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The iPad Questions Apple Won't Answer
snydeq writes "Apple's reticence to reveal details prior to a product's launch is legendary. But when Apple extends this silence beyond a product's unveiling, historically this has meant that the product cannot deliver the functionality that analysts and journalists are asking about. InfoWorld's Galen Gruman lists eight key questions for the iPad, about all of which Apple has kept silent. Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management? 'I have no doubt the iPad will be compelling to some users. But I now have major concerns that it will fulfill the potential beyond being an iTunes delivery screen that I and other industry observers saw,' Gruman writes."
Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?
Most likely.
Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email?
Not likely.
Does the iPad support VPN and configuration management?
Not likely.
Can you use media services other than iTunes on the iPad?
Uhm.. New to Apple's stuff? The answer is big NO!
Can the iPad be used for videoconferencing?
There is no camera.
Will the iPad's internal storage be upgradable?
There's different storage versions for a reason. Need more space? Buy the larger version (again, in case you have bought the smaller one)
Will the iPad allow multiple apps to run simultaneously?
No.
Will Apple allow the use of Flash on the iPad?
No.
Seriously, Apple is worse than Microsoft in locking down things. The whole iPad is completely locked.
The Apple iPad is less coveted by consumers, now that they know what it is.
Asked again whether they needed the Apple tablet — after its features had been detailed by the Apple team — 61 percent of those polled said they didn’t need one, while 15 percent said they still needed more information before deciding.
Read more here:
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/consumers-unsure-about-value-of-apple-ipad-3304
I know I could Google it, but I'd much rather have an expression of US 'sentiment' if you will - perhaps things are different across the ocean. I don't see a market for this thing and it leaves me puzzled. My question is this: does anyone there actually own something that could be seen as a precursor to this machine ? Is every other person in the US walking around with an e-book reader, that they are ready to replace with an iPad or something ? I mean, the iPod was launched in an existing portable MP3-player market, the iPhone was launched in an existing (even crowded) mobile phone market. This makes me wonder, since I do not have anything that looks like an iPad already (I don't need it) - is there a widespread need for this product ? I mean, I have a netbook, but i wouldn't compare that - it is much more capable.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Sigh, when do people get it.
With the iphone, ipod and ipad, you do not buy a full fledged computational platform... you only rent a seat in a theatre.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
That's the key thing I still haven't heard anyone explain. What is an Ipad for, exactly?
Maybe it's just me, but the ipad seems like a monumental waste of money.
If you're trying to sell me something for $300 minimum, and you can't tell me with a straight answer what the device is for, then you have a problem.
Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management?
Why would these matter to soccer moms and other similar everyday people who are the main targets of this device?
Settings - General - Network - VPN - Add VPN Configuration
Or is that "not the VPN you are looking for" ?
If they are not answering, doesn't this mean that most of those functions are not available?
On a side-note though, I am still not getting the point of iPad. It's not an iPhone but runs its OS and its too big and expensive to just be an audio/video player to say the least. Probably I was impressed by Hitler, but still....
Alright, I just coined RIC (Real, Important Concerns). Fifteen seconds of blogosphere fame for me.
There are Macs in my house and I like 'em. I've been with OS X since 10.0.0. But the iPad is a big iPhone. If I wanted to enlarge a mobile phone to create a "netpad", I sure wouldn't pick the iPhone. A phone that runs Android would be more interesting to me.
I understand that Mr Jobs wants to build a new market by extending an established market. He's good at doing what he does -- but he makes mistakes. I think using the iPhone OS for the iPad is a mistake. Having a touch screen does not trump having full OS functionality.
For portability, functionality, inputs, interoperability, and even OS alternatives**, a netbook like the Dell Mini 10v beats the Apple iPad all i-silly.
**nudge nudge, wink wink
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Unfortunately for Jobs, Flash isn't the new 3-1/2" floppy. It's actually got a lot of popular uses still.
of "But the Emperor's wearing nothing at all!" comes not from a child, but from a member of the 4th estate?
Colour me shocked.
That's all I really see this as. There's something to be said for that, and I think this is the kind of device I'd be using while spending time in the bathroom (I use my Palm Pre there now, but if it had a larger screen, it'd be nice). But that's about it. Maybe it could replace the laptop while sitting in front of the TV, but not until everything that's flash based that I use (IE games on Facebook) was able to run on the iPad, one way or the other ...
I talk about stuff.
Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?
Most likely.
YES. When connected to your computer the iPad will mount a "Shared Documents" folder that contains files used by apps on the iPad. This is in the SDK.
Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email?
Not likely.
YES. The iPhone does, the iPod Touch does, and the iPad runs the same OS so why the hell wouldn't it? The article even points this out, but then basically say "but you never know... it might not!"
Does the iPad support VPN and configuration management?
Not likely.
See above.
Can you use media services other than iTunes on the iPad?
Uhm.. New to Apple's stuff? The answer is big NO!
How do you get that? There are plenty of media services/apps (Rhapsody, Pandora, etc.) you can use on the iPhone OS that are not connected to Apple. The author of the article complains there's no Netflix app - but how is that Apple's fault? Netflix is free to make such an app if they choose. The only issue is the inability to play in the background - something that primarily affects music apps.
Can the iPad be used for videoconferencing?
There is no camera.
Article acknowledges this and mentions the potential for third-party cameras. Apple allows video capture apps already, so software-wise this shouldn't be an issue. The question is whether the dock connector can support a camera - and this is the one question the article might be right about when they say there's no way to know yet.
Will the iPad's internal storage be upgradable?
There's different storage versions for a reason. Need more space? Buy the larger version (again, in case you have bought the smaller one)
You're right about this one. Why was this even a question to begin with?
Will the iPad allow multiple apps to run simultaneously?
No.
Other than the usual Apple apps (ie. the iPod app) there was nothing that ran in the background in the demo. No reason to assume otherwise. If multitasking ever comes about (ie. as rumored for iPhone OS 4.0) it will be announced when they release the beta SDK for that OS revision.
Will Apple allow the use of Flash on the iPad?
No.
Again, why was this even a question? Apple has explicitly stated it won't. This article was the worst bit of speculative rubbish I've seen in a while. One out of the "Eight key questions" was actually legit.
Seriously, Apple is worse than Microsoft in locking down things. The whole iPad is completely locked.
This is an appliance, not a full-blown computer (Apple does sell those too, you know). Nor is it half as incapable of things as you claimed.
the ancient crud that is Flash
You do know that the same could be said, with even more justification, about html, right?
If [insert large percentage] of your customers want to play Flash games and watch kittens on youtube, you *need* Flash support.
Can the iPad display 8 questions in HTML without having to spread them across 6 pages festooned with advertisements? Perhaps the object of the author's criticism is a more efficient content delivery platform than his employer's website.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I think the question that ought to be asked is; Will the iPad firmware have holes in it, so it can be jailbroken and get Rock installed on it, to further allow 3rd party software to be installed? :]
Mark my words, Apple are renown for their PR-stunts.
By getting everyone upset, a simple thing like the obvious lack of Flash, which is severely needed for a proper Surfing Experience that the iPad is made for, this is nothing but a PR-STUNT, ingenious - I have to admit - because it'll make you and other RAVE on forever and critique iPad & Apple = Free publicity, and of course - shortly after iPad has been launched, Apple will timely announce that Flash is coming - after all, they have "listened" to their "audience".
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
No, they can use the HTML5 video version which works perfectly on Webkit which additionally uses the codec you support to enlarge your p^Hlock-in. Once people start using iCrap more and more, even porn sites will switch quickly to HTML5 video. And there goes your Flash crap. All of them will support Flash for a while(until IE supports video), but in the end, Flash will be another Java. Maybe used for games by a minority but abandoned for web-based solutions everywhere else.
The people that think this bullshit up must not have any friends outside of their little development circle.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Is it useful for something else than browsing the web from your bath tub?
The only question.
Is it a Apple Product ? Yes then Buy.
How does html5 video help me play a game?
How does it help me view youtube, or other video sources, *now*?
I think the question is, is Apple targetting this at the guy on the street or at technology nerds? And which group does 90% of the questions in this article relate to? VPN's, simulataneous running of 3rd party apps and SDK's are certainly not of interest to 90% of Apple's target audience.
The most important question is "Has Apple found a niche for this product that other Tablet PC manufacturers have been unable to find?"
Audio synthesis: http://www.hobnox.com/index.1056.en.html
Image creation: http://aviary.com/
PDF creation: http://alivepdf.bytearray.org/
There are thousands more of course, these are just the ones that sparked my interest in the last couple of weeks.
It sounds to me a bit like the author of that article is a little miffed that he's been disintermediated. He mentioned several times about how Apple PR hasn't gotten back to him on this or that, therefore these features must be absent. He also mentions how Apple views the press as an extension of their marketing arm.
