Women Laugh at the iPad

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As I watched the Apple event while at work today in which the iPad was announced, I began to notice a lot of people on twitter joking about the iPad's name. They snickered. They giggled. They were angry. They claimed that Apple had little to no women working there. All of these people were in fact specifically women making these comments. I had been watching the Twitter Trending Topics off and on all morning because Twitter had just opened up local trends for me today. I noticed iTampon and iMaxipad were trending. I then got it. Women call Maxipads, just pads. When men hear 'pads' they think of notepads/writing pads/post-it note pads, etc.

Fine. Whatever. Steve Jobs either didn't realize this when he picked the name, or more likely, he didn't care. What really aggravated me was this article written by Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Swisher's article title is "Memo to Geek Dudes: The Inevitable Maxi Pad Jokes About the iPad Are Lame (And Steve Jobs Doesn’t Care Anyway)". I quote her:

Well, that didn’t take long–even as Apple CEO Steve Jobs was launching the new iPad tablet computer today at an event in San Francisco, legions of geeky dudes let fly with the feminine-protection jokes.

It is the name, iPad, that Apple (AAPL) chose for its newest device that sent them deep into wink-wink-nudge-nudge territory about how it sounded like a Maxi Pad and would hurt the brand.

Get it? Get it! Like a tampon! My seven-year-old could come up with a cleverer comparison.

But Silicon Valley being what it is–full of mostly nerdish boys whose median maturity age hovers between 11 and 12 years old, and none of whom has likely ever handled one–this is exactly what you get.

Ok. I need to stick up for us guys for a moment. I didn't make this naming association until a female co-worker laughed at the name and had to explain why she thought it was funny. Since then, I've seen dozens of women I follow on twitter all comment on the name in various ways. I did not see a single guy on my feed (I follow ~ 450 people) comment on the coincidence of the name. I would like to point out to my female friends (and anyone who reads this) that it is not insensitive of men to not have thought of this. We simply do not use them ourselves, and therefore, they aren't something we think about or even talk about, on a regular basis. The meaning of that word is different in our normal vocabulary. It's a gender thing.

Need some evidence of my statements? Go read all of the comments to Kara Swisher's article. I'll quote a few:

nofasdf 7 hours ago
Actually, if you were following Twitter in real time, the source of most of these jokes are females. Nice try though.
davebarnes 6 hours ago
Well, Kara, my wife's first reaction to the name was: "MaxiPad". My brain made no connection to such products, but hers did.
Ksenia Coffman 6 hours ago
I think it was actually women who first reacted to the name; not men (geeks). Men I asked on Twitter said "my mind did not go there," while women snickered and thought the name was 'hilarious.' Could it be the unconscious 'sexism' akin to unconscious racism of "HP's racist computers" (famous YouTube video) - i.e. if it works for whites (or males) it should work for everyone?
msaldana 5 hours ago
Kara, I think that women are really who are making fun about this, for every guy I know it means NOTHING, it was a woman who made me the first Kotex observation, I truly believe that it only sound weird to women.
melodyakhtari 5 hours ago
Actually, I agree with Ksenia. I saw mostly women reacting to the name, claiming that it was an oversight on the part of Apple's marketing team. Women are obviously more comfortable with that topic than men are, which explains why it was women who vocalized (er... twitterized) their reactions more than the gents. To be honest, that's where my mind went first, too.

How much sleeker would a name like iSlate have been?

I'm all for calling a bigot a bigot. I'm all for calling a racist a racist. I'm all for calling a sexist a sexist. But it's pretty hypocritical when it's women making the naming association and, as you say, act like 11 or 12 year olds, and yet, you blame men for it. Sigh.

I'm not saying some men didn't make these jokes and I'm not saying that all women did, but lets try to keep things in perspective people, and for damned sure, do not blame one gender for something when, as I see it, it's the other gender who is doing it.

Apple Predictions

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For months the Apple rumor mill has been stirring, as usual, whenever there is a build-up to an official Apple event. Each year, there are a half dozen or so Apple events of significance, but two notable events come to mind, WWDC and Macworld. Alas, Apple announced last year that Macworld 2009 would be their last. It surprised very few people, however, when they announced they would do their own event on January 27, 2010.

