Apple’s new legalize in their latest SDK seems to not only kill Flash, but hint at the possible removal of many frameworks like Unity3d. I can’t say for sure how true that is, but that would be a huge blow to developers. It seems Apple wants you to do it all the hard way. Using only XCode and Objective-C. I guess some folks think that this will result in better quality programs, because it’s written in their native language. Being a programmer myself that is the most stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard. There’s plenty of CRAP apps in their App Store written entirely without frameworks in Objective-C. So, the excuse of better because it’s in their native tongue holds little weight in my opinion. It’s disappointing to think that I could have jumped onto Flash Actionscript and built an app or game for the iPhone, doing so would have been so much faster for me. Especially considering that I’m not very well versed in OpenGL-ES, nor do I really want to be. I don’t dream about writing 3d game engines, and having seen the amount of Objective-C code that’s required to put a 2D box on the screen at the Big Nerd Ranch was enough to make me run for the door. I want to be able to make what I envision into a reality without having to outsource my development or hire highly skilled specialized programmers. The other point raised by folks is that Apple doesn’t want you to cross-platform develop, which I can see too, but it’s not very fair to force developers to choose like that. Yes, there are lots of iPhones and iPads, but to say you can only choose one isn’t right. It’s like asking a child you can only choose your mom or your dad.

In the end, so far Apple has managed to make enemies of Google and Adobe, and alienated some developers. It saddens me to see this happen, because I see so much potential in the platform, when you consider what things people have done with jail broken iPhones, it’s a missed opportunity. I’ve been witnessing for some time a change in how Apple’s attitude. They’ve become quite the opposite of it’s roots, when they were gunning for the corporate giants like Microsoft and IBM. Now that they themselves have become this bloated beast of a corporation, much like their old enemies, they don’t need to embrace customers or developers. “Just suck it up or go elsewhere”, seems to be their stance, and I guess there’s enough people out there keeping Apple afloat that they can maintain that stance. It’s times like this that reinforces why I would like to love Apple, but I can’t because they keep pulling stupid shit like this.

There are better articles written on Ars Technica, TheFlashBlog, and TUAW.

Unboxing and Initial Impressions

I won’t bore you all with how cool the box is, because well, it’s a box, and true to Apple, it’s minimalistic, and the iPad fit in almost completely edge to edge in the box. It’s interesting to note that the box is padded to make it taller, which I guess is to make it more store shelf friendly, otherwise it would be a pretty thin box.

Holding the device for the first time, I was treated to the usual Apple quality I’ve come accustomed to. The iPad is well made. The back is the same type of metal used in their laptops, so durability shouldn’t be and issue. When I first saw images of the iPad, I thought the bezel around the device looked ugly, and an unnecessary design option, but upon holding the device, it turns out it does have a purpose, which is to be a place to put your thumb, something that didn’t need considering for the iPhone due to it’s smaller size. In general, to no one’s surprise, it looks like a big iPod Touch, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Apps and Impressions on Using the iPad

Upon turning it on, I was surprised to see that the battery was fully charged, and was pretty much ready to use, well almost, you still need to hook it up to iTunes first, but after that, it was ready to go. I hooked it up to my wireless network with ease, and synced some of my apps to the phone. I hit Safari and surfed around to some sites and typed out a few messages. I am very impressed with the new form factor, the size of the iPad makes a very big difference in it’s usability. Compared to the cramped quarters of my iPhone, the iPad is a pleasure to use. Typing on the larger on screen keyboard feels more like typing on a real keyboard, I can actually use more than one finger to type! I always suspected that the new form factor would really make this device successful, and so far, it’s proving true, everything feels so much better to use!

I loaded a bunch of my iPhone apps on, just to see how they would work. Navigon, Metal Gear Solid, Time Crisis, Tetris, Facebook and a few others. My son put the iPad to the test with Kid’s vs Zombies, and it works quite well, although he complained about the screen shrinking back down to 1x size from the 2x size option. But I think that’s because he unknowingly hits the little button on the lower right that enlarges the iPhone app. Navigon threw me back to the desktop when I touched the Show Map button, so I guess the iPad doesn’t have a full fledge GPS in it (someone correct me if I’m wrong, I didn’t bother looking that spec up). Facebook worked like a charm, and Tetris played pretty nice.

Overall, the iPad is a pretty impressive device, but honestly, I can’t call it the magical and revolutionary device Apple’s marketing touts it is. Will this device fail? No, honestly, I can’t see that. Mainly because, even though Apple didn’t make me the tablet I wanted, they were smart in leveraging the large developer community fostered by the iPhone, because honestly, it was the developers that helped make the iPhone the monster it is today, and these same developers will do the same for the iPad.

Next thing for me to do now is update my SDK, and see if I can start making some apps for this new platform, and see what other things I can make this thing do.