It all smells a little like sour grapes to me. Boo hoo Apple won't tell *ME*, a member of the PRESS, things that I want to know! Therefore they must be absent! Yeah, that'll shame Apple into talking to you. Way to push them around.
My own take, which is just about as informed as the writer's, is that the iPad will include the same Microsoft Exchange, VPN, multitasking, document saving & transferring, etc. etc. capabilities as the iPhone or iPod Touch. And why not? It's the same OS? The only place they're likely to differ is if the iPad doesn't include a camera.
I can't understand why Apple would REMOVE VPN functionality from the iPad when it's there already. I suppose they might ship without Exchange support as it's a new mail client, but if that is the case I'll expect it in a forthcoming new version, just like what happened with the original iPhone.
www.clarke.ca
Or maybe they don't offer business-level support because their target market is consumers, not business? That's unlike most other computer companies (IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, HP, ...), which primarily target business and leave the consumers as an afterthought.
Just imagine having a dialog box in Mac OS X or on an iPhone telling the user to "ask the system administrator" for something? That's very common on Windows, but totally unthinkable on an Apple device.
theoretically you could use the canvas tag and javascript, but since ie doesn't support the tag it it's unlikely to gain traction in the short term. youtube *has* a html5 video version *now*
This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
perhaps the biggest shock is how much Apple (read: Jobs) has cast the end user aside and now sees the publishers (books, music, and even video) as the customer.
Its because of his greed that we are going to get soaked on e-books. Amazon had to cave into new pricing because Apple has attempted to hand our wallets to the big publishing houses.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
You can watch youtube videos because there is an app for it. For flash video from other sites, I agree with you.
Apple excels at creating beauty, in both hardware and software (BTW, I'm using an Imac right now). This iPad is no exception.
My only question is: Will I be able to put my own Operating System on it?
The old G3,G4,G5 macs were open enough so that I could load my own OS on them (sometimes BSD, sometimes Linux).
The same goes with the current Intel macs.
While I sometimes marvel at the beauty of OS X and how Apple has created a user friendly UNIX, I want more freedom.
Unless Apple is open enough to let us (the minority) play and tinker with the internals so that we can install an OS that
might be visually inferior(to most) but is philosophically superior, unless Apple can allow us to do this - I will never buy one.
I will patiently wait until the other players create a tablet that will run x86.
All the other stuff in the article is not much use to me, all I need is make; make install.
So Windows is necessary but Mac OS X isn't? How do you come to that conclusion?
As for running Mac OS X on iPad... why? It might be fun to a few geeks but it's absolutely pointless for the average consumer, which is what the iPad is targeted at. Not sure if you've ever actually used a hackintosh, but they're a royal pain in the butt to maintain.
As for Apple being a "take it or leave it" kind of company, you're absolutely right. That's how Steve Jobs has always been and how he'll deal in the future as well. Until he leaves the company, that's how Apple will be. They're not going to change their ways, because what they're doing works perfectly well for them. As long as they keep making great products, I'll continue to buy them.
Apple gear isn't a good fit for most of the geeks on Slashdot and the like, but that should come as no surprise. The average consumer isn't a geek.
Just imagine having a dialog box in Mac OS X or on an iPhone telling the user to "ask the system administrator" for something? That's very common on Windows, but totally unthinkable on an Apple device.
What? I use three different Microsoft OSes between work and home and I've never seen a dialogue box asking the user to "ask the system administrator."
When did they go "full consumer" anyway? In some places they still have a monopoly on graphics design and print publishing. The reason I am so familiar with Apple in the first place is due to the fact that I spent some time at a local news paper where the production team was 100% Apple gear. But perhaps you're right... Apple doesn't care about business. It's just that business cared about Apple.
If they are not answering, doesn't this mean that most of those functions are not available?
Apple never answers questions like this. And when some of these questions are "will the iPad support features that the iPhone OS already supports", the obvious answer would be a facepalm anyway.
I love apples iCrap
It lets me assume a great many things about the people who own them. And it turns out to be right more times than not.
They whip out an iCrap device. I know right away... HEY... theres a trendy technically clueless pod person wannabe who has more money than sense. Weak willed. Easily influenced. And if you rip them off. They don't get mad, they're used to being ripped off. They don't even notice!
(And they always reveal their iCrap devices. They can't stop playing with them. )
I can use this knowledge to part him from some money!
Amazingly i'm not actually trolling. This does really work. Well. For those of us who are smarter than the apple drones. In a position to take money from them.
It fits well with skills like the reading of body language and facial expressions. And it's made me SO much money in the last few years...
Being able to pick the sucker out is a HUGE advantage.
I can think of one single, consistent reason why all of those questions are unanswered-- because they can be provided via software, and Apple is unsure about whether to provide them (or at least whether they will be included in the release version).
In most cases, the best clue comes from what has been done on the iPhone...
Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Document live within Applications. No shared filespace. So yes and no.
Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Yes.
Does the iPad support VPN? Yes, but some features aren't done.
Configuration management? Yes, for corporate customers, but some features aren't done.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
its certainly a natural device for people who wish to consume media on the go.
also, its a great opportunity for happenin' people to further express their lifestyles, when out and about.
apple fans will lap it up of course, and hopefully this will encourage the same appstore-only model of software to be applied to osx.
then at last these tiresome folk will have been consigned to a nice walled garden, where they belong. well outside of computing and the internet proper.
Apple is a great company, that makes great products. In the personal computer market, it is the underdog, and leaves the system pretty open for the user. Apple has developed Mobile Me, but it is not a vital part of the operating system, and I don't need to pay a monthly fee to Apple just to use my computer. The iPod is also pretty cool, because, back in the day, Apple had to compete in a crowded market to sell it.
However, when it comes to the iPhone and now, the iPad, things are different. The iPhone is not the dominant player in the smartphone market (Nokia still is), but Apple is the company that is growing at (much) bigger rates than the rest of the market, and is on the way to become the predominant player. With such a loyal following in the smartphone market, Apple is locking the iPhone to milk more money from its costumers.
I am out of this game. For S$ 30 I bought from my local carrier a Nokia phone with a System 60 3rd Edition, while the iPhone 3GS would cost me S$ 900 (most people prefer to switch to a more expensive monthly plan, and pay a fraction of this price). To compete with locked down device with a price of S$ 50, I would pay more for an open system, not for a locked-down iPhone. And the same reasoning goes for the comparison between the Kindle and the iPad.
Allowing Flash allows running applications (or contents), which is not approved by the Jobs mob or the Walt Disney Corporation.
However, if the iPad can pull of the little feat. of being a Flash killer is highly doubtful.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
http://www.youtube.com/html5
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Apple?
No.
I am underwhelmed by the iPad and watching the keynote presentation it looks like Steve Jobs is too. This is not an exciting device and Apple's marketing department is spinning its wheels like a Mini Cooper in a blizzard to hype it.
But you know what would be really cool? An iPad with amazingly good performance. Thirty-six hours of battery life instead of ten. Three hundred dot per inch screen instead of a conventional resolution. Ten terabytes of storage so you can carry all of your documents and media with you. A case the size and weight of a magazine. Or a price tag around $200 so people could afford to get it as their secondary or tertiary computer.
I do see a place for the iPad's configuration: simple, limited, and cheap. It could make a nice ebook reader, emagazine, photo viewer, video screen, navigator, board game, writing pad, magic tablet of fun. But its capabilities seem too tied to old-fashioned technology to be cool.
I know this is /. but come on guys ... you fell for click bait.
> Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?
Probably so
> Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email?
Why wouldn't it? All other things Apple ships running a version of OS X supports Exchange.
> Does the iPad support VPN and configuration management?
Uhm let's see, does the iPhone? Check. Does OS X? Check.
> Can you use media services other than iTunes on the iPad?
Amazon? Check. Hulu will likely have an app. Netflix maybe...
YouTube is there.
> Can the iPad be used for videoconferencing?
Apparently not with v1 of the hardware.
> Will the iPad's internal storage be upgradable?
Nope.
> Will the iPad allow multiple apps to run simultaneously?
Built in stuff ... you can run the iPod app while doing anything else.
> Will Apple allow the use of Flash on the iPad?
Why?
----
Why is such a troll article posted in the first place?
This is an appliance, not a full-blown computer (Apple does sell those too, you know). Nor is it half as incapable of things as you claimed.
There's 2 way to handle an appliance :
"It's an appliance. It's simply designed so you take it on your lap while laying on the couch for some web browsing and music listening... "
Way 1: Everyone else's way : "...thus we have optimised the device and the software for these uses. Well, if you really want, feel free to hack the device, but don't expect much out of it. Now if you really want, here's your copy of the Android/WebOS/etc. SDK. Oh, and if you want to hack the device, put it into admin mode. For that, just type the konami code on any out-of-the-box device".
