Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has been one of the first Brits to spend some time with Apple's iPod device, branding the new tablet PC from Cupertino an 'interim device' and saying that the lack of Adobe Flash on the iPad is just 'perverse'.
These opinions matter far more than those from most other iPad reviewers to date, because they come from the editor of one of the world's most forward-thinking newspapers.
Rusbridger has been the driving force behing Guardian Unlimited over the last 20 years and somebody that has truly led the way in terms of creating a website and an array of mobile applications to supplement and complement a traditional print newspaper.
An interim device
Rusbridger also says that while he was immediately "incredibly excited by the beauty of it when I unwrapped it because it just has that 'wow' factor that all Mac products have" he then went "through a sort of lull and after ten minutes I couldn't figure out what to do with it, I was puzzled by the apps that were there already and I had a sort of 'lack of confidence' in it.
"And then I went home and loaded up lots more apps and after about five hours I began to see the point in it and enjoy it," adds the Guardian editor.
"Now whether I'm going to be completely convinced by it… I don't know… it feels like an interim product… a stepping stone to something else. It may be a little locked up to be ideal."
Rusbridger highlights the lack of a proper word processing app as something that he really missed on the iPad, although notes that "as a typing experience, it is not that bad."
He also sees the lack of Adobe Flash as a problem. It is a "very poor experience" in his opinion. "It does seem to me perverse… I'm sure Apple has their own power-logic reasons for banning Flash… but it does make the browser experience poorer."
Via Guardian.co.uk
