Apple iPad buyers / Owners thread (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

I'm loving the back and forth over flash:
http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/blue_boxes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kigiphoto/4314276957/
http://smarterware.org/4978/flashs-decline-on-lifehacker-from-2006-to-2010
http://twitpic.com/10fjic
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/googles-dont-be-evil-mantra-is-bullshit-adobe-is-lazy-apples-steve-jobs/

Regarding the inabilty to tinker:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/01/the-ipad-is-the-iprius-your-co.html

Again, future shock. We computer tinkerers are in the position of being turned into buggy whip makers by our own favorite horses.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/01/the-ipad-is-the-iprius-your-co.html
http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/359224392/i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-computers-ive-been

Ihnatko is dead on with his thoughts on the iPad, based on what I've read so far:
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2017907,ihnatko-ipad-hands-on-012810.article

 

[Sam Posten]

Good analysis of the business behind the scenes of the book disaster going on this week:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html

I wonder tho, are we trading one monopoly for another tho, from Amazon to Apple....

 

[Sam Posten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveF

Quote:

The feature per se won't affect battery life. Actually using it might, but that would be a nice user preference, no?

As a distant observer, I think Apple needs improvements in app-switching and multi-tasking. Some measure of multi-tasking will simply destroy the most common complaint (whether legit or not).

But I'm just making stuff up having not used these devices

I think you are in danger of letting app switching become your frustration focal point the way I am with Apple BluRay support and HTF breadcrumbs =)

 

[Sam Posten]

WORD!

The iPad is a computer for people who don’t like computers.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/31/ipad-moms-next-computer/

 

[DaveF]

Ihnatko writes:

But on an iPad, switching between two apps is lightning-fast and intuitive

I'm intrigued. How does it work?

I'm trying not to get too hung up on this. But in this conversation, unfettered with actual experience it seems more important than true multi-tasking.

 

[Ken Chan]

Originally Posted by DaveF

The feature per se won't affect battery life. Actually using it might, but that would be a nice user preference, no?

After a quarter-century of "consumer" computing, apparently the answer is actually No. More preferences are a bad idea, and lazy design. Better to be upfront about what it can't do, but do the things it can do well; than to try and be everything to everyone, as long as you can find the right checkbox to turn it on. Now obviously that's a principle and not absolute, but that's the idea.

As for "old world" multi-tasking, think of how long it took them to do cut-and-paste; and by the few accounts I've read, they did -- finally -- get it more right than other touch-screen folks. Don't add a feature until you can get it (mostly) right, because you can't take it back. Give (many) people the option to shoot themselves in the foot, and they will -- then blame you for it.

Android is actually designed so that multiple apps should be well-behaved. It harkens back to old cooperative multi-tasking. The apps are told when they get put in the background. At that point, they're supposed to purge their memory. They're not supposed to run heavy background threads. But for whatever reason it didn't work, and people have to rely on a separate task killer app. This is a complete failure in design.

 

[Sam Posten]

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/01/31/ten-myth-of-apples-ipad-1-its-just-a-big-ipod-touch/

 

[DaveF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Chan

After a quarter-century of "consumer" computing, apparently the answer is actually No. More preferences are a bad idea, and lazy design. Better to be upfront about what it can't do, but do the things it can do well; than to try and be everything to everyone, as long as you can find the right checkbox to turn it on. Now obviously that's a principle and not absolute, but that's the idea.

You make a good argument.

It seems the key issue is trust: trust that the application won't mis-behave. Apple obviously trusts their own apps and allows them to multitask. But they trust no one else, perhaps. Or don't trust broadly and so 3rd parties can't multitask.

 

[Carlo_M]

It's official, the iPad will be a success. How do I know?

Just got the "Colbert Bump" onstage at The Grammys.

Game over.

 

[Sam Posten]

Well, that's the thing, innit? =) Apple has proven to be relatively trustworthy over the years, but with a closed system like the iPad you are putting ALL your eggs into one "security through obscurity" basket.

I saw that on engadget too Carlo, its a real iPad he had too, not a mockup. The accelerometers were keeping the screen right side up.

 

[Sam Posten]

Scott Kelby interviews himself regarding the iPad's faults:
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2010/archives/8310

 

[Carlo_M]

Funny how us ubernerds recognize the same thing. I said to my girlfriend (and her brother) "that's the real thing, see how the accelerometer keeps flipping the screen as he waves it around?" [/url]

I saw that on engadget too Carlo, its a real iPad he had too, not a mockup. The accelerometers were keeping the screen right side up.

