scenario constitutes a multitasking phone, then just about everything, including the lights that are lighting the room in which I’m sitting, could claim to be able to multitask. The lights, of course, have the revered ability to “produce light and heat at the same time inch, so yeah… the iPhone multitasks about as well as a light bulb. Even the earth has the impressive ability to not only rotate around the sun, but also revolve around it’s axis at the same time.

More than the actual product itself, I was excited for Apple’s iPad unveiling because I was waiting for them to show the world their innovative solution to input on a large keyboard-less device. I was very surprised to find that they didn’t offer anything innovative. Instead, the iPad uses a simple iPhone style keyboard (albeit a larger one). The inability to efficiently input text on these large slates is going to be responsible for their extinction.

The companies making these big slates, in an attempt to justify the slow keyboard input, would like us to think that slates are all about content consumption. And surely they are; larger slates will be great for feeling like the web is in your hands. But there is a certain degree of input that will always be necessary to access the content that we’d like to consume (until computers can read our minds, that is…) and people will always want to be able to effectively write short messages when they are connected to the web. My iPhone is all about consumption of web content as well, and I type on it all the time. From tasks, to tweets, good input is a necessity.

Apple changed the landscape of mobile devices by realizing that a well designed on-screen-keyboard (OSK) could have serious benefits, such as being able to remove the keyboard when it wasn’t being used, and being able to dedicate the entire screen to the content.

A good OSK works great with a device that is small enough for one’s thumbs to reach nearly all the way across the screen. The nature of a thumb-board means that only two digits are in the way of the screen, offering great visibility, which is very important for an OSK because of the obvious lack of tactile information. Even the way that the device is held makes the OSK thumb-board concept work well — thumbs come in from the side and are naturally lifted away from the screen allowing the user to see the next key that will be pressed.

As the size of slates increases, people start doing that awkward thumb stretch to try to reach a key that is out of range. In order to do the thumb stretch maneuver, one must change up the grip on their device just to hit one key, then switch it back when they are finished. This slows down the rate of input and starts to break down the overall experience of using the device.

The real issue is when slates get so big that thumb typing isn’t even viable. How can one use something like the iPad while walking? The only way seems to be holding the device with one hand and poking at the keyboard with the index finger with the other. Even if the iPad is sitting in one’s lap, trying to touch-type on an OSK will be a pain. Why? For a few reasons; the first of which is visibility. While the grip on a small mobile device means that thumbs can move quickly and effectively away from the screen, attempting to lay your hands on a large slate with an OSK will sufficiently block the keyboard from view.

What’s more, there are no palm rests on these devices. The experience is not going to be comparable to typing on a physical keyboard. Many of these slates shooting for the edge-to-edge screen look, leaving no room for one to rest their hands if the objective is to touch-type with the OSK. What is someone to do, float their hands above the screen and touch it only with their fingers when they type? If the only alternative is typing with a single finger, users will be begging for something better.

Apple may have anticipated some of this typing frustration by also announcing two accessories which both aim to assist the user in typing. One was a dock that has a keyboard, and the other is a case which props the device up on an angle which is supposed to make the device easier to type on. While these might reduce the annoyance of poor input, accessories and add-ons are not a final solution to the problem. These two accessories, unveiled in the same announcement as the iPad, show that Apple realizes that typing on the iPad is a weakness. Eventually, users may be asking “Why do I have to dock my device to use a decent keyboard? Why isn’t there a better way? inch

A well designed OSK is a major blessing for a small device with a screen size that makes it thumb-typeable, but once you get out of the screen-size range that enables thumb-typing, input will become painfully slow. The door is left open for someone to come up with a good alternative solution to giant OSKs. I’d like to say that written input would be a good one, but that’s already been done quite well on the tablet PC platform, but somehow hasn’t managed to catch on.