iPad: Death of the Interface

[sonofsanta]

Now I'm not overly interested in a massive battle between the Apple-ologists and everyone else right now, but having used an iPad for the first time this week... I am astonished.

 

One of the new staff brought one in to us to put on the wireless and to say Apple are famed for their UI design, I could have cried.

 

Firstly: WEP keys are a mix of numbers and letters. Having the numbers on a different screen to the letters therefore means I have to push an extra button almost every time I'm typing. Entering the key is therefore twice as much of a faff as it usually is, and it is anwyay.

 

Secondly: your key selling point is the fact that the whole display is a touch interface. Given this, I would have thought you could put a sizeable CONNECT button somewhere in all the big grey empty space of the dialog box you proffered. I am not necessarily psychic and able to tell that what I actually have to do is click back into a text entry field, to find that the enter button has magically changed into a JOIN button. This is not obvious. In fact, in a device not short of interface space, this is just stupid. Context controls are fine on my Xbox where I only have so many buttons. You do not have this limitation, so stop designing around a problem you do not have.

 

Thirdly: when it turns out that you need the hidden network SSID providing in all capitals, then an innovative, forward-thinking feature like Caps Lock would be really bloody handy. It is not a new idea. It is infact a very useful idea. But you are Apple! And you know best. So by all means, force me to tap Shift every single flipping time I have to type a character. Brilliant.

 

 

Like I say, I don't want this to turn into a flame war, I just needed to express my astonishment that the interface is taking such a big backwards step in this supposed new era of interaction. Don't get me started on the decision to take colour out of OSX Lion and leave the three circular min/max/close buttons as completely identical...

[ShorehamGeek]

Not a fix for all your woes - but if you double tap the shift key it locks on until you tap it again, or move to the numbers screen.

[DT2]

If it had any other brand mark than Apple, it (the iPad) would have been long forgotten..... Edited September 27, 2011 by DT2
:)

[sonofsanta]

Not a fix for all your woes - but if you double tap the shift key it locks on until you tap it again, or move to the numbers screen.

 

See, I tried that at the time - instinct from my Android phone - and it did nothing. Then I asked the staff member in question and she said it didn't have caps lock...

 

Perhaps telling that her husband works in IT and he gave it to her after a fortnight because it annoyed him so much!

[LosOjos]

If it had any other brand mark than Apple, it would have been long forgotten.....

 

Before I go off on the rant I was about to, do you mean the problem would have been forgotten, or the iPad?

[DT2]

the iPad...

[LosOjos]

the iPad...

 

Agreed!

 

As I'm feeling daring (-rep shall surely follow!), here is what my rant would have been [in a nutshell]:

 

Do not brag about something you're not prepared to be criticised for. If my cousin developed his own OS, I'd certainly praise him for it, even if it was unusable, but I wouldn't grant Microsoft the same leniance because it's what they do. Likewise, if Apple are going to brag about their "intuitive UI", well then it damn well better be intuitive or it's going to get criticised!

 

Too many people jump to the defence of companies when their flaws are pointed out - well what the hell is the point in that? Improvements aren't driven on the back of nicely put praise and fan boy dedication, they're driven on honest, intelligent criticism and if you really care about a company or product, you ought to be pointing out their flaws so that they can improve upon them.

[ben604]

I don't know what all the fuss is about! They look good and people admire you for having one, that's what's important, surely?!

[LeMarchand]

I don't know what all the fuss is about! They look good and people admire you for having one, that's what's important, surely?!

 

Exactly! I tried everything: Lynx, pheromone spray, even bathing! Now I have an iPad, the girls can't keep their hands off me!*

 

*May not be entirely true.

[mac_shinobi]

Think the double tap to change shift to caps lock was an iOS 4 feature so I presume that the iPad iOS is on the latest iOS revision available ( which you update through iTunes afaik ) at least until they release iOS 5 ( then again not sure if for the time being this is an iphone only or for both ipad and iphone ).

