This morning I received the following email starting with “Dear John Dillinger, Welcome to the Apple Online Store”.

Four odd facts about this email:

1. My name is not the same as that of an infamous 1930s criminal (John Dillinger).
2. I never signed up for Apple’s services with that particular (old) email account (antonio@*******.it).
3. The email isn’t phishing; it arrived from Apple, and the links are all legitimate Apple.com links.
4. Plenty of other people have reported having the same thing happen to them.

OK, so what? Somebody hacked my old email address, right? Well, possibly, but let’s not jump to conclusions quite that quickly.

This old email account of mine runs via Google Apps for Business; it uses an extremely strong password (30+ random characters), and shows no signs of having been accessed by other people or IP addresses in the Google details for the account. No DNS changes have been made either at a domain level. I’m not claiming that it wasn’t hacked, but there aren’t strong signs to suggest as much.

I logged into the inbox for this account and noticed that Apple had only sent the one welcome email. When you signup for an Apple ID, you are supposed to receive an email confirmation link. I received none (unless the account was actually hacked and the person deleted every trace of such email). Odd.

I requested a password reset for that account, and in turn Apple sent me the link. I reset the password and was able to log in. The email address resulted as being verified. Furthermore, no details were present in the account other than the fake name (again, John Dillinger), my old email address, and US being listed as the country (I’m in Canada, not the States). This is strange because normally you can’t register an Apple ID without providing information such as your address, a security question, and your date of birth.

Two possibilities jump to mind:

1. The malicious individual managed to find a way to create Apple IDs by using scraped email addresses (but without the actual need to have access to those inboxes).
2. The malicious individual has gained access to third party email addresses.

I say scraped because even open source mailing lists have been receiving such emails.

Even in the second case, they still managed to register an Apple ID without providing any details to Apple. I can imagine this happening due to one of the Apple Store bugs or something along those lines, rather than the web interface.

Either way, I’m pretty certain it is not something Apple wants to have happen or find desirable. If you were able to do this, it would be fairly trivial and not overly time consuming to create lots of fake, but legittimate looking, accounts to boost the reviews of an app or other nefarious purposes. No need to even pay those $0.15 to microworkers to create fake accounts.

When I called Apple – flu, cough and fever be damned – they told me that I should reset the password (which I had already done). I asked if they could ban or delete the fraudulent account. The customer service agent on the line told me that they won’t do that and that I can’t delete the account myself.

So I, and presumably many other people like me, will be left wondering if “John Dillinger” has a trick up his sleeve to reset the Apple ID password himself or otherwise manage to control and use an account that is associated with one of my email addresses. The idea that Apple is OK with having fraudulent, unaccountable accounts like that is pretty absurd. We’ll see if this post helps clarify and perhaps fix the issue.

Possibly related posts:

1. Apple “Genius”
2. The Apple approach (aka first impressions of the MacBook Pro)
3. My visit to the Apple Store

When I first learned about it, I cried. That was an odd reaction on my part. I never met or interacted with Steve Jobs and I’m not what most would define as an Apple fanboy.

I reflected upon what led me to shed tears for someone who was, technically, a stranger to me and came to realize that Steve Jobs affected and inspired my life far more that I cared to admit.

My deep sadness wasn’t just for a relatively young person who died and left a grieving family behind. It was sadness for the loss of a visionary leader who relentlessly showed us the art of what’s possible. I couldn’t help but feel the sudden end of an era. No “one more thing” left to anticipate with excitement and curiosity.

Steve didn’t personally create or invent many of Apple’s products, but he ensured that the end results we managed to get our hands on were nothing short of inspiring. He was a visionary for countless consumers, developers, entrepreneurs, and even competitors.

He managed to inspire a whole industry, while doing what he truly loved. Millions of entrepreneurs world wide have been inspired to do the same as a result of his work. This may be his greatest legacy and something that will live on in all of us long after his passing.

Goodbye, Steve, and thank you for everything.

Credit: Matt Yohe

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I’m very much impressed by the number of people developing for Android. Not far off from iOS. I also find it remarkable that Windows Phone has more developers, among this particular group of developers, than BlackBerry OS.

