04 - The out of the box experience

Way back in the last century, back when I was still waving an Apple flag and believing the hype, my current host - Ron - who back then was definitely not an Apple supporter, conceded that the one area where Apple products were superior to all other companies was in what he called The Out Of The Box Experience. (Interestingly, over the years, he has become a total Apple convert and now owns way more Cupertino product than I do. It's a funny old game, isn't it?)

The Out of the Box Experience is what happens when you get something home and unpack it for the first time. How long does it take to get working? Do you feel happy with your purchase? Or guilty? Or frustrated? With computers, most of the time it's the last of the three.

So, there I am, sitting at the dining room table with the iPad box in front of me. I lift of the cover and... there it is. No foam. No cardboard. Just iPad, fitting perfectly fit in it's box. Without taking it out you can press the power button... and on it goes. Lifting it out, there is a small space underneath which holds a cable and a small booklet. That's it. No case, no keyboard, no straps, no... anything. Yes, even the top of the range model comes with no extras. But I'll get to that later. First things first... plug it in and get it fired up.

Like an iPod or iPhone, before you can use it, you need to plug it into a computer - PC or Mac - loaded with the latest version of iTunes and register the device. There is a brief registration process and then it's ready to go. The battery was fully charged, so I'd say from box to full usage takes only about 15 minutes? I'm not entirely sure because the process was delayed by having to update iTunes and me refusing to put the iPad down. I was happy just rotating it in my hands watching the little icons re-configure themselves. Simple things, simple minds.

Indeed, the Out Of The Box Experience here was quite good. It wasn't something I was ever really too concerned about in my younger years. I was way too fired up on the technology to care. If anything, I'd have probably been disappointed if there wasn't loads of manuals and cables and things to plug into each other.

But these days?... Been there, seen it, done it.

I just spent $750 on something so I expect it to work immediately. Is that unreasonable? I don't think so. The very thought that you'd buy something that didn't work is illogical. OK, I can think of a few exceptions. A kitchen sink maybe. Or a cooker. Items which are large and potentially dangerous and need to be physically installed into your house.

Consumer electronics should not fall into that category (noted exception being a 50,000 dollar home theatre installation). Especially when they are aimed at joe public. Or my mother. If my mum spent that much money on something and got it home and couldn't get it to work immediately, she'd nip over to Steve Jobs house and give him a thick ear.

Eventually I finally stopped myself just rotating it round and round and actually decided to use it. The first thing that all iPad owners will agree on is the surprise in lack of loaded apps. I wasn't expecting it to be decked out with games and things, but it doesn't have a calculator, weather, stocks, or many of the other things that a standard iphone or iPod comes with. Not a big deal because the app store is but a fingerprint away, but surprising none the less.

The second thing that I suspect all iPad owners will agree on is that it has the worse choice of desktop picture ever. It's a relatively innocent night landscape photo, but the time lapsed stars look distinctly like scratches on the screen, so that was the first thing to go.

There were some reports in the press of wireless problems, but I certainly didn't experience any. It found and joined the wireless-n & g networks without any issues.

But there was one thing that confounded me. As a British resident, my iTunes account is with the UK iTunes store. I had no trouble setting it up in iTunes on the computer and syncing it to the pad... but the iTunes and App store apps on the pad itself wouldn't allow me to connect to the store via wi-fi. It says 'App store does not work in this country' (or words to that effect). I think it means that the UK app store doesn't work in the USA. Which is weird because my iPod touch has no trouble. So maybe what it really means is we haven't set up the UK app store for iPad yet.

Nonetheless I can find and load apps via iTunes on the PC or I can also use a US iTunes store account if I wish, so I'm not bothered - I'm assuming that as soon as they launch the device in the UK the store will become available.

So, less that 45 minutes after arriving back from Best Buy I'm sitting comfortably on the couch, pad in my lap. I've loaded up some apps - a few iPad ones and a few iPhone ones, so... now lets see what all the fuss is about.

NEXT: 05 - First Impressions...

03 - Trying to buy one

When I arrived in the USA on 8th April, buying an iPad wasn't on my mind. I came here to see old friends, do some research for the comic-book project I'm working on and get some medical advice. Although this would be my umpteenth visit to Washington DC area, the previous one was 3 years ago, so I was really looking forward to it. I'm a bit of a yank-o-file at heart.