 

[Sam Posten]

=)

Speaking of ubernerds, put up or shut up:
http://gizmodo.com/5461485/

If you want to walk the walk, you can follow Stallman's lead and do all your computing on a tiny netbook, interfacing with the internet from a text console running emacs. Let me know how that works out for you. Be sure to take a picture of yourself using your Lemote Yeeloong next to the biodiesel engine you made on your handforged anvil.

Here's the problem I have with that. I'm basically a libertarian but scared silly of the people actually in charge of the libertarian party, they are so focused on slim worldviews that their message can't get a millionth of credibility because they have destroyed it themselves. The same thing with the Linux zealots. I like Linux for what it is, but you have to admit that there is ZERO creativity going on there. It's copying what everyone else is doing with a veneer of freedom piled on top. There's no new thinking going on. Start fresh and make an OS with 2020 ideals not 1970 ideals guys. Apple has at least had the guts to go their own way and to do that, the restrictions they are building in from the ground up arent an afterthought, they are critical to the whole house of cards. So do you choose door #1 with human computing but with a benign darth vader pulling the strings or do you choose door #2, an inelegant pile of wires and sealing wax that mimics 30 year old OS with promises of fresh paint 'when the important stuff is done'. I'm done with Microsoft hiding behind Door #3 until they pull an OSX and nuke everything they have from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. Well, I still use it for a few games and when I'm paid to =)

And so I've thrown my lot with Apple. But I don't do it as a blind follower. I'm willing to yell when the emperor has no clothes on too. But at least I "get" what apple is doing here in the consumer space, but I seriously question if they can continue to do that and have even a small foothold in the professional services area that the Mac Pro, Aperture, Final Cut, and OSX Server breathe in. I don't think you can have it both ways. It's going to be an interesting next few years, that is for sure.

 

[Sam Posten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveF

I'm intrigued. How does it work?

I'm trying not to get too hung up on this. But in this conversation, unfettered with actual experience it seems more important than true multi-tasking.

I still think it's round tripping to the home screen, just as quickly or faster than the iPhone does is what he is saying.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten ">[/url]
"

 

[Sam Posten]

Heh, apparently Gruber is thinking about the same things I am re: openness today too.
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/02/01/pilgrim
http://mark.pilgrim.usesthis.com/

http://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/06/16/juggling-oranges

 

[Ted Todorov]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten
I like Linux for what it is, but you have to admit that there is ZERO creativity going on there. It's copying what everyone else is doing with a veneer of freedom piled on top. There's no new thinking going on. Start fresh and make an OS with 2020 ideals not 1970 ideals guys.

I'm so stealing this for my .sig

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Ted Todorov

I really want to emphasis that people should read this post -- no one gets it any better than Speirs.

I had my wife and a friend read it. Both completely misunderstood his point. So I'd say that Apple-geeks should read it. It has too much inside-baseball for the outsider.

 

[Sam Posten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ted Todorov


I'm so stealing this for my .sig

In an agreement way or ironic way?

This article asks a question I want to know too, but the rest of the article goes off the rails quickly:
http://www.neowin.net/news/editorial-will-ios-replace-mac-os-x?

Ask yourself, ok iWork and iLife on iPad, no brainer. How hard would it be to put:
-Lightroom
-CAD software
-"Real" full featured photoshop / illustrator
-Final Cut Studio
-XCode
-Diablo 3
-Mass Effect 2

3 years? 5 years down the line? I think its doable before that.
So are we willing to give all the freedoms up with open development for an OS / UI that will match the desktop experience in less than a half dozen years? Or can we be content to play it out as it goes, enjoying what we have for the time being but constantly keeping the drum beat up to return those freedoms along with new features? That's what I'm doing personally, but it's a very "Un-appley" perspective, and we see that kind of problem already today just with Blu-Ray and (in a very different way) with flash. The thing is, I don't mind apple murdering Flash but I'm still holding out hope they will at least accept if not embrace blu on the Pro / desktop end even if it never comes to Apple TV and iPad... It doesn't make me a hypocrite but I still am mindful of the fact that that thin line is in there somewhere....

Edit, Fraser Speirs is on the same kick too. He's got a few projects cooking for iPad, but this one looks most interesting:
http://ipad4edu.com/

 

[Sam Posten]

Word to the [SIZE= larger]Mother ship![/SIZE]

http://emergentbydesign.com/2010/02/01/699/

/boggle:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/02/01/chrome-os-tablet-video/

On the other hand:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/02/01/apple-tablet-os-x-ipad/

Sobering questions from Marco Arment:
http://www.marco.org/365203802
http://www.marco.org/366130089

ROFLWAFFLES
http://windows7news.com/2010/01/28/why-the-ipad-will-fail-and-help-windows-7-to-succeed/