iPad Booga Booga

Technology Thursday

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Apple has finally announced their long-awaited and well-hyped tablet computer product. They called it the iPad. And with that, dozens upon dozens of women technologists, mom bloggers, and women Mac fans all began to wonder if there was a woman in the room when the Apple bigshots decided on that name. This is amusing on a level, of course. But it does highlight what many women technologists have to point out over and over and over -- insufficient diversity of perspective is not only bad for individuals (who are consciously or subconsciously excluded for not being or looking like the majority in a given field), but it is just plain bad for business. Moxie tweeted that at least it would give the marketing textbooks a new example of oblivious naming to use to replace the Chevy Nova ("no go"). NPR and the New York Times covered various reactions to the name. The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research weighed in as well. Many people pointed to an old Mad TV bit about "iPads" that I think has now been pulled. All of this streamed on over Twitter--increasingly my go to place to maintain some ambient awareness about what's going on in the world. And if you follow my own Twitter stream you already know my 140-character length reactions to the iPad. But here a few more thoughts.

Setting aside the unfortunate name, the new Apple iPad has potential. However as with just about every Apple project, you pretty much know that unless you're obsessed, you probably don't want to buy the first generation.

When they first announced the iPhone, my husband said, "That is the worst iPhone there will ever be." I didn't get an iPod until around the 4th or 5th generation. And we waited until the third generation before finally succumbing and getting iPhones. Similarly, this is the worst iPad that will ever exist. There are definitely some really nifty things about it, but I was scanning a couple of liveblogs of Steve Jobs' presentation about it (here and here, to start), and part way through the event I said: "The iPad is a giant iPhone, i bored." In fact, it's not even a phone. It's really a giant iPodTouch.

Of course, it's more than that. And several people have now said that it's a whole difference experience actually holding and using one from watching Steve Jobs browse the web on that stage. But I don't care about games, so none of the gaming stuff matters to me. And I'm not really in the market for an e-book reader. So the current combination of features doesn't hit any of my sweet spots. Where's the wireless sync over the air so I don't have to dock the thing periodically? Where's the camera for that matter, so that I can let TheLittleGuy Skype with his grandparents without being tempted to bash my laptop keyboard?

There are even deeper issues regarding the future of consumer computing platforms and what some of the current trends mean for openness and flexibility. See Rafe Colburn wondering if the iPad is a harbinger of doom here and Jonathan Zittrain, a couple of years ago, reflecting on what the iPhone has wrought here for some brief thoughtful commentary on that.

Bottom line for me: I look forward to playing with the iPad in the store, but I don't expect to really want one until several more features are added.

Note: "Booga booga", according to the Urban Dictionary, refers to "The message, magic and meaning of the world's religions." Apple is calling the iPad "magical" in their PR about it (really - look it up), and then there's the often-mocked Apple cult/fan behavior and the Steve Jobs reality distortion field, hence the title of this post.

Comments

[Katherine]

My husband has been dying for something like the iPad for years. But I will do my best to get him to follow your advice and not buy first generation ...

[acm]

On the name: I'm no more bothered by iPad than by ThinkPad -- I think the feminine produce link is overyped here, and the cognitive link to iPod was probably one they couldn't skip.

I agree that it's really kicking the Kindle's butt, display-wise, but since I'm not really looking for an e-reader yet, that doesn't close the deal for me at all.

Any idea about whether they'd ever add a stylus? I know that all the sweeping and gesturing are part of the Apple magic, but the way I use my current tablet definitely takes advantage of being able to keep "written" notes from meetings in an e-accessible (and semi-searchable) format, so I hate to see no equivalent for that use here...