Way 2: Apple's way : "...thus we decide exactly what has a right to go on this device and what doesn't. We're going through great lengths just to be sure that you'll never be able to do or get 3rd party apps or hardware which do anything which wasn't Apple-approved. We have a special DRM in the device just to be sure that only Apple-approved stuff goes into it (and beware, you might be violating DCMA when trying to circumvent it). If your ready to register and pay, there's something which might look like an SDK -but beware, half of the functionality is intentionally missing. And if your product doesn't please His Majesty Steve Jobs, it will be removed on whim from the App Store, then single point from which users are allowed to get their stuff. Now love us : Our gadgets are shinier, prettier and cooler as the competition".
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
When you purchase something, you are conceding that the price is fair. This is especially true for things that are not necessities.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
a subset of godwin's law:
"As an online slashdot discussion grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning goatse.cx approaches 1."
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Will I be able to tether the iPad to my iPhone's 3G connection? Yes I know at the moment AT&T doesn't allow tethering on iPhones in the US but that's not a hardware issue, it's a policy issue. I'd potentially be interested in buying a iPad WiFi version if they decide to allow it to play nice with the iPhone. There's potential there for the iPad to tether to an iPhone and take advantage of the latter's 3G connection AND GPS services. If Apple and AT&T decide to allow such tethering it would be worth my while to buy an iPad, just for the gizmo factor. But if they insist requiring existing Apple and AT&T customers to pay AT&T a second time for 3G access just because they are using a second device then screw it, it ain't cool enough for me to pay twice to use the same network I've already bought an unlimited access plan for.
Cheers,
Josh
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
The author of the article complains there's no Netflix app - but how is that Apple's fault? Netflix is free to make such an app if they choose. The only issue is the inability to play in the background - something that primarily affects music apps.
Netflix may be free to make the app, but they're not free to distribute it - that's up to Apple. I somehow doubt that Apple will be fine with allowing an app that "duplicates functionality" already found on the iPad (by which they means competes with iTunes). The examples you gave - Rhapsody and Pandora - actually offer something different than iTunes. From what I can tell, the closest direct competitor to iTunes is something called "Spotify", which apparently allows you to cache streamed music for offline playback. That's still not quite as direct of a competitor to iTunes as Netflix would be.
This is the same reason you won't see a Hulu app anytime soon, despite year-old rumors that one is in the works. (Well, that, and the fact that AT&T's network would probably grind to halt if every iPhone were streaming TV shows). It's also probably one of the factors contributing to the decision to not include Flash capability.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Compare with '"GIMP" will never sell because of the name' meme.
Plenty more parrots and supporters of that getting modded to the sky.
Yet here, nothing.
. It's actually got a lot of popular uses still.
Please name a few where more modern, widely-adopted and -accepted alternative solutions aren't available. Animated, noisy ads? I can live without those.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
In the summary there were 3 features already present in current Touch OS devices, which work great, and have been working for ages. If the author has so poorly researched the article, how is it relevant? All he knows is that dissing an Apple product will drive clicks (or ever more increasingly, taps), no matter if he's got a clue what he's talking about. Until we as a community stop feeding such jackassery, the quality of tech journalism will continue to slip.
Then perhaps you're very fortunate. While not common, I have seen them often enough to know what the grandparent was referring to. Typically I see them with issues around networking. If there's a DNS issue or wireless networking issue, you will almost inevitably see a message about "ask your system administrator xxxxx".
creation science book
The fanboys will need to come into the Apple store for installation of a new iHole...
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is, why did you sell us out to the publishers Steve?
As I posted elsewhere on this subject, we have gone from being the customer to being the goose. Steve is now clearly on the side of content providers. Apple/Steve is the reason why people like Murdoch will be able to charge $14.99 per e-book. Gone are the days where he stood up and proclaimed "this is the line in the sand"
Should have realized it with 1.29 music but people laughed it off... well Steve is laughing now with his new friends. The iPad is tailored made for the publishing industries, be it music, book, or video, just not for us
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
How can any self-respecting "gadget-blogger" not lust after a flirty-box like the iPad regardless of his/her list of wants?
IMHO, Apple makes very good hardware; software . . . not so much.
Nearly all Apple gear can be classified as "optional" in life and more often it is simply extravagant. PCs and (I can't believe I am saying this) and Windows is "necessary" in contrast.
I'll bite (and whoever modded this troll up should get his head checked).
What, pray tell, is the difference between one set of Intel CPU, Nvidia graphics card, some hard disk, display, etc. and the other set of practically the same things, with a different logo on top?
A PC is no more "necessary" in any sense of the word supported by a dictionary than a Mac is. Depending on your likes and environment, one or the other may be preferable for the tasks at hand, but "necessary" vs. "optional"? That's a strange world you are living in.
Apple is built around some pretty interesting ideas and concepts, but the moment they place limits on things, they immediately stop their growth and development.
Those "pretty interesting ideas" have turned Apple into one of the largest technology companies on the continent. I wonder who you are to pass judgement on that, do you even have 1% of the same success?
Not likely, because you are so far off the mark, you've probably hit the target of some other shooting range. See, Apple isn't built around "pretty interesting ideas". It is built around one concept - "design for the user". Almost all of those "limits" you and I and all the other geeks and nerds spot are most welcome by almost all non-techie customers. There is a tyranny in too much choice and options and configurability. And there are huge advantages in consistency and limitations in design. Ever asked yourself why no car manufacturer gives you the option to choose betwen 20 different steering wheel designs, 5 ways the doors could open and 200 different layouts of the console?
I wish Apple would change its ways before the larger consuming public sees Apple for what it is. It's not "exclusive" any more -- it's just limited.
Apple is extremely exclusive. And will remain as long as windos and Linux put the desires of the developers before those of the users (each in their own ways) and Nokia et al purchase the user-interface design of their phones at firesales.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The article is no less vague than Apple themselves. It's a bunch of supposition about 'maybe this' 'if that'. I'm not even a fan of apple and this seems like a load of anti-apple propaganda.
But does it run Linux?
Seriously, this is the only answer I would like to hear. For the rest, iPad is just a newer, bigger iPhone.
My other signature is a car
"Will Apple make it even easier for people to buy their music from a service other than iTMS? Why on Earth would that want to do that?"
I've got 90 Gigs of music that I manage with iTunes and transfer among an iPhone and a nano and NONE of it has been purchased on iTunes. I have bought a couple dozen audio books fr om audible and a couple of digital CDs from Amazon.
This whole "iTunes is locked into Apple" is still bullshit.
When will the Hackintosh crowd get around to porting regular Mac OS X to the iPad? We all know it will happen.
Never. The iPad will run Linux desktops, recompile for the ARM architecture like some netbook editions reverse engineer the drivers (a potentially massive undertaking but possible) and you are good to go. The OS X desktop on the other hand is closed source and only compiled for x86 so running it on generic PC is a matter of using publicly available tools and docs to create kernel drivers for the bizarre range of hardware found on "generic" PC's. Running it on a different architecture entirely is a whole 'nother' ball of wax. Just ask Microsoft why they don't support ARM based netbooks.
> That's the key thing I still haven't heard anyone explain. What is an Ipad for, exactly?
Aside from the price tag, these things look like they were purpose-built for me. I can't wait for the 2nd gen to come out so the first gen price plummets.
Now, why do I want one? I've been looking for a device which
- works well in portrait mode (no CPU fan obstructions, can charge without wrecking the cord)
- Has a screen about the size of a piece of paper
- Can view PDFs and flip pages by touch screen (no stylus)
- Can search PDFs based on input from a cordless keyboard
- Is back lit with a high-resolution screen (96 dpi would be great)
- Looks good with black-on-white content
- Gives off no interfering RF or loud sounds
If I had said device, I could use it to replace a stack of music books four feet high. I already have them scanned and the indices OCRed. Actually, I have a local "web app" that can jump to songs based on the indices as well, but that relies on ActiveX; hopefully I can do something similar with the dev toolkit.
The only thing better would be a pair of these, where "turning the page" on the PDF shoots the page one screen left so you can always see the next page if you time your page-turning well.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
It runs iPhone OS v3.2 and 99% of iPhone apps (not the ones that require a built-on camera or GPS).
Since iPhone OS has built-in VPN and Exchange, why would anyone but a troll think that doesn't work on iPad. Somebody already tried the VPN and remote controlled fucking Windows.
iWork documents appear to other devices on the network as a file server, just like about 20% of iPhone apps.