This isn’t a scientific survey in any way, but nevertheless it gives us an interesting insight into the world of mobile development.

What are your thoughts? Is there anything that surprises you about these results?

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I’m no stranger to mobile operating systems (you know the rules, and so do I). I own an iPod Touch and an iPad, and have a history with pocket sized devices that goes all the way back to primitive PDAs from a decade ago. That said, this was my first modern smartphone.

My first impression, contrary to a lot of what I’ve read online, is that Android is a remarkable operating system. I’m sure my experience would have been much less positive had I opted for a cheap, old device and not a state of the art, blazingly fast dual core smartphone. With proper hardware though, Android is a beauty to use.

I’ve been putting the phone to the test for the past few days and not once I experienced a lock up, screen freeze, reboot, connection dropped or any of the problems I read about months ago while researching Android smartphones online.

Everything runs extremely fast and is responsive without any glitches, from applications and games to 1080p HD content. (I compared my model’s playback capabilities with those of a colleague’s Nexus S, and we found his device to be choppy when playing HD content.)

The quality and quantity of applications I tried so far has been remarkably good. There are no doubt fewer apps than at the Apple App Store, and the ecosystem may currently be less profitable for developers; nevertheless, I have not felt left behind by the Android Marketplace so far. My bank doesn’t have an official app for Android yet, but that’s about it. (They do for iOS.)

The operating system feels organized and well thought out, and its integration with Google’s services is really the killer feature for me. Having tried it, I’m not sure I’d be willing to give up this level of integration if I had to switch to an iPhone in the future. (Assuming it wasn’t possible there as well.)

Things like the ability to edit my contacts in Gmail, and have them automatically appear as my phone contacts (including avatars) are small details that ensure the experience is very pleasant, and they’re making me grow fonder and fonder of the OS. Everything is very configurable. For example, I’ve set my phone so that it only shows me contacts for which a phone number has been stored.

The touch screen keyboard works flawlessly with extreme accuracy, despite my chubby fingers. Surprisingly, I make less errors with Android than on my iPod Touch, despite both devices being roughly the same size. Even my ridiculously complicated passwords were relatively easy to enter.

To be honest with you, I went into this thinking that Android was a runner up I was forced to choose due to the limited number of mobile carriers that support the iPhone here in Canada. Now though, I’m becoming ever happier that I was coerced into trying Android.

It’s amazing how quickly I’ve become accustomed to having this little computer in my pocket. I was afraid it would go unused, that the screen would be too small to read on, and similar concerns. Thankfully, be it the sharp display or the internet in your pocket factor, I’ve not been into anything so much since I switched to Mac a few years ago.

I feel like I have only explored 10% of what Android lets you accomplish, and it’s continually surprising to find more new features and plenty of nice, elegant touches.

Owning this device has allowed me to experience what Android is really all about firsthand, and having done so, it’s darn near impossible not to become enthusiastic about it.

A lot of what I’ve read in the past is puzzlingly different from my own experience. It was either FUD, second-hand opinions, or perhaps Android (and the devices’ hardware) have drastically improved in the past few months so as to significantly affect the user experience.

As more people try it out, I have no doubt that Android will become pervasive, and not just on smartphones and tablets, but also in new environments like your TV, home and car. The prospective of making such environments programmable is very appealing to one’s inner hacker, too.

Android gets two big thumbs up from me, and I have to say, things are looking pretty good for Android right now. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

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Why buy an ebook reader?

One of the benefits that most appeals to me about having an ebook reader is that it means I no longer have to wait several days (or even weeks) for books I order to arrive. When a given book catches my eye, I can buy it on the spot and generally read it in the same amount of time or less that it would have taken for the printed version to arrive in the mail.

This immediacy factor is a major plus for me, and it’s not just limited to the delivery time side of things. Kindle ebooks are often available a week or two before their printed versions hit the shelves, which grants me the ability to read them before they become available in stores.

The Kindle store also allows me to read a free chapter from each book. This is a useful feature that has already spared me several times from buying books that appealed to me at first glance, but which I wasn’t too keen on once I’d actually started reading them (here, as always, the good old expression don’t judge a book by its cover rings true).

