Apple kicked off the month with the official release of the iPad. I personally think the device is a huge deal. I can definitely see where it would fit in with my day to day activities.

Then this week, the released the long awaited MacBook Pro. As I said in the previous article, I’ve been holding out for this machine for a long time, and I’m super excited to get one. The changes don’t seem huge from the previous version, but the GPU switching and the use of the Core i5 & i7 technology are really going to have an impact. I’m expecting a 100x-200x improvement in processing from my current PowerBook Pro G4. That sucker has performed like a champ, but at last it’s time has come. There are just too many tools that I need to run which no longer support the old PPC processors.

On April 8th, Apple announced the changes for iPhone OS 4.0. I read those with interest. I’m sure I’ll be happy to have those, but the multi-tasking that everyone has been clamoring for won’t impact my iPhone 3G.

I can’t say I’m thrilled with the iAd business. The last thing I want is more advertising in my apps, but I suppose if it keeps a few developers afloat and offering their products for free, it’s something I’ll have to live with…..as long as I can ignore the ads. If some developer puts them in there where I can’t avoid them, then I’ll delete the app!

The changes to the Terms of Service agreement that comes with the new SDK have been widely talked about. This impacts not only Flash and Android, but also MonoTouch and Unity.

On the one hand, I understand why Apple wants to maintain tight control of their platforms. When you get a buggy app, that can reflect badly on the device. But it should be clear to most people by now that Apple produces great products.

On the other hand, I must say I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with Apple’s attitude toward would be developers. Sure they have great products, but their development tools are nothing special, at least not when you compare them to Visual Studio. In fact in some ways they’re downright clunky. Say what you like about Microsoft, they make outstanding developer tools, and they go out of their way to help developers make applications that run on their systems.

Personally I’m not all that thrilled about learning a language that can only be used on Apple’s products. Objective C, at least from talking with friends about it, is not really a great language to program in. And the fact that it is in no way cross platform just makes it less interesting.

Luckily, most of my developing is web related. So you’d think having Apple push open standards like HTML5 is a good thing. The only problem with that is that it isn’t really quite as “standard” as it would appear. WebMonkey does a good job of discussing why having HTML based video is going to be a mess for a long time to come. Basically, each browser maker has decided to support differing encoding standards.

This frustration is getting deep enough now, that I’m even considering purchasing a device other than the iPad next year, when I get ready for that type of device. At the very least, it’s given Google and Microsoft an opening in my mind, which considering how much I love my PowerBook Pro and iPhone, is truly sad.

For me, it is beyond time to upgrade my systems, so this is about to be a very expensive month. I’ve literally been waiting on these new MacBook Pros for two years, ever since I read about these new processors from Intel. And with this new computer, it is also time to upgrade the Adobe software, so this year’s tech budget is pretty much gone.

Adobe CS5

First let’s talk about the new release from Adobe. I was pretty interested to see what was going to change with CS5. I was a bit surprised at the lack of whoopla at many of the Tech News sites I read. The mostly gave it a shout, but it lacked much of the marketing hype that I remember from CS4. In the next few days, I expect to see a bit more from the guys at Layers Magazine, PlanetPhotoshop.com, and the others whose jobs revolve around making the Adobe products seem fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the services that those guys at Kelby Training provide, I could have just done without the sugar coating that they gave CS4, especially since it turned out to be mostly a dud, at least in sales terms.

So what’s in new and compelling in CS5? Looking through Adobe’s website, most of the products seem to have only gotten minor updates. Edge detection and new brush effects in Photoshop? (yawn) For Illustrator, perspective drawing could be cool, but most of the rest of it should have been in there a long time ago. Flash? XML swf file, and Flash Builder integration. Seriously? That needs to be pointed out? (zzzzz)

But all is not doomed…..InDesign seems to have gotten a reasonable number of “new” features. eBook publishing and multiple pages sizes look interesting and useful.

And then we get to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a big part of what we do here at Martian Graphix (so are the other tools, but those updates just aren’t really showing huge impacts to our daily workflow). Drupal and WordPress are also big for us, so finding good support for those systems in Dreamweaver is a major plus for our business. Dreamweaver CS5 also includes CSS inspection tools, which will cut down on needing to use Firefox’s Web Developer Toolbar. Rendering dynamic pages without having to jump over to a browser is going to be a huge win. Also using the code hinting features with the Drupal, WordPress, or just PHP methods is going to be a big plus. It’s very nice to finally see an update to Dreamweaver that focuses on the Developer side of the tool, more than the Designer oriented side, because both sides of web development must be supported equally. I’m not going stop using NetBeans or Eclipse anytime soon, but this is definitely a nice direction to see Dreamweaver heading.

So, what’s the verdict? For us, the updates to Dreamweaver provide a very compelling reason to upgrade from CS3. Add to that the incremental changes made to the other tools with CS4 and CS5, plus the fact that all this is optimized to run on the Intel processor of the MacBook Pro, as opposed to CS3, and the conclusion is: yes it’s time to bite the bullet and upgrade.

Now, which version? The Web Premium would seem like the obvious choice, but since it only seems to include the Standard edition of Flash Builder, I think we’ll go with Design Premium instead, and buy Flash Builder seperately, when the time comes.

