My iPad 2 is doing just fine and out comes the "New iPad." That said if you are an iPad 1 owner, or have been waiting, the new iPad, just called the "New iPad" is what you would expect from Apple after the iPhone 4S launch. The 4S had a better camera, the New iPad has a better Camera. The iPhone 4S has Siri the New iPad has dictation, the 4S has a faster process, the new iPad, well you get the idea.
Siri didn't come with the new iPad, instead you get "dictation". My guess is that the New iPad doesn't have Siri because Siri needs to have internet access in order to work. What is the use of finding out directions from Google Maps when it can't connect to Google Maps.
Personally I have been a user and a fan of Dragon Dictation for years. I have Dragon on my MacBook, My PC, and the iPhone version on my iPad. The piece that is missing is the part that makes it truly mobile. Text to Speech and Speech to text. I was just a little excited to see the diction button on the new iPad's on screen keyboard.
Wouldn't it be great if your iPhone would connect to your car stereo and let you push a "read" button when you get a text. Then over my speakers it would say "Dr. Goldberg Sent : I am off Friday, are you going skiing". Then there would be two simple buttons on the screen which you could also activate with voice "Reply" and "Delete". If you don't do anything for 90 seconds they go away.
I almost wonder if "Instant Voicemail" isn't really the next step. Well that doesn't matter now because the new iPad doesn't have it, or Siri. The new iPad has a dictation button. Really I want both the new dictation button and Siri all in one. That must be next.
As a long term user of Dragon Dictation, I find the new iPad dictation a little funny. How many people are going to sit in their cubicle, or out in a park just talking to their iPad? It won't automatically paste and send for you. I even feel funny talking to my computer at home sometimes, and 50% of my first book was written with Dragon Dictation so I consider myself a dictation power user.
Admittedly, I got a degree in Business and Information Systems because I really have horrid hand writing and didn't want to learn how to hand write better. So is the next step that we forget how to type?
On a mobile device I still prefer text, at least for now. I like texting for the simple reason that nobody can passively enter my conversation (eavesdrop). They have to be hacking in or reading those little letters over my shoulders. I figure the government is already doing that, but I just don't want to share that much with the people sitting around me in the airport.
Honestly I didn't want to know that the guy sitting next to me at LAX yesterday has a pregnant girlfriend. He also shared with us and the person he was talking to that he doesn't want his parents to know. He is OK sharing it with the 20 or so people around him and not his parents? We are funny as humans living in our own little world sometimes right in the middle of everyone else's little world.
Texting has grown exponentially, and the only place I want to see it stop is in the car. I have been that guy ahead of you at the light who sits through an entire green light. After seeing two really bad accidents where the driver next to me was texting, I quit texting while the car was moving. I got Dragon Dictation for my iPhone hoping I could speak my texts while I drive. It hasn't worked out yet.
In public, I also like that I don't have to answer the phone and hold it to my ear when I forget my Jawbone BlueTooth Headset when I get a text instead of a call. In fact I would be very happy with unlimited text and data plan and like 100 minutes of talk time. I mean really, who talks any more? Maybe that is why Apple added dictation to the new iPad, sow we don't forget how to talk?
The only place I really use Dragon Dictation any more is at home and even then not very much any more. My new house has an office that opens into the rest of the house and I feel like I am just bugging everyone. I could be dictating this right now since I am the only one home, but I have changed my habits back to using the old keyboard again.
Back to the New iPad, now where was I? Oh yes, dictation for all it's hype probably isn't the hot feature of the new iPad. The retina display of the new iPad is stunning but my iPad 2 is pretty spectacular already. Now the new iPad really is the super sized iPhone screen.
The real meat is getting 4G and a much faster processor with the new iPad. As fast as my iPad 2 is, more speed is always better. Even if it means I'll need a better data plan.
And now there is just one more thing......
I'll call it the "it's about time" feature I almost forgot about because I currently have AT&T. Verizon is allowing the new 4G iPad to be used as a WiFi Hotspot! That is a winning feature for people like my wife who are in Real Estate.
The more I think about it the more I wonder if I really need an iPhone any more. If I went back to my old simple, sleek Motorola Razr for a phone with like 100 minutes, and added a VOIP calling plan like Skype or Line2 to a new iPad I might have every base covered. Too bad the data plans are soooooo expensive now.
I guess since my wife and I both have the iPad 2, we will likely skip this generation. We tried an Android tablet also, and it just wasn't ready for mainstream like the iPad.
The New iPad Highlights:
Faster Processor
Real 4G
Hotspot (so far only on Verizon)
Retina Screen
The rest as they say is just "stuff". So will iPad dictation give every one a reason to talk in public at any time for any reason? Boy, I hope not.
What do you think?
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Thank you for your insights.