Another thing to consider is the wealth of books that are available in electronic format only that you can read on ebook devices. When dealing with such books, an ebook reader becomes a much handier, cheaper, and eco-friendly alternative to printing the book yourself or having it printed by an on-demand service.

Another point regarding ebook readers that I wholeheartedly enjoy is the fact that if I encounter a large article on the web that I’d rather read “offline”, I’m able to save and automatically download it (using a service such as Instapaper or the Klip.me extension for Chrome) to my ebook reader, then read it later at my convenience (sans the reflective glare of my laptop screen).

Lastly, all of these factors have definitely increased the overall amount of reading that I do these days.

Which ebook reader?

Understanding the appeal of ebook readers is easy. The tougher point is figuring out “which one is right for me?”. Personally, I wanted to have access to the Kindle store. As such the two best options for my needs were the Kindle DX and the iPad (which has an app for that). I say Kindle DX, and not regular Kindle, because I also like to read technical books and articles which benefit from the larger screen that the DX packs.

After thoroughly researching numerous ebook readers, I went with the Kindle DX. However, as luck would have it, a couple of months after doing so, a friend gave me a brand new iPad Wifi + 3G as a gift (awesome friend, no?).

This means that I’m now in the (I’m assuming) relatively rare position of owning both of these devices, and as such I’ve been able to draw some interesting comparisons. Granted the following are just my thoughts on the subject, but I hope that they’ll be of value to those who are trying to find the right ebook reader for their own needs and are debating between the Kindle DX and the iPad.

Price

The Kindle DX currently costs a little under $400, whereas the 3G equivalent version of the iPad will run you at least $600. As you can see, the iPad is clearly the more expensive device, particularly if you plan on using a 3G internet plan (I’ll touch on this more later in this piece).

Weight

The Kindle DX weighs 1.13 lb (540 g) versus the iPad’s weight of 1.6 lb (730 g). While neither is going to risk being confused with a feather any time soon, they both relatively light and easy to hold. However, that half a pound difference in weight is something that one notices during periods of extensive use. Please note that the actual weight is a bit higher than these numbers, as you need to factor in the non-negligible weight of a protective case for either device. For the Kindle DX I use the leather cover produced by Amazon, while for the iPad I opted for the Incase Book Jacket. Both are excellent, even though the Incase is bulkier (and arguably offers better protection).

Device size

The Kindle DX sports the following dimensions: 10.4 (h) x 7.2 (w) x 0.38 (d) inches. The iPad on the other hand is 9.56 (h) x 7.47 (w) x 0.5 (d) inches. As you can see the Kindle DX is slightly longer and narrower, as well as quite a bit thinner. In my opinion, this makes it both easier to handle and more ergonomic.

Display

Despite the different geometry of the two devices, both feature a display that is 9.7 inches (diagonally). However, the similarity between the two screens ends here. The Kindle DX totes an E Ink Pearl display that is light grey and is supposed to mimic the feeling of printed paper. It has a 1200 x 824 pixel resolution at 150 ppi, with a 16-level gray scale, and a 10:1 contrast ratio.

Conversely the iPad features a shiny multi-touch, LED-backlit IPS LCD with a resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels, a scratch-resistant coating, and millions of colors.

The Rails 3 Tutorial on the iPad

The Kindle DX’s display is visible in sunlight, whereas the iPad’s reflective surface is much harder to see in bright light (it’s akin to using a high-quality, glossy laptop screen in the sun). If you plan on doing a lot of reading outside, you’ll find that the Kindle DX is often a much better option (in fact, Amazon capitalized on this in one of their commercials, and they really do have a point).

As you can see, we’re dealing with two very different displays, each of which is clearly optimized and well designed for (somewhat) different uses.

The Rails 3 Tutorial on the Kindle DX

Battery

The battery life is generally good for both devices. If fully charged, the Kindle DX can last up to 3 weeks with the wireless switched off (and about a week with the wifi on). The iPad’s duration is much harder to estimate, given that it depends heavily on your usage habits and settings. I’ve found that in my case, with fairly intensive usage, a sufficiently bright screen, and push notifications enabled, my battery will last for around 10 hours.