The friends who I visit out here in Virginia with are tech-fiends. At least Ron is. Sharon is a tech-fiend's wife, which makes her a tech-minion. Their two daughters, aged 4 & 8 are thus, spawn-of-tech. For kids so young it is a marvel to behold them reprogramming the TiVo, using an iPhone or surfing the web.

So it didn't take long before the subject of the iPad came up. I was surprised to find that there wasn't already one in the house since they'd been in the stores since the weekend before. But it turns out that only the Wi-Fi versions were shipping. The 3G versions would be coming at the end of the month and it this was the model they (Ron!) were waiting for.

A couple of days into my trip, we went to a local mall which has an Apple store. I'd been jokingly warned by people that the approximate time between picking one up and wanting one was less than 5 minutes. Yeah, right.

Yeah, right!

First impressions are everything. I picked it up, saw the Marvel comics app on the screen. touched the icon and was suddenly inside an issue of the Fantastic Four. Faster than it took to type that sentence. Flipping the pages was quick & felt natural. At 100% size the art looks great but you can double tap to zoom into a panel. And then side scroll from panel to panel.

Then came Google maps. It was so fast that I found myself wondering if the maps were preloaded.

I remember looking up at the opposite row of iPads and seeing an Apple store employee cleaning fingerprints off a demo model and making a mental note to get some cleaning stuff on the way home so I could keep mine shiny.

Definitely less than 5 minutes. Probably less than 3.

Of course, they were out of stock. At all Apple stores everywhere. And they didn't know when they would get any more in. Maybe later, maybe tomorrow. If we wanted we could buy a nice case for one though, said the (somewhat flirtatious) store assistant. Er, no thanks, Mr. Genius!

So we trundled away wondering where else we could get one. Would it be worth trying another Apple store? Online orders wouldn't arrive for days. Was he telling the truth when he said there might be a delivery later? How different an experience than my previous visit to the very same apple store.

On the way back from the mall we stopped at Best Buy. They didn't have any either it seemed... or did they? We checked the Best Buy website, which said that they did have them. The store staff insisted they didn't... but they didn't look comfortable about it. 'Come back tomorrow, first thing!', they said. The younger of the two guys looked a bit sheepish. I got the distinct impression that they were holding back - probably because of some sales quota or promotion which would start the next day. I mean, Everybody knows they always have some out back, right?

That night I couldn't help but imagine my own work comic work on the iPad. The truth was that seeing the project I've so lovingly crafted with my Japanese co-conspirators on the iPad is more likely than ever seeing it in print. And I mean as a paid, published digital comic, not a free web-comic.

There's nothing wrong with free web-comics. they are great. I read them all the time. But I want to do this full time and getting published as a comics writer and earning enough to live off it is probably harder than finding work as an actor, being paid as a musician or getting a regular writing gig.

The lure of self publishing has always been big, but somewhat intangible at the same time. You still have to put down a lot of cash to get your work physically printed and also distributed. It's inherently risky as there are just so many things that can go wrong without even taking into account if you work is actually any good.

But after seeing the Marvel comics app... and also the ones from Comixology, IDW, Comic Book Mobi... suddenly, that meadow of green grass on the other side looks an awful lot closer.

Next morning, we went back to Best Buy. The store opens at 10am. By 9.50am there was a small crowd outside. Seeing that they were a pretty mixed bunch of regular looking folk, I said to my friend Ron that I doubted they were all there to get an iPad.

Wrong.

At least half of them were. Now, bear in mind that this is seven days after the initial launch. Think about that for a moment. A week later stores are still sold out and people are still lining up for them. That's pretty nuts. I don't think that any other product in recent history has had this kind of initial response. Maybe the Buzz Lightyear toy, during Christmas 1996? In fact, as of this writing Apple have announced that they are delaying the international launch by a month as they had underestimated the demand in the USA.

However, the magical Apple delivery truck had come by and they were plentiful in stock (or they had simply shifted a load from out back, I don't know which) and I walked away 15 minutes later $736 poorer, but with a warm, tingly feeling in the the nerd center of my brain that I'd not felt since I bought a PlayStation 3 the previous year in Japan.

Was today the first day of the my home computing future? Will I see the light and move into digital publishing? Or did I just buy the world's most expensive mouse mat? We shall see.

NEXT: 04 - The Out of the Box Experience.

02 - Why do I want an iPad?

Given what I've said previously you may ask yourself, why on earth would I want an Apple iPad? A very valid question and one I have been asking myself repeatedly. The truth is, I want a tablet and the only thing out there that ticks all the boxes is the iPad.