Notable Apple forecasters and pundits have written several incredibly interesting articles about this upcoming event and just what Apple may release. I've been reading about this speculation for months and several notable posts come to mind. Before reading the rest of my post, I encourage you to read these:

What Apple Will Announce

Before I get to the topic of the The Tablet, let me first talk about the iPhone.

iPhone on Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.

On May 23, 2007, Leslie Cauley of USA Today published a piece quoting that AT&T had signed a 5 year exclusivity contract to sell the iPhone until 2012. Wired's Fred Vogelstein wrote the same thing on January 9, 2008, quoting:

After a year and a half of secret meetings, Jobs had finally negotiated terms with the wireless division of the telecom giant (Cingular at the time) to be the iPhone's carrier. In return for five years of exclusivity, roughly 10 percent of iPhone sales in AT&T stores, and a thin slice of Apple's iTunes revenue, AT&T had granted Jobs unprecedented power. He had cajoled AT&T into spending millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to create a new feature, so-called visual voicemail, and to reinvent the time-consuming in-store sign-up process. He'd also wrangled a unique revenue-sharing arrangement, garnering roughly $10 a month from every iPhone customer's AT&T bill. On top of all that, Apple retained complete control over the design, manufacturing, and marketing of the iPhone. Jobs had done the unthinkable: squeezed a good deal out of one of the largest players in the entrenched wireless industry.

Steve Jobs gave AT&T just enough to make them happy in exchange for allowing him to make the iPhone the way he wanted it to be made. The iPhone was released and it was an enormous success. Once AT&T saw how much the world loved the iPhone. Apple's iPhone, not AT&T's, they were in a weaker negotiating position. Steve Jobs now had the upper hand over AT&T, which had become dependent on the iPhone as a product due to the enormous rate in which it has been able to sign on new customers for them. Steve Jobs was in a much stronger position. He had something he could take away from AT&T that they desperately wanted to keep and he had something all of the other carriers wanted. He used this new power over the wireless industry. Leslie Cauley of USA Today wrote on on July 31, 2008 that:

Under the original iPhone contract, Apple had the right to offer the device to other carriers beginning in 2009. If Apple exercised that clause, AT&T would have lost one of its biggest points of leverage with customers — exclusive access to the iPhone.

So AT&T caved to Apple's new price structure, which allowed Apple to account for most of the profit for an iPhone up front, rather than spreading it out over the 24 months of a customer's contract. Also...didn't she say a year ago that Apple had a 5 year deal? Didn't Wired report the same details in January of 2008? Something had changed. It appears that, either those two articles were wrong, and that it was a 3 year deal from the beginning, or Jobs managed to rewrite the deal before the iPhone 3GS launch. In either case, the Apple & AT&T marriage is due to expire in 2010. Once again, Leslie Cauley of USA Today backs up this line of thinking saying that:

Verizon (VZ) and Apple (AAPL) are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, people familiar with the situation say....

...The New York-based telecom entered into "high-level" discussions with Apple management a few months ago, when CEO Steve Jobs was overseeing day-to-day business, these sources say. They declined to be named because they aren't authorized to speak publicly.

 

The original iPhone went on sale in June of 2007. It is reasonable to believe that Apple will therefore sell the iPhone on other carriers as early as June 2010, right after WWDC, when the new iPhone hardware is released. The New York Post backs this up, for what it's worth (I don't think very highly of the NY Post).

iPhone 4.0 Software and Hardware

I haven't seen as many leaks about upcoming features to the iPhone OS. The one credible post that I have seen recently was made by Boy Genius Report. In addition to providing a screenshot that looks like a validly leaked developer seed (2B13), they report there will be OS-wide multi-touch gestures. This would make sense if The Tablet is to run the same OS as the iPhone. They also report that Multitasking - running applications in the background - is coming. They hint at an improved home screen and new UI improvements for navigating through the OS. Other features such as new calendar and contact syncing (official Google support, not just using CalDAV?) seem believable as well. I think Steve will preview these new things on stage, releasing the 4.0 SDK to developers soon thereafter so they can get cranking on their apps to be ready to release updates come June/WWDC when the OS & new iPhone hardware is released.

iPhone hardware you say? I have no earthly idea exactly what they could add to this phone hardware-wise to make it better, other than more RAM, more storage, better camera and a faster processor. I'll be happy with just those improvements. I wouldn't put it past Apple to surprise all of us, however, with some new, yet-unthought-of, hardware feature.