You don't have to look far for these answers. They had a press event. The press handled the device. iPhone OS v3.1.1 is running on iPhone and iPod and the fucking 140,000 apps are on sale right now.
And Apple doesn't talk, they fucking ship. Recommend a dose of that to all in tech. WTF does Steve Ballmer's HP Slate do? When will it ship? What will it cost? None of these things has been said.
Is this really the best you have in anti-iPad BS?
Plenty of good arguments have been made about Apple wanting to keep tight control over their walled garden, those being the reasons for some missing features.
But keep in mind that this is also the first-generation of this product line. Trying to cram too many features in all at once is a recipe for disaster. It's important for engineers to set reasonable goals to strive for. Incremental development is easier to develop and most importantly easier to debug.
If Apple had tried to pack in the 10000 additional features people are demanding, the iPad would not have been out for a few more years. Instead, Apple has gotten a product to market. And plenty of people will buy it. Revenue can be reinvested into developing the second and third generation products. Just as recent flash-based iPods are more sophisticated and powerful than the very first ones based on mechanical hard drives, later generations of the iPad will be more capable and more elegant.
Perhaps in 5 or 10 years a later generation iPad will be appealing to more of us geeks. Perhaps not. I think MY next Apple purchase will be a 17" MacBook Pro. Because what I need is more like a desktop system I can carry around. YMMV.
Wow, talk about having a stick up one's butt.
This is an appliance, not a full-blown computer
Ah yes, this card again. It's been commonly used since the hype about the ipad started circulating. It's brilliant - all of a sudden Apple get to be exempt from all the criticisms people make of other companies. By that logic, can we exempt Microsoft by saying Windows is just meant for "appliances"?
Yes, you're right then, it's an appliance. That's why we're criticising it. When we're criticising it for not being open etc, it's the same thing as criticising it for being a mere "appliance". Changing the words doesn't defend the criticisms.
Now sure yes, we don't criticise appliances like microwaves or fridge freezers. But last time I looked, we didn't cover those on Slashdot.
Is this News for Nerds, or Appliance Rumours For Random Consumer?
If multitasking ever comes about
Feel free to join us in 1985 anytime soon...
And my guess is that your company is really just doing this so your sales people can look hipper. Otherwise, they'd go out with regular laptops to demo the web-based app, as nobody you're trying to sell to currently has a tablet anyway.
Oh, and the laptop is also capable of any other full application that's probably needed to do their job. Not so with the iPad.
When did they go "full consumer" anyway? In some places they still have a monopoly on graphics design and print publishing. The reason I am so familiar with Apple in the first place is due to the fact that I spent some time at a local news paper where the production team was 100% Apple gear. But perhaps you're right... Apple doesn't care about business. It's just that business cared about Apple.
Right on. I've seen more Apple computers in Businesses and Schools (both places which Apple neglects by not providing good corporate tools [at least ARD and SSH exist]) than in any home environment.
Casual games. Oh, and Machinarium is excellent.
Dilbert RSS feed
Dragging and dropping files onto a fileshare is actually a whole lot easier to mess with than iTunes.
The iPad is still a "tethered device". So in it's current condition, it will never be independently useful. You will always need a Windows PC running iTunes in order to deal with it. Mark my words. An ipad that's crippled and needs a copy of iTunes will nearly always be shadowed by a cheaper Windows machine that does more.
THAT is the value of the thing running a full copy of MacOS.
This isn't about "Apple gear". This is about a crippled appliance.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Maybe they refuse to answer questions they'd already answered before. Seriously, most of the questions area answered (sharing documents) or were already supported by previous iPhone OS versions (Exchange support - yes, the iPhone supports Exchange, has for over a year).
The thing that gets my goat though, is that due to the Jobs effect, and the massive marketing might of Apple, a vast number of poor schmos will end up owning one of these devices without really knowing why.
'So what', I hear you cry; 'caveat emptor'!
The problem is, that I'm gonna have to listen to these clueless boguns banging on about their shitty iPads for years...
Bypass ads @ http://infoworld.com/print/111972
This article is stupid. It reads as "waa, Apple won't give me a prototype, so I am going to throw a hissy fit."
Turns out that just because you can physically type an article doesn't mean you have any insight into anything that would make said article interesting or compelling.
- Vincit qui patitur.
And none of it was purchased through your iPhone. You can purchase music on a computer and transfer it to the device, but there's no way to get non-iTunes music through the device itself.
People are looking for the iPad to free them from needing a computer in some situations. If you can't bypass iTunes on the iPad itself, it doesn't meet their needs.
I think they're asking too much of a vendor-locked tablet prototype, myself, but their complaints have some weight.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Having never owned an iPhone, what does Apple do to restrict web downloads of mp3s from Amazon or any number of other online services? The only thing I can think of is that the ipod app is incapable of adding news mp3s to its index without itunes on a computer, but I'm just asking...
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
the only question for me is: why would anyone develop a need to have this thing. it does nothing other, cheaper tools won't do better. it is a fancy overhyped gadget for the distinguished gentleman who already has everything ... but common sense.
Hulu, for one. Yes, I'm with everyone else in that Flash is a reource hog, but as long a Flash offers something that HTML5 can't (DRM/content control, in this case), it's probably not going away any time soon.
Or did you honestly think the big networks were just going to let you right-click and save all their content?
Even if I send this around to all of the officers and executives, one of them will still buy one and then insist that we support it in the enterprise. It will soon be mandated that I find a way to make things work that were never meant to work on the device (like Exchange support on first-generation Android phones), and I'll end up getting a poor performance review for failing to adequately support management's IT needs.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
More to the point, we Apple people simply like their interfaces and the way the software matches the hardware. Those of us with a CS background appreciate Unix under the hood. MS produces interfaces that could knock a dead buzzard off a shit wagon at 20 paces and...well...there's something under the hood, sort of like the dotty relative kept in the back room when company is over. And Linux interfaces reimplementing MS bad choices isn't doing it any good.
The InfoWorld article is little more than a third-rate writer looking to create a news story. Unfortunately, the /. crowd fell for it. Hook, line and sinker.
The other day I was sat at the swimming pool waiting for my eldest to finish her lesson. Her sister was bored out of her mind, so I handed her my phone (Nokia E61) so that she could type out an email to her uncle. An ipad would have been the perfect device for that scenario. And that's just one of the potential reasons that if I had the cash (I don't) I would be getting one of these.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Apple? Exclusive? I saw a plumber check his next appointment on his iPhone after he declogged the crapper at my office. (his hands were still shitstained).
It's a wireless cable box.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Perhaps someone with access to the SDK can answer the first or second.
1.) Does the pixel doubling of iphone apps include all text rendering?
2.) Is the PDF viewing app built in any good? Can it remove margins or doing any kind of annotations?
3.) Will Apple do anything to block an ipad-specific Kindle app or Barnes and Noble app from the App Store?
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
The iPhone is only capable of saving pictures in general. See an mp3 on a web page? Can't save it.
-]Phreak Out[-
On the other hand, when developers don't produce something for you, you are limited in your actions, that "exclusiveness" becomes a limitation. (See games on Linux, AutoCAD for non-Windows...)
It's all about balancing.
Am I the only person that sees this thing as nothing more than a faster bigger Ipod Touch? All the same limitations, and missing features.
They whip out an iCrap device. I know right away... HEY... theres a trendy technically clueless pod person wannabe who has more money than sense.
They don't have more money than sense. They have more money than you. Now go park my car, and don't scratch the paint, peon.
It's an over-sized iPod Touch. If you want to know the answers to these questions, just answer them for the iPod Touch. The answers are:
1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) Yes.
4) Yes. (Existing apps work, so Last.fm, Spotify, Rhapsody, et al will work. And obviously YouTube too.)
5) Only in magical fantasy land where video can be recorded without a camera. In other words...dumb question.
6) No.
7) No.
8) No.
I think the iPad is an over-hyped failure waiting to happen, but come on. Don't pull a Glenn Beck. Ask some serious questions.
How much RAM does the thing have? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
but aside from having a larger screen real estate (which is hardware rather than software anyway), can you tell us just exactly what you can do with the iPad that you can't do on an iPod that justifies the claim "order of magnitude more capable"?
I think "order of magnitude" might be somewhat of an exaggeration in terms of doing what you can do today. But the "mere" larger screen does offer quite a large increase in usability for many applications over an iPad version. I can (have have) read books on an iPhone, but the screen size of the iPad makes this much more useful, for example.
Where the "orders of magnitude" thing comes into play, is that the larger screen allows for some applications that just could not fit on a smaller screen well, and so we'll see whole new classes of applications running on the device. All you can see is a larger Touch but I see a ton of possibilities opening up that just were not very practical in terms of UI before.