Now, what about all this stuff from Apple? Stay tuned for the next article, Christmas in April, Part II.

First let me say that I was a little taken aback when I looked over at Yahoo’s Tech Blog, and those guys panned it. They pointed out all the things that the rumor mill said it would do that it didn’t. Sorry dudes, there is only so much tech you can cram into a device this size without blowing a massive whole in your unit cost.

Would a Flash plug-in be nice to have? How about a camera? Multiple processes running? Sure, all of these would be nice, but they aren’t really make or break, are they? Besides, the software stuff can be added later on, if necessary. No one else is producing anything like this. Although I’m sure they’ll be trying to copy it soon.

Ben Patterson seemed to be missing the point the most. This is NOT an oversized iPhone, without the phone. But if you start thinking of this as an eBook reader, or as a media pad, it’s easy to see why this device is so interesting.

You might say that this is an oversized iPod Touch. I personally have never understood the point of the Touch, when you could just get the iPhone, but apparently millions of people disagree with me.

But the iPad, I GET!!!

As I talked about a couple of weeks ago, I’m really quite interested in getting an eBook reader. Apple’s new iPad just buried that market. Why on earth would anyone be interested in a Que or a Kindle DX, when they could get this device for the same price, with so much more capability? Sure it may not look great on the beach in the sun, but it plays videos and games, does email, and has a real web browser.

I completely don’t get people who try to read books on the little screen that is on the Touch or the iPhone. I never understood it on my old Compaq iPaq, and I certainly don’t understand it now. Nor do I really want to have to peer past a keyboard when I’m trying to read a book, so Netbooks are out. But give me this nice 9.7″ screen, and I’ll be buying most of my books either through iTunes or through Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore. With any luck we’ll be able to buy an eBook through the BN eBookstore and drag it onto our iTunes library, since they both use the ePub format. If not, Barnes & Noble’s eReader app will certainly be on the iPad.

Also this device seems like a total win for college students. You’ll be able to take all your books to class on one device, plus jam out a few notes if you like.

My second major use case for this device is when you’re in your living room watching TV. There are many times, when I’m watching The History Channel or The Discovery Channel, in which I want to go look up something on the web. Right now I do that on my iPhone, but I can’t say that’s an optimal experience. With the iPad, this would be a lot more convenient. Same thing goes if I want to play one of my games. Whipping out my phone works, but this will be a much better experience on the iPad.

Now a few words about what the iPad is not. It’s not a full-blown computer. I will not create websites or write up blog posts on this thing. Nor would I want to compose long emails on it, any more than I’d do that on my iPhone. Those things are what a laptop is for.

But if you take the iPad for what it is, it’s a damn interesting device, and pretty reasonably priced. I think Apple will sell quite a few of these.

Will I be one of them this year? No. I tend to prefer to wait until hardware version 2, before I jump into this. Better to let them work out some of the kinks. But still….I’m very interested in heading down to the Apple store and playing with one of these in the coming months.

Just my two cents.

[Update] For a list of things missing, but with a good analysis of why they’re not there, check out Charlie Sorrel’s post over at Wired.com.

I was really looking forward to seeing what Plastic Logic did with their Que.  Unfortunately it looks like they missed the mark….at least for me.

They seem to have fallen into the classic mistake made by hardware manufacturers…..getting caught up in the device specs, then convincing themselves that some screwy use case is what consumers want.  I’m trying to figure out what the point of having AT&T 3G connectivity is, if you can’t upload documents that way, and there is no web browser.  E-mail? ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Am I still interested in the Que as an e-reader?  Maybe.  At those prices?  Definitely not!  If it had at least the same capability, preferably more capability, than the Kindle DX, and was similarly priced, then I’d probably be all over it.  For that price, it’d need to have a LOT MORE capability, not LESS. 

Why not just get a Kindle DX?  I don’t want to be locked into their weird format. The Nook is quite interesting, but a bit too small for the type of books I mostly buy. I need something that is good for Textbook size reading, with graphics, charts, figures, etc. That’s why I had such hope for the Que. 

Is the Skiff the right product?  The device looks interesting. Unfortunately, there are still too many things up in the air at this point, like pricing, store access and format considerations.  As for the Service/Store, I can’t find a lot of detail about it yet, but the website says their service is “Publisher-friendly”. If we use the music or video industry as a guide, that means it will be a bad deal for consumers. I’d also feel a little more comfortable about the store offered by Barnes & Noble or Borders than some company I’ve never heard of.  But I’ll wait for further details.

It seems to me that there are a ton of companies pursuing this, and your dollar.  Dell, HP and many others are hyping their offerings. So far, no one has hit a home run in my book.  Most of them are completely blowing it, due to some poor choices like Plastic Logic’s or Dell’s ridiculously small screen.

Later this month, we’ll presumably see what Apple has to offer.  So far they’re the only company who’s really figured out a nice UI with their iPhone interface.  I don’t think this interface is completely appropriate for a tablet, so I hope they throw something even more impressive at us later this month.  Will I rush right out and be an early adopter? One word…..No!  I think we’ll need to wait at least one generation for them to get some of the kinks worked out.

So here I am, waiting for a really interesting device to replace my bookshelf.