The Tablet aka the Canvas

I don't think anyone, at this point, doesn't believe Apple is going to release a touch screen/tablet like device on Wednesday. Earlier today, during their Q4 earning conference call, Steve Jobs was quoted to say, "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about." Later in the call, Tim Cook says, "I wouldn’t want to take away your joy of surprise on Wednesday when you see our latest creation." Additionally, MacRumors wrote on January 24, 2010 that:

We haven't heard this first hand, but we've heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he's about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he's ever been.

I think this will be Apple's 4th biggest release within the last 10 years. Release 1 = iPod. Release 2 = Intel-based Macs. Release 3 = iPhone. Release 4 = Canvas. This release has the potential to be just as big, if not bigger, than the previous three.

 

I think Apple will finally drop the 'i' as a prefix to the name. Apple Canvas, or simply, Canvas. Take your pick. I've seen people throw about iTablet, iPad, iSlate, iCanvas, Apple Tablet, Apple Pad, Apple Slate, Apple Canvas. It could be any of these, or a yet unnamed one. I'm going with Canvas, simply because Apple has hinted at product names in event invitations before. At the event where Apple unveiled the MacBook Air, the invitation tagline was "Something is in the Air." The name was IN the tagline. This invitation? Scroll up and look at it. Doesn't that look like an something an artist might paint on a piece of canvas? Yes, thin reasoning, but I think it fits.

It will be running iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.2 when he shows it off on stage, set to be running a newer version when it goes on sale in March and eventually 4.0 in June. Some of this is speculation on my part, but at least one mobile app analytics company claims to have seen evidence of this already in their user agent strings within their data.

Will Canvas be Wi-Fi only? Built-in 3G always on internet, sans contract (like the Kindle)? Purchased data-plan from a wireless carrier? Sources have been all over the place on this. Part of me wants to say it will be like the Kindle's Whispernet™, but realistically I think there will be 2 versions, one with Wi-Fi only and the other that you'll able to also purchase a data plan from a wireless carrier.

Will this be a Kindle killer? Well, yes, but not in the way you think. This product isn't aimed at just the Kindle. That's thinking too small. This product is aimed at being a do-everything-you-could-want-device-for-its-size, like the iPhone, that just happens to be able to do everything the Kindle does, but better. Also Apple has been working with book publishers to negotiate content distribution deals within iTunes. Rumors purport that Apple has been talking to publishers such as HarperCollins and McGraw-Hill, and say that Apple may even be working directly with Barnes & Noble. I also think Amazon's Kindle app will still be available to allow Kindle books on the device. Apple wants to kill the competing hardware off, but will allow other company's content to continue to work as well (through their respective apps). Remember Apple is a hardware business. iTunes exists only to support their hardware business. If Kindle and the Nook's books also work on the Canvas, so much the better. Perhaps the owners of those $249 devices will upgrade to a Canvas in 2011 when they tire of their e-ink readers. Having their 20-30 books they purchased through the Kindle or B&N store work on the Canvas go a long way to make the switch easier for them.

And finally, let us all hope Andy Ihnatko makes it to San Francisco before Wednesday.

Palin believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

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In the days leading up to an interview with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson, aides were worried with Ms. Palin’s grasp of facts. She couldn’t explain why North and South Korea were separate nations and she did not know what the Federal Reserve did. She also said she believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Read the rest.

This is why Apple's tablet is going to be a big deal...

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Gruber wrote this. Then Marco wrote this. Then Siracusa wrote this. And finally (maybe), Marco has written another article which I think comes to some very nice conclusions that I agree with:

The Tablet is Apple’s chance at applying the lessons learned on the iPhone to a device big and versatile enough to be a low-needs user’s only computer, or to be the only computer that a power user brings while mobile (as Gruber suggested) instead of a laptop. It can be the computer that we buy our parents or grandparents without worrying that we’re signing ourselves up for years of painful tech support calls as they “lose” documents by saving them in the wrong folder, think they can’t save any more files because the desktop is full of icons, delete their browsers’ icons and tell us the internet is gone, keep five different antivirus products half-installed, and fill their RAM with programs they never Quit because they just close every window instead and don’t notice the tiny “running” dot in the Dock or know what it indicates.

I highly recommend you read the entire thing.