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Throwing Out Software That Works
theodp writes "Just as the iPhone rendered circa-2007 smartphones obsolete, points out Marco Arment, the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks. Should this succeed, cautions Dave Winer, we may be entering an era of deliberate degradation of the user experience and throwing overboard of software that works, for corporate reasons. Already, Winer finds himself having to go to a desktop machine if he wants to view web content that's inaccessible with his iPhone and iPad. 'There was no bottleneck for software in the pre-iPad netbooks,' he writes. 'It matters. What I want is the convenient form factor without the corporate filter. It's way too simplistic to believe that we'll get that, but we had it. That's what I don't like — deliberate devolution.'"
...with the Adroid tablet, the tablet for geeks!
Yeah my 2006 Blackberry is really obselete now. Going online, checking my mail, instant messaging, and god forbid calling people has never been a worse experience. But I guess I don't have a fart button app, time to throw it out.
That's what standards are for!
If a device does not adhere to common standards, then don't buy it!
It's junk. I'm sorry to say it, I had high hopes but the thing is an overpriced etch-a-sketch. My netbook does everything the iPad does but 100 times better and at less than half the cost, plus it include a keyboard and much larger hard drive and all the inputs and outputs I require.
All this hype over the iPad is mind boggling. I just don't get it.
Anyone who has read Macro Arment knows that he is an intelligent blogger for some unknown reason needs to be an Apple fanboy beyond the edge of reason. The more you listen to Apple guys, the more they're try to convince you that your computer isn't good enough - ditch it, use something BETTER, something NEW. This is what Apple (and the rest of the tech industry) does. they beat you overt the head with the notion that YOU'RE NOT USING A GOOD ENOUGH PLATFORM until you succumb, upgrade, and get all of those fancy gadgets.
As someone running Debian on an old Pentium (by choice, not limited by funds) I know that the rise and fall of technology never creates anything really earth shattering, and yesterday's tech will work just as well as tomorrow's.
The iPad causes all netbooks to disappear all of a sudden?
It's your own damn problem if you bought an iPad. Should have bought a netbook.
Writing this on my EeePC. I like a real keyboard.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
when some one comes out with a new device.
sure tablets have been out for a decade. but until someone put a tablet GUI on it they weren't worth very much. When apple annouced the iPad I was both happy and sad. Happy that the form factor that I have wanted for a decade would finally be available, sad that it would take 12-18 months before anyone else could ever come close to duplicating the software/hardware/price point.
now I simply have to wait for andriod 3.0 to come out, along with some decently assembled hardware and i will finally have what I wanted when Bill gates annouced windows for tablets 8 years ago.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Technology marches ahead. I can't check those 5.25 floppies anymore. How about those Corvus 5MB hard drives or cassette tapes of Lemonade?
That's how it is. If he doesn't like it, he can jailbreak his iPad, port Bochs, and install XP.
Dear Mr. Whiner, Please stop buying stuff that isn't what you want or need. It sounds like you need a notebook. I do too. Don't buy an iPad if you need to create a lot of content or if Flash is super important to you. There is another option called a notebook. You can buy them with OS X, Windows, and Linux (you may have to load that yourself on a lot of the hardware choices). I don't see a problem here. For people who can live within the limitations imposed by the iPad, perhaps it is a good device for them. For me, and it sounds like for you, the iPad is just a toy with limitations that don't make it worth our while.
It must suck to have Steve Jobs break into your house, smash your netbook, and force you at gunpoint to buy an iPad.
Which planet do you live on?
Other smartphone are not obsolete by a long shot.
I stopped reading after the first sentence.
It occurs to me that I had essentially the same conversation recently with a European acquaintance regarding the availability of a nice pate or decent wine at grocery stores here in the states.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
...RedTube and YouPorn and their ilk are recoding to H.264 as fast as they can.
I use a smartphone (non-iPhone) and a netbook pretty much every day. They are far from obsolete, as they do exactly what I need in a form factor that provides a good balance of size, weight and battery life.
If your iPad doesn't meet your needs how can you claim it makes other devices that DO meet your needs obsolete?
I still want an iPad, but more as a cool toy than to fill any need. Oh, and I do not want an iPhone.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
Is going to find an old ancient iPad and take a look at it and say "WTH where they thinking?"
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
Thats because the iPad is not meant as a netbook replacement. It is built with a "desktop dependency" in mind. Lack of flash, USB ports, iTunes dependency, etc...
Sure it overlaps in many use cases of the netbook, plus the ipad is definitely cutting into netbook sales, but netbooks are definitely not the same thing and they will surely not be replaced by the ipad.
If all he wants is a powerful, featureful and capable tablet in that form factor, then wait for others to do more capable tablets where you will be able to have flash, plug in USB devices and not require a PC for operating it(i.e. no iTunes dependencies, etc). Android will probably take care of most of it, MeeGo of the rest, IMO.
Don't buy the iPad if it doesn't have the features you need. This is not a corporate filter: every company has to make technology decisions about what they include and don't include in their products, depending on the target audience and what they want the functionality of the device to be.
The iPad is not the be all end all, end of the line product for Netbook owners to switch to.
If it does not meet people's needs it will not sell. Every technology has features and limitations. And there will be competition, if there are markets whose needs are not met by iPad, because there is profit to be made in selling people what they want.
Just because your shiny new iPad doesn't have a parallel port to plug in your 1990s-era printer doesn't mean we have a devolution.
Sometimes the market moves away from older technologies, and you have to switch to the new standards when you get new toys.
This is business.
Nobody in the IT industry can honestly think that quality actually gets you anywhere. It's marketing, lawyers and sales, advertisers that are the cockroaches that ruined innovation for good.
The Iphone, googol and whatever techcompany will do what it can to survive...
I hope Windows never goes obsolete and nor does my dumb phone.
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
The iPad totally wiped out my netbook. I don't really need a keyboard, non-shiny screen for outdoor viewing, webcam, 3 USB ports, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB harddrive space and a Windows+Linux dualboot. What I really wanted was a digital picture frame I could poke...
This article is so poorly written that I don't understand what the complaint is.
He apparently wants software and devices that all work perfectly, provide an awesome user experience, but with no corporations involved in making the devices or the software or any of the content. Or something. like that.
Is that it? If so, why is such a childish attitude considered worthy of anyone's time or attention?
Was someone a bit short on the word count, and decided that "web content that's inaccessible with his iPhone and iPad" was a direct replacement for 'Flash'?
Winer knows that people pay more attention to him when he's harping on Apple. He's practically made a career out of it. Look, it's working! Here I am posting about his article..
Old software doesn't work on new devices a lot, or it just doesn't work as well (ex. I just got Win7 and my Autodesk 2007 software isn't happy). New tech means taking advantage of new features, which ultimately means buying new software from time to time. Still need the old stuff? There's almost always a workaound.
Too late...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
I'm about ready to grab a sledgehammer and start forcibly tattooing this mantra into the heads of every internet commenter and Slashdot editor who has to complain about the evils of Apple's walled garden: If you don't like it, don't buy it. For Christ's sake, no one is holding a gun to your head and making you buy Apple products. There are, and always will be*, alternatives. Apple gives people a tradeoff: stability and easy of use at the cost of freedom and configurability. Just because you don't like that tradeoff, doesn't mean it's not useful and convenient for others, and when you whine about it, all you're really doing is revealing that you deeply desire an iPad. Put your money where your mouth is by shutting up and buying something is.
* And yes, I've heard all the FUD about how Apple's practices are going to tempt other manufacturers into doing the same thing they are. Give me a break.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
I have one, and it works fine. Great actually, as I just wrote this reply (by hand, not keyboard) in Windows 7, from a moving car. Get with the program!
"Remember when I said I would never lie? Well, that was the first time."
The iPad isn't crap. I'm by no means a fan of Apple, but the iPad is a very slick (if somewhat expensive) piece of hardware. Apps like Google Maps and some of the available games are very polished and work amazingly well. The problem isn't the iPad -- it's the Apple philosophy of our-way-or-no-way-at-all. Same for the iPhone; it looks like a very well-engineered piece of hardware (Grip-Of-Death issues notwithstanding), but it's horribly crippled by being tied to iTunes (which is, in my mind, has one of the worst user interfaces ever foisted on consumers -- made worse by the fact that it's rammed down our throats to use any Apple hardware.) I admire Apple's engineering, but their marketing policies have ensured that I would rather pay for a more open product (Samsung's Galaxy S series, for instance) than accept an Apple product for free.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
There needs to be a commercial argument for keeping non-commercial solutions.
"iPad sux -- amirite?"
How is that supposedly smart people does not understand the basic of math?
A 3.5 inch display is not the same size as a 19 inch display.
You can not use flash UI (or any other UI) in such a tiny display, its not Apple/Adobe's fault.
You just can not replace 1 square pixel pointer (mouse) with a 9 square pixel pointer(finger) and expect everything to work the same.
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
Those who failed to consider the implications of buying very limited devices can always buy another, different device.
Until "another, different device" stops getting manufactured. Case in point: PDAs. Ideally, people like me who don't need Internet in a vehicle and don't need anywhere near the 450 voice minutes a month of the cheapest U.S. smartphone service plans would choose a PDA over a smartphone to save money. But now it seems the only major PDA that isn't a smartphone is iPod touch. Everything else, such as nearly every Android 2 device, is marketed as a cell phone and costs two to three times as much as an iPod touch. For example, a Samsung Galaxy S costs 600 USD, compared to 200 USD for an iPod touch.
(C)rapple products have all always been extremely overpriced. All of their products since the IIe have been cheaply made junk!
