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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?
People, snap out of it. Its just a tablet computer. They have been around for over 10 years and they have never been all that special. Apple has you in some sort of hypnosis that is causing you to go gaga over closed up commercial productions that you think you need to own.
Welding the hood shut annoys hackers, but we're such a tiny part of the market that we don't matter. The trend over the past decades is clear: less and less consumer control over their devices, and more and more corporate control.
That might even be OK if you consider Apple a "benevolent dictator", as many people do.
I won't be buying one either due to the locked down closed nature. But this really doesn't matter *at all* to most people.
will be out in force in this thread.
There are faults with any device. It's not perfect, and it won't be for everyone. What irks me is the "I don't like/want it therefore it's crap" attitude; the inability to look beyond what *you* find wrong with it, and see that this might just be golden for someone else. My parents, for example [grin].
But what bugs me above all is the anti-apple crowd these days. Apparently if you express even the slightest appreciation for something well-conceived and well-designed, you're a "fanboi" who's taken in by "the shiny" (whatever *that* is!). Sure there are fanboys (and girls, presumably), but not everyone (not even vaguely close - not in the same universe, let alone ballpark) who likes Apple kit should be labelled such.
I swear the anti-Apple crowd are far and away worse than the real fanboys. Even in the worst-possible scenario, with everyone who likes Apple kit being a fan (ahem, including both genders, here) , at least the fans have something they like, appreciate, and enjoy using. The haters just hate. And that's pitiably sad.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
1. Buy a new Windows box (for less than the iPad).
2. Get a 3G USB dongle (total cost still less than the iPad).
3. Buy a monthly data plan (which will inevitably cost less than the iPad data plan).
You, like most Apple enthusiasts, display a stunning lack of imagination.
As hackers, we should recognize that there is a right tool for the job. Ipad is just another tool. It does less than a laptop because it's meant to be a simpler tool than a laptop.
Eventually the market will decide if a tablet is a niche or mainstream product. But for me at least, I couldn't be happier.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
The national news media has gone utterly insane over this tablet. I know it's a flashy, "cool" product that will sell well, but it's just not worth the crazy amount of attention it's getting.
I think the best example of the lunacy was illustrated on the Colbert Report. The iPad was given a full front-cover picture (free advertisement), while Amazon paid for a full back-cover advertisement of their Kindle on the same magazine.
I think Slashdotters are for the most part woefully ignorant of how the rest of humanity actually uses computers, and would do well to understand these types of use cases. They will sell millions.
Firstly, Slashdot is not a single uniform entity. There are many different opinions which in case of iPad there are slashdotters all over the love-hate spectrum. You're not the exception here.
Secondly, in your rush to blame Slashdot, you came up with an example which not only doesn't support "sell millions" argument but also goes against it. iPad's market is much more mainstream than niche semi-disabled 95 year olds. Everyone with an interest in reading eBooks, watching movies on the go, reading news, doing lite creative work, using some productivity tools, students reading textbooks, etc. is the target market.
All of this however doesn't change the fact that Apple has declared war on tinkering and as more and more consumers adopt the "appliance computing" model that Apple spearheads, the future of computing looks less and less bright. Hopefully all alternatives will not perish.
As he said, you're blind to how the rest of the world uses computers. A 95 year old man who grew up during the Great War cannot just jump from one version of Windows to another without a lot of unlearning and relearning. Hell, my programmer father who grew up in the second WW still doesn't intuitively know what needs to be double-clicked vs. single-clicked in Windows.
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
I think the Kindle is going to have to make some serious changes. For 2x the price you get 5x the features with the iPad. Kindle's been out awhile and prices have already worked their way down as features and size have crept up. The iPad is just hitting the market and is already a better value for the money. When the early adopters are done paying their tax and prices on the iPad drop, Kindle has a very serious problem on their hands. I wonder what they intend to do?