The difference in battery life clearly gives the Kindle DX an edge, yet keep in mind that if you turn off your Kindle DX and don’t use it for a while (e.g., a month), you’ll still have to recharge your battery when you go to use it again.

The iPad doesn’t have this issue, and you’ll usually find the battery charge level to where you left it when you last turned your device off. It’s also worth noting that the iPad lasts about a month in stand-by mode, provided push notifications are disabled.

Kindle DX Vs. iPad for users with special needs

If you are considering which device works best for someone with a limited range of motion, I would suggest trying them both in person. The iPad can turn the page with a single tap of the screen, while the Kindle DX requires a decent push of a button. One great feature that both devices sport is their ability to read text aloud, which is something that may appeal to a broad range of users (as this feature essentially turns any book or document into an audio book).

3G Connection and Internet Surfing

If you buy the 3G model of either the Kindle DX or the iPad, you’ll be able to connect to the internet from virtually anywhere you encouncter 3G reception. The 3G service provided by Amazon is free and is included in the price of the device (and each book that you download). There are no monthly fees associated with operating this device.

The iPad Wifi + 3G accepts a micro-SIM card that allows you to buy a monthly service which charges you based on the data plan you choose (depending on your country, this means an extra $10-50/mo).

While this point may look like a big advantage for the Kindle DX, don’t get too excited about it. The iPad is a stunning device for casual browsing. Its Safari-based browser enables you to visit a substantial percentage of websites without encountering any problems (Flash based websites are a notable exception, however there are dedicated apps if you want to use sites like YouTube).

This blog on the iPad

The Kindle DX’s browsing experience is admittedly experimental and rudimentary at best. If, goodness forbid, you suddenly needed to avail of the internet so as to save your life, you can reach it via the Kindle DX. However for casual web browsing, the DX leaves much to be desired.

This blog on the Kindle DX

I really cannot stress the massive difference in internet capabilities between these two devices enough (definitely a matter of night and day).

Ebook Formats

The iPad can read virtually any type of format, whereas the Kindle DX is limited to PDF, text, and .mobi documents. Amazon can convert PDFs and other documents (though you can also do so yourself with free software programs like the crash-prone Calibre), but the results are usually less than stellar (if layout changes take place during the conversion).

Interestingly, you can request a free conversion of any document by sending an email to your_registered_id@free.kindle.com. In turn you’ll receive an .awz document (essentially a .mobi file) back by email in very little time, and you can also have it delivered directly to your device via 3G for a small fee.

Reading technical PDFs

I personally use my Kindle DX to read technical and scientific books and articles all the time. These are often in PDF format, unless I buy them from the Kindle Store.

The readability of PDFs is generally good, including advanced diagrams and figures. The font may be a bit too small for some users though if the original book or magazine was much larger than the DX’s screen.

With the “native” Amazon files one buys from the Kindle Store, it’s possible to zoom in by simply increasing the font size. If you change the font size, the whole layout will usually readjust accordingly and simply leave fewer lines (of text) on each page. The font range spans from extremely small to extra large, so there’s a comfortable size to be had for most users.

With PDFs, this is not the case. The Kindle DX offers zooming, however in this case you zoom in like you do on an image. Furthermore, the DX’s zooming is limited to a portion of the screen. For example, zooming at 150% with the current built-in PDF Viewer, you need to pick either the left or right side of the page and then enlarge the view based on that point of view. As a result, you’re no longer able to see the whole page at glance in many cases. (In other words, PDF zooming is less than desirable when using the Kindle, unless you’re trying to zoom in on a specific image or diagram. Because of this point, I practically never zoom when using my DX.)

The awkward 150% PDF zoom on the Kindle DX (Book: Authoring eBooks)

Generally, if a PDF has an original format that is far larger than the default format for my Kindle DX, I simply opt for a conversion. To be fair, I don’t need to do this often at all, but it’s something I felt was worth pointing out.

PDFs show up fairly well on the iPad and look much as they do when you view them on your laptop (except on a smaller screen). With a pinch-and-release gesture you can zoom in and out, and drag the portion of the page around very interactively.

Zooming wise, the iPad has a clear edge over the Kindle DX.