Pad type devices my have there uses, but they cannot ever replace the functionality of a good laptop/netbook. I am typing this on an IBM Thinkpad (T41 purchased used on eBay) that cost less than $150.00. This laptop so outperforms an iPad that it makes the price difference totally rediculous in the extreme!
From what I have seen, the iPad is more like an overpriced ebook reader than a computing device
I have an XP tablet... that works wonderful. Office, internet, couple games.
Sure... it might not play Crysis, but that's not what the tablet is made for.
Also, Android, Chrome or Linux variations will be coming out... Palm too.
Stop focusing so much hate on one player. Especially one that is more than capable.
Most of the time, I argue in opposition of intentionally limited functionality. In most respects, I still do. For example, I don't want my ability to sync or transfer data hampered by any given interest. I don't want what is presently "basic functionality" (like copy and paste or saving attachments) to be held back either.
But devices that do too much of everything will find itself less capable of the single or few tasks that users really want. In previous comments, I mentioned that I finally dropped my blackberry in favor of a Samsung T959. It is all the stuff that iPhone is but without the restrictions that I perceive as show-stoppers. (Presently, my only real complaint is the lack of accessible removable SD card without having to remove the battery.) After rooting this phone (which was exceedingly easy) I can do whatever it is I want to do with it so far. But it is still a phone and I would prefer that its functions not exceed the currently accepted range of functions of hand-held devices. These functions are many and varied but are not quite as robust as a desktop/laptop experience. (I certainly don't want Inkscape or GiMP running on my phone... I don't need an Office quite either though the ability to view and work with various documents would be handy.)
Yet, with all that said, when it comes to devices the size of iPad, there is no excuse for limiting functionality or capability. It's bigger and inherently lacks physical limitations visually and in capability. Once again, I probably don't want to do any sort of intensive work on an iPad like device, but I would like a complete web experience by desktop standards and I would like to edit and work with office documents.
Also, one thing I have learned from Windows PCs is that when too many apps, applets, drivers and the like are installed, we end up with a whole machine that loses power and usability. Why the HELL does HP want to load stupid monitor apps for every device installed? DVD burning software is commonly guilty of this as well. When your systray is even 1/4th the width of your display filled with applets, there is a huge problem with system speed and usability. You just can't do too much with a single Windows PC without a lot of tweaking and careful uninstallation and disabling of various things. But going the opposite direction isn't for the best either.
A sane limitation on what a device will do is certainly called for.
But I don't want a phone because I don't want a 70 USD per month phone bill. Can I get a smartphone without a phone? Before iPhone, I could get a smartphone without a phone, and it was called a PDA. Apple still makes these under the name "iPod touch", but if I specifically don't want Apple's restrictions, where should I go to learn about recommendations for a quality Android 2 PDA?
If your iPad doesn't meet your needs how can you claim it makes other devices that DO meet your needs obsolete?
Because it meets the needs of so many other people that the original poster's specific needs get crowded out as not worth manufacturers' opportunity cost.
just like the Android phones (evo, hero, droid, galaxy, nexus one) there will be a lot of tablets. Competition is a good thing. Apple designed a good implementation of an iPad. Just like they did with the iPod & later the iPhone. Good for them.
While new smartphones may be better than the iPhone, I note that the iPhone still sells more and has more deployed than any other smartphone. There is more to technology battles than just having the best tech - there is also marketing, and business skill. Apple has decent technology, but not the best. It does have the connections, the close relationship with AT&T, the extremally loyal fanbase, the marketing machine and cross-promotional ability that it takes to translate technology into market share. Without all that, even the most perfect of phones sits on a shelf unsold.
He needs to go to a desktop so he can see Homestar Runner and other all-flash sites. That's certainly stops the internet in it's track. Those flash games really prevent me from surfing the web on my iPad as well. Thanks Dave - thank you for saving the internet from the likes of my iPad. Otherwise those people using flashblocker plug-ins in firefox might be accused of devolving the web too.
In other news - when the hell is HR going to update anyway?
It seems to me what people want is the convenience of a corporate produced product without the inevitable compromises that such a product entails. I mean if you are going to use MS products you are going to have deal with security and the occasional changes that are not end user friendly. If you are going to use google products,you have to deal with the fact that most of the time the end user is not the customer, so all decisions go back to ad revenue. If you are going to use apple, you are going to have to deal with a culture of aesthetics and novelty, which means anything ancient, more than three years old, the old way of doing things, is not going to work.
Is anyone making anyone use these products.No. We choose to use them because on balance they provide a piratical solution. If they do not provide a solution, don't use them. If your life is based around yahoo maps, then then Apple products may not be for you, just like if life is based around Flash or IE. You know, ancient tech.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I would rather pay for a more open product (Samsung's Galaxy S series, for instance)
So would I, for many of the same reasons you mentioned. But what is to iPod touch as Galaxy S and other Android 2 phones are to iPhone?
except it wont.. that's the issue.
Nobody complained when Xbox 360 junked nearly every original Xbox game for most of it's first year. Nobody is complaining new PS3s have completely dropped PS2 compatibility they originally had. Jobs understands that being able to have small developers redevelop apps every 5-7 years is much better than keeping old apps around for no good reason.
I say this, and I work on Midrange systems with non-edited code going back to 1992 and 1985... still in use unaltered! The problem is that every 7 years or so business changes so much that you really need new people working on new ways of business, this is where open data and documentation is more important than code compatibility. It is the same reason companies build NEW factories for less money than trying to update 30 year-old companies while they're trying to use them.
The iPad will do well for the same reason that $3 bottles of water and TAG watches do well. People buy status, not functionality, and Apple products are also reasonably functional.
They figured that if you artificially raise the price of a product, it's price is also an indicator of value to customers. Apple customers want to overpay, because that's part of the brand experience. Since all of the other electronics manufacturers are competing on price, performance, and features, Apple "wins" by not offering any of those three, but making sure that the few features they do offer work well and consistently.
As far as raw sales go, Android tablets are going to eclipse iPad tablets without a doubt. But even when the Android tablets are offering front and rear facing cameras, compasses, USB3, HDMI, DisplayPort, printing, etc etc, it won't matter to Apple users, because they are the wrong brand. Their $500 tablet must match the trim on their $3500 tower desktop which must match the trim on their $700 phone which must match the trim on their $2300 laptop. It's a lifestyle brand for well-to-do yuppies.
Is OS X better than Windows XP and Vista? Hands down, yes. Is it better than Windows 7? Probably. But being better than windows isn't some heroic feat. And sorry to say, OS X Server is an abomination compared to any Microsoft enterprise products. Apple knows not to venture into real enterprise territory, because companies have budgets and people who know how to manage computers.
Anyway, I'm glad Apple is in the market. Sooner or later the Chinese will figure out that putting an extra $50 in the case will be worth the money, and we'll stop getting ugly plastic chassis. Apple has also proven that a non-windows OS can create a market for itself in the 21st Century. And let's be honest, their hardware is amazingly refined. Their software platform is reasonably open. (I used to be a hardliner against this point, but it's true.) I don't think they will do very well in the future, if only because they collect a lot of money from software sales. They have a huge incentive to invest in DRM. If iOS heads to the desktop, they're finished. I don't think Steve is that stupid, but his shareholders might be.
I got one and its pretty darn good. Many reviewers agree with me. I use macs quite a bit but don't have an iphone. Its great, but far from improvement. Its has totally replaced my notebook for surfing, and checking emails at home. I take it with me and use it like a giant iphone for location based stuff (I'm a city dweller). The only thing against is that its not feasable to pull out and use while walking, but I guess thats what smart phones are for.
The ipad is really more of a consumer electronic device than a computer. Once you get over that mental hurdle its fine. Its a 1.0 product as well so some of the limits on its functionality should hopefully go away with competetion (thank goodness for it). Its not a netbook and shouldn't really be compared to one.
Everything not working everywhere is a small price to pay for breaking the MS monopoly on OSs.
Apple appliances are simply a fools bargain and that fact simply needs to be restated for the benefit of the average noon consumer.
It's needs to be repeated to help balance all the nonsense and hype.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Don't let the door hit you on the ass, fanboy.
I still don't understand why the iPad is pitted against the netbook. They are two VERY different devices, and in reality have VERY different markets.
Anyone who bought an iPad because that was the kind of device they were looking for were not looking for a netbook to fill that need. The same applies vice versa.
I have a netbook and I love it. I could use a tiny bit larger screen but it fills a need that the iPad could never possibly fill. I wanted a very small portable computer with a full computing operating system and a real keyboard and this is what a netbook gives me.
When it comes time to upgrade my phone, I'll be going for an Android phone with a large screen. I feel like this will easily cover what I would ultimately get out of a device like the iPad.
For reading books and whatnot, I enjoy using my ultra low power consumption eReader because of the ease of reading on the eInk display.
Yeah, maybe it sucks to have multiple devices to fill all of those spaces of use, but the iPad simply can't fill any of those spaces for me because the only need I have for a tablet computer is reading books. The only other use I'd have for it is it being a toy to play with. I'm not going to pay a shitload of money for a toy I'll probably play with for a week or so and hardly use ever again.
If a lot of people feel like Dave then the iPad will not sell. Nobody is a victim in this matter. I think it will sell well. My wife and I spent of August at an expensive resort. We brought 2 ipads with us. We saw a lot of other ipads around the pool.
Three years of time did. Just like old iPhones are obsolete now and iPads from 2010 will be obsolete in 2013.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
I'm interested by what metric 'many of the new smartphones are better'.
