The only good thing about the iPad now is its potential. Seriously, they could make this thing SO amazing.
Anyways, this is how I would change things on the iPad. I'm trying to be realistic here based on Apple's recent design decisions (with the exception of #1, which is just my personal wish). Keeping consistent with the market they're trying to reach, and what they're trying to achieve with the device.
1. The aluminum. Not realistically going to change, as Apple (like any other company) needs to stick with a design language. Seeing as they just adopted the unibody language from the Air, this is unsurprisingly incorporated into the iPad's case design. Im not a big fan. I think the black/aluminum combo looks off..always have. I think up until the most recent iMac refresh, that the iMac looked horrid. Now, it looks less so, but mainly thanks to a thinner "chin."
Anyway, I would
change the iPad's back casing to a material more like the Zune HD's case. Aluminum and black, and bring back the Apple logo that lights up. They can even keep the unibody.
2. Camera. This is one of the features I was most excited about and made the most sense.
Front and back camera. Back for taking photos and front for video chat. I can understand why they didnt do it because of data usage concerns, but they can easily disable video chatting over 3G, and only enable it if there is a Wifi connection.
This would also give them a chance to bring some consistency in regards to the chat app. Instead of "messaging" or "SMS" as it is on the iPhone OS, they could just use iChat consistently across their lineup.
Also,
they could bring Photobooth in and have the same feature set as it is on the desktop version.
3. The OS/multi-tasking. Its good, and certainly not surprising. The OS when it was first announced was good and is still good by todays standards. When it comes to multitasking, I can understand Apple's concerns with multitasking in terms of performance. Yes, I know, they have a custom built 1ghz processor. But because of that processor is why everything is going so fast and snappy. I think they can include multitasking, limit the amount of apps opened at once, and still find a great balance for performance.
And I think they can achieve this multitasking the "Apple way." That is, minimalist and simple to understand via visua/audio cues. Apple's motto for the iPad is obviously "just do it." You dont think about it, you want the computer to do something, the computer has to show that "something" as just that. You touch it, it does.
So in regards to multi-tasking, they can
keep the icons the same way, while putting a glowing "outline" (for visual effect, make it pulsate! :lol ) for apps that are currently on. Now, say you want to close it. Simply hold on to that one app and a field similar to the copy/paste field will pop up giving the option to close the app or close the field. Having a 3-4 app limit (not including standard background processes like iPod, notifications) will help keep performance in line.
When it comes to an app that really requires the horsepower, simply pop up a notification asking the user to close all their apps before opening this video game. Or, better yet, have that notification give the option to close all apps or cancel.
4. Packed in apps: The main thing that Apple could've done to help create a mental "gap" for this product (instead of it just being a bigger iPhone in everyone's mind) is the included apps. Have iLife on there like its full fledged PC cousins. iPhoto, iChat, Garageband, Photobooth..etc.
The photo app could've been replaced by iPhoto..which includes the same (modified and optimized for touch) editing options as well as managing options. If simplicity is what they were worried about; Apple could've kept the interface now but add an "Advanced" tab for the iPhoto management and editing features.
This will go a long way in showing this product as a singular product not dependent on another product. Currently, it requires you to plug this into a PC to sync all photo management changes. Having the ability to affect the things in the iPad within the OS itself would've showed this product as more then "just" a larger iPhone.
The ability to edit songs via Garageband will give it a legs up with the audiophile crowd. Especially those who use Macs for DJing and mixing. They plug their stuff in and record, they mix and edit their songs..etc etc. Optimize it for touch, and you have a real winner here for people to actually use this thing. If they're worried about competing with their own App store, well..truth is there will always be something better out there. People can choose to use Garageband or their own software, given its available on the app store.
Photobooth for all those snazzy photo effects and video effects. This will actually go a long way to helping the iPad be a "fun" toy as well as productive.
5. iTunes. Purchase some damn shareware companies and use their amazing software. They bought the company that made that awesome (now default) iTunes visualizer. Now they should spend that money on actually buying some companies that might make iTunes better for the iPad.
Apple doesnt know this, but having the iTunes software on the iPad actually contradicts a lot of the design decisions they made with the product. Its not a bad thing, its a good thing actually! Reality is, the whole unit other then the iPod app screams "larger iPhone" so people expect to see just a larger "iPod" interface. Instead, they'll see an iTunes interface.
Again, it was a good decision. Fact is, all that awesome album art wont look as good on a bigger screen (although, I know, that the option to have the iPod interface is still there). Plus, just for the sake of usability, having the iTunes software in there is great and really helps move it away from the larger iPhone thing I keep talking about.
What they need to do is get a software like GimmeSomeTunes and integrate it with iTunes. That way, while they're surfing the web or doing whatever, when a new song pops up a snazzy little notification pops up with the thumbnail of the album art and general song information.
Isn't that snazzy?
6. The "default" orientation of the device based on the Home screens position. To move further away from the "larger iPhone" thing,
they should have moved the home screen button away from the "vertical" orientation to the "horizontal" orientation. Creating a mental perception that the "default" orientaion is more like a touch "screen" and not a touch "phone," a perception the iPhone helped developed.
"Why would anyone want to orient the screen vertically" you ask? For books, for certain tasks or apps they want to see more of vertically than horizontally..etc.
