So I spent a good portion of last night in the apple store.
I played with the new MacBook pro, and I really have to say I'm disappointed in it. The 13" looks and feels nice. But it's still a core2duo, which is very dated at this point in time. The 15" costs as much as the 17" with the features I want, and the 17" looks plain, as they made no use of all the extra real estate. It has sharp edges. I could totally see myself getting cut when I accidentally stab my leg with it. The touchpad...feels clunky. And even osx just felt cluttered. Their biggest mistake in it all is skirting around the question of 3d. The site says enough for you to go "wait, does this do 3d?" No confirmation is anywhere to be found. If it does support 3d they are fools for not having at least one machine setup in the apple store demoing it. If it doesn't. The site shouldn't make mention of it's performance with 3d games.
The iPad on the other hand, I spent quite some time with one. This little device is clearly designed for the casual. Casual computer user. Casual gamer. Casual photo user. Just, "The Casual". Again, it has sharp edges I could see actually hurting myself with. The screen is beautiful, and right there in the palm of your hands. Plants vs zombies has never looked better. Unfortunately. It feels very "gen 1". I crashed the first one I picked up within a minute. It did not care for the weather app that auto loads radar; and if you confuse the buttons while that's loading. Well. The iPad was very iSad. The keyboard. Was atrocious. After much attempts at typing I began to really wonder how they even designed it. Am I supposed to hunt and peck? Or am I supposed to two finger type? It's obviously not designed for touch typing. Which is what it looks like it should do. I think it may be designed for one handed typing, which on qwerty is pretty painful, especially with their doc writer, or email client. Anything of more than a few lines is going to suck to write.
The best feature, I would say, is the scrolling. The pinching. The finger gestures. They really mastered that. For 90% of the apps. The one app where it lags behind your finger swipes? The book reader. Yeah. Only the most important app if you want to have any pretense of competing with other ebook readers on the market.
But, after having seen, touched one. I can honestly say where they truthfully failed was in their ability to see the future. To innovate. Or just to pay attention to the transformations happening in the world. The second I loaded plants vs zombies. I knew. They missed their opportunity. This device. Should have been glasses free 3d. No question, that would have been easily doable. No question. It would have given the iPad a reason for existing. It would have ushered people into the 3d revolution that is coming. And likely coming....this year. So yeah. In 6 months when 3d is all the rage. Why would anyone buy an iPad. Even Nintendo knows this is the way of the future. What with the 3d DS coming. Apple could have been the first. Now, they're late to the game by at least 2 years. Assuming rev 2 of the iPad will fix the basic bugs they have. And rev 3 may consider 3d. Probably won't master it till rev 4. 3 years late. Grats, apple, for not seeing farther than your nose.