 

I do agree regarding having to constantly swap between numbers and letters as it does get annoying, not owned or had an ipad yet so can't comment on the ipad side but do have an iPhone 4 ( latest iOS ).

[bossman]

I have had an IPad 2 for around a month now and it shares a bed in my bag with a Toshiba laptop (about 4 years old now) and when I first got up and running with the IPad I was impressed by the speed in which the objects were accessed. After a week it too became apparent that it was going to be a pain when doing the normal everyday things that I am expected to do.

 

Conclusion: Horses for courses and yes the IPad 2 is a great personalised digital device which when used for social networking and web browsing is great and intuitive but when trying to create documents and reports and just filling in online forms then the laptop beats it hands down in my opinion. After a month i have to say the laptop is used far more than the IPad2 but this is just in my domain as I understand people may use it differently to me.

[mac_shinobi]

I have had an IPad 2 for around a month now and it shares a bed in my bag with a Toshiba laptop (about 4 years old now) and when I first got up and running with the IPad I was impressed by the speed in which the objects were accessed. After a week it too became apparent that it was going to be a pain when doing the normal everyday things that I am expected to do.

 

Conclusion: Horses for courses and yes the IPad 2 is a great personalised digital device which when used for social networking and web browsing is great and intuitive but when trying to create documents and reports and just filling in online forms then the laptop beats it hands down in my opinion. After a month i have to say the laptop is used far more than the IPad2 but this is just in my domain as I understand people may use it differently to me.

 

Think the iPad is more a larger ipod unless you have remote control software and admin type software installed on it then maybe but otherwise I find them better for photos, video and music as apposed to making a word or excel document etc. I think you can get the different apps ie pages etc but not used that on an iOS device ( iPad or otherwise ) so not sure how it compares.

 

Like yourself I would prefer a laptop if I was doing actual work

[mthomas08]

If it had any other brand mark than Apple, it (the iPad) would have been long forgotten.....

Kind of how I feel, the IPad it self is kinda new and is the new toy to get. Give it time more people will have one but then again every household pretty much has a laptop/pc as well. Tech really is everywhere.

[Rydra]

Grmbl, try doing this for 40 of the bl***y things....

 

-Fix Apple TV; put a damned option for Proxies in it please. I want to buy lots of them, but they are expensive bricks as long as I can't connect them to the internet because Apple don't want me to.

Apple TV: Connections through proxy servers are not supported

Apple TV needs a direct connection to the Internet to play content from the iTunes Store, obtain software updates, or view Theatrical Trailers and iTunes Top Movies/TV Shows/Music/Music Videos. If you are unable to connect to the Internet without a proxy, you will not be able to play this content or update the software on Apple TV.

 

-Enterprise solutions for i devices; I want to create and save a layout for all my devices (same folders with same apps in) but at the same time, these are also personal devices, with different files, and some customised apps/preferences.

Let me save my layout, and apply that layout to other devices without doing a "Backup" that wipes the whole content of the device and starts again.

 

-Account-based parental controls; what's the damned point in a device where if you set parental control options on the PC, they don't apply to the device that can download the same things from the same app store.

 

-Do what every single other phone and mobile device manufacturer on the planet has done, and use a standard USB connector, not your own propriatary one ffs. All other devices can share an identical charger/connector, why the hell can't you?

 

/rant

[Oaktech]

I don't know what all the fuss is about! They look good and people admire you for having one, that's what's important, surely?!

 

please tell me what you meant to say is:

[sarcasm]

I don't know what all the fuss is about! They look good and people admire you for having one, that's what's important, surely?!

[/sarcasm]

[Dos_Box]

I hate to break it to you, but the on-screen KB in Windows 8 does not have a caps-lock key, and it too has a sperate numerical keypad. There is only so much room for a usable on-screen keyboard you see.

I'd like to see a tab key however. Filling out online forms without one is a nightmare!!