Same thing has already happened with the palm pilot, but against a flurry of devices. (ipods and smartphones) Who in their right mind would buy a palm pilot today? Kindle is headed down the same road. I bought a PP 4 yrs ago not because I liked it, but because it was the only product anywhere near the price for what it did. People bought the Kindle for the same reason. And they're both going to find their way to the garage sale.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
And then they lose their mojo and start making the same device but bigger. That's what makes people hate the fucking iPad.
>However, the iPad is SO easy to use there's really nothing to learn
So you already own the iPad and he has used it?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I agree with Cory. It reminds me of CD-ROMs also.
That nifty Elements App (from Wolfram) is exactly like that. It just seems weird not to be able to hyperlink to content outside the CD-ROM -er- I mean iPad App. (Of course, you can launch a browser, but but App would do that because its job to to get you to view the content you just bought.)
The UI of CD-ROM (and maybe iPad Apps) was terrible also. Everyone CD-ROM title decided they needed a different GUI. Getting he back/next buttons, address bar in the browser was a such a big step forward.
I don't think that's really true. Whilst I'm not generally a fan of Gruber and his rampant Apple fanboyism, he's not stupid and I think the argument he makes is sound. I wrote programs for the BBC Micro back in the 80s - and it sucked. I knew, even as a child, that what I was doing wasn't "real" programming. I didn't even know what "real" programming was as I had never heard of nor did I understand the concept of assembly language back then. Maybe some kids were smart enough to teach themselves assembly language and then hack the OS itself. I just couldn't do that, I didn't have access to the materials and for an 8 year old even BASIC can be tough. I actually didn't do any OS-level hacking until I was 18 (on Linux) and I don't think it did me any harm.
I happen to think the iPhone and iPad are remarkably poor environments for children to learn programming on, mostly because the amount of crap you have to learn in order to make something fun in languages like Objective-C is enormous. JavaScript or even Java is a much better choice. However, Gruber links to some 13 year old who has written an app and published it on the app store. That's awesome and something I could only have dreamed of when I was 13.
And it's not just kids. I was reading an interview the other day with a guy who published "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES" on Xbox Live. He did it with the XNA toolkit, in other words it was written in C#. In the interview he said he was glad XNA existed because he wasn't a very experienced programmer and C++ was too difficult for him. But XNA was easy. His game costs a dollar, took a few weeks to make and is wildly profitable. It consistently sits at the top of the indie games charts - because it's excellent. In other words, even though the Xbox is the most closed platform you can imagine, it's still possible for amateurs to compete with the big boys by producing fun games. That's the sort of motivation kids in the 70s and 80s just never had and frankly, I think it more than makes up for having some signature checks here and there.
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.
Wow! Apple invented the MP3 player, the cell phone and the tablet PC! You learn something new every day here on Slashdot!
Back in the real world, Apple produce moderately unsucky versions of consumer devices that have been in the market for years, and throw vast amounts of advertising at selling them. Right now they're actually managing to make Microsoft look only moderately evil.... at least Microsoft lets you run arbitrary software on Windows.
Of course there's nothing wrong with their business model so long as they're not holding a gun to your head and forcing you to buy one, but let's cut out the 'Apple is so innovative' crap which merely makes you look like another cultist.
Not sure i'll trust figures from a place called "flashmagazine.com" I'm sure they are super non-biased.
the issue is not how many sites use flash, but haw many can't work without it, or suffer significantly. Using statistics can make you look intelligent and informed, misusing statistics reveals you as an idiot.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I don't get the pissing and moaning from my fellow techies on this one.
Sure It has limitations and software is controlled by Apple (unless you jailbreak).
But this is more like an appliance than a full fledged computer and it isn't really meant to replace your laptop or desktop, but co-exist with them.
From the hands on videos, it is clear the engineering on this one is very tight. HW/SW integration produces an extremely responsive package in a small lightweight package that can go all day.
As an appliance platform, it appears to be impeccable.
Not every device has to be totally open. I don't need or even want to spend hours similar to what I spend tweaking my PC also tweaking a tablet appliance.
