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Tags: Apple, business, cloud, Enterprise, ipad 2, march 2, marketing, mobileme, sales, Steve Jobs, users, Technology
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By Chris Dannen | 03-02-2011 | 11:20 AM
iPad 2
My Documents
Better Multi-tasking
iLife
Preloaded Apps
Verizon
Multiple Users
Better Output
Trumpeting the iPad's huge sales and a new sheath of features in iOS, Steve Jobs today revealed the new iPad 2. As of this summer, about half of Fortune 500 companies were trying out the iPad in one form or another. FastCompany asked some enterprise power users and collected ideas from around the Web to bring you the following litmus test. Does the real one stack up, and will business wait for the iPad 3 to get what they want?
"In a perfect world, the iPad 2 would include a My Documents directory to enable easier file sharing between apps," says Aaron Levie, CEO of business cloud service Box.net, which just released a new iPad app. FAIL. The new iPad still doesn't allow you to store your work in a single place.
"I'd like to see multiple screen layouts with drag and drop functionality," says Lance Locher, senior VP and founder of Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network and a self-described iOS power user. (He wrote from his iPad "on a train from Munich to Zurich.") Locher's staff also uses iPads. FAIL. No improvements to multi-tasking were announced with the iOS 4.3 sneak peek.
Behold the collective groan from the Interwebs, which says make MobileMe free. Google and other competitors are letting users live in the cloud (more or less) for free; it's about time Apple stopped charging an idiot tax of $99 for every single MobileMe user. They'd also do well to bring more from iLife into MobileMe, so that users can manage their music, documents, videos and photos more powerfully from the cloud. WIN. The iPad 2's new dual-core A5 chip allows it to run serious iLife software like iMovie and GarageBand. Apple says the apps are Universal, meaning they're built from the same codebase as the Mac OS X versions.
"And [it would] come with the Box app preloaded, of course," says Levie. You may think he's joking, but the push is on for app developers to get first crack at users by wooing carriers and OEMs to preload their apps right out of the box. (FastCompany also found Foursquare's Dennis Crowley barking up the same tree at Mobile World Congress.) To date, Google is the only company to benefit from Apple's grace; it has Google Maps and YouTube preloaded on every iPad. Ideally, customers could choose which apps are pre-loaded, getting fleets of iPads up and running faster. WIN? Apple added more pre-loaded apps, but only FaceTime and Photobooth. Interestingly, and perhaps in the interest of avoiding an antitrust suit, Apple has chosen to not to preload iMovie and Garageband.
Here's a good one from eWeek: an available Verizon 3G radio. "The only way to access that carrier's service right now is to get a separate MiFi 2200 Hotspot," the site says. In a wonderfully blithe understatement, they add: "It's not convenient." WIN. Both Verizon and AT&T versons will be available March 11 in black and white colors.
Over at GigaOm, another bright idea: multiple user sign-on in iOS. "I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to buy an iPad for every member of my family. Until I can, password protected user profiles would make iPad sharing far less stressful." Same goes for enterprises, which may want to avoid blowing $500 on every single.... No wonder Apple hasn't done this. FAIL. Still no multiple users in iOS. Maybe coming in iOS 5?
"It would also be useful to have wireless output to a projector and better external speakers," says Locher. Indeed, output to video and audio with the older iPad involved an over-priced and awkward adapter: not exactly in keeping with the iPad's resplendent simplicity. WIN. The new Apple connector allows charging and peripheral use at the same time, using side-by-side video and USB ports. The benefits: screen mirroring, full HD output, and some other cool stuff.
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