I bought an HTC Android phone that was released under 12 months ago. Compared to the 3 year old iPhone 3G I got after it, it's slower, the software is buggier, most Android apps don't run on it and I can't upgrade it past Android 1.6 - even though there is an update, but the update is carrier-locked.
So yeah, I'm curious.
Since they were really the only computer you could pick up at Best Buy without Vista. As soon as word got out that Windows 7 is pretty decent, then the allure of staying with XP and/ or avoiding Vista pretty much vanished.
I'm not saying that they are not great devices or whatever if you buy one you know what you are getting or should. If you don't it is your own fault. It's called supply and demand. Apple is suppling what people are demanding and even if it falls short in an area or two most people are happy with what they get.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
I finally dropped my blackberry in favor of a Samsung T959. It is all the stuff that iPhone is but without the restrictions that I perceive as show-stoppers.
I'm glad you're happy with it. But I have a different show-stopper for Samsung Galaxy S: its $600 price tag (source: Google Product Search), compared to $200 for an iPod touch. True, each U.S. cell phone carrier sells a subsidized version of Galaxy S, but I don't make nearly enough voice calls on my current dumbphone to warrant paying for the 450 minutes per month minimum voice plan that all carriers insist on, and I can wait until I'm at Wi-Fi (home or work or a restaurant) to connect to the Internet.
"Why can't he just come out and admit it - the iPad will be rendered totally obsolete by all the new pads coming out within the next year, just like many of the new smartphones are better than apple's latest iphone?"
You mean... no - I can't even say it... but I must! You mean that several years after the release of a successful electronics product competing devices will emerge that will trump it in terms of features and power?
The implications are staggering. Why produce a successful product in the first place?
I predict this groundbreaking dioscovery will mean the end of innovation as we know it.
I weep for my techy future.
There isn't one competing device on the market that delivers the user experience that an iPad brings to the table. You must not have used one.
I have one, and it works fine. Great actually, as I just wrote this reply (by hand, not keyboard) in Windows 7, from a moving car.
I just hope you were not the driver of that moving car.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Apple is a consumer products company.
They aren't dominant in any area outside of the consumer arena.
If you don't like their stuff you don't have to buy it.
If your sister comes home with an iPhone or an iPad its NOT a reflection on you.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Let us know when your iPad can do all that. Heck, let us know when you can run Flash.
I had the same thoughts many years back with OS9 on the Mac, it was fast and did lots of things (still could). OSX is glitzier, but in some respects it hasent matched what some of those 68k and PPC apps had dine decades ago. Problem was that new development with the OSX, so we were forced away from a lot of cool stuff that worked on OS9 so we could use other stuff that only worked on OSX and now Intel.
The iron maiden is also a unique experience.
... who on earth puts links to the end of the paragraph that point at its beginning???
I kept clicking on those links only to read them again and think to myself, "Haven't I already read that somewhere else already?"
Things that tipped the decision into "spend":
1. I'm going to Vegas. "Easy Vegas" app is good.
2. I'm going to Vegas and I'm going to watch movies on the flight.
3. Amplitube iPad Edition came out - and it's great.
4. Instant on. No need to boot to check weatheror news, or to look up something I'm curious about.
5. The Reuters app is awesome.
6. Camera connection kit deals properly with Nikon raw format.
7. The tools for photo management are really coming along beautifully. Photogene is a good tool for travel.
Since then I've discovered some new things.
1. The 10 hour battery life is both real, and awesome.
2. I have gone to a site that required flash exactly twice, and I found the same content elswehere in a format I could view.
3. I really like reading magazines on it (Maxim with Kaley Cuoco!)
4. On the most difficult setting, the Scrabble app kicks my ass.
5. I haven't turned my netbook on since I got it.
6. The screen gets dirty when I eat cheezies and surf porn.
7. There's a LOT of compatible porn.
8. I've been expecting to have to buy a wireless keyboard, but so far I haven't "needed" to.
Anybody want to buy a used netbook? It has crappy battery life and a screen that semi-sucks, but it has a keyboard.
Do I give a crap that a bunch of nerds online think that it's underpowered compared to stuff that's 18 months away? Not even slightly.
I'm as technical a guy as they come. My workdays are spent writing industrial scheduling and simulation software on Unix. But I'm past the age where I want to screw around with stuff when I get home. Give me something that works well and doesn't give me any grief.
I hate how people say the iPad is killing netbook sales. Netbooks were only popular because the economy sucked and people didn't want to pay a lot for a computer, so they got the cheapest one they could find. Once they realized that the keyboard was too cramped and the trackpad was too small, they just upgraded when they had the money for a regular notebook. The only people buying netbooks right now are the people who have legitimate needs for them, which is a small market, rather than the people who just didn't have much cash two years ago, which was a fairly substantial market.
Apple's market share of the smartphone DROPPED last quarter - and it will continue to drop. Who's #1? Android.
Why is the iPad consistently compared to netbooks, when it is priced like a notebook?
Stop letting Apple dictate the narrative, the fact is that for the price you pay for an iPad, it is extremely limited.
find a smartphone that you like that has Wi-Fi, then buy it without a contract and don't bother getting a plan.
I have considered that. But do you know of an Android smartphone or PDA with a sticker price anywhere near the $200 sticker price of an iPod touch?
This post, surrounded by bilge like that of its parent post, is the only one that has even attempted to actually engage the article's argument rather than a straw man. We may argue over whether the scenario offered is what is really going on with the iPad, but at least it is rational and on topic.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
The article makes it sound like the deliberate devolution is some evil corporate plan, but unfortunately I don't think it is. That would be easier to fight!
I know founders of law firms who can't type (they became lawyers in an era when secretaries did their typing for them) and doctors who need help opening a pdf. Here in New York city, I personally see someone with an iPad every couple days now. Maybe elsewhere it's a yuppie toy, but here it's almost always in the hands on a young to middle-aged professional.
There are a lot of people who do valuable intellectual work every day and don't know what megapixels are. These people don't want to download executable installers or worry about what apps kill their battery. They want a tool they don't have to maintain that helps them get work done. It doesn't even have to work the best, if it requires less work to keep it going.
As a developer I truly and deeply hate Apple's App Store. To put months of work into a project and then have to nicely ask if you can give it to people is as much fun as you'd expect from working with someone who has their foot on your neck. But I doubt Apple will change it, because there are a lot of non-geeks out there that want it. As a developer if I want to serve my customers, right now they're saying they'll put up with the limitations of the device and they want Apple to sign off on my software.
I don't think the push against the App Store is a fight against an evil company. It's a fight against the customer. And I don't think that can be easily won.
And that is why I say "NO" to Apple. They are darned too controlling of the User Experience. I'll take my Android over the iPhone anytime!!!
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Does it weigh less than two pounds?
Can you just turn it off with a single button and toss it on the couch or chair without worrying about hard disk damage?
How well does it work with just touching the screen as an input device.
No, you are comparing laptops to tablets, like comparing a Cessna 172 to a Boeing 737.
"Yea, but you can't fly from Anchorage to Portland nonstop with 137 people, so it's not really an airplane..."
Yea, right now I'm on my laptop because I'm running BT and yep, my iPad won't BT, but since I've gotten my iPad it's used for about 85% of my casual surfing and my other laptop, the 17" gaming rig sits alone because I don't want 8 pounds on my lap.
iPad is a very good thing for all of us. I don't like Apple closed platform, but I enjoy the fact that Apple proved how to make a tablet that doesn't suck, so others could make them with Ubuntu or Android.
I always wanted a multitouch tablet, so I went to the shop and asked: They only had tablets with wacom stylus that were much much expensive that iPad. People here love keyboards(they are geeks, they had so much practice that part of their brain is actually fused with the keyboard ), but people like me want choice to use touch too. I remember the times of the mouse and graphical UI, and people saying: "is not going to work, people is way more productive with the keyboard" witch was only partly right(they couldn't see the things easier to do with the mouse because it didn't existed yet, as there was no much software that used that.)
What world are you living in. People bitched a *LOT*.
Also, the iApp market is too small to take seriously. The average iPhone user spends $13.47 a year on apps - and that includes a lot of people who spend $0. Those that spend, most get the same "must-have" apps as everyone else, which is why more than 99% of all developers don't even earn back their $150 dev kit cost. When I point the numbers out to potential customers who are dreaming of making money by writing for the iPhone, they aren't happy, but they abandon the idea.
It's going to be the same with the iPad - the machine is too limited in functionality, too small a niche market, to be worth even bothering with. You have two choices as a developer - maintain two copies of your code, or spend the time developing a second app for the larger non-iOS market. Gee, that's not too hard a decision ...
Let's face it - Apple stopped being a product for professionals, and is now the "high school punks and soccer moms" product. They certainly can no longer portray their customers as hip, high-tech, plugged-in, affluent influence-makers. The shine is gone - again.
Jobs says welcome to Eden, where everything just works. Oh, but don't even think of eating the apple. (iRonic.)
Eat, or don't eat, the metaphoric apple; but whining about it later is lame. Also, there will never be paradise on earth where you can do everything on one platform. I do concede that some are more open that others...
Say hello to my little sig.
Executable compatibility is a minor convenience when dealing with software. However for all those stuck using binary-blobs instead of software, it can be a huge deal. Linux-based OSs typically have the freedom to break binary-blob compatibility whenever there is a reason because the ecosystem is built from free software. For people on unfree platforms, however, it can be a huge deal.
At any rate you are completely missing the point here - and frankly the author of the article is pretty myopic too, even if he sees the little edge that is hitting him at the moment. But throwing out software that works, in order to force the customer to buy something NEW! SHINY!! (and often not actually working as well) is a very old scam. The first time it hit me, personally, full-front in the face was back when over a period of a couple years whole toolchains that worked perfectly under DOS were replaced with NEW! SHINY!! (and also bug-ridden and vastly inferior) Windows applications.
