Apple has always been master of UI and user experience. And now Steve Jobs has decided to use that to fool iPhone users to think that Are you holding me right .. is really not a problem, but is just a software glitch that is displaying wrong number of bars. Well lot of iPhone users may buy into the argument. Well not me.

If this was really an issue with just displaying wrong number of bars, then why exhibit only when holding the phone a certain way. A wrong calculation is a wrong calculation no matter what. If this calculation is affected by how I hold the phone, that means it is a hardware issue and not software issue.

And now Apple has job openings for Antenna Engineers. After all, there definitely seems to be something wrong with how antenna has been designed in iPhone and iPad. Here is the link to job advertisement. There are more jobs on their site, all related to antenna.

Apple Jobs - Antenna Engineer - iPad/iPhone

I guess Apple is following user interface principles that if user does not see it visually then they do not think that it is a problem. So by software manipulation Apple wants iPhone users to think that signal is OK. Ya right!

With iPad sales soaring and lot of people using iPad to browse your web site, you want to make sure that your site is ready for iPad. Since the size of iPad is not as small as mobile device like iPhone, iPod, Droid etc. so you need to make sure that your site is not serving content intended for those small devices.

First and foremost thing that you need is a way to detect if web request is coming from iPad. We all look at User Agent string sent by browser in headers. Following is user agent string that is sent by iPad.

The main indetification mark in this string is presence of iPad. So if you have a regular expression or some string search function, then look for presence of iPad sub-string in user agent string to determine if this request is coming from iPad. There are few things that makes it essential to search for iPad in this string.

• Mac, iPhone use Safari browser. That would mean that you need some other identification to distinguish between request browser.
• iPhone browser user agent looks the same but with a difference that it has iPhone sub-string embedded in user agent string. But for iPad, the user agent string is identified by presense of Mobile in the string.

With iPad release around the corner and so much hype built around it, I thought I will take a test drive to figure out do I really need to get on this iPad band wagon. After spending some time with this toy, I decided that I really do not need iPad that bad. iPad did not offer me anything that I could not do with my Dell Mini Laptop. This does not mean that iPad has no advantage at all. It has its own place in everyday life. Bottom line is you need to figure out what kind of usage you are looking for. Based on my day to day software development and project management tasks, here are some of the reasons that made me decide that I do not need to iPad so bad.

There is no keyboard with iPad

This was one of the primary reasons that drove me off. Some will argue very stongly against this with me. Lot of people think that having no keyboard is one of the cool things in iPad. Well it depends. Some of the following bullet points will explain why I did not like not having keyboard.

Hard to write long emails

While I am travelling on bus or train, I keep my mini laptop with me to read and answer emails for my clients and co-workers. And most of these emails can get pretty long. Well try to write long emails by tapping on screen keyboard. Then you will feel the pain. Unfortunately I am not Steve Jobs who can get away by answering his emails in "Yes" or "No". I am sure you know what I am talking about.

No document editor on iPad

I spend lot of time reviewing and writing design and management documents and data sheets. Well, out of the box iPad does not offer Office like editors. Apple is offering iWorks like application for iPad. But you have to buy them. So here we start adding up cost to so called low cost system. Now you have to pay for essentials. But that is besides the point. Painful part is that there is no keyboard and I will have to use on screen keyboard tapping. Thanks but no thanks.

No DVD player in iPad

Well, whats the use of carrying this toy when travelling when I can't watch a movie. You can stream the movies from Apple store and things like that. Not everybody has broadband cards or WiFi connections available in bus, train etc. But why should I have to stream movie or show from some paid service.

Not sturdy

One of big drawback iPhone type devices for me is that they do not handle rough treatment that device like Backberry gets from me. I can't remember how many times I have dropped my Backberry and for that matter my mini laptop. And they are still kicking and screaming. Well, I dropped iPhone once and that was end of the story. May be if i can frame my iPad in some glass frame. When I went to Apple store to check if they have any extended warranty plan something like Dell's complete coverage or any plan that will provide some affordable repair for accidental damage. Well the answer to the question was big NO. So if you are travelling a lot or have kids in your house, then accidents will happen. So I have no reason to buy iPad yet.

Price of iPad not attractive

Price range of $499-$899 is not so appealing for me. For the type of usage that I need, I can buy a much better mini laptop for same price range.

Again, the reasons that I have cited for not buying iPad are based on my experience and type of usage that I need. If you are someone who wants to mostly surf internet, read emails, stream videos and play some games, you may find more use out of iPad.