Basically as far as the question of people not wanting one because they already have a Touch or smartphone today - well even if you take out any possibility of improved applications, you still have the fact that it's an hardware improvement in many ways over a touch - and why is that not compelling all by itself? It has been for computer and laptop owners for decades, I don't imagine the laptop or computer you use has not been upgraded at least a bit in the past several years...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My only question is: Will I be able to put my own Operating System on it?
Obviously the answer is yes. The hardware is compelling enough you are sure to see a linux port.
At the very least, we'll also see jailbreaks for this which means you have a fully open UNIX system you add what you want to, with the Apple UI still in place.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not only can you not save arbitrary files (mp3s included), you couldn't use an Amazon-specific downloader app, because Apple would have to approve it through the App Store, which, let's face it, is not going to happen (unless the Justice Department goes all Sherman act on their asses, but they're too impotent to ever do that, just ask the 'Corporations are People Too' Supreme Court). So no MP3 purchases from an iPhone for you. Sorry for your troubles.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
I just tried to download an mp3 off of Free Music Archive on my iPhone and I got an error that Safari can't download this type of file.
Take the phone. Almost no one needs 100% communication. When I had a phone, I used it only some. The smartphones are nicer because they allow me to do much more at a recurring cost that is not much more. The smartphone one chooses often depends on the services behind it. If one is running data on MS Exchange, then this sets the choice of smartphone. If one has all the data on google, then this might be another choice. If one has all the data on Apple, then that is another choice. All of these are optional, but when one makes a choice on service, the phone is an optional extension. If one wants the functionality, one phone is no more or less optional than the other.
The computer is the same way. We are talking about choice of working styles. For those of us that have a choice, and I acknowledge that most people do not have a choice and are locked into MS derived products, Apple stuff sometimes is a good choice. Sure, because we have the freedom to make the choice, some might call it optional. We are choosing an option that many do not, like choosing not to live of fast food. Certainly freshly prepared nutritious food is optional, and an expensive option, when compared to fast food, but one would hardly call it not serious. It is simply one option of many. Just because most choose not to take advantage of the option does not make one thing "optional" and everything else "required".
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
You can only use iTunes to do the syncing to the device. Outside of that, iTunes can support any file in a non-DRM format. The iPad will playt not just Quicktime, and AAC, but also WMA, MP3, and more formats that are not even available from the store, so yes, outside of being locked to the APP (which you don't have to use as your PC media player, just a sync platform) there is no iTunes lock-in. Nothing Apple does prevents you from using media from other sources (unless those sources use DRM themselves, which apple does not for music, and only does for video because the contract requires them to, and all the providers threatened to pull out if Apple forced them to go DRM free).
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
Apple is built around some pretty interesting ideas and concepts, but the moment they place limits on things, they immediately stop their growth and development. The angry public has to throw burning iPods at Apple's buildings before they get the message.
"Apple Reports Record Sales, Profits for the Holiday Season". Despite how you (and I) view their gear as unsuitably locked down, the "angry" public is falling all over themselves to buy it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
The music player app updates the list of songs only when uploading/downloading via iTunes.
Will the iPad allow multiple apps to run simultaneously?
No.
This is not the case in two senses.
The first is that the iPhone does of course allow some system apps, like mail or the alarm or the iPod app to run fully in the background on the device.
But the second thing that is so often overlooked is, is that the iPhone does allow processing to take place in the background - it's just that it is done server side, on behalf of the user - when the processing is done, a notification is sent out and the user can if they choose switch back to the application.
From the standpoint of the user, this is multitasking or it can be if the application is coded right. After all, if the user switches back to the application and see that data has changed, what do they care if it was done locally or not?
Sure there are some classes of work that cannot be done in this way. But it does allow many, many sorts of processing tasks that traditionally you switched away for some time and then switched back when something was done or had changed.
If applications properly save state there is almost no loss of fidelity when switching applications compared to a desktop system, because to the user it looks like the application has been running and there's no cost (to them) to restore state.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If the screen is sharp enough, the iPad might finally be the ultimate mobile solution for field photographers and photojournalists, allowing us to use our full-sized pro cameras and import those images, run a quick edit, and file a lower-res image via 3G or WiFi. Professional card backup drives (with small screens) are in the same price range, and they are much heavier, bulkier and have no network connectivity. While reporting and photographing the Haiti crisis, I had a BGAN (a satellite broadband system) with me, but with all the traffic and RF in the sky it was difficult and awkward to set up. Cellular towers, which were almost uniformly installed on earthquake-resistant buildings, were up and running extremely quickly after the quake. My iPhone worked in Haiti, and I found it to be more a far more efficient pipe through which to file low-res, web-quality images than setting up the sat dish. The only problem is I needed to pull my Macbook Pro out in one of the dustiest environments I've ever worked. It was a kludge for sure, but it did the job. The iPad promises camera connectivity and that alone puts it at the top of my shopping list.
The author of this article acts as though this is something new. Apple has a LONG standing policy of not commenting on products before they are released, beyond what has been published on their web page. Even the information that IS posted is done so with a huge grain of salt saying "these features are subject to change without notice." The author of this article acts like Apple's refusal to answer these questions is something new. Its NOT. Its very, very rare that they will start talking about features before a product is shipping. Even once a product has shipped, its bloody impossible to get them to comment beyond the specs posted on their web pages.
The article's author acts like these are the biggest questions of all time, and he must get an answer or it just means the support isn't there and the world will end. Quite honestly guy, you're not that important. Their marketing and public relations teams aren't about to drop their long standing policy of not commenting on products before they ship. They don't want to piss of Steve Jobs and get fired from their job any more then you'd want to get fired from your job. Know why they haven't called you back? They NEVER call back when people ask these kinds of questions. If they answer one person's questions, 50 more people start calling and trying to get info as well. Get over yourself. Seriously. You're not that important.
One of these days i'm going to find this 'peer' guy and reset HIS connection!
The iPhone seems unable to get cover art to display without being connected to iTunes, and it isn't perfect at it anyway. Aside from that, the iPhone and iPod will accept music from any compatible source. Mine's all from purchased CDs and the iTunes store.
Apple has iPhone apps locked down, and doesn't allow Flash on the iPhone, and those seem to me like reasonable restrictions for a phone. Nothing else seems restricted. Apple doesn't seem to care where I get my music, the bookreader apps I've got have access to a lot of book sources, and so on.
However, the restrictions seem more onerous for something like the iPad. We're thinking of getting one for my mother, but aside from that I'm not sure I know anybody with a use for one.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I mean, I have a netbook, but i wouldn't compare that - it is much more capable.
Your netbook is obviously much more capable than your microwave, refrigerator, TV screen, clocks, and a whole host of things around the house. Why don't you replace them with netbooks? (Or, save some money by using your one netbook to bind them all?)
[Hint: "more capable" requires a context.]
Will the iPad comfortably fit up my ass, like my iPhone and iPod
No.
This may be an insurmountable problem for many Apple customers.
Frankly, I see this being far more a problem for those doubting the usefulness and success of the iPad, what with their head already occupying the space in question.
You'd think they would have withdrawn after the success of the iPod, followed by the success of the iPhone...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Steve is now clearly on the side of content providers. Apple/Steve is the reason why people like Murdoch will be able to charge $14.99 per e-book.
And what makes you think that eBooks will all be $14.99, when anyone is allowed to publish and any publisher can charge what they like?
The funny thing is you say "Steve is now clearly on the side of content providers" as if it were the problem and not the solution to the problem we have today, which is that some eBooks are too expensive. The answer of course is to let the market decide the right price for an eBook by letting the publisher experiment with prices, instead of the store controlling them (as was the case with Amazon). Yes some books will cost more but over time books will find a reasonable price point.
The thing is, you see $14.99 as outrageous - but having done some writing, I say that you have to allow the price to shift to allow for market scale. If you say no eBook can ever cost more than $9.99, then what is an authors motivation to make a really nice technical book on a niche subject that only a few people will ever want to read? I have already paid $20 for pdf-only versions of some technical books, happy to do so because of the benefits I gain and to support the author making the book.
Mass market books, I can see them falling to a more natural price of $9.99 or lower, especially if you are willing to simply wait a half year or so. Isn't that better than letting the store control when the price drops?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
These people don't want an iPad then. It is a peripheral, not a computer. You still need a computer in order to fully utilize the device (just like an iPod touch or iPhone).
Culture is more than commerce
I read books on my iPod Touch all the time -- about one a day. I use the free Kindle reader app, and it is awesome. It supports five different font sizes, the three smallest being what I prefer, depending on where I am when I'm reading. in bed, iPod near my face, I use the smallest size. At "desktop distance", I use the next to smallest size. If my eyes are tired, I use the middle size. In terms of page size, the iPod is fully capable of getting you right into the recommended zone of characters per line for both maximum comprehension and maximum reading speed -- for the same reason magazines use columns instead of going full page. At 163 DPI, it is almost perfect for the task.