It's a common phenomena that is viewed as absolutely necessary by those that attempt to make money selling binary-blobs. For those trying to use those blobs, it is a senseless waste, however.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
The iPad clones will be out soon and some of them will have flash and will not have other restrictions. People will use the clones, Apple will make those other things available to compete or both.
... if we could all just agree to disagree and buy what we want to use.
There's no Heaven out there hosted by Bill, Steve, or Linus waiting for us when we die. All this religion is a waste of passion.
-- John Truong
It won't because that's not what it's meant to do. If your needs call for multiple USB ports, twin internal drives with 640 GB of storage, then the iPad is NOT FOR YOU.
I could say "My truck provides a much better experience (than your economy car, for example). I can carry a thousand pounds of cargo or tow a big trailer. I can go off-road, drive through deep snow or mud and not get stuck." If those activities are what you do, then of course an economy car is not the right vehicle.
As always, it's a case of the right tool for the right job. Why is this simple fact lost on so many people? Is the desire to bash Apple so strong that it blocks rational thought? Is this the Reality Distortion Field's anti-Apple twin?
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
"That's what I don't like -- deliberate devolution."
That is what is going on with VOIP, wireless phones and texting replacing conversation over land lines.
Instead of a human voice in real time, you have a typed message. A step backwards.
With VOIP if your power or your computer goes out, you don't have phone service. Not so with a land line.
With VOIP and wireless calling, call quality has gone way, way down. Problem free phone conversations used to be taken for granted.
On the other hand
It is easier to send written information.
It is also easier to avoid "facing someone" by sending them a text or an email
You have the ability to communicate by phone in a number of places, not just at home, work or wherever there is a pay phone ( remember those? )
Making long distance calls in the US is now dirt cheap. Such calls used to be the subject of heated arguments after the bill came.
If the iPads get flash, or if the flash enabled clones make it, someone will be typing "remember when you couldn't watch a hulu.com laying down on your couch?", while pointing out some things that were lost with the vanishing of laptops.
I have no interest in the iPad. I have an iPhone (4.0, jailbroken, PDF vulnerability patched) and am very happy with it as a PDA. I am also fairly happy with it as a phone.
But the iPad? I have little need for a 10" or 7" PDA. iPad = bulky iPhone minus the phone. I I'd rather get a netbook, Why? I can do image postprocessing on a netbook, I can connect any printer, I can triple-boot Windows, Linux, and OS X (I'd have to retire one of my Macs for the OS X license to be "legal" if I do that - if you buy into EULAs trumping first sale doctrine and copyright law), and install the software I need/want without Apple's restricting what the app can do. I could read "ebooks" on a netbook just fine and run the full-blown "iTunes" app. I'd have a real keyboard and touchpad. I'll have flash and can watch netflix or hulu via a browser. Netbooks have far more capability, more flexibility, and cost less.
I'd like to see Apple come out with a netbook, not an overgrown iPhone which due to genetic degradation lost the phone in the evolutionary process. ;)
Why is the iPad consistently compared to netbooks, when it is priced like a notebook
Because it is designed for the same use as the original netbook concept: a small, stripped-down portable device for media playback, web browsing, casual gaming, email and light note-taking, aimed at people who probably already had access to a full-featured PC.
...but the original netbooks sucked at that because they were made from shite remaindered PC components, drank batteries and tried to run off-the-shelf applications designed for more powerful computers with full-size screens, mice and keyboards. Even the linux-based ones just used a customised "launcher" screen in place of the desktop, over the top of the usual Mozilla/Open Office suite. But they sold enough to panic Microsoft (at a time when Vista was tanking) who started dumping cheap XP licenses for netbooks, with which the netbooks morphed into full-featured entry level notebooks.
The iPad gets back to the original "second system" netbook concept. Of course, since its Apple its only cheap c.f. the rest of the Mac range. There'll be cheaper non-Apple tablets (that have proper capacitive touch screens instead of resistive crap, run an up-to-date-version of Android, can access the Android market) sold by vendors that you'd be prepared to trust with your credit card number on the market real soon now. Just wait. Any time now. Just a while longer...
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
That should be Apple's new motto. Most people do not like to have to decide on an item out of a large selection.
Just as the iPhone rendered circa-2007 smartphones obsolete, points out Marco Arment, the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks
I disagree.
Can/is the iPad:
* Light enough to balance one-handed while in a comms closet: Yes
* Has two network jacks along with software so I can bridge two networks together: No
* Runs wireshark to diagnose problems with networks: No
* Hardware keyboard to allow quickly typing things into SSH, IM, etc: No
* Ability to jack into a DSL modem and run pppoe-discover to find out if the modem is receiving PADO packets: No
* Run netcat: I don't think so, but I'm not sure
* Run OpenVPN: I don't think so, but I'm not sure
* Run tcpdump: No
I guess it won't be replacing my $300 netbook any time soon then.
But for the average Apple crowd, it meets all the requirements:
* Give buckets of cash to Steve: Yep
* Surf facebook on a device that is more expensive than gold when comparing weight/value: Yep
* Play games: Yep
* Play music: Yep
* Download fart noises app: Yep
* Make phone calls: Nope. Oops--gotta go get another really expensive device for that.
The iPhone and iPad are 99.9% the same, the big difference is screen size, and one can make phone calls. I'm not going to spend over $1,000 to get two almost identical devices.
There's no place like
I have considered that. But do you know of an Android smartphone or PDA with a sticker price anywhere near the $200 sticker price of an iPod touch?
Part of that problem is the US mobile market; in Europe, you can get several Android phones for around $200 (e.g., the Xperia X8, very much an iPod-like device, or the Xperia X10, a really tiny phone/media player), and the price difference for an Android device with and without phone parts wouldn't be worth the extra cost of making two devices. But, then, in Europe, getting an extra SIM card is so cheap and simple that people just stick one into every device they carry--why not?
In the US, you can get an Archos 5 or Archos 7 for around $200; they are media players running Android.
Does it weigh less than two pounds?
Yes
Can you just turn it off with a single button and toss it on the couch or chair without worrying about hard disk damage?
SSD, so yes.
How well does it work with just touching the screen as an input device.
Why would I want smudges all over my screen when I could type on a physical keyboard with tactile feedback and control it without tiring my arm?
No, you are comparing laptops to tablets, like comparing a Cessna 172 to a Boeing 737.
"Yea, but you can't fly from Anchorage to Portland nonstop with 137 people, so it's not really an airplane..."
No, its more like comparing a roller coaster to an airplane. You are in the air, and it's kinda cool but entirely useless, and in the end you cant choose where you're going and end up back where you started.
Yea, right now I'm on my laptop because I'm running BT and yep, my iPad won't BT, but since I've gotten my iPad it's used for about 85% of my casual surfing and my other laptop, the 17" gaming rig sits alone because I don't want 8 pounds on my lap.
Im Guessing those other 15% have flash?
If the economy car decided where you could and couldn't drive it, and cost more than the truck, this analogy would be valid.
There are, and always will be*, alternatives
For 20 years, we have been stuck with a near-monopoly on desktop operating systems, because of marketing and network effects. We don't want to repeat that experience, blindly sliding into an iOS monopoly for portable devices.
Apple spends hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing their devices every year, often lying and misrepresenting their products and their history. It is reasonable for geeks to present an opposing view so that buyers can make an informed decision, know what they are getting, and understand the consequences of their purchases.
Put your money where your mouth is by shutting up and buying something is.
Why then doesn't Apple "shut up" and stop marketing their products? Why do you think that all the information we should ever get about products should come from the PR and marketing departments of companies selling those products?
Clicking on a link to a video on a website and being told that the format is not supported, yes sir, that's ease of use for you.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
He would rather that content creators only build native iOS apps that work only for iDevices rather than use already-existing channels
Is that why the iPhone originally intended to have apps that were just "web clips" until people whined that they couldn't write native applications?
Twinstiq, game news
If it is the factor to move the web out of flash. Sometimes evolution brings a feature that is in the end bad, but as it don't hurt a lot, keeps being there, till some big change makes it an obstacle.
To go to an example more radical than the ipad, almost don't need to use my netbook since i have my N900. Have far smaller screen and keyboard, not as fast, and have less software available. But still, is not something to worry about carrying, is always just there, is good enough, and a desktop computer or a proper notebook fill most of the remaining needs. Is something wrong with the netbook? No, just appeared another option that gave some advantages, and could adjust the pattern of use that i was giving to it.
This is the same whiney argument I hear from gamers who think the Wii is the devil. The slate computers that are coming out now are focused on the non technical and a certain segment of the geek community feels slighted. Many seem to be offended that in the end the lack of usb, memory card slots, camera and whatever features geeks cried about didn't really matter, couple that with the lack of a "real OS" being seen as a plus by the majority of people actually buying the devices and suddenly the "geek" is out of the support loop. Many geeks talk about their utopian society where everyone is technically adept and support requirements are minimal but very few actually want it.
There is no one to really blame but ourselves, just like hardcore gamers, our demands and expectations made us an unfavorable market, catering to the "casual" is less expensive, less demanding and far more profitable.
The iPad does nothing well. For a device that is touted as "consuming internet media content", it has a walled internet. Jobs is re-inventing aol. There are lots of sites that just don't work on an ipad or iphone, but they work fine on the more open competition.