I don't own anything Apple and I am not sure I will buy an iPad, but it doesn't look like it delivers a fine coffee table appliance and I would certainly like to try it.
I really can't get anyone who considers themselves a tech enthusiast being too close minded to try one for themselves.
You know there's something that's out there already called the "droid". It works great and does everything and more than the Ipad and actually fits in your pocket.
I have seen this becoming a huge problem over the last few years. As we move into a world where everybody has a capable, connected browsing machine in their pocket, Apple is having a hugely harmful effect on competition and the open web.
The last decade has all been about getting rid of platform-specific bullshit on the web. The number of sites that only work on IE has gone down. The existence of Firefox, Chrome, and yes even Safari helps to keep web developers honest. Apple now wants to erase all these benefits in the MID space.
And it's working. Ask someone on the street what they should do if they need a mobile app. "Write an iPhone app!" No. Do me a favor, people, and when you hear someone say that, scold them. This is the wrong direction. We don't need a corporate gatekeeper towards the mobile Internet; we don't need it to be synonymous with one corporation. We don't need to give this much power to a single entity to set the prices and the terms, to add restrictions on the code we run, to lock us into their world view, and yes, prevent us from something as simple as changing a battery.
We need a variety of mobile platforms to keep folks like Apple honest. We need competition. We need the world's information to be accessible even if we go for something from Google, Nokia, Palm, RIM, even Microsoft, or whatever startup doesn't even exist yet.
The wifi version's model number is A1337, how cool is that?
Not very.
Most of the people here are missing the point. The iPad is all about paying for content. And the content isn't cheap. The Wall Street Journal costs more on the iPad than on paper. $5 a month seems to be a typical price for online magazines. The iPad creates a direct connection between content providers and your wallet.
And there's no ad-blocking. You will will watch the ads. The "app" concept means that the program, not the user, has control. If the program wants you to look at the ad for 10 seconds, you will look at the ad for 10 seconds.
Whilst I'm not arguing for having ridiculous app review processes or bootloader locks (I think Apples decisions here are retarded), I must note that you can read the source code of the compiler used on the iPad/iPhone (gcc) , and the standard library (darwin). You can also read the source of the browser rendering engine and various other parts.
Whilst that's not as good as the Nexus One where you can read darn near everything, and reflash to your hearts content, the iPad situation is not quite as dire as you make out.
And again, I think people like you are highly unusual. The idea that 10 year olds are going to be compiling their own OS builds is a fantasy for Linux geeks (of which I am one). Just writing a fully functioning, interesting program is challenge enough. Operating systems are basically boring pieces of software - given a choice between making a spinning 3D cube or tweaking the kernel scheduler, I'm pretty sure most kids would rather make a spinning 3D cube. The scheduler hacks can come after they have some years of experience and can get their kicks from solving highly abstract problems. By which point they will certainly be capable of playing with Linux.
Now I'd like to repeat that one can simultaneously believe the direction Apple is going is bad, and that the iPad does not harm the next generation of child tinkerers. These beliefs are not mutually exclusive.
It seems as though you are not so upset at the size of the iPad, but the size of your pockets.
Will the iPad fit in a lab coat pocket? Or more generally in the pocket of clinical clothing for doctors and nurses? I think those pockets would be far more interesting than those in jeans.
Do the clipboards and manilla folders that doctors and nurses use now fit in their pockets? I don't really think those are professions that use pockets to do their jobs. Doctors will probably be more interested in whether or not they can scribble notes into documents.
What I found interesting was not the size, but the weight. About 1.5 lbs IIRC. I was even more interested to find that the Kindle DX is over 2 lbs, about a kilogram. These devices both boast superior form factor over options like laptops and cellphones when it comes to reading, especially the Kindle. I never read ebooks on my laptop, because I want to lie in different positions, often holding the book above me. I've found this to be really quite nice with my Android phone, but a kilogram isn't light, and when I think about it, neither is 1.5 lbs. What good is a tablet if you have to, over a long length of use, rest it on your lap or a table anyway?