Reading experience

I find the reading experience to be much nicer, and above all easier on my eyes, when I use the Kindle DX. Portability aside, I don’t see much difference between reading on my laptop screen or reading on the iPad. It’s just an LCD screen, and I don’t find it to be ideal for intensive reading sessions with larger sized material such as a books, magazines, or very long articles.

The concept of interactive books that are available in the App Store is certainly intriguing, but for my reading habits this option doesn’t justify preferring the iPad over the Kindle DX (solely) as a reading device.

Generally speaking I really like the the Unix tools approach which aims to do one one thing and one thing only, excellently. While this approach may not be practical for hardware devices, in the case of the Kindle DX I love that’s it’s pretty much just a dedicated ebook reader that allows me to concentrate on reading, distraction free.

When I’m spending time with the Kindle DX, I don’t feel the urge to check my email or do other activities. When I sit down with it, I read (much as if I was holding a paper book). And that’s plenty good for me.

A typical technical ebook (PDF) on the Kindle DX (Book: Math Better Explained)

Non-reading activities

The Kindle DX offers some non-reading features, like its rudimentary browser and the ability to annotate passages from a book then share them on Twitter – it can even play some basic games like Scrabble (an all-time favorite of my wife and I on the iPad). That said, it’s absolutely not worth considering this device based on those extra features, as they all pale in comparison to what the iPad can do.

The iPad is truly a mobile computing device that’s well suited to perform a myriad of different tasks. It has become my leisure machine, which I use for great apps like Flipboard (to stay up-to-date with other people are reading or twitting). I also use it to play casual games (like the aforementioned Scrabble), and I turn to it during times when I don’t need to be hyper-productive, and can instead focus on casually browsing or checking and replying to my email. Other uses that come to mind are watching movies on the go, checking the stats of my sites – and yes, even reading, which I usually do through the browser or Reeder (my favorite feed reader).

Conclusion (and a few last thoughts on which device to buy)

To summarize, selecting between the Kindle DX and the iPad may not be the easiest of decisions for many buyers. The choice really comes down to what you want to do with your reader. If you simply want a reading device, and can live with the fact that it won’t do much else, then picking the Kindle DX is the way to go (it’s cheaper and it boasts a significantly better reading display).

Both of these devices are terrific though. Honestly, it’s not a matter of one being flat out better than the other, each has it’s pros and cons, as outlined in this article. Personally, I almost always end up doing serious reading with the Kindle DX, and casual surfing and lightweight productivity tasks on the iPad (this arrangement, while admittedly an expensive one, works well for me).

Interestingly, the limited scope of the Kindle DX may be a blessing in disguise, as it means you won’t encounter as many distractions (such as games, having a beautiful web experience at your fingertips, and other alluring distractions that come part and parcel with the iPad).

If, on the other hand, you want a device that makes reading on the go possible and still grants you most of the great features of a laptop (with an interactive user experience), then go with the iPad (I highly doubt you’ll regret it).

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Apple just released a brand new, gorgeous looking Mac mini. This major upgrade brings us two different models: a desktop one and a server version (priced at $699 and $999, respectively).

Equipped with a HDMI port, the desktop edition of the Mac mini makes for a perfect Home Theater PC. It’s small and stylish, and as such is a great fit in your living room. Most of the reviews I’ve read focus on its use as a highly capable HTPC (despite its lack of a Blu-Ray drive).

However, I see the new Mac Mini in a different light. At $700 it is far too expensive for a HTPC, yet it’s ideal as an entry-level machine for web, Mac, and iOS development (it’s almost as cheap as a Hackintosh, minus the headache).

Mac Minis will do the job and be more than capable thanks to their adequate, albeit not spectacular, hardware specs. If my MacBook Pro were to die today, I would definitely consider purchasing one for development purposes. Would you?

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If you are a developer who’s interested in starting a new business or even just earning extra cash on the side, you have a few options that can lead to scalable profits and passive income. The most popular choices these days are SaaS (Software as a Service) and iPhone/iPad development.

Choosing web application or iPhone OS development is a matter of personal taste, skills, goals, technical requirements, and so on. If we are looking at things solely from an economical perspective though, it’s interesting to consider for a moment which of the two is most likely to be profitable all things being equal.