So what DOES the ipad do better? It can't even surf the web properly. It can't run more than 90% of the computer programs out there. It *can* let you pay $5 to download a 500-meg "iPad" version of a dead-tree magazine, it can let you scratch it's glass because unlike laptops it doesn't protect it's screen when not in use, even Jobs couldn't use it properly when he was demoing it. You'll end up with Gorilla Arm.
He's right that the lack of a removable battery and slots did not hinder the adoption of the iPhone. But I don't recall people saying it would be a failure because of its lack of expandability in hardware.
He obviously does not hang out on /.
Reply to That ||
This.
A netbook can do anything an ipad can do. It's cheaper. It's just about as portable.
And it is YOURS. You have root on it and can do whatever you bloody well please on it. It's a complete computer, with a modern multitasking O/S and the ability to do anything your desktop computer can do -- except slower.
Guess which one weighs less per square inch of screen display :-).
Why turn it off? Just close the lid - suspend works fine under linux.
The drives have sensors rated for 300g - and *I* can replace them - who do you think added the second internal? It takes less than a minute.
I don't have to get fingerprints on the screen - I've got a touchpad and a FULL-SIZED keyboard (17" makes a big difference). And I can plug in an external keyboard and mouse if I want to - PLUS I have a Remote Control
My secondary video out right now is 1920x1200, not 1024x576. It's actually plugged into one of my 1920x1200 26" lcds as a second screen so I can code.
It's also running a web server, ftp server, etc., and it can saturate a 100mbps connection. Can your iPad do that?
It's not a truck, just a middle-of-the-road 3 or 4-year-old laptop with some extra ram and a second hd. And umlike Apple, it all "just works" all over the Internet. The iPad is for, as one of my friends would say, "people with more money than brains." It does nothing well.
We aren't talking about your netbook, we were talking about the 17" dual drive laptop.
No, the other 15% of surfing are not because of flash, shocking but I'm not a Farmville/Mafia Wars player.
If I'm not surfing on the iPad I'm on a laptop because someone else has the iPad and won't give it up.
Low quality articles created by content farms with hit grabbing headlines and every political discussion turning into libs versus nuts ? Going to my desktop won't solve that problem :P
- sent from my iPhone -
Like I posted elsewhere, I have an iPad (through work) because I do accessibility work.
We are going to iPads because they are lighter to take out into the field than a laptop, and come with a good warranty, they are a laptop replacement in some areas.
I don't have an iPad for a web server/ftp server/irc server or USENET leech because I don't need those things running for when I do work.
Its the go to device for accessibly right now, can your Linux install claim that?
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/06/01/the-ipad-could-be-the-best-mobile-accessibility-device-on-the-ma/
For a device that is touted as "consuming internet media content", it has a walled internet.
Wait... you're saying that the lack of Flash, a proprietary third party plug-in, means that the iOS devices have a "walled internet?" I don't think so.
It's not a matter of love versus hate. It's much more complex. Seeing an issue or a person in such a way, and directing a glib aphorism at that caricature, is hardly insightful.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I find it's more useful to file bug reports like this at https://bugreport.apple.com, rather than slashdot.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
It would be nice to see these iPad competitors in the market place. That Dell tablet is too small. Something the size of the iPad with Android running on it would be sweet to play with. Then I can just download the SDK on any machine I want and not have to worry about buying another computer just to play with a tablet.
Also 3G need not apply, wireless works just fine thank you.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Just so you don't think I'm bashing it, I like the iPad. It would be an improvement for some categories of laptop users. For example, the touch panel provides a better user experience for web browsing (as long as the site has been designed to work well on iPad). The small size makes it less distracting at meetings. The small size, low weight, and robustness makes it great for watching movies on an airplane or in a car full of kids. And so on. Your arguments, however, are way too easy to shoot down.
Are your arms not strong enough to carry a laptop that weighs more than that? What, specifically, makes lighter better? In my mind, the 5-6 pound average laptop weight is light enough that it's not a problem, so being lighter than that is only a significant virtue if it doesn't bring any significant drawbacks along with it.
More importantly, in my mind, added weight conveys a sense of robustness---a sense that the device can survive whatever abuse you can throw at it. The lighter and thinner the device, the more worried I am that I'll look at it the wrong way and it will break in half. Granted, there are advantages to light weight in terms of resisting damage when you drop it, but I still prefer the solid feel of a laptop.
No, and neither can you. You can put it to sleep. To turn it off, you have to hold down the button for a few seconds, then drag your finger across a slider. Similarly, I can put a laptop to sleep by shutting it. That's actually one fewer buttons, but who's counting?
<voice mode="Duke Nukem">SSDs, baby</voice>. If your idea of a good user experience requires being able to treat expensive electronics like crap, then you deserve to pay more (and pay more again when you accidentally hit the end table with that iPad instead of the couch). That's about the worst argument I've read to date in favor of an iPad. You shouldn't be throwing an iPad any more than you would throw a laptop, a desktop, or a Ming vase....
About as well as your iPad does for touch typing when it isn't docked to a keyboard, or, for that matter, about as well as your back and neck do when you're hunched over it typing on that onscreen keyboard.
You're confusing "Device A can't do X without extra effort" with "Device A can't do X". A Cessna can carry 137 people from Anchorage to Portland. It has to stop for fuel several times and make several trips, but it is capable of doing the job. Despite the fact that it takes a lot longer, it meets the criteria for an airplane because it can do basically anything a typical airplane can do, albeit more slowly.
Now ask yourself if an automobile is an aircraft. (Note the obligatory automobile analogy.) Both can usually get you from place to place. However, an automobile simply is incapable of doing a number of other things that an airplane can do. It cannot cross bodies of water without the assistance of a bridge or ferry, cannot take aerial photos (unless dropped from an airplane), cannot support skydiving (unless dropped from an airplane), etc.
A netbook is a Cessna; it can do anything a full laptop can do, but slower. An iPad is a Ferrari. It's a very nice automobile, but it isn't an airplane. It can go many places an airplane cannot, and vice-versa. It can support multi-touch interfaces that a desktop computer cannot. However, it cannot run Flash. Similarly, it cannot run apps that haven't been written for it yet. This will work itself out over time, of course, in mu
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Maybe Android in the US.
The rest of the world on the other hand makes up 95% of the population.
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Lack of Firefox makes it a walled Internet. There are plenty of sites that don't work correctly in Safari that don't use any proprietary extensions. Both Firefox and Flash are disallowed for the same reason (they provide a language interpreter), so you can't have one without the other.
Irony is seeing a story about "deliberate devolution" on the same page with a story worrying over the possibility of "too many geniuses". All of which reminds me of the "purges" of various extremist governments over the course of human history; purges that inevitably include attacks upon "the intelligentsia".
Seems like the basis for a good sci-fi story; one detailing how our galactic overlords built a subconscious trigger into our species to eliminate the possibility of competition in either technology or intelligence. Or, in a lower-budget approach, a mystery about a human conspiracy determined to keep the peoples of the world dependent upon the current form of economics with its well-organized and directed flows of wealth.
Makes me glad that I'm as dumb as dirt - but I'd watch the movie.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Steve Jobs is overpaid, overrated and under-worked.
IMHO, most of the rich got rich by stealing from the rest of us.
TADA.
Welcome to the 1970s.
Whiner by name, whiner by nature.
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A 17" laptop is not a "competing" device to an iPad. I was referring to the mythical 'android tablet.' There are no real competitors for the 'slate' category right now. I trash-talked the iPad too, before I used one.
Here you go - Android iPAD-001 cost about 100 euros http://chinawebshop.ru/product_31824.html
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
"Remaining software is much more pleasant to use than the rest ever was; some feel this is a worthwhile tradeoff."
Sure, the ipad might put a dent--maybe even a sizable one--into the netbook market, but anyone who thinks the market is going to completely dry up, blow away, and take all the software with it, is RETARDED. This is chicken little BS to garner pageviews.
Besides, at the iPad intro, Steve Jobs himself said the iPad would be between a computer and a phone while standing in front of a 20-foot-tall screen with a goddamn DIAGRAM of that concept. He never once said "this is the only computing device you'll ever need."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
The Galaxy S is a high-end device
The Galaxy S and its carrier-customized versions are also the only Galaxy model that runs Android 2. Both the second and third generation iPod touch can run iOS 4, unlike the Galaxy I7500 which is officially permanently stuck one major version back at Android 1.6: "The update to 2.1 will not be possible on this handset."
As far as good scifi goes. You might like to try Neverness by David Zindell.
Ice world, star travel, god level AI, nanotech, DNA slice and dice, and and and...
Epic.
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
Culture series by Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, Use of Weapons, and more. Consider Phlebas is the first, and as good a place as any to start.
As a slashdotter, you will of course have read Neal Stephenson right? Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon...
Posting AC as I have been wielding mod points on this thread, and am not allowed to post normally.
The argument that walled gardens will ruin software for the rest of us is the geek equivalent of opposition to gay marriage. (that it will "ruin the institution of marriage" and other such nonsense) The same (trivial) rebuke applies: if you don't like it, don't do it.
There's loads of money to be had selling a device has closed content delivery - the iPad is good at that. However, it is not really a device for being creative, which is what a computer excels at, and it's harder for a hardware manufacturer to make money out of that, unless you feed all output into a closed content delivery system...
Welcome to the irRevolution. When Apple created MacOS X the destroyed the market where a tremendous amount of great educational software existed. Nobody has updated those titles to work with OSX and now Apple has abandoned Classic so those titles, software that works, are dead. Bah humbug.
Are you running Vista, or did you totally FUBAR another version of Winblows? My quad core Linux box has no trouble with Flash. In fact, my single-core ASUS S101 netbook has no trouble with Flash. For that matter, Flash runs fine even on the 900 MHz eeePC I gave one of my roommates after I bought the S101.
