Sent from my iPad
I’m typing this on my new iPad which I purchased today. I’m using the open source wordpress app (which has it’s fair share of issues), but seems ok for basic text. I had plans for a big “first impressions” post, but i think that should wait until I’ve been playing around for a while – needless to say, first impressions are pretty good. The keyboard will take some getting used to, however.
I’m not sure how useful it will be for note taking/sketching (check my scientific accuracy test below) – I’m not giving up on pen and paper just yet.
UPDATE: (Not from my iPad) I just stopped using the iPad and went back to using my regular laptop and for a few seconds I couldn’t work out why I kept scrolling the page in the wrong direction. And then it clicked – the scrolling gesture on the iPad and the gesture on the MacBook trackpad are exactly opposite.
On the iPad you scroll by moving the content to where you want it to go, while on the MacBook (and all trackpad devices) you are moving an imaginary cursor or “scroll bar” in the direction “you” want to move – the former seems so much more natural that the iPad managed to undo years of hard-wired assumptions in just a few hours and my brain was completely confused when I went back to a “normal” computer.
The effect of the direct interaction with content is nothing short of astonishing…
Posted in ipad with 2 comments »
I actually hadn’t noticed that difference in interaction – I have to say though I think the iPad style seems more natural, as it’s how we move things in the world. It’s interesting to note that if you click and hold a scroll bar in a browser, for instance, that it works in the same way – it makes sense for interactions where you “grab”.
I imagine the mouse scroll-wheel style interaction is something us veterans have had to learn through our use of these primitive input devices, and would come far less naturally than touch. Maybe!
Good point about the scrollbar – I guess the disconnect for me happened because I don’t tend to “grab” the scrollbar any more – I use the scroll-wheel style trackpad gesture.