Right now, the main focus of my creative life is writing. In particular, comic books, but other mediums as well. I've spent the last 15 years working high end graphics: mostly in the TV & film industry, with a couple of journeys into emerging new media trends and a large dose of architectural visualization. Pretty much all of that was due to technical expertise (I had the skills and that's where the money was) or with an aim to learn certain skills required for my life long mission: creating my own original content.

I've reached a point where I've learned most of what I need to know from a technical & production standpoint with regards to graphics. Now I need to focus on the meat and potatoes: storytelling.

Comics, aside from being a life long passion, is the perfect arena to hone those skills. Its one of the few visual storytelling mediums that can still be produced a very small team of people. It also allows complete freedom of expression. This is something I learned in Japan (no surprise there), a culture which not only embraces the comic-book, but encourages it.

Trouble with comics is, that they, like everything else, are heading down the digital road. Since its rise to stardom in the mid-90s, the industry has suffered from rising prices (at the consumer end), a reduction in distribution channels and, worst of all, closure of many, many comic-book retail outlets.

And then came the Internet & smart-phones. Savior of all?

The last few years have seen a rapidly growing trend in the comics industry to publish online. It started with web-comics. These are comic-strips that are written and produce directly for an online audience. They tend to be shorter (anything from 2 to 9 panels) and lean towards topical, often humerous, subject manner. They also tend to be 'published' at a high frequency. Similar you could say, to a newspaper comic strip.

Traditional print comics are finding a home online also, as consumers are starting to have mobile devices - laptops, smart-phones & tablets - which are small enough to use comfortably and have a visual display capable of doing the medium justice.

Alas, so far the digital comic experience has been a bit lacking. Partly because the major comics publishers have done little to embrace the digital medium and also because the devices were not quite right. Until now.

Does the iPad herald the way forward for the industry? It's about the right size, has a fantastic screen, is full colour and always connected to the internet. More importantly, several publishers (most notably marvel) have released applications specifically for the platform and are starting to make their back catalog of print comics available in digital form.

I've never been taken by the idea of digital comics, but as a comics creator, who is most likely going to self publish, I can't ignore the technology. I'd be foolish too. Furthermore, I'm hearing reports - from people I respect - that the iPad is a surprisingly good comic reader.

So I want to experience this semi-new medium directly. I'm tired of hearing everyone else talk about it, either positively or negatively. I want to form my own opinion.

I've also found, over the last few months, that people have been asking me about the future of tablets, mobile media consumption and the production and conversation of content at an increasing rate. They think I'm some kind of expert, probably because in other areas, I sort of am. So, again, I need to get with the program quickly, lest I risk losing one of the factors that gives me a career & employment advantage.

I want to know what is involved in creating these very cool interactive published items like the Sports illustrated demo or the Bonnier mag plus concept. And what about regular eBooks (or is that iBooks?) and other, simpler content. And most of all, how do I make a digital, zoom-able, finger-flippable comic? Can I do all this from regular DTP packages? Do I need an interactive authoring tool like dream weaver? Do I need to code? I don't want to rely on someone else to give me this information, because I'm supposed to be an expert in such things. And I can't figure it out without actually getting my hands wet can I?

Now, some people have suggested I wait. After all, I should know better than anyone the dangers of early adoption. What if the products a flop? What if the hardware is duff? What if...

It's clearly not going to be a flop. 300,000 sales in the first weekend, in just one country, means it's safely out the gate. As for the hardware, the technical reviews are glowing (from trustworthy sources) and Apple have proven to me time and time again that they make good, reliable hardware.

So why wait? If I'm going to buy one I may as well get it now. Yeah, its a safe bet that they'll bring out a better one in a year, but I don't want to wait a year from my tablet experience, so I may as well get it at the beginning of its product cycle, rather than at the end. Else I'll feel like an even bigger chump when I buy one and it's out of date a couple of months later.

But what about 8 years later? Will I get laughed out of the Apple store again when I'm looking for a new USB cable, whilst all the staff are floating around on their hover-macs and helping customers choose the right colour for their iContactlenses?

But the final and biggest reason I'm going to get an iPad is... my mum wants one. When I got back from Japan, she was extremely taken by my iPod Touch, but felt that it was a bit too small. I showed here the Bonnier concept demo and her response was 'That looks good. Why don't you get one of those instead?'. I feel it important to mention that she's just turned 70.