If you're running quad core and have problems with Flash, while Flash has its problems, your machine has a PEBKAC problem, not a Flash problem.
Tech Public Policy stuff
He could be the sort of person (like you) who failed to notice up until this point he was using a netbook. Hint, Apple doesn't do netbooks, never have. So, he's hardly an "Apple loving geek." That and what he said he does should also give you some sort of clue that the netbook was not an aberration. I put it down to you doing what you accuse him of, and far too much of it. Didn't your parents tell you that you'd go blind? Which appears to have happened to you given your poor grasp of what he wrote.
I like how you refute an argument about smartphone device share with an argument about smartphone OS share. It's like two trains passing in the night.
Is the iPad. Too bad it came a long so late.
The problem is that 99% of the world doesn't need and doesn't want something that requires administration. A computer needs an administrator - I don't care whether it is Linux, Windows or OS X. An administrator is required to install software (correctly and only that which should be there) and to fix problems that crop up.
What the world really wants is an appliance that lets them use the Internet. Email, buying stuff, banking, searching for porn, whatever. Things that can easily be corrupted and taken over by malicious software should the user (uninformed, unknowing, etc.) can install thinking they are getting something nice. Like Weather Bug.
What the iPad presents is an appliance that you cannot install Weather Bug on which then reports back on every web site you connect to. And you cannot install some trojan that will help someone steal your money. You also can't install some botnet rootkit which then uses your computer to send spam and make money for some Russian mob folks. Now Apple may be letting some stuff through that they should not be - but it is all fixable.
It is not fixable with Linux, Windows or OS X. An administrator is required. With proper administration there is no virus problem with Windows and no problems with dependencies on Linux.
While new smartphones may be better than the iPhone, I note that the iPhone still sells more and has more deployed than any other smartphone.
Not EVEN close. Nokia and RIM have always sold more smartphones than Apple, and in terms of cell phones, Apple is about number 6 (behind Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Motorola, and I think Sony).
And now, not just Symbian and Blackberry OS outsell iOS, but Android tops iOS as well; Apple's now in 4th place of OS phone deployments and falling steadily.
Apple has sold about 50 million iPhones TOTAL over the last 3.5 years. Nokia sells that many phones in 2 weeks.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
No one is saying that your niche product X doesn't have a niche use.
They're just saying that they have something better(much better) already for general use that costs about the same or less.
On another note, and pardon the language but:
I have no fucking idea what kind of "people with disabilites" you're working with, but I have worked with people with disabilities, everything from Down Syndrome to Blindness and I have no idea how this would make a good product for those people.
At best its a good toy for Down Syndrome folks to attempt to get them processing information in extreme cases but even then, there are better products, that don't cost 5-6000. If you've been spending 5-6000 you've been getting ripped off pretty badly...
I admit, I'm not an expert in the field, but I have worked with a wide range of disabilities and still can't see how the iPad would be superior to a number of things that have been available for 10 years or more and are in the same price range.
I have a Google Android tablet. I can go anywhere on the Web I please and install apps from any site I can download .APK files from. However, I bought it as a development platform for device control applications.
For multimedia, I prefer a netbook (I have an S101) for around the house or a motel room. The keyboard keeps it in one place in an angle suitable for viewing without having to add a stand or a docking device, and netbooks have far better performance than this generation of tablets. If I'm on foot, I'd rather get my content off a small smartphone, hanging a 7" or larger tablet off my belt is a stupid thing to do.
However, the real reason why "the netbook is not going away" is that not all of us are full-time passive consumers of content. Do you write papers for school? Do you create documents for an employer?
Would you rather type a bunch of pages on a real keyboard that does not take up screen real estate or on a virtual keyboard that takes up a third of the screen better used for document? I'm working on a patent application, and I frequently edit it via remote control from my netbook to the desktop where the file is. Speaking as an Android Tablet owner, I regard the idea of editing a 40+ page document on that tablet as a non-starter and creating one on a tablet makes a typewriter sound good.
The tablet will cut into netbook sales because the people who only want to websurf and run a few apps will buy it. But IMO, the "content-only" user is a lot less common than commonly believed.
The fanboys only want to believe that the netbook is going away because Apple doesn't make one. They're irrelevant, Steve Jobs' vision of a userbase solely composed of consumers of content created by major corporations doesn't fit the real world.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Android's market share isn't close to #1, it's #4 in the US (unless it's passed Windows Mobile, which should be happening right around now), and that's higher than its worldwide share.
I think you are confusing market share with new phone sales. Market share is how much of the market is using a particular manufacturer's product. New sales is how many new customers in a certain, recent period bought a manufacturer's product. Last quarter, Android rocketed ahead of iOS in new sales, but it still doesn't even have half the market share, in the US or worldwide.
In the US, market share is:
RIM 35%
Apple 28%
Microsoft 15%
Android 13%
And while Apple's percentage of new sales did drop last quarter, they still had worldwide sales growth up 61% for the quarter. Market share percentage fell because Android sales grew by 886% in the quarter. The point that Android sales are doing really well is true, but they're no where near #1 in market share yet.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
The article doesn't say the iPad is the best in terms of accessibility - it says
Also:
Yes, linux also does text-to-speech (go into kde | accessibility | text-to-speech | enable text-to-speech system). and it also does braille - something the iPad doesn't do.
Also, linux has other standard accessibility features - sticky keys, slow keys, bounce keys, etc.
Ditto for zooming - people forget you can zoom the whole desktop in Linux, not just a browser window, and you're not normally limited to a tiny 1024x756 9" display, so people with reduced visual acuity are going to find a linux laptop's larger display a LOT more accessible.
Or, again from the article. from using an add-in app to give more icons:
Are you serious - this is a "noteworthy item"? All it does is highlight that the original design is flawed. What other OS limits you to 16 icons on the desktop? Or even 64 for that matter (I have none - I like a clean desktop), but if you DO want desktop icons, with linux you can also make them any size you want. And unlike the iPad pinch-to-zoom, which requires 2 fingers, you just grab a corner of any desktop widget and drag, so you can mix-n-match scaling
If you REALLY want to interact directly with the screen, you can use a light pen, you can buy one of the hundreds of laptops or desktops that come with a touchscreen and install linux on them - you haven't needed a special driver for touch screens since Windows 3.1. Or just buy a second touch screen device.
So yes, everything the iPad can do in terms of accessibility, linux can do, and then some ... there are simply some things that a DVD-case-sized display simply can't handle.
I bought an Android phone (not HTC) that came out last year. The maker of the phone spent more time in trying to keep people from rooting it and making custom images on it than making the device relevant six months later.
Want to know why Android development is hard? You have at least five OS versions to write for, and hundreds of different devices. If your app doesn't work perfectly on someone's new phone with some new, funky screen size and a new hardware, your rating of your app gets nailed to the wall with "Absolute garbage, force closed when downloaded" and 1 star.
Because of the overhead of Java, even though an Android phone runs at 1.5 Ghz, essentially it runs at far less than that because everything has to get thunked between the JVM and back for every byte code execution. This robs the phone of 25-50% of its CPU power off the bat. Yes, Android finally got a JIT compiler in 2.2, but how many existing phones can run 2.2? Not many. Phone makers even make sure their phones won't be upgradable.
Compare this to iOS development. You have four iPhone models, and one iPad. All well documented. iOS also does not have the rampant piracy problem Android has. If you look at almost any Android review, you will see spammers advertising cracked apps. So, this means writing for iOS means you get more sales. It becomes harder and harder to jailbreak the iPhone, so months go by with -ZERO- piracy on new devices. Plus, Objective-C runs natively, which means no translation, which means a definite performance edge over Android JVM.
So, the bottom line is that QA for Android is 6-36 times as hard as it is for iOS just due to all the regression testing you have to suffer through. To boot, your Android apps get pirated right off the bat so even though the amount of phones are greater, you get far fewer sales.
That's one of the advantages of not being locked into a single hardware vendor. Something apple fans wouldn't know about - your choices are seriously limited in comparison.
And no, the latest Oracle lawsuit over Android won't make a difference - except to help kill off java by pissing off even more people.
A few months after getting one on launch day, I'm really not so concerned about the iPad any more. It has proven itself to be exactly what I expected - a beautiful, useful, niche device that performs a very few jobs extremely well and does nothing else at all well.
It is a great game platform for young kids (who don't have the dexterity for mice). It is a great photo frame. It is a nice book reader, although it has major flaws). For everything else (including web browsing) it sucks.
Even though I own an iPad, I still yearn for a netbook and probably will buy one, because the iPad doesn't even come close to replacing a netbook. I'm holding out for some nice touch screen / convertible Win7 netbooks to appear.
My laptop delivers a much better experience.
How long does its battery last? How much noise does it make? Seriously, why do people compare the iPad with a clunky 17" laptop when it's aimed at a totally different audience and area of application? FWIW, 17" laptops suck compared to desktops. Yeah, you can lug it around at the cost of a decent screen, keyboard, noise level, performance, expandability and sturdiness... Also, I haven't seen one netbook keyboard that isn't terrible (I like my Dell Mini 9 because it's fanless, but I can't really type on it...).
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
"Just as the iPhone rendered circa-2007 smartphones obsolete, points out Marco Arment, the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks.
Wait a minute, when did the iphone kill-off both RIM and Palm, and when did the ifad get a keyboard and the ability to run the diverse range of software that netbooks are capable of using? Did I miss something? The iphone and ipad are great for some people, I guess, but a LOT of us have no real interest in them. They're like using a platinum-plated pocket watch with a built-in cover - they look kind of cool but are not as convenient or functional as some other alternatives.
