Flipboard Stumbles in Its First Days
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Flipboard Stumbles in Its First Days
Flipboard, maybe the first killer app for the iPad has gotten off to a rocky start and I have to say, I’ve been considering getting an iPad just to run it (it looks that good to me).
I hope they get over the bumps and succeed, they have a great application concept.
Luckily I was quick enough to get in and get it all working (after a brief delay). Kate is on the ‘waiting list’ at the moment.
It is very, very good. They have really spent some quality time thinking out the UI and it does provide a very compelling and personalised experience.
You do need an iPad Richard ;-)
I absolutely have to agree with Jon here. You really do want one Richard. I view your feed and some 56 others on my iPad via net newswire everyday and wonder how I ever sat at a computer before this. Apple got it right!
Frank: Thanks for the encouragement and for following along here. I have little doubt that an iPad or, if the “new” MacBook Air runs iOS, maybe one of those is in my future.
I’ve been struggling to come up with a computing strategy for myself going forward because I’ve been a Macintosh laptop owner since they came out (early powerbooks) and have used them as my primary machines. With editing images and laying out pages for MagCloud printing projects I’m feeling the need for a larger screen and more power and the iMac looks like the best way to get that. Couple that with a smaller portable computer and MobileMe and I think I’m coming up with a strategy.
I’m going to wait and see what Apple does next with the Air, a computer I’ve long admired but never owned. The reason I don’t own an iPad is because I find it tough to hold and I need a physical keyboard because I touch type. A bluetooth keyboard doesn’t do the trick for me, I need a machine with a hinge so it can sit on my lap, screen upright.
If the Air runs both Mac OS and iOS I’ll be in heaven. We’ll see…
I can appreciate where you are coming from Richard. I coveted the MBA since it came out but always felt that is was impractical and far too costly. Fortunately my skepticism paid off as I waited for a smaller MBP than my 2008 15″ MBP and when the 13″ came out I was elated. I just couldn’t see going to a desktop ever again. Having the iPad as my digital gateway to the web has given me a freedom that I have never had with my MBP. It is my constant companion and travels with me everywhere. Not so my heavy MBP with a very short 3 hour battery life. Flipboard has just made my iPad that much better. Perhaps you could borrow a friend’s iPad for a week, but then I’m not sure if you could convince someone to part with their’s for that long. Good luck and let us know how you make out. :)
Frank: I had an iPad for a few weeks and while it was pre Flipboard I got a good sense of it. I loved everything about it except holding it and typing and while I’m not sure I couldn’t get used to holding it and on-screen typing I think I’ll wait until the next Air comes out to see how that computer seems. Given that many have their iPads in portfolio cases and some carry a bluetooth keyboard around with their iPads, the Air seems to me like a decent alternative as it’s got the portfolio built in as well as the keyboard.
I’m sitting here in my living room with a 15″ MBP on my lap typing this. An iPad would be a heck of a lot more awkward to use for this type of thing.
My current problem is with limitations of mobileme. I’m hoping Apple allows users to sync all kinds of data with it, not just what comes up in its control panel as applications that have registered to use sync services. Or, I wish more applications would register to use sync services so I could better sync two computers.
My current thinking is a 21.5″ iMac with a P5 processor, 8 gigs of RAM and a 2 terabyte HD. That and this computer and eventually an Air and I’d be happy. For a while at least.
I’ve been playing with my Apple bluetooth keyboard with my iPhone4 and it works like a charm.
Hey Richard, I checked in to get your opinion on the iPad and share my experience for what it is worth. I’ve been using one for a couple of months now and the disappointments are mounting up in lots of tiny ways. I originally got the thing because my wife’s laptop crapped out and I thought I could use the iPad and she could use my mac book. This made sense money wise, but I find myself having to work around all kinds of little things that should be more seemless. In fact, Susan Orleans mentions a few of them in her article you posted,
“… I keep my manuscript in Dropbox. I was able to open the Dropbox file and work on it in [Apple’s] Pages; getting it back to your computer seems like it ought to work a little more easily than it does. Dropbox doesn’t allow you to email things into Dropbox.”
I can’t believe that I can access all of the files on my iDisk but that I can’t save them on my iDisk once I’ve worked on them. This is the one flaw that I haven’t yet even discovered a plausible reason for, even the apple store guy seemed a little embarrassed by it.
And today I realized that I can’t cut and paste quotations out of the kindle reader or the iBooks reader, which I could do on my Kindle and is pretty vital to my workflow. And the lack of flash, while I understand it, still causes inconveniences. And the web surfing experience is very irritating for a variety of small reasons that crop up largely because the browser is shut down every time I want to consult another app and because I don’t get to use tabs like I’m used to.
But in so many other ways the thing is a wonder. (Flipboard *is* pretty damn cool, and the game fruit ninja is pretty popular with my niece and nephew.) I do use a bluetooth keyboard with it and that is a fairly effective solution to the typing issue, though not a perfect one. Though I’ve been experimenting with Dragon voice rec and it is so far pretty impressive, but I’m reserving judgment for now.
Anyhow, my feeling is that the iPad is such a powerful device but a variety of small limitations have been imposed on it for reasons that each make some sense independently, but in aggregate make for a limited user experience for anyone who doesn’t want to just consume media. This interface has SUCH enormous potential, but I still have to have regular recourse to my old laptop when Deb isn’t using it. I think for I’d go with an MB Air ( 120 gigs solid state memory!) as soon as I can afford it. But for now now the iPad is a cool but very inadequate patch in my home computing reality.
George: Thanks for your report. My guess is that iOS is new enough so that many of your concerns will be worked out as the OS matures and the iPad finds its place as a “tablet computer appliance” or whatever we’re going to be calling this class of device.
A new version of iOS is coming soon, let’s see if any of your concerns are dealt with with the upgrade.
As far as the MacBook Air, I agree, a device like that with a multi-touch screen running both Mac OS and iOS would be the bomb and I’d bite on it for sure. Let’s see what they do with it, anything’s possible.