Advantages over larger devices (iPad, actual Kindle, etc.) vary. The Kindle doesn't work in the dark. The iPod Touch screen is small enough that you don't have to move your eyes to read, and that means you're a lot less likely to lose your place and that reading speeds are higher. The iPod is much faster than the Kindle as well, though I'm sure not faster than the iPad. The iPod will be a *lot* more convenient in bed than the iPad, simply because of its size. The iPod can rest on the pillow next to you, while the iPad is wider than most people's heads... it'll be offset if you're lying down and hold it close... plus, it can't be that close anyway, because it's quite large, you have to get some distance to see the whole thing. If it's at a distance, though, it's likely to be a lot more difficult to support with your arm extended.
Characterizing the iPad as impractical as an e-reader is straight-up wrong. It's a great reader.
The iPad (and mind you, I intend to get one) has a number of design fails that really disappoint me:
Just as the iPod Touch is far more than a "device to service iTunes" as the hysterical media and gullible segment of the public would have it, the iPad is also far more. The extra screen real estate will be useful, and will make certain types of apps a lot easier to use. The addition of GPS and the compass will enable new types of apps entirely (though these could already exist on the far more expensive iPhone.) More screen real estate means more data on screen, even if it isn't as sharp; that'll be particularly nice for graphics apps (though again, the lack of a camera... awesomely shortsighted. Blind, even.)
As an e-reader, though... I think the iPod wins over the iPad. Hugely more convenient, hugely easier to carry, better at night / in bed, easier on the eyes, less expensive, adequate battery life (especially with wifi off.)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
WMA is NOT supported on Apple devices. On Windows, iTunes will convert WMA files to something else (AAC, Apple Lossless, MP3) before transferring it to your iPod/iPhone/iPad.
Also, you can add non-DRM'ed video media. It just needs to be in either MPEG-4 or H.264, though you have to watch which compression features you use, not all devices support all features (ex: the AppleTV supports more advanced compression features than the first generation iPod touch, etc).
There are at least a dozen, full time, IT admins and analysts here in our firm, where we operate over 3,000 Servers, more than half windows, and those dozen or so admins use a Mac exclusively, even to manage the Windows systems.
By NO MEANS is Windows required. Short of a few games, and a few 3rd party apps, ANYTHING you can do on a Windows Box I can do on a Mac. no, I can't run the EXACT program you do, nor can i run every specific device you can, but I can FIND a device or an app that does the same thing (often better, and often free).
Saying Windows is required is a huge slap and a "fuck you" to every Linux admin in the world.
I didn't get my first PC until 2003. I ran Windows in a VM on a 486 daughter card in my mac only so i could keep up my knowledge on the half of the IT world I was forced to support, but never because I required it. I eventually bought a PC simply because I had a few roommates who had them, and we shared a lot of games. (pretty much, that was it, games).
No business level support? WRONG. Apple has a business sales division. You can't get their business warranty on a retail Mac, but if you order a few hundred from Apple's direct channel partners, yes, hell yes, you can get a business warranty. On notebooks and desktops, even businesses don;t pay for "business class" warranty, but on servers and storage, oh yes, it;s there. Everything else is "drop off" support, often with same day repair, and yes, Apple will prioritize genius time to handle a business service call. They don't do on-site, except for servers, but that's what vendors are for... (why pay for support when you can make your vendor do it for free).
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
A slight amendment. Apple's philosiphy may be "design for the user" but nowhere in Apple's culture does that exclude Power Users. No, you don;t need to be a power user of a phone, or an iPod, so we'll exclude that. Being said, the OS is the single most powerful, flexible, and scriptable OS I have yet worked with. Being able to flow seamlessly from a fantasic GUI, through a highly powerful automator, though full UNIX comand line scripting power, and free, included compilers and an amazing code development environment, is true power.
The core components of the OS are all plist files, easy to edit if you know how, and the underlying unix power (without being FORCED to use it for everyday changes) is amazing.
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
Nope. Let me fix that for you:
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
My computer is broken again, got another virus. Can you fix it for me or should I buy another one?
According to this, every PDA device should always have been unusable.
Virtually every PDA device before the iPhone/iPod/iPad family has had a hackable system with freely accessible SDKs.
That didn't make them useless for average users. PalmOS-based, Windows CE-based, etc. devices still had a huge following.
people like my wife just want the damn thing to play music or do whatever it supposed to do.
And nothing is going to prevent them doing that. 99% of users will take the device out of the box and just use it. They'll be happy with it and have no problems at all.
The differences kicks in for the remaining 1% geeks.
- On one hand you have a model in which the geeks are actively prevented from doing whatever they want with their device. 1% of users aren't happy and move to some other constructor (1% is small, so Apple just fucking doesn't care).
- On the other hand you have a model in which, if they wish it and are ready to cope with the fact that they are going to b0rk their device every now and then, that 1% can get to do what they think would be interesting to try.
Out of those 1%, lots will be having fun, some might indeed b0rk their devices. And a few might find a revolutionary and interesting new use - which can serve model to the constructor for a new service or usage.
As an example take Palms and GPS.
Palm were initially built for VERY limited and simple usage : as electronic version of agendas. Just keeping a calendar, a phone-book list. Add in note-taking and calculator abilities and you pretty much have all of it. Lots of users where pretty much happy with these functions.
Nonetheless, given the fact that it's allowed to anyone to develop new applications for it, GPS software developers have jumped in. Created a new market (converging GPS into the PDA/Smartphone instead of keeping a separate device). Nowadays, every modern PDA/Smartphone is having GPS functions.
Most people are like that. Some want more, some want less. It is called choice, and just because someone chooses something you wouldn't doesn't mean it is a wrong choice, just different.
I'm not complaining that Apple choose to make the device simple. Well, as the GP said "It's a fucking appliance".
I'm complaining that they are deploying as much energy as possible in trying to make it impossible for those who want and are ready to cope with the risks to choose something different.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
sorry, Mpeg 4 and H.264, AAC-LC, M4v, MP4, and MOV, but not WMA. I stand corrected. Easy enough to convert WMA to MOV though... It would be nice if they'd add DivX, but we know that's not actually Apple's lock-in, but NBC/ABC/etc and the MPAA.
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
This is just another attempt to trash the iPad. This is irresponsible journalism, this is a "here's what Apple didn't say, so it doesn't do it" article. That type of argument is a fallacy.
I'm also tired of the iPad thrashing. People said the same thing about the iPhone and suddenly it was the developers of the apps that showed us why we need this, not Apple. That just needs to happen again. I will say that Apple's press conference may have left us very high and dry in terms of system specs and what it can do, but the problem is it is just a platform and what these journalists don't understand is that it's built on the same fundamentals as the iPhone or iPod touch. What you can do there, you can do here, and maybe better given the power and size of the screen on this devices. I've already heard of case worker proposals, medical field proposals, management applications. The problem is really in the perception that this device needs to be the replacement for the iPhone or the laptop and it doesn't. I want one and plan to upgrade to one when I decide to purchase my MacBook upgrade later this year, I also don't suspect I'll be giving up my iPhone anytime soon either (though I may trash the Data plan on it).
I'm sorry, if you can't see why the world can benefit from this device, I can't help that you're unimaginative. The number of applications where this device WOULD be beneficial is outstanding, the problem is that the world still hasn't grasped as a whole. The world still hasn't grasped what we can do with the additions that were part of the last keynote and iPhoneOS 3.1. There are still applications and device integrations that haven't happened, simply because no one is trying or shown the world that killer application, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.
Worrying about exchange support is silly, of course it will be there, Snow Leopard supports it and iPhoneOS supports it. There's no reason to expect it to not be supported. Worrying about file transfer in a traditional manner is silly at best as well. We've already seen that it can be done and worrying about
What I would worry about is why the device doesn't sync wirelessly through WLAN or Bluetooth (even if only to a Mac). But if you want to know why Apple isn't saying anything, it's more than likely they are not binding themselves to anything because the device isn't done yet, whether it be an incomplete OS or hardware. So stop trying to kill this before it takes off because you don't want one.
I know you don't get it, and are never going to get it. The general public doesn't buy into the FOSS crusade. All they want are things that do what they say they do and are simple to use.
I know that you didn't get my point.
You know, since PDA exist, nearly every model has used an OS which left the possibility for power users to hack their devices, while letting the average users just use their device as-is as it comes out of the box.
The iconic Palm PDAs : lots of various way to build software for them, including full-FOSS GCC tool-kit.
