The iPad is a fickle creature. It’s been bullied, tormented and taunted ever since it came out to play, which was only a few hours ago. It’s hard to imagine that this would have been the reaction to the fabled Apple tablet computer. Rather than review the device, which I’ll save until I have one, I’ll review the generally negative reactions people have been giving to it.

The majority of all the complaints with the iPad stem from the iPhone OS which it runs on. In 2007, what we saw today would have been revolutionary, fresh and new. By virtue of the fact that we’ve seen the fundamental interface before, people are instantly disappointed. I think it’s worth putting the iPad in perspective not as an Apple product, but as an entry into the new tablet category. So far, the serious tablet contenders we’ve seen have been running Android OS and Windows 7. Looking at these platforms, both have their inherent flaws. Android apps won’t run perfectly on every device due to it’s open code nature. The variety of screen sizes means that some will be incompatible, or just look odd. Windows 7 tablets bring all of the baggage you have on your regular computer. Security needs, maintenance etc. Additionally, Windows was never designed to be fully touch based. You would find yourself needing a stylus eventually.

Next to Android and Windows, the iPhone OS on the iPad starts looking much better. Sure, it may not be saving kittens from trees or rescuing puppies from burning buildings, but it’s far better than the competition. iPad Mail, or Outlook on a Windows PC tablet? iPad music player, or the desktop iTunes software?

I’m starting to look at the iPad as I looked at the iPhone at first. There are problems with it that are purely software based and could so easily be fixed. Multitasking: software. That huge, empty, begging-to-be-filled lock screen: software. Flash Player: software. Let’s not forget that we still have WWDC coming up in the middle of the year, with iPhone OS 4.0 bound to make an appearance. While I do admit that the lack of any camera was a massive disappointment, we all know exactly why Apple didn’t put one it: iPad 2.

Comparing the iPad to the iPhone once again, the iPad starts its life with one major advantage; a well developed SDK and base of developers ready to write the next great app. I have no doubt that all the familiar apps will make there way onto the app store in a new iPad flavor. Things, Tweetie, Facebook, countless news apps and games will all be rewritten for the iPad. It’s just a matter of patience. I’m confident that given time, the iPad will become as appealing as the iPhone.

The tablet computer category will slowly find its place as time goes on, possibly even replacing netbooks. While the iPad isn’t groundbreaking, it is a product we already know and realize will be a joy to use. At this point, I think Apple is doing what they do best and trying to define a category that is clearly a mess. Who knows, maybe Apple will eventually put the full OS X on future iPads. But for now, I know that I would rather put my money towards an iPad than a PC Slate running Windows 7, Norton Antivirus, iTunes, Internet Explorer and the Kindle Desktop Software.

- iPhone App of the Week

Serenade

It’s become all the rage to post what music you’re currently listening to. Whether to Facebook or Twitter, Serenade can fulfill your social need to express your individuality. This app is slim, sleek and simple to use. Just open the app with a song playing and it will gather the song info and a link to its iTunes Store page. With one tap you’ve posted it to Twitter or Facebook either with or without your personal message attached.

It even has some other nifty features built it including a karaoke mode, the ability to copy the song information and the iTunes like to the clipboard and a sort of instant playlist feature. Best of all, it’s free!

Price: Free

Link to iTunes Store page

Apple has continued to update some minor features of the iTunes store, this time the layout of App pages. The app information is now displayed above the screenshots, which is more in line with the positioning of iTunes Notes for music. The screenshots themselves are not arranged in a scrollable line instead of the previous ‘click to advance’ method. Again in line with the way music pages are laid out, the user rating for each app now appears down the a left hand column, along with the basic app information. Finally, the app icon in the top left hand corner is larger.

Voila! One newly refreshed app page layout.

iTunes Preview All

- From what I can tell, this is a new feature in the iTunes Store. I don’t know how long it’s been there but I certainly haven’t noticed it. It may have been added in 9.0.3. If anyone knows, tell me? Regardless, it’s a welcome addition to iTunes. Until now I’ve thought it silly that you have to preview songs individually, especially considering that Apple would be more concerned with selling albums than single songs. With one click, you can now preview all songs on an album in succession. Simple!

YAY it’s here!!!!!

After clicking on ‘Check for Update’ button in iTunes and getting ‘iPhone Activation Servers are currently unavailable’ for around ten minutes I finally managed to download and install the iPhone 3.0 software!

You all know the new advertised features, so I’m not going to bother with those. After using it for a day, I’ve made a short list of the undocumented changes for your viewing pleasure. Have any more? Leave a comment!

