“The scenario sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie — the doctor pulls out her touch-screen tablet computer from the drawer of instruments. She calls up the patient’s chart with a few taps and proceeds to add a note to the page with her latest diagnosis. A visualization pops up, and she flips the screen over to give the patient an idea of what ails him.
Doctors are presuming the iPad could make this scene a reality as soon as next week. One in five doctors say they plan to buy an iPad, according to a survey of 350 clinicians by the San Mateo medical software vendor Epocrates.
Tag Archives: iPad
iPad first impressions
Okay. I’m a little relieved. I love my MacBook Pro and I was a little worried the iPad might steal me away. After a couple of hours with the iPad, I’m no longer fearful of falling out of love with my MBP. But it will take some time playing with the iPad before I can offer any useful insights. But here are some first impressions:
It won’t save newspapers and traditional media. I tried the New York Times app and it was a step down from the browser experience of the NYT (and I could not copy/paste from the app. WTF?). I suspect that will be the case for most media sites.
I think I’ll watch more YouTube videos than I do on my laptop. It was just… handy.
And I’ll read some books (I bought the ebook version of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (Even though I have several hardback/paperback versions). It was fun to search the 1,100+ pages and then copy/paste. Not a big deal unless you’re a reader.
The Netflix app is kind of nifty. I can see watching movies on the iPad. In bed and and on the plane. Very different from watching on a laptop.
And the ABC app. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. The TV just might be how your meemah and pappah watch their favorite shows. The iPad could be how YOU watch them. When you want… where you want.
I’m gonna open comments on this post but don’t bother weighing in unless you’ve had your hands on one of these (i.e. Don’t know a movie/book you haven’t seen/read).
This is a game changer, kids. You’ll have one of these by Christmas.
UPDATE: It’s Monday morning and my buddy David and I have had our iPads for a couple of days. Here’s 20 min of first-impression chit chat. AUDIO
UPS has their iPad game face ON
Just had a visit from Jake Green. Jake is the manager of the local UPS office and, although today is his day off, he drove out to our house to verify someone at this address had ordered an iPad.
UPS had been calling my office number and got no answer. So Jake was just checking. Seems UPS has an elaborate security protocol for iPad deliveries. A few mistakenly got on trucks for delivery and frantic calls went out to drivers instructing them NOT to deliver.
The Jefferson City UPS office is delivering 20 iPads today. Mine is on a truck with 14 others. UPS is taking this as seriously as Apple. Very impressive.
Beyond the iPad
Doc Searls’ fantasy for the iPad involves interactivity with the everyday world:
“Take retailing for example. Let’s say you syndicate your shopping list, but only to trusted retailers, perhaps through a fourth party (one that works to carry out your intentions, rather than sellers’ — though it can help you engage with them). You go into Target and it gives you a map of the store, where the goods you want are, and what’s in stock, what’s not, and how to get what’s mising, if they’re in a position to help you with that. You can turn their promotions on or off, and you can choose, using your own personal terms of service, what data to share with them, what data not to, and conditions of that data’s use. Then you can go to Costco, the tire store, and the university library and do the same. I know it’s hard to imagine a world in which customers don’t have to belong to loyalty programs and submit to coercive and opaque terms of data use, but it will happen, and it has a much better chance of happening faster if customers are independent and have their own tools for engagement. Which are being built. Check out what Phil Windley says here about one approach.”
iPad guided tours
I ordered an iPad (which shipped today) without having a clear idea of how we (Barb and I) would use it. Surf the web, check email, maybe read a book or two.
After watching the guided tours that went up on the Apple website today, I think I underestimated this little slab of magic. I was very impressed with the Keynote app. That’s the Apple version of PowerPoint. I can easily imagine whipping up a presentation while waiting for a flight.
Pages looked awfully good, too. I’d call it a word processor but it looks like a lot more on the iPad. I have Pages on all my Macs but rarely use it. I think I might on the iPad.
We won’t know until people get their hands on the iPad and start playing with it, but I think it’s going to become THE computer (or whatever we wind up calling it) for a lot of folks. If I had to guess, I’d say that 90% of the stuff that most folks doing on a laptop will be easier and more fun on the iPad.