In my opinion, despite the horror stories, it is far easier to make money with iPhone/iPad development than with charging for a service provided by a web application. The reason for this is very simple. Users don’t expect to pay for websites. They occasionally do for the useful ones, but it’s a relatively new approach and people are still adjusting to it.

Due to the hosted nature of SaaS offerings, they often require a monthly or yearly subscription as well, which is harder to sell than a single one time purchase. $9.99 here, $19.99 there, all adds up very quickly to an uncomfortable monthly bill.

iPhone and iPad applications on the other hand have a major advantage. Apple created an incredible ecosystem where millions of users are ready to pay for tiny applications that solve one small problem or are amusing enough to install. Low prices without the need for a subscription encourage impulse buyers to purchase applications without giving it a second thought.

You’ve probably been on the web for many years now, yet how many web applications do you pay for? However if you have an iPod Touch, an iPhone, or an iPad, how many applications have you bought? I own an iPod Touch and rarely use it, yet even I’ve paid for some applications.

It’s a matter of expectations and Apple did a marvelous job in that respect. When you buy an iPhone, you are almost expected to get cool apps for it. That, along with web access, is the whole point of having an advanced smart phone device. There are no such expectations for web applications.

Take a look at this list of applications and their sales. Most of them could be easily ported to the web, yet their limited scope and functionality wouldn’t even justify calling the resulting sites web applications. Few people would pay for them, even if one were to price them at $0.99. (And I’m not talking about apps for which being on a phone is the key feature). Conversely, porting a free Flash game from the web to the iPhone, for example, would almost certainly lead to sales.

Android is an option too, but I feel that Google has done a much poorer job at setting expectations. Furthermore their marketplace is a lackluster version of the App Store, users from several countries are unable to purchase applications or have to jump through hoops to do so, and developers from countries such as Canada, cannot publish and sell their apps on the Android Market.

The question is, will Google do a better job with the Chrome Web Store that was announced yesterday at Google I/O? If so, it may become a good extra channel through which to sell web applications; an App Store for the web if you will. The distinction between web apps and offline mobile apps may even fade away at some point. That would be a great thing for developers. For the time being however, it is my opinion that developing for the iPhone OS is a safer bet in terms of achieving profitability.

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This article showcases the results of a small Ruby shootout for Mac. I plan to publish a Windows one by next week, and then a week or two after that, a complete Linux shootout that will have many more implementations. Grab my feed or join the newsletter to avoid missing upcoming shootout posts.

The setup

The tests are a large subset of the Ruby Benchmark Suite. Each test was run 10 times, five to detect the best execution time, and five to detect the minimal memory consumption. All of the tests were run on Mac OS X 10.6.3, on my MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM, 320 GB 7200 rpm disk.

Stable implementations tested:

• MacRuby 0.6
• Ruby 1.8.7
• Ruby 1.9.1

Disclaimer

Synthetic benchmarks cannot predict how fast your programs will be with one implementation or another. They provide an (entertaining) educated guess, but you shouldn’t draw overly definitive conclusions from them. Furthermore, the Ruby Benchmark Suite has many tests that don’t provide much insight when it comes to comparing implementations. They are there for legacy reasons and will probably be removed in the future. For the time being, take them with a grain of salt.

The results

Without further hesitation, here are the execution times for the tests (divided in A-L, M-Z). Timeouts indicate that the execution of a single run took more than 60 seconds and had to be interrupted. Bold values indicate the best performance for each test.

And here is the estimated memory usage:

Conclusions

MacRuby 0.6 is faster than Ruby 1.9.1 at times, but it can also be significantly slower. Overall, as things stand now, its performance appears to be between that of Ruby 1.9.1 and Ruby 1.8.7, with several outliers and a greater variance compared to those two implementations. Memory wise, MacRuby appears to be significantly more “memory hungry” than the other implementations (even though this wasn’t all that much of a surprise to me).

I’m interested in seeing how future releases that will be focused more on performance will affect these preliminary results. For the time being however, don’t let this outcome discourage you from using MacRuby 0.6, which is the first release that’s considered stable for Mac OS X development.