• Closing application animation now fades out as it minimizes
• Phone and iPod icons changed, stripes added
• Lists scroll smoother
• Smaller ‘Now Playing’ text on the lock screen
• Artist and album information now available along with song title on the lock screen (brought up with a double click of the home button)
• Encrypted iPhone backups
• Song/podcast scrubber now has fine tuning abilities, hold scrubber and drag down to change scrub speed
• Beverage vender

Have fun with iPhone 3.0!

I don’t think they’ll like an advertisement for a competitor to iTunes and the iPhone sitting directly next to their store.

The Palm Pre will be able to sync with iTunes? Nice work Palm! Just keep continuing to aggravate the company which threatened to sue you at the drop of a hat. Good can only come of that right?

As if Apple is going to let this slide. If Palm are tricking iTunes into thinking the Pre is an iPod, Apple will quickly find a solution to stop them.

I also love how Palm say “iTunes syncing is compatible with iTunes 8.1.1”.

What they mean to say is “Don’t expect this to work with 8.1.2”.

ARGH! I know, it’s a Zune!

Don’t worry, I didn’t go out and buy one. I’m in Australia, I can’t. But I did download and try the software on Windows 7!

So here’s my short review: iTunes is better.

Why you ask? It’s completely the user interface’s fault. You know the iTunes interface as a simple, sleek and highly usable. It’s not cluttered, it’s very unified and everything is going to be where you expect no matter what part of the software you navigate to.

I think of the Zune Software like this: it’s fine. Yes it’s totally usable and I could live with it. It has all the features of iTunes (minus the apps and ringtones). It even has some features better than iTunes. The Now Playing window in the Zune Software is pretty cool. Using the Zune.net social network, it grabs data and photos (similar to the Last.fm artist profiles) of the artist you are listening to and turns them into a fantastic screensaver like display. It’s far superior to the iTunes visualizers.

The problem I have is that the Zune software window is like a canvas. Any time you click into a new section, the user interface is wiped away and replaced with something completely different. You click from the Artists tab to the Album tab, and everything moves around. This is incredibly frustrating! While the iTunes sidebar is always there, the Browser is always there whether you’re looking at podcasts, music or movies, Zune doesn’t follow a unified browsing UI! To be fare, it’s something that I could get used to. It’s just something I don’t want to.

The user interface is gorgeous, I’ll put that out there now. Great graphics, great animations. Herein lies the problem. The animations are infuriatingly bad. Not the animations themselves but the rendering. When ever you change tabs, the UI you were looking at glides gracefully out and the new UI glides gracefully in. But the text! Oh god the text! It’s terribly rendered! The animation is fairly short, but not instant. So when the text is blurry and unreadable for about two seconds while it re-renders properly, I feel like bashing my head against the keyboard. How, after three versions of the software can’t the font render properly?

iTunes doesn’t employ fancy animations or transitions, but it is fast and properly rendered! For me, I would gladly ditch the animations and UI of the Zune Software (which doesn’t even follow Microsoft’s design principle) for the ease of use, simplicity and unity of iTunes.

Plus, I have an iPhone. I have no choice.

Finally, another Microsoft ad!

I’m not going to bitch about this one! I like subscription music services. I wish that iTunes had one. For a poor, poor student like me, paying for every song is impractical and costly (which is what the ad says).

What I find funny is Microsoft saying “Filling an iPod costs $30,000”. Well, technically yes. But let’s look at the other blatantly obvious solution to fill an iPod that cost nothing. It’s going to be the first natural reaction of students to start yelling “LIMEWIRE AND TORRENTS!” when they see this ad.

What Microsoft has done by throwing such a large number at the viewer is remind them that there is an even cheaper way to get music, be it illegally. I know when I was watching this ad I was going “Holy crap $30,000?!” and not “Wow! Look at that! Only $15 a month to fill my Zune”. I was totally distracted by the $30,000 that my train of thought didn’t click over to their product, but went from one extreme to the other; bit torrent.

I admire Microsoft for using this method to try and sell music, but it won’t work. Sorry, My generation has been brought up with the idea in our head that music is just a file on our iPods. Microsoft telling us how much it would normally cost to fill them only ingrains our desire to get music the cheapest way possible.

Oh, and I love how the guy in the ad is labeled, “Certified Financial Planner”. Wow! Now I’m totally reassured!

Twitterrific 2 (iTunes Link) is out for the iPhone and iPod Touch!

Twitterrific was my first twitter client for the desktop and the iPhone. Like many people, the lack of feature support made me leave it behind for Tweetie on both platforms. With this new sexy release, will I switch back?

It’s a rhetorical question. I can’t answer it myself yet because I haven’t used it yet!