By Stephen Fry
It is a gorgeous spring day when I arrive at the coolest address in the universe: 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif., where Apple has been headquartered since 1993. The campus, for such they call it, is enormous yet not big enough to contain Apple’s current rate of expansion. An additional site is being designed and built. After stocking up on "I visited the mothership" T-shirts at the company store (we fanboys are pathetic, I readily confess), I am shown around the canteen, lawns and public spaces. It is right to call this a campus, for everyone looks and dresses like a student. I should imagine the only people ever caught wearing suits here have been visiting politicians.
Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue are suitably bejeaned and relaxed as they welcome me for a talk about the iPad, Apple’s new product, which will be launched in a week and a half. Schiller is senior VP of worldwide product marketing, responsible for delivering Apple’s latest baby. Cue is VP of Internet services, overseeing the iTunes, App and iBook online stores.
I am here at Apple’s invitation to try out the iPad, and later in my visit I will spend an hour with the company’s boss, Steve Jobs — the first time I’ve ever spent any real time with him. But as I meet with Schiller and Cue, I feel it only fair to reel off the list of negatives the iPad will meet on its release. It falls between two stools — neither small enough to be truly portable nor big enough to be called a proper computer. Everything, I point out, is under Apple’s control, as usual. No Adobe Flash capability, no multitasking, no camera. It’s just a scaled-up iPhone or iPod Touch. (See the best netbooks and netbook accessories.)
"There’s a negative way of saying that," says Schiller, "and a positive. ‘Oh, it’s just a big iPhone … boo!’ or ‘Hey, it’s like a big iPhone … cool!’ Luckily, millions of people have those, so there is an instant ease and familiarity when they first encounter the iPad. As for everything else, it’s not about the features — it’s about the experience. You just have to try it to see what I mean."
I, of course, am itching to try it, but first Cue takes me through the iBook application and its online store. There has been much talk of the iPad’s dealing a death blow to Amazon’s Kindle reader; publishers, it seems, have long yearned to escape from Amazon’s tough control over pricing. I asked John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin, why he’s so keen on the iPad. He told me he likes the fact that "it gives control back to us and allows us to discover how the market is developing. Frankly, when I saw the iPad, it was like an epiphany … This has to be the future of publishing. You’ll know if you’ve spent any time with one." "Yes," I say. "I hope to try one out soon." Tracy Futhey, of Duke University, is similarly optimistic about the iPad’s potential in education. "The iPad is going to herald a revolution in mashing up text, video, course materials, student input … We are very excited," she says. "Have you tried it?" "Er … Not yet." (See TIME’s computer covers.)
Then there’s games. Many will see the iPad chiefly as a gaming platform. Michel Guillemot — founder of Gameloft, one of the most successful developers for the iPhone — is even more passionate about the iPad than Makinson and Futhey are. "I see this as the fourth step of the games evolution," he told me. "First the microcomputer, then the dedicated console, next the smart phone and now the iPad. What do you think?" "I’ll let you know," I say, "when I’ve actually played with one."
And soon, I would. I thought I knew what to expect. For I’ve been playing with Apple products for a long, long time.
How Computing Became Fun
As the world prepares for the release of the iPad, the young — who may have seen the company only as the colossus behind the iMac, iPod and iPhone family of products and the iTunes and App stores that service them — might be surprised to know how hard the life of an Apple lover once was.
In 1984, Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was the first person in Britain to own a Macintosh computer, and I was the second. Goodbye, glowing green command line; hello, mouse, icons and graphical desktop with white screen, closable windows and menus that dropped down like roller blinds. Throughout the next decade I would regularly go round to Douglas’ London house, floppy discs under my arm, and ring the doorbell.
"Is he in?" I would pant excitedly. Douglas’ wife Jane would point with resigned amusement to the stairs, and I would hurl myself up them to swap files and play. We were like children with toy train sets. And that was part of the problem. It was such fun. Computing was not supposed to be fun. Douglas and I once spent two weeks redesigning our desktop icons and then asked Jane to judge the winner. She tactfully awarded us each first prize. We would have sulked for weeks otherwise. But we both wrote books and scripts on our Macs too; it was the first machine that would make you bounce out of bed in the morning eager to boot up and work. (See the 50 best websites of 2009.)
Read more: Time
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