Maybe the weight isn't an issue, I've never tried a Kindle DX, much less an iPad. At the same time, if I'm using something I have to hold (laptops may be heavier, but I'm not expected to carry it to use it), I don't want it to be heavier than whatever it's replacing. Books are really light, so are television remotes, keyboards and mouses (as one reclines with feet up next to desktop monitor), and even laptops resting on laps aren't so bad. If the iPad is supposed to mobilise content into your hands, it'd better not be the single heaviest thing in my bag.
These devices both boast superior form factor over options like laptops and cellphones when it comes to reading, especially the Kindle.
I could have made use of a *good* e-reader if any decent options had become available even last year, while I was still engaged with studies in molecular biology and biochemistry. It would have been great to be able to carry around the content of my huge (and seriously fucking expensive) textbooks for those fields on a convenient device, but the display needs to be in colour and have to have good resolution to be useful. None of the devices I've seen come close.
From my point of view, the case is closed. I'm not planning on going back to formal studies again any time soon, so my (mostly recreational) reading material can remain on paper, which has a much more congenial feel and smell.
... because noone makes a decent alternative to it so they will also end up buying one anyway.The JooJoo? A $500 web browser which runs Flash for a short while. The 50 rumored Android tablets? Only a fraction will reach market, and they will divide their fraction so much none of them will make money. Microsoft Courier? The name has previously been assigned to two other canceled projects in Redmond, not a good sign.
People who have actually used the iPad are claiming the increased surface area means more gestures are possible, and the increased size means more complex apps are possible (like the ported iWork apps). The "garden" is exactly what Microsoft is proposing for Windows Mobile 7 and what phone companies with Android are trying to enforce unless you root your phone.
(What you are doing is sort of like complaining that a 1080p HD TV is just an enlarged "normal" TV, and that the jokes in "Two and a Half Men" are not going to be funnier on the bigger screen...)
The trouble is, the iPad (for all its slick design) is pretty much an enlarged (even embiggened) iPod Touch ...
Perhaps I wasn't clear but a bigger iPod touch is exactly what many have asked for.
... It will appeal to those who are content to live in Apple's little garden of approved applications (so long as we use them one at a time),
Actually its a rather large garden that offers nearly anything most people go looking for. As for one app at a time that is a pretty normal usage pattern, people tend to run an app for a couple of minutes and are done with it. Its not like a computer where one sits there working with something for hours. The one thing that needs to multitask and preempt, the phone, does. Also push notifications make many traditional background tasks unnecessary. While some complaints are valid, some are somewhat bogus attempts to apply old desktop methodologies rather than adopt newer methodologies that may be better suited for mobile devices. Like some users who stick to MS Office because that is all they know, some programmers like to stick to daemons and other background tasks because that is all they know. As someone who has ported applications and utilities between various desktop and server platforms I am sympathetic towards wanting to reuse legacy code but there is also a time to try something new.
... but those of us who really want a functional and versatile mobile computer with a small form-factor will remain frustrated.
Perhaps, but that wasn't what it was designed to be. However I'd wait a while before passing judgement. A year from now it will be far clearer as to how well the iPad suits people's needs. Today, where no one has any experience with it and there is a bias towards wanting the familiar (more of the same) opinions are premature.
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Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN
And this kid who wrote the iPad app learned... how? Did he go to the Apple iPad Programming Educational Institute? Obviously he must have learned to hack and tinker on a PDP-8 at the age of 13?
What he has is actual useful knowledge (of a programming language, of programming for a device, and of how to write a functional application that might actually make the kid some money) as a result of his tinkering. What you have is a lot of warm memories of (by your own admission) useless software that you dicked around with a lot. How is your experience tinkering with writing programs in BASIC any different from his experience tinkering with writing programs in ObjC? I'd argue that some of that makes him a much more successful tinkerer than most of us.