In related "news," "Marco Arment tends to exaggerate and remember history in a way that is most flattering to his own point", points out one Slashdot user, adding "And he is a poopy pants." This is a direct quotation, so it must be true.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
How often do SUV owners go off-roading?
Dude, you're comparing a smartphone to an MP3 player.
Then allow me to rephrase: Apple makes MP3 players with an app store that run iOS. Where are the MP3 players with an app store that run Android?
I love market share because everyone seems to be revising the definition every time they wish to make a point. Market share is current period sales. Some define the period as the life of the product and some define it as the last month.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
As a FOSS geek I'm not interested in apple and have identified a bunch of really nice looking alternatives to the iPad. It's just a shame none of them seem to quite make it to market!
Eh, there were several `iPad alternatives' on the market before the iPad even existed.
Archos was selling their Android tablets 7 months before the iPad, and Archos first published an `actual Linux' firmware (using OpenEmbedded) and started contributing to upstream some 4 months before the iPad hit the market.
AlwaysInnovating started selling Touchbook beta units a month before Archos introduced their tablets--8 months before the iPad came to market.
And there were/are numerous others, too. I'm not sure whether it makes sense to compare the Nokia N-series tablets, since they're smaller, but they've been on the market for *years*, and they're not the end of the list.
Of course, that's not even counting the `iPad alternatives' that came to market *after* the iPad.
I'm having trouble understanding your "shame none of them seem to quite make it to market" comment--and even more trouble making sense out of others' comments to the effect of `if only there were any other tablet computers other than the iPad'....
-rozzin.
I've been using Mac OS9 until I was finally forced to upgrade to OSX last month.
As the title says, I've been throwing out old software that works. The old stuff was better, more stable. That's why I stuck with it for 10 years.
I was happier.
He said "last quarter", dude. Yes, we all know there are still more iPhones out there (if that helps you sleep at night), and only God knows how many iTouch devices are out there (they count, they count...). I'm sure he's aware that your favourite platform still PWNZ his :-)
Doesn't change the fact that 886% sales growth (on a platform that isn't just starting) vs 61% is... well, somewhat impressive ;-)
(...and yea, I'm sure most of those are junky 1.5/1.6 devices with low-res screens that aren't worth shit, but...)
A lot of people have realized that they really don't need to haul around a desktop replacement laptop and that they really don't actually use all of the powerful apps on a laptop the majority of the time.
If you really need to use a desktop app, you can connect back to your home desktop using either VNC (OS X) or Remote desktop (windows) or to a corporate citrix farm. There are VNC viewers, and a citrix receiver for the iPad and I understand that other services like Logmein Ignition also have iPad apps.
Even with these remote connection apps readily available, most people will not use them often and are satisfied with native iPad apps and web apps like those from Google.
Many people have compared the iPad with the PADD from Star Trek and there is a great deal of similarity between them. Both represent a way to access information from a central computer and be able to view and edit some of that information while on the go. Neither the fictional device or the iPad was meant to replace the larger computer terminals that you have at your disposal.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
While I agree on all the things you said, I believe a flash implementation would make Joe Average like his iPad more and not less. It's a slick pice of technology: Install it, and without further involvement from your part you will be able to stream video from all over the web, play small games and do other fun stuff. For free!
Stop the brainwash
Can you [...] toss it on the couch or chair without worrying about hard disk damage?
Have you heard of SSDs? If you've got a laptop/tablet you make your own decisions and can either have a higher-capacity HD or (my choice) a tougher SSD.
You act like this is some special Apple thing.
How well does it work with just touching the screen as an input device.
As well as the programs I run support it. As a regular computer, fairly badly - most apps want some keyboard and the onscreen one isn't always handy. But as an iPad competitor where it only has to run a small subset of programs that run well on a touch-screen, it works very well.
If Asus could have forbidden me to use Flash, play CPU intensive games, given me a CPU incompatible with the majority of the personal computing world, run only "certified" apps, etc, I'm sure the battery life would be even better...
"I don't like Apple this or that" but you bought every thing they made...
It's your fault for encouraging this kind of development, you made your bed, sleep in it! All of you did (you know who you are).
Also IMHO Android is doing well because it has more vendors and hence more models with different price ranges.
What is stopping you from using a netbook to view this 'content that isn't viewable on an iPad' ?
What software that you consider oh so wonderful is anyone throwing out? And who is forcing *you* to throw it out?
Quite frankly, if a website can't be bothered to make their site iPad compatible, it probably isn't worth going to, even on a desltop.
If you are referring to flash, its crap, and I refuse to shed even one tear over the death of any website that *requires* flash in order to even see it.
the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks.
Not it isn't. A tablet is quite a different beast. Me, personally, I couldn't manage without a proper keyboard.
I am not devoid of humor.
Do you do your own taxes, make your own bread, do your own asperin , make your own ethanol, use solar panels.
Defaults should be good enough, just like ANY 32" lcd tv is GOOD ENUF for hd tv.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
My laptop is dead silent when running linux - the fan doesn't come on. In more than 3 years, I've run out of juice twice - and one of those times was because I forgot to turn it off and we had a power failure. Seriously, do you think people are going to be glued to their iPad for 10 hours at a time, every day?
Really? It runs apache, an ftp server, 2 database servers, and I can serve up php web pages fast enough with it to saturate the 100 mbps connection to my desktop. How does that make it "suck"? Oh wait - it doesn't. I'm using it right now in two-screen mode, plugged into one of my 26" lcds running 1920x1200. And the keyboard is full-sized - even has the number keypad.
So really, how does it suck compared to crippleware like the iPad, which will give you Gorilla Arm if you try to use it 10 hours a day because it lacks a decent keyboard?
Are your arms not strong enough to carry a laptop that weighs more than that? What, specifically, makes lighter better? In my mind, the 5-6 pound average laptop weight is light enough that it's not a problem, so being lighter than that is only a significant virtue if it doesn't bring any significant drawbacks along with it.
Seriously? Ask students if they rather carry around a 6-7 pound laptop (we're talking 17") or a 2 pound netbook / tablet. When I went to school I carried a 15.4" notebook until I got my 2 lbs EeePC 701. Night and day difference. Traveling across the country? The Netbook was a lot more portable than trying to bring a 15.4" laptop. Let alone a 17".
6lbs aught to be light enough for anyone!
More importantly, in my mind, added weight conveys a sense of robustness---a sense that the device can survive whatever abuse you can throw at it. The lighter and thinner the device, the more worried I am that I'll look at it the wrong way and it will break in half. Granted, there are advantages to light weight in terms of resisting damage when you drop it, but I still prefer the solid feel of a laptop.
You prefer carrying around a cinder block because of the "sense of robustness"? Not actual robustness? Good grief.
<voice mode="Duke Nukem">SSDs, baby</voice>. If your idea of a good user experience requires being able to treat expensive electronics like crap, then you deserve to pay more (and pay more again when you accidentally hit the end table with that iPad instead of the couch). That's about the worst argument I've read to date in favor of an iPad. You shouldn't be throwing an iPad any more than you would throw a laptop, a desktop, or a Ming vase....
SSDs for a laptop are expensive. A 500GB Hard drive is $60. A 128GB SSD is over $200. People shouldn't treat their electronics like crap, however the nature of portable electronics is that they will be subjected to rougher conditions than a permanent installation, and they must be able to survive. Look at cell phones. It's amazing they keep working at all with what they're subjected to.
I would agree if it were straight forward, so far what I have seen under 10.1 has been less than stellar, most of the major flash sites and applets that I see people quoting as "needs" don't work properly. Website animations are fine and advertising now works for the most part...but thats stuff I would normally try to block or skip over. Unfortunately the more complex stuff is mostly mapped to a keyboard mouse layout so its generally broken right off the bat.
He said their market share dropped, and the Android is #1. The OP probably was confusing sales with market share and thought there are more Androids out there than iPhones. But that's not an unusual mistake considering the breathless reporting of those stats.
The market share stats are great for putting things back in perspective. From what I can tell, Android sales are largely Verizon customers who have been waiting a long time for a half-decent smart phone. The battle won't REALLY get interesting until the iPhone comes to Verizon and we can see them compete directly. I still know quite a few people holding out from getting an Android in the hope of iPhone coming to Verizon soon. But Android still has a big advantage in having multiple diverse devices to choose from in terms of size, features, and price.
Ultimately when both are on Verizon, customers are going to be the ones who win.
They are just smaller and "CHEAPER" laptops with screens so small and low res that the desktop OSes running on them feel cramped. Their keyboards are painful to use for people with larger hands and the CPU/GPU power limits them to little more than light web surfing and use of "web" apps like Google Office.
I look at a netbook and I don't see them offering anything new to the table and feel like people are investing in them because of a false sense of economy when you are getting a device even less powerful than a 2006 MBP.
The really crazy people are those who already had a laptop and bought a netbook in addition to having a desktop.
If you really "need" a full OS on the go, get a desktop replacement and have that as your sole computer or if you really don't need desktop apps all of the time, get an iPad for apps and mobile gaming and connect back to your PC or mac desktop with Logmein or some similar service and you will have a tablet/slate with an OS designed specifically for touch from the ground up.
iPads are popular because they are easy to start using whether you are a windows user or mac user or even a novice. If you search Youtube videos, you will find that they are so easy that even a toddler can use one.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
A fair number of students these days use a rolling bag anyway for carrying their books to class. At that point, the extra weight of a laptop becomes inconsequential. For students who don't do that, sure, they'd rather have the light weight. The question was not "would you rather carry 2 pounds or 5 pounds". The question was "what are you willing to give up to carry 2 pounds instead of 5 pounds". And from surveys, the answer is "not much". More students indicated intent to buy full-sized laptops than netbooks.