Windows CE devices : it came from microsoft, it was closed source, but nonetheless one could develop whatever they wanted with it.
Same for modern devices :
Android has its market place. But power-users can get what they want from the sources they choose. They could even install Debian along Android if they wished.
Palm WebOS devices : same. Nice device, works out of the box. But weird geek can hack it if they want.
For fuck's sake even the PlayStation 3 is working that way : A complete controlled environment (boxed games, PlayStation network), which "I just want it to work" users know is safe to use. Yet for hackers, the console is also open toward homebrew communities and runs linux out-of-the-box (although with arbitrary limitation).
It works as it says it does and installing things doesn't, in general, run the risk of stopping everything working.
Yes, but that doesn't require a complete lock-down of the platform. Every other player has managed without. Why should Apple ?
Apple *could* have kept things as they are currently : iPhone/iPod/iPad which works out-of-the-box, a nice AppStore where people can find doctored apps which are guaranteed to play nice with the device.
- *AND* let power-users who really want it, to use some 3rd party source for apps. Even, if they are so much afraid that some average user wanders into geek-land without the Apple-shield, why not add a big Warning-messages whenever a non-approved application is install and/or whenever one is detected upon booting after crash recovery.
- NO, instead they choose to do whatever is possible to prevent users from using anything which didn't receive Saint Steve Jobs's blessing.
I pretty well understand that a modern device needs to work out-of-the-box and needs to provide a safe environment so average users know that they can use their gadgets without risks.
I just don't like how Apple is putting efforts so no alternative could exist.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The iPod touch can play music, play movies, show pictures, run apps, surf the web, and do email. For all but the first of these activities a larger screen is a massive improvement. If the iPad were truly nothing more than an oversized iPod touch, why does anyone think that would be bad or pointless?
Having never owned an iPhone, what does Apple do to restrict web downloads of mp3s from Amazon or any number of other online services? The only thing I can think of is that the ipod app is incapable of adding news mp3s to its index without itunes on a computer, but I'm just asking...
Apple doesn't restrict these in any way. Music is loaded onto an iPhone/iPod through iTunes so all you need to do is download your MP3 and then drag it into iTunes. The MP3 is then available to load on to your music player.
If your music has DRM or it is in some format that your device can't play then you would have to transcode it into a format your player can understand first. For example, people who bought music from a music store that used Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM would have to find some way to convert their DRM files into standard AAC or MP3 files before they loaded them on to their iPods.
Sapere aude!
Seems like you're just bad at statistics. Since the overwhelming majority of the population is not technically sophisticated, it would still be a good bet that any random person you saw with an iPhone would not be technically sophisticated, even if every geek on the planet owned one.
I have a similar method to yours for determining that people are not nobel prize winning physicists that involves nike footwear...
Talk to all the authors, the filmmakers and the content creators that use Macs. Fine, complain all you want, but at least some coherence would be good.
I can name one, voicemail playback with Google Voice. On the iPhone the alternative is to launch quicktime, which takes forever and it takes you away from the page you were on.
Amazon ran like a bunch of little pussies. But it was all show, their one-day fight against the companies that they had every intention to cave to anyway. The Kindle is a device. Amazon is a bookstore.
They actually complained that Macmillan has a "monopoly" on their content. They're the publisher! It's Amazon that has the possible charges of monopolism against them. They have the books, they sell the device, and they decide the price? Are you kidding?
Mind you, the price should be lower. But they'll be on a scale. If you don't want to read it, don't buy it. That should teach the publishers a lesson.
Funny, you're hating on the things that the market has decided it LIKES about the iPod. You use it all day, and then you hook it up to iTunes where it recharges and updates. Don't have to do it manually. That's what people, not computer junkies, LIKE about it. The world doesn't experience it as a "crippled device." Only nerds do.
It's a bigger cut for Apple to have the prices higher. It's a bruise for Amazon because they need lower prices to establish their store and technology as the primary method of delivering content.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
It's not alone in that mission. Google is also pushing HTML5, which will run better than any Flash player devised.
http://jilion.com/sublime/video
Similar players will no doubt evolve, including ones that accept theora or H.264/x.264. And this developer says it will allow for Internet Explorer by falling back to Flash if necessary.
I'd like to manage my music without iTunes thank you.
iTunes is not for me. It's bloated, it doesn't have the features I want. It doesn't let me organize music "my way".
Personally I'd like to be able to manage music directly from the phone. That includes being able to purchase music from any online store that has the music I want. iTMS doesn't carry most of the stuff I listen to.
hooray for mobile computing! bringing knowledge and freedom to the masses throughout the world as low cost commodities. Let's defend the corporations who want to turn these platform into rented services because their products look cool! And crap on the the platforms that rely on the antiquated principle of private property because they are icky with obtrusive UI!
forward corporate defender! unto your next task of slaying anti-trust and monopoly regulations! No private ownership or user control for anyone! hooray!
Please corporate overlord, for my benefit, tell me what I can and cannot do!
Hulu is in the content business, if the alliance between the various studios lasts much longer. They're not in the Flash business. What they're running is already H.264, only in a Flash container. And since even H.264 is free for free content for at least five years, I'd say they'll switch over with no problems.
http://jilion.com/sublime/video
Try to right-click on that. And sorry to say, you can grab the movies from Hulu if you're clever. Flash just hides itself in spaghetti code.
As much as I dislike Steve Jobs, this is the under-targeted audience he's brilliantly aiming at. Just one sound-bite from Oprah swooning over her iPad, and the real life Scrooge MacDuck can put in his second olympic-sized money pool.
Sure, the problem being that you are renting a seat but paying enough to buy the cinema outright!
You're also paying to have someone else worry about maintaining the cinema. A lot of things come down to a time-energy/money trade off.
pure win
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Seriously, dragging & dropping?
Isn't it so much easier to just type out 'copy c:\mystuff\music ipod:\mystuff'?
Want even easier, why not make everything some kind of high-density punch card, and just carry that with you, no typing, no dragging, no syncing, it's all there.
I'm not pretending that iTunes is anything great, but one of the benefits of syncing is that it allows for things like 'gimme polka music I haven't listened to in two months' or keeping track of playlists that span albums/artists. Perhaps you are a purist and only listen to full albums in sequence, and while that is admirable, it just isn't how most people listen to music anymore.
Further, no one is arguing that the ipad, like an ipod, is a full on computer. It's not going to displace netbooks or ebook readers, it straddles a middle ground taking liberally from both.
OK, all arguments aside about what Apple has or hasn't done. This what you do.
Wait.
Wait until either Apple provides an iPAD with the features you require or the technology becomes more mature.
This speculating and armchair techno quarterbacking makes my feet itch.
I waited until a 5th gen Video iPOD before I bought one. Why?
Honestly, it was expensive as hell. I'm sure I could have bought other mp3 players, but this device could play video
and had a legal content provider available in iTUNES. It gave me direct access to content until I got up to speed with getting content from other areas. Not to mention a great deal of third party support for accessories.
It could be that someone else beats Apple to the punch. Buy their offering instead and integrate it into
your existing Mac or PC infrastructure.
I've been off an on with Apple since the Apple II days. When they started to jump the shark with the Performa
series I looked elsewhere. When products looked more promising I bought from Apple again. One of the benefits
with buying Apple is that their products usually last quite a while.
If you are trying to buy on the bleeding edge with Apple you will get cut. How bad you get cut depends on
how far away the device meets your expectations.
9. Can I write handwritten notes on it, a question no one even seems to have raised or considered. And, I don't mean something insane like using Pages and inserting a 'drawing'... If not, good luck to the first person that downloads the iPad SDK, writes this in about 200 lines and makes an absolute killing. :-) (Yeah, I cba to do it myself, please someone go ahead and jfdi)
No, not a "crippled appliance," but an "appliance."
Different uses, different devices.
A full Mac OS tablet would be cool, but as all those full Windows tablets have shown us- very few people actually use one for any length of time.
The iPad is pretty much Apple's version of the netbook. There has been a huge demand for netbooks, and Apple had no product to suit that need for around the same price point.
Twinstiq, game news
Yes you can save arbitrary mp3 files through Itunes itself. I use Amazon regularly to buy music and I manage to get it to my iphone through iTunes. I don't buy directly from Amazon on the iPhone but I think you could actually write an application to do that. iTunes is not the only way to get content onto an Iphone/iPod either, as there is an API that alternate sync apps can and do use. Do a little research. Sorry for your troubles. There is no way to apply the Sherman act here either as there is no monopoly. Apple is not the only vendor of music players, they are not the only vendor of music over the internet and you aren't locked into anything if you just buy someone else product. Stop whining, and start using your wallet instead of your pie-hole!
Why bother
Damn. Yet another device that's not Mac compatible!
