Read It Later on the iPad

For all of those who have asked, rest assured, the iPad version of Read It Later is coming.

While Apple gave developers the opportunity to submit their apps to be available on day one, I decided to wait until I could test it on the actual device.  As today loomed closer, I got increasingly nervous that I was making a mistake.  However, after spending the last two hours playing around on my shiny new iPad, I’m very happy I waited.

Make no mistake, the iPad is great, but how you hold it, how you touch it, even how you look at it is was all completely different than I expected.  Even though I have to-scale printouts of the iPad, it feels a lot heavier and a lot bigger than I would have guessed.  These factors make a big impact on how you want to interact with each app.

There is one thing that makes designing for the iPhone OS different than any other platform:  Feel.  When you design for the web or desktop you mainly concern yourself with the way the app looks.  When you design an iPhone and Ipad app, it has to feel right too.  This is why I waited.  I could design how I wanted it to look, but until I was holding it, I could not design how it feels.

Now I’ve got it in hand and it looks freaking awesome.  Give me a little bit more time and soon you’ll have it when it feels awesome too.

I would normally post some teaser screenshots here but I’m likely going to shuffle a few things around, so it’d all be a lie anyway 😉

One more update: If you have an iPad, email me your device id if you’d like to beta test it.