Having been raised an obedient son, I smiled and said 'Sure thing mum. As soon as they are available'.

NEXT: 03 - Trying to get one

01 - Apple and me

A long time ago, in a country far, far away, I made a significant investment in Apple hardware. At the time, as a technical illustrator, typographer and editor of an online Apple journal called eZone, it was the required thing to do. It was also an expensive and somewhat risky thing to do. It was 1995, and as far as the world at large was concerned, Apple was in its death-throes - Microsoft had Windows 95 on the boil and a little company called Netscape was threatening to do away with the OS all together. The future of publishing was the CD-ROM and the word 'Google' was a seldom used numeric definition.

But I was young, had a financial backer and was very busy making cool things. Creatively, they were exciting times. My main source of news was Wired magazine and I was young enough to believe the hype.

Several years later all that had changed. It was 2001 and I was working in a completely different (well almost) field - Visual Effects & 3D - which required me to make a near total conversion to the PC & Unix platforms.  Apple had totally lost its grip on the design market. It didn't make any sense to pay a premium to use software tools that functioned just as well on 'the other side'. I was finally able to work with the leading software in the field and was no longer suffering from the restrictions of a marginalized platform. My Apple laptop had become a music player in the corner of the studio.

Fast forward to 2007. Apple had bounced back big time and was once again the darling of the technology world, with iMacs, iPods, Intel based hardware and rumors of a super-cool phone on the horizon.

That winter as I was traveling to the USA, the only laptop I had available to me was my trusty Apple 'Wall Street' power-book. It was 8 years old, but the display was as beautiful as the day it was bought and whilst it was a little short on disk space, it was still perfectly suited for business tasks and simple graphics work. It even had wi-fi.

Unfortunately, somewhere on my travels the power supply died. At the suggestion of an old mac-head friend, I visited an Apple store when I arrived in the USA to see if I could find a replacement. Sure they hadn't sold that model for years, but it had been extremely popular in its day and we figured they'd still have a power supply lying around somewhere. I mean, if you bought a car (or even a cooker) from one of the world's leading manufacturers, you'd still be able to get a part 8 years later. right?

Wrong. I was literally laughed out of the shop. The Apple store staff, decked out in white, surrounded by their spaceship inspired silver furnishings and wafer-thin, platinum laptops & iPods treated me with contempt. Of course they couldn't help me! That was the technology of the last century. Was I out of my mind?

I was not happy. Back in the nineties I was an Apple flag waver. When everyone else was getting ready for the reading of the will, I was trying to convince the world that the future was still being invented in Cuppertino. Not only had I spent hard earned cash on their technology, but I'd run a publication that had championed their products. At one time, we were linked on the Apple home page. In my dusty cellars I had at least 3 generations of pre-OSX mac hardware including Apple monitors and screens.

The exact short phrase I used when I left the store can't be written here, but one of the two words was 'Wankers'.

But strangely enough, I didn't become an apple hater, like so many are. Instead, it made me realise that all companies are effectively the same. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Adobe, AutoDesk. They don't care about you. They are only in this for financial gain. You're a fool if you think it's any other way.

Think different? Don't be Evil? Where do you want to go today? Its all BS.

This realization - all be it somewhat late in life - was quite liberating. It gave me the ability to see technology in a very objective manner. Not just in terms of its technical specification, but also with regards to what it is used for and the effect it has on its users, their work and their environment.

That objectivity has allowed me to make more sensible purchases and not get swept along with the hype. Which turned out to be quite useful when I went to live in Japan. Technological mecca. But I survived the experience without succumbing to my inner nerd. Apart from my PS3 console I did not get sucked in to buying more new tech! My iPod touch was purchased second hand, and only when my 6 year old palm pilot passed on to the big newton in the sky.

So that brings us to the present day.

It's April 2010. I've just spent 18 months living in Japan and I'm now on holiday in the USA for a few weeks. The iPad is here. One of the most hyped pieces of technology the world has seen so far. The internet is humming with talk about it, its been on the news, people are either queuing up in the streets for it or spitting venom on those who are. Even people who pre-ordered them had to wait and outside the USA they not even on sale.

I've decided I'm going to get one. I'll explain why in the next post. But I'm going to approach this as objectively as I can and whilst I do it, I'm going to try and chronicle everything.

Here we go, once more into the breach my friends...

NEXT: 02 - Why do I want an iPad?