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
"you [can]not save arbitrary files (mp3s included)"
Wow, really? Even my POS windows mobile phone can do that. The iPhone and iPad can't?
When they didn't announce the iPhone on Verizon at the Apple special event, I decided to get an iPod Touch. I've wanted an iPhone but I am NOT switching from Verizon to AT&T just to get one.
Shortly thereafter, Snowpocalypse 2010 descended (I live in DC) and I've basically been snowed in since last week. In that time I have barely touched my laptop (MacBook Pro) or my Blackberry (from employer). I've just gravitated toward the Touch. It's much faster and easier to pick it up and browse the news sites, Facebook, and check my e-mail than my laptop, and it's much easier to read and interact with than my Blackberry. My Blackberry buzzes with a new e-mail and I pick up the Touch to read and respond. I want to know the latest on the upcoming storm (yet another one due to start any minute), and I pick up the Touch and hit a couple of Web sites.
There's not a clear, cut-and-dry feature list that makes it so. But in a week it's become my primary way of going online and reading and interacting. The only thing it doesn't work well for is extended missives (like this, which I'm typing on my laptop). For short responses though the touch keyboard is ok.
The iPad seemed like an "eh" when I read up on it, but now, having used the Touch, it's much more interesting for me. It would be great to have the same ease of use but a bigger screen.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
The question is not whether you can get your mp3s from Amazon onto the iphone somehow (of course you can!), the question is whether you can use existing applications to download mp3s directly onto the iphone and use them. Music store purchases are likely "impulse" buys for many people, and being able to buy them directly from a good, portable listening device likely encourages more impulse buying.
I need to replace my 5-year-old laptop and was holding out for a tablet PC until I heard all the iPad rumors. I was really hoping for a MacBook with a digitizer, like the Modbook, not a scaled up iPod. I need a highly-portable general-purpose computer that supports drawing and handwriting, not some locked-down reduced-functionality handset that won't fit into my pocket (I mean, thanks, but I already have a BlackBerry).
I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage
A slight amendment.
Apple encourages Power Users as long as you do it Apple's Way.
I don't really understand why anyone would intentionally prefer an unjailbroken iPhone. There are too many apps that make the iPhone quicker and better to use that Apple won't allow on the app store. (SBSettings, backgrounder, task switcher, quickscroll, etc)
True enough, but I think it'll take a long while for Hulu to catch on to this. Not to mention that they've invested a fair amount in their own "Hulu Desktop", also written in flash.
It's fine to wish they'd do this (I wish this too, for the record), but they're big, and we all know how slowly big businesses move.
Right yes, that's fine and good for *video*. I don't see HTML5 producing anything of the caliber of the examples I gave above though. Even if the major browsers implement it consistently. Which they won't.
I find it hilarious that someone rated me "Insightful" just there... but I thank you. :)
And I got 96Gigs of music spread among 3 SDHC cards, none purchase don iTunes, and I don't need iTunes to manage it--my phone does it (metadata population), and all I have on ANY computer when I view the cards is a simple file system with folders named by album.
K.I.S.S. is not part of the iTunes's design such that since it's complex to manage and export songs (especially converted to aac) imported into iTunes, it give one an impression that its locked, when all I want is to move a file.
It seems pretty clear the author has just put together a few hot-topic items (all of which have known answers) spread out over a six-page article to generate impressions. EEesh. Checking...yep, kdawson article. Ugh, my bad.
WTF!?
What is he smoking! This is crazy! Let's look at the VPN issue, for example. That's purely on a speculation based upon the fact there may not be support for MS Exchange, which itself is a speculation!
Oh, they have a specific market. It is a computing device for the rest of the population - the ones that don't understand computers, the ones that can't upgrade their os, download the latest virus checker, or actually connect to the internet on the latest bells and whistles nokia N9whatever. This is a no fuss, no hassle, no confusion, your grandmother can use it, internet/book/information delivery/multimedia device. The market is the 95% of the population that do not 'get' computers. I can see that apple are trying to do to the computer/laptop industry what they did with the phone industry and the portable music device industry. You and I don't really need one as we have 3 laptops, a netbook, a media centre and 4 desktops all dual booting - but we still might get one.
Apple's Way? Power users do it any way they want. Power users have complete flexibility over the underlying UNIX structure of the OS, more so than even Windows users have. You obviously know nothing.
I personally prefer an non-unlicked smartphone. I like installing updates at will without worry they'll break my apps; I like not having to pay for unlock scripts, i like being able to not worry about root SSL hacks since I'm not running an SSL server on my iPhone; i have no issues multitasking and don't care about not being able to stream while surfing (The battery would need to be 3X the size for me to do that unless it was plugged in while streaming, in which case I'd use the PC for surfing not the phone); Scroll settings could improve, but I really don;t care enough about ANY of the apps you mentioned to go through the repeated hassle and expense, and risk of using an unlocked device (both security and warranty wise), not even including the provider's possible responses (though AT&T has sworn not to go after unlockers).
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
...yes, the perfect example of the Apple fanboy mentality:
Choosing to only load one disc of a 17 disc set onto your device is something that "only nerds do".
Why should an appliance have to update itself?
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
You're rant would be much more meaningful if it were not for the fact
that the crude checkbox interface in iTunes doesn't allow something so
simple as selecting a single album to add/sync to a device.
For all the hype, iTunes really is more like some ANSI rendered MS-DOS
menu driven program from the dark ages than it is a proper modern GUI
application.
The fact that it has a few automation features doesn't alter the fact
that is screws up the basics.
With a more open device, such faults are less problematic.
Clearly you think that Apple should just ignore certain classes of users
and certain types of use cases. This is why a diversity of tools is a good
thing.
Once a system is open to industry standard tools, even the most sophisticated
thing that iTunes is capable of is pretty trivial to accomplish. Plus you
don't need to be restricted to a particular vendor's products.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
The iPad will be a huge success. Just wait and see.
First point: Apple products, no matter how bad they are, are received well by the market.
Second point: No matter how overpriced said Apple products are, they are still being bought by a lot of people.
Third point: Most of our planets population are idiots, so they will buy Apple products.
Apple has hit a honeypot, cause they cater to regular people. The kind of people you have to explain everyday how to do their job.
The kind of people I have to lead right now. Doubleclicking the OpenOffice icon is a task. Needs to be taught.
Sometimes multiple times a day. You need to tell them what to say to a customer, again multiple times a day.
It is a perfect product to people who can't tie their own shoelaces.
The iPad is exactly everything I need for a college computation platform minus one thing -- it won't deliver in time to be useful to me this semester. So I'll wait until the Fall to buy one.
I use my iPhone for 90% of my mobile computing needs, but I wish the screen was bigger. I could bring a laptop along, but it's more weight/size than I want to carry -- netbook included. The iPad fits right in between those two for me. I already have Kindle reader on my iPhone, I use OmniFocus for my organization, and of course there's web browsing and email. Putting that together with Keynote (for presentations) and I'm good to go.
I did find the "questions" a little odd. The mail app on the iPhone does Exchange. And I can access docs on my iPhone also (which *does* require a .Mac account that many wouldn't be willing to pay for -- so that's not a complete answer).
Anyway -- it's going to have the full iWork suite. One would think those documents would have to live somewhere.
I find it hard to believe that someone who uses "iCrap" twice in a public comment board post is smarter than anyone.
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Those were two dumbass comments you made:
1) You can choose to sync manually from your music collection. But if you don't want to bother, you don't have to.
2) He meant update your content, not your software. You know, update your iPod with photos you've taken on your camera and downloaded onto your computer. (Additionally, you obviously don't *need* to update your iPod software, but you may well want to. And it happens only a couple of times a year)
Yup and if you think that's a great idea then go out and build your hardware, advertise it, build and give away the infrastructure for free to your customers and potential customers. Sell your hardware and profit! Sounds like what Apple did. Don't see the problem here. If you want to make money selling things to people on their devices I'd say try licensing the technology, I know Apple has done it in at least 1 case.
Why bother
What's the value-add that makes their device worth $1000 when wintel tablets that can run a Linux netbook distro can be found for
In a modern hardware context, a tablet's just a repackaged netbook, Apple's package has what appears to be a slow CPU and a smaller battery. Where's the rocket science here?
Tech Public Policy stuff
And none of it was purchased through your iPhone. You can purchase music on a computer and transfer it to the device, but there's no way to get non-iTunes music through the device itself.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/
Google has the other ways to do it if you actually care.
Not only can you not save arbitrary files (mp3s included),
Of course it can.
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/12/04/mobile-safari-plug-in-downloads-files-to-your-iphone-ipod-touch/
http://www.hackint0sh.org/f126/18060.htm