There is clearly a range of weight that is acceptable for a portable device, and a cinder block is clearly not within that range. That argument is just silly.
Are you seriously trying to compare prices of SSDs with iPad storage prices? Bad idea. iPad capacity upgrades cost $100 or $200 for 16 or 48 GB, respectively. Sure, SSDs for laptops are expensive compared with hard drives, but not when compared with iPads. You're paying a premium for getting an SSD inside a small-form-factor device.
Sure. Accidents happen. That's why we have backups. And cases. Solid state devices are more reliable in terms of breakage than hard drives, but they still fail, and the devices as a whole still break, too.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
> Just as the iPhone rendered circa-2007 smartphones obsolete, points out Marco Arment, the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks.
C'mon, that's pure hyperbole. It didn't render your smartphone obsolete if you require push email, replaceable memory, flash support, or any other of a dozen features it didn't have at the time and still doesn't. It doesn't render any smartphone obsolete no matter how old if the requirement is to have a carrier other than AT&T. Amongst Apple Fanboys, it was going to render all other devices obsolete no matter what the feature set, but I don't think that's what the author was trying to say.
For anyone needing a memory slot, usb port, flash support, a real keyboard, and any other of a dozen things the ipad does not have that a netbook does, including a reasonable price, the netbook will continue to have a market.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I can use my Netbook as a real computing device. I can load my own software, load software off the internet. I can upgrade it, plug in peripherals. I can run Windows or Linux or whatever else I choose. The iPad is bound to the Apple store through heavy chains of DRM. Apple dictates what software I can run, and if they choose, they can change their mind and remove said software. I'm limited to fledgling mini-apps, and can't load the same software I use on my desktop. The iPad is an Apple fanboy's wet dream, a "safe" handheld toy-like device. Give me a Netbook, and give me liberty.
Actually, your netbook cannot do everything the iPad can do.
* Instant on
* Last 10 hours on battery
* Weigh next to nothing
* Be thin as a magazine
* Allow control via touch screen
* Allow multitouch, specifically
* Switch between portrait and landscape
* Keep track of device positioning for video games
* Work well as an ebook ereader
* Work over 3G without an adapter/device
* Run apps so sexy that everyone you know gets jealous
It's not even a fair contest, my friend. The iPad straight up runs away with the trophy.
I was initially excited when I learned that Flash was going to incorporate video, because of the state of internet video at the time. RealPlayer, Quicktime or WM just seemed like nightmares of fragmentation, (especially what real turned into.) Flash seemed like a good place to de-facto standardize on if that was going to be our only collective choice. Adobe has consistently dropped the ball on performance and security ever since they acquired Macromedia for Flash.
How is it that a company the size of Adobe can't seem to find enough programming resources or vision to finally fix Flash and/or roll out updates that don't take years? I just don't understand how they can't even seem to accidentally make it better even once, (ex. Microsoft getting an acceptable OS out after many missteps.)
As far as staying on topic, I personally don't mind a walled garden product like the Ipad shaking things up creatively for awhile if the product category has completely stagnated. We've _almost_ had an intriguing tablet for too long and it was getting aggravating watching the potential be wasted. At least there is now a roaring fire in a great category that up til now only saw smoldering kludges.
I may not completely like what the Ipad and Iphone are, but I'm quite excited to see what and how they will be competed against. (Like hopefully getting rid of Ballmer the seat warmer...)
so, what you haven't used i-tunes
You said that Steve Jobs created the iPhone in order to destroy the web by forcing everyone to write native iPhone apps. That is the exact opposite of what happened. Originally the iPhone didn't support 3rd party native apps at all--the line from Apple was that people should write standards-based web apps because they are safe (and portable).
There was an outcry at the time that led to Apple changing their plans, releasing a developer kit and opening the App Store--and now we have an outcry about that as well. Perhaps some people just like to cry.
Yeah, I realised that after posting. Apologies :(
Something that's only existed for a couple of years, and this year's are "obsoleted" by an overpriced piece of crap that doesn't have a keyboard, but fingerprints all over the screen?
Did Apple *pay* for this "story"?
mark
No, he's partially motivated by the desire for his products to make a design //statement// ... which isn't quite the same thing.
What we think of as "great" design often isn't very "good". Consider the Phillippe Starck lemon squeezer:
Iconic design, instantly reconisable, a design classic. But the eighty-dollar Starck squeezer supposedly isn't as good at squeezing lemons as one-dollar plastic thing from Walmart. It makes a mess, and it's intrinsically a bad idea to make a lemonjuicer out of a metal like aluminium, it reacts and potentially taints the end-product. There's a gold-plated version ... gold-plating is often a very functional feature, but with the Stark, gold-plating the item means that it ends up even less functional than the simple cast-and-polished version, because lemon juice messes up the finish on the "plated" version, so the "gold" version is strictly for show. It's designed for looks rather than for satisfying its official core purpose. It's a lemon squeezer that shouldn't be allowed to come into contact with lemon juice.
Apple's iPhones have always looked cool, but for years they weren't particularly good phones for making phone calls. Bad acoustics, no recordable user-ringtones, no tactile speed-dial buttons, no swappable battery. If making and receiving calls was a priority for you, you were better off with something much cheaper. Similarly with the internal architecture of the iPhone3.x OS, as a personal organiser-type device, the OS design was quite appalling compared to, say, where Palm OS had been ten years earlier. No synchronisation API? No OS support for rich text? If you wanted to synchronise raw text files from your iPOS3 device to a Windows PC from the onboard Memo app, by default you couldn't, because the iTunes software didn't "do" any form of wordprocessor file, including basic unformatted text. It wasn't a "Windows" problem, it was an "Apple" problem. You had to go out and buy Microsoft OneNote, and have iTunes synch memos with //that//. iPOS3.x didn't even have support for to-do lists, which probably ranked it lower than those old late-eighties Casio and Sharp things that looked like plastic toys.
I have an iPod Touch, and use it almost exclusively with a Google Calendar app and Evernote (plus a bit of Google mapping and web-browsing). I find it too awkward to use as an MP3 player. The curve of the back of the case is a nice bit of design meant to make the device look as slim as possible for a given volume, but the effect is then ruined by Apple's decision to use a mirror-finish chromey "Look At Me!" backplate, which makes the back as noticeable as possible. Mine got scratched within ten minutes of taking it out of the box, and I now have it stealthed in black sticky-tape. It's actually nicer to use without the eye-jarring mirror-finish rim, but I guess their priority was to make it "blingy", even if that conflicted with other aspects of the design. Ergonomically, the iPad's single button screams design suckiness. People like clicky edge-buttons to flip pages and hotlink favourite apps, But with the iPad, Apple insisted that you didn't need more than one front button. Then with iPOS4's added features, they had to squeeze extra features onto the single button using double-clicks. The device's hardware interface was already outmoded by the time that the accompanying OS was finished and the unit was ready for release. //Good// design would have given the iPad at least five buttons, rather than launching the gadget with just one and keeping the multi-button iPad as a possible must-have upgrade for 2011 or 2012.
Apple don't do "good" design. Apple have marketed some brilliant design classi
Eric Baird
I honestly don't care if Flash is support on Apple portable devices. But...
It's not Flash. Apple ALSO denies the ability to create with Flash, and convert to straight iPhone/Touch applications. The fear is (most think) that Apple will somehow lose control of the development process.
You said: "If Flash didn't have the long list of failings, I think it would be on the iDevices."
A native iPhone/iPad compilation of Flash into native code would not have that "long list of failings". Yet it still isn't allowed. I wouldn't code an iPhone/iPad application in C. Much as I wouldn't code a GUI application for my damn netbook in C either. Python, TCL/TK, Scheme, something reasonable would be better. Even Flash (I consider it better than native C, although it isn't particularly pretty). Python, Scheme and Flash can be compiled to C. But that still isn't good enough for Apple.
So, these platforms are just not suitable for me. The "walled garden" may be suitable for you; have fun in it.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
No, but I know my wife's unlocked Nokia 5800 is a pretty capable PDA with no locked ties to a carrier for $220 including shipping from Amazon (US market).
If you've got your heart set on Android, though, sorry. Those appear to start in the $375 price range for the unlocked ones, and go up alarmingly fast from there.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
If HTML standards had been tougher and we'd been more demanding of them being followed, we wouldn't have such a salad of websites. Flash and Java and similar plugins come to mind. If there had been no standards, we would have thrown out thousands of perfectly-good sites and computers in a mad, constant upgrade race since 1990, and end up with no accumulated work around common technologies, such as HTML and XML. We need more accepted standards.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Tired of hearing people complain that Steve Jobs is trying to mold the internet. Well hell yea he is trying. If you don't like it be quiet and use the Microsoft version. Oh yea the Apple is so much better there is no comparison. Spend your time being productive!
This has probably been said somewhere already, but if there is a desire for some product and/or feature, the market will buy it. If people stop buying netbooks because of the iPad, well, more people want the iPad regardless of any shortcomings. Every tech person wants their own version of the perfect product; if your version doesn't make it commercially, you can try to roll your own.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The contributor says, "That's what I don't like — deliberate devolution." He probably thinks the same thing about automatic transmissions in cars and timers on microwave ovens. Rather than saying, "Wow, about time someone got the masses to understand the benefits of a tablet." or "Wow, about time the geeks finally made a tablet that the millions of non-geeks would use." He'd rather decry is own personal little fiefdom - but then, I should remember that this is /.