Edited September 27, 2011 by Dos_Box

[CAM]

Exactly! I tried everything: Lynx, pheromone spray, even bathing! Now I have an iPad, the girls can't keep their hands off me!*

 

*May not be entirely true.

 

Slaps don't count.

[computer_expert]

Grmbl, try doing this for 40 of the bl***y things....

 

The iPhone configuration utility is a handy program as it allows you to use a computer to input the key and other settings into a profile (handy if you have a long/complex password) which you can then add to any ipod touch/iphone (and probably the ipad as well)

[MK-2]

The iPhone configuration utility is a handy program as it allows you to use a computer to input the key and other settings into a profile (handy if you have a long/complex password) which you can then add to any ipod touch/iphone (and probably the ipad as well)

 

unfortunately it does little else in terms of proper config. we've just tried it to test out what profile we could create.

the problem with that utility is with a fresh ipad, with a profile put on, a student can still go to restrictions, enter a fresh restrictions passcode (you can only set the lock passcode), change settings and then you dont know the restrictions passcode. it would have been handier to have the profile made by the utility to then lock out all settings and only allow access to them via a passcode

[MK-2]

I hate to break it to you, but the on-screen KB in Windows 8 does not have a caps-lock key, and it too has a sperate numerical keypad. There is only so much room for a usable on-screen keyboard you see.

I'd live to see a tab key however. Filling out online forms without one is a nightmare!!

 

having now tried a winmo keyboard, android and ios keyboard, swype easily wins. the speed of inputting words, but also the keyboard having numbers over the letters, so a longer press (by miliseconds) adds a number instead of a letter. caps are done by just swiping above the keyboard during the word. all very intuitive and easy to use

[LeMarchand]

unfortunately it does little else in terms of proper config. we've just tried it to test out what profile we could create.

the problem with that utility is with a fresh ipad, with a profile put on, a student can still go to restrictions, enter a fresh restrictions passcode (you can only set the lock passcode), change settings and then you dont know the restrictions passcode. it would have been handier to have the profile made by the utility to then lock out all settings and only allow access to them via a passcode

 

Surely the problem is that the iPad was not designed for corporate use, but as an executive/rich man's toy? It's only because people have bought into the Apple Gospel that everything will be better with an iPad that we are trying to shoehorn them into schools.

 

I can't believe I defended Apple! I feel dirty - must shower.

[MK-2]

Surely the problem is that the iPad was not designed for corporate use, but as an executive/rich man's toy? It's only because people have bought into the Apple Gospel that everything will be better with an iPad that we are trying to shoehorn them into schools.

 

I can't believe I defended Apple! I feel dirty - must shower.

Hey dont worry, I'm totally with you, but we've been asked to look into the viability of them here so I'm having to think of positives and negatives.

The thing is, even the ipad adverts show that to a teacher its fantastic, so they are admitting it can be used in a classroom/medical/business/whatever environment. so to do that we must need to control how they are used, unless you want doctor thomas performing brain surgery while playing angry birds.

the configu util they have is ok, but it does half the settings and leaves the rest. so as an end user you can be stopped from doing one thing with it, but have the option to change a lot of other things.

[aerospacemango]

having now tried a winmo keyboard, android and ios keyboard, swype easily wins. the speed of inputting words, but also the keyboard having numbers over the letters, so a longer press (by miliseconds) adds a number instead of a letter. caps are done by just swiping above the keyboard during the word. all very intuitive and easy to use

 

I LOVE Swype! I have converted all my family (those with Androids!) to swype, as it is , by far, the easiest input method that I've found.

 

There is nothing like it for speed, accuracy, and intuitiveness. It does like it's American spellings though......!!

[bossman]

Here is a handy case I found on the internet with bluetooth keyboard integrated for £10 (Unfortunately I cannot remember where but a search on Google will suffice):

 

 

Case open:

 

 

Case closed:

[Rydra]

Where did you find that for £10?

 

I can barely buy a standard case or cover for an ipad for £10, let alone one with a bluetooth keyboard built in!