Download: CSV Files

PS: If you are looking for a fun and easy way to get started with MacRuby, check out ThinkCode.TV’s screencast on the subject.

Update (July 3, 2010): The following box plot compares the various implementations for the tests for which all the implementations were successful. Only times for the largest successful input number were used in those tests where multiple input numbers were tested.

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What is uncertain is whether this release is going to be much ado about nothing or more an event that will revolutionize the computer market.

Among the iPad shortcomings are the following:

• A somewhat embarrassing name;
• Lack of Flash support;
• Inability to multitask (exception made for some Apple built-in apps);
• Software restrictions due to DRM;
• Lack of webcam;
• Lack of USB ports;
• Not as portable as an iPod, iPhone or a tablets a la Nokia N900;
• Not ideal for long typing sessions, due to a virtual keyboard (even though an external keyboard can be purchased as an optional accessory).

Your first impression might be that we are dealing with a flop like the Apple TV or similar niche products that are popular with Apple fans, but lack the transformational power and impact on society that have been shown by the iPod or the iPhone.

Much of the iPad’s criticism comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the target use of this product. Those who consider the iPad a replacement for their laptop will no doubt be disappointed by the performance and restrictions of this device.

One also needs to take into consideration the iPad’s target audience. Many assumed that the target audience was primarily composed of geeky early adopters, programmers, and more in general, people with a technical mindset.

Far from telling my readers that they shouldn’t indulge in the prohibited pleasure of possessing an iPad, it seems clear to me that the Gaussian function has its maximum elsewhere, amongst students, casual users, and the general public, who want a device from which to check their email, surf, and play from their couch, kitchen or local coffee shop. A computing device that is small enough to carry in a purse, but large enough (with its 9.7" diagonal) to easily display websites and applications, without causing one to squint their eyes.

Seen in this light, the iPad has a solid reason for being, despite all of its limitations. Imagine a computer that is accessible and easy to use, and doesn’t require IT support from your nephew to fix (or remove a virus). In other words, a portable device that simply works. It only does a few things, but it does them in a manner that provides a pleasant experience to the average user.

The iPad’s field of application isn’t very restricted either. It can be seen as a portable console for casual gaming, a digital frame to show photos set to a soundtrack, or a quick presentation tool at a small business meeting. It’s a multimedia tool for listening to music and watching videos and lectures. Finally, the iPad is also a magazine and ebook reader. Some may rightfully argue that the e-ink technology is easier on the eyes for extensive reading, but the iPad has a vibrant color screen, and is able to display complex PDFs as well as ePub books sold directly from the brand new iBookstore.

The design, as is customary for products designed by Jonatahn Ive, is minimalistic, sleek and easy on the eyes. Starting at $499 (as shown in the figure below), the price point is rather competitive, so as to be able to reach a wide, international audience.

All things considered, it’s easy to imagine that the iPad will be a commercial success with the potential to transform how millions of consumers approach the Internet, gaming and book reading. This is far from certain, but I suspect that the iPad will be the iPod of the laptop world.

My suspicion is further supported by the ecosystem that surrounds this form of lightweight computing. Teachers will love the possibilities that such a device opens up, where students can now have a more interactive and multimedia-driven experience (particularly if ad hoc applications are created for this).

Book and magazine publishers already love the idea of selling books through the iBookstore, a refuge from the totalitarian price policies imposed by Amazon. This could in turn, really increase publishers’ investment in the digital world.

Programmers will be able to explore new ideas and create applications that are specifically tailored to the iPad user interface and user experience. The many advantages, and few disadvantages, of this approach are well known thanks to the iPod Touch and iPhone experience.

While restrictions are obviously limiting, they can also foster creativity. Among a sea of silly gag applications, there were also truly innovative apps designed for the iPhone. I would expect nothing less from applications developed using the same tools and distributed through the same channels, but targeted to a device that has much larger screen and processing capabilities.

Personally, I don’t know if I will purchase an iPad or not, after all I spend far too many hours in front of a traditional laptop already. But I clearly see a brilliant future for this new Apple product, despite its limitations and the closed approach to hardware and software that has become typical of Cupertino’s company.

What about you, are you headed to the Apple Store?

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