Apple always impress me and many of my friends who uses Apple products, but unfortunately not at this time. May be you call it because of the absence of Steve Jobs or anything else. There are a bunch of reasons not only because of this iPad.

Well about the iPad mini i would say its nothing there to impress the existing iPad user and so very not for the user of iPad 3 Retina Display. But its a good one for someone who is planning to buy iPad 2, because this one has its looks and its more easy to carry with you on the go.
On the other side as i said above the design is great not doubt about that  but it seriously has nothing to offer an ‘existing iPad user’. There is no Retina Display! Shocking! Same Dual Core A5 Chip as in iPad 2. Come on, after introducing such and amazing Retina Display in iPad 3 Apple should have pushed this with Retina and as well as A6X Chip. So this is expected in the next iPad mini hopefully.

This is actually a great product, really good for the ones who are planning to buy an iPad2, if you are looking for something slick and easy to carry then this one is for you.

In Pakistan you can buy iPad mini from these places:

HomeShopping
http://homeshopping.pk/products/Apple-iPad-Mini-16GB-Wifi-in-Pakistan.html

16GB WiFi version is for Rs.43000 PKR as on HomeShopping website 18th November, 2012

Media Center
http://www.mediacenterpk.com/

Not sure about the Media Center but this is one of the places from where you might get.

These days where everythings better on internet, there are multiple ways to search for food online, the basic thing you need is whats available in which restaurant with their price and other useful information that one needs for placing an order for delivery. With the ease of couple of online services you can avail this facility of searching your best food online. We use this website http://www.eatoutpk.com for food and restaurant related search, very useful and can be used for on the go on your mobile devices.

Here are some of the interesting menus available online, so we thought this might be great for sharing with food lovers here:

14th Street Pizza Co. 
http://www.eatoutpk.com/restaurant/5/14th-Street-Pizza-karachi-restaurant-delivery-menu.html

Espresso
http://www.eatoutpk.com/restaurant/23/Espresso-karachi-restaurant-delivery-menu.html

Chairman Mao
http://www.eatoutpk.com/restaurant/6/Chairman-Mao-karachi-restaurant-delivery-menu.html 

and many more.

Being a User Experience and Communication Designer I look into things like interactive design very closely and from different angles, it is my passion to design experience for users. Before you read this article you should know about the author and specially the direction he/she is writing in.

I started using mobiles with a Nokia device somewhere in 2005-06, which are still one of the most successful mobile device makers brand in Pakistan and rest of the world. Time changes and so do your needs. I started using my first Android based smart phone a couple of years ago, the battle between iPhone and Android devices started since then in my mind. I’ve been hearing the goods and bads about iPhones since I bought a Smartphone. As time passed the number of good things I heard about iPhones increased. But I was still a very loyal user of Android and have been using Android since its first generation.

Again, this is not an experience by an average user. I design user experience/interface and has been in this field for almost 5 years, my final year thesis and as well as my dissertation was also based on User Interface I did a lot of research on User Interface design. This experience matters because its my daily job to design experience.

Why I switched

It is true that when you haven’t tested anything before, you can never know its taste, same thing happened to me. I was a very hard-core Android user who never wanted to compromise on the convenience of communicating with friends, co-workers and business contacts with all the smart Google applications on Android device, hats-off to Google for being the best in cloud services like Gmail, Google Search, Gtalk, Google Maps and all. This is the only thing I am going to miss in my Apple iOS based devices. But for me, the user experience matters a lot here. Following are the reasons that made me switch to iOS:

• The laggy user experience in Android-based device, no matter how superb the hardware of my device was I always felt breaks when it came to response.

• Animations play an important role in user experience that I feel are much better in iOS in a sense of keeping the performance at best level. In Android the animations are super cool but visually, that’s compromising the performance of the device.

• Sounds are just ok in Android but it’s about responsive sounds that really make you experience your action and its response. Eg: Text sending sound in iPhone.

• The touch keyboard, which is always the most useful thing in touch screen devices, are much more responsive in Apple devices as compared to Android.

• Homescreen widgets, which I always found visually appealing in Android but never really used them much. Visually speaking, they were just occupying space rather than being any useful.

• One-tap solutions, which I always find hard in Android. For example I remember times when I need to quickly take some pictures and It took me a while to figure out where the hell is my camera icon. Its not only about the positioning, its about the design. The visuals in something like a mobile device should be quick and easy enough for a user to understand. Apple did this thing in a great way; it’s a one-tap solution with solid defined graphics. Android is more visual, but I found Apple’s design more interactive.

• Security, which is again very smart and visual in Android but Apple’s is more faster. It feels cool when you draw a pattern to unlock your phone instead of a 4 digit password but I think that’s less important, it takes more time to access your phone.

There are more things which you can experience in your devices.

How I switched

I loved Android so much because of its shinny graphics and effects and all the smart features and customizations which are really good but cannot compare the usability that I understand after experiencing Apple devices and I really hated Apple because I knew I have to change all my devices to Apple which obviously are expensive BUT there is a REASON why it is expensive than others, Apple does a lot of research for their products, they spend a lot of time and money into it.  I hated Apple because I thought its just a status symbol specially in Pakistan.

See now here comes the education which makes a difference especially when you studied from a school like Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS). IVS really changed my angle of experiencing things, how I look into things today is way more different than how I looked into things 4 years back. Now I know the value and respect of design. I was a PC user since my childhood and switching from a PC to MAC was really a big deal because it compromises your productivity, but time takes care of things.

Rich and glossy design ‘looks’ great and visually appealing, but there’s a difference between great looking design and interactive design. I really appreciate Apple’s design which is smart and real interactive. Simple is smart, I liked Apple’s design because how and advance user can easily navigate through it as easy as a 7 year old child.

My teachers and friends kept on telling me about Apple and its experiences and I never listen to them. I was wrong because I had never tested the Apple devices and its user experience and you are right: Esha Saiyed, Farah Mahbub, Sohail Zuberi, Sheeraz Wania, Ambreen Dar, Ali Khurshid and all those who discussed their experiences about Apple devices or had a discussion on it with me.

When I decided to buy a tablet for myself it was pretty obvious and understandable that I will get an Android-based tablet and I found it un-interesting because at that time there were not enough tablet optimized apps for Android so I borrowed my best friend Esha Saiyed’s iPad one day and found the much more interesting not just because of the apps but I found it much more comfortable and a much more responsive user experience. So I switched from Android tablet to iPad 2 and im very happy with it.

Mobile devices are very personal things. I was a real hater of Apple and now im not. Android and iOS are both great operating systems but everything has its goods and bads. Completely based on your taste, your needs and budget.

Tweet what do you think about this? A designer’s Journey from Android to Apple vakassiddiqui.com/?p=201 @esha_saiyed @zairabbas @fursid @AlyRaxa

— Vakas Siddiqui (@vakas) May 18, 2012

Comparison: Original vs Copied Version

This is the Original Artwork which was designed by me for STRINGS concert at IVS.

You can find this on my website

Date published on my website: Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Copied Poster used in video

Video Still

This is the copied version you can see this in the video here:

http://youtu.be/HC-RQhVaecw

See 2:09 – 2:11 and 2:13 – 2:21

Note: This post doesn’t mean to disrespect any other artists who worked in this project. Only the creative team behind this is responsible.