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iPad Launches, FCC Teardown Leaked
Apple's much-awaited iPad officially launched today, and iFixit has gotten their hands on photos from the FCC teardown. They've done an analysis of the internals and provided directions on doing it yourself, if you're so inclined. Predictably, it's a hot topic in the media. Cory Doctorow wrote about why he won't be getting an iPad, complaining about the closed, hacker-unfriendly design and what he calls the "Wal-martization of the software channel." Daring Fireball's John Gruber disagrees, pointing out that enthusiasts — even kids exercising their curiosity — are still quite capable of playing around with the iPad through app creation, and with much more of a chance to compete with big companies than in the Apple ][ days. Similarly, others are referring to it as the "bedtime computer" — technology that has a reasonable shot at expanding into completely new areas of use, like bedtime reading for kids. Such a device was predicted in 1972 by Alan Kay, the PARC scientist credited with the epigram "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." His hypothetical DynaBook bears striking similarity to what Apple finally came up with. So, those of you who have picked up or received an iPad already: how do you like it?
Actually, NO. I was quite happy with a generic 2GB MP3 player made by many different manufacturers. Some of them came with decent features, tactile controls, and did other things like voice record etc. They did not come with lock-in, suited my needs, and the cost was somewhere around... oh $12.00 USD. I could afford to put 3 of them in my brief case if I wanted. All I needed was a USB port and some headphones. No hacking required, no big price tag, no lock-in. Just music from a small device with headphones. There are and were many such devices. I strongly suspect that people who go gaga about iCrap will only be happy in death if they get a designer cancer.
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What irks me is the "I don't like/want it therefore it's crap" attitude
Quite the opposite for myself. It's crap, therefore I don't like/want it.
Who cares.
Fanbois like you, obviously.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Yeah, because a company that got and maintained its riches only because of its half-baked operating system and word processor is so much like a company that goes out on a limb (over and over again) to invent a new category of consumer device
Crack open a Mac and what you will find inside is a sub-set of the commodity hardware that has evolved in support of the mass-market Windows platform.
The mass market platform is the achievement of that "half-baked" OS.
The OS that runs well on hardware that is midline at the time of release and bargain basement a year or so later.
The news for April has Win 7 breaking 10% in the Net Applications stats and 20% in Ars Technica's stats. Mass market acceptance. Rock-solid geek cred.
The geek sees an office suite. The first-tier office suite, if he is honest. The office manager sees one component of an integrated office system that scales quite well to an enterprise of any size and type.
What choice has Apple - Apple Computer, long ago - but to compete in the high-risk, high-style, up-scale consumer tech market?
Yeah! Let's go back to the '80s!
It'll be so hip for everyone to have brick sized devices again! And people can show off how cool they have, by specifically buying clothes with huge pockets just to carry them! And anyone who isn't hip enough to have big pockets filled with their brick sized Istale will feel uncool and "how contrary"!
Posts like you just show how sad your attitude is, and prove it really is about attempting to look pathetically cool, even though no one actually gives a damn about nerd products or the nerd clothes you specifcally got for it, or your Apple logo shining out your oversized coat pocket.
show us all how contrary
Me and the 95% of the non-Apple phone owning population. We prefer to Think Different, you see.
"Windows was a fucking popular OS, therefore the fucking Zune will be too".
The comparison to the fucking Ipod - Apple's sole mainstream product, their one hit wonder - is an all too common fallacy, but fuck, it's laughable if you fucking think about it.
[edited to include more swearing]