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Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying People: Business Insider (businessinsider.com)

Can an iPad replace your computer? It has been the topic of debate for years, with plenty of people advising against it. Apple sure begs to differ. It has been running a commercial in which it predicts a world where a computer is extinct and a child with an iPad doesn't even know what the word "computer" means. Business Insider reports that plenty of people are finding that commercial annoying. From the report: "Does this commercial tick anybody else off?" writes one commenter on a snippet of the commercial that was posted to Facebook. "I want to smack this kid. What's a computer? You know what a computer is you disrespectful smarta--!!" Plenty of other social media posts, some with thousands of retweets, have made the same observation.

594 comments

  1. Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    _ALL_ads are annoying!

    1. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      _ALL_ads are annoying!

      Some of the Superbowl ads are entertaining.

    2. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by gnick · · Score: 1

      Some of the Superbowl ads are entertaining.

      So are some movie previews.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Some of the Superbowl ads are entertaining.

      Well...they USED to be....

      Last year, however, they thought it would be good to get all political, and slant a lot of them towards immigration (predominately touching about illegal immigration concerns).

      I'm guessing this year, we'll have more than our fair share of #MeToo related ads.

      I'll give them the 1st quarter, if no commercials are funny, I'm switching it off...as that I really don't care much for either team playing.

      The NFL has been losing viewers a lot last year or so...and they keep wondering why...?

      One clue...keep the fucking politics OUT of it, it is supposed to be leisure and escapism.....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    4. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by fropenn · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's a commercial? Since we got streaming Netflix seven years ago, I hardly see them any more (aside from the brief viewing of OTA TV).

    5. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh noes, somebody is annoyed by politics!

      Stop the presses! They might print news that gets in the way of selling used cars and funeral plots!

    6. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The NFL has been losing viewers a lot last year or so...and they keep wondering why...?

      One clue...keep the fucking politics OUT of it, it is supposed to be leisure and escapism.....

      Then I suppose you'll be supporting them removing the big political displays then?

      Well, at least you'll be saving tax payer money.

    7. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Believe it or not, there's things more important than football. Go ahead and flip off the TV , but you're then returning to a country where the government routinely kills unarmed citizens and plants evidence with no repercussions. Just because the lack of police accountability usually hurts black people more doesn't mean you or your family won't ever get caught up in it. I guess calling these clear-cut, serious problems in our society "politics" is one way to avoid thinking about it. But maybe we, as a country, should stop polarizing everything and running to escapism so much - we might be able to stem the erosion of our freedoms. They ain't free, and as far as paying for it goes, talk is one of the cheapest, most cost-effective options. Many have lost their life and liberty from it with zero say in the matter - and you're worried about having to look at somebody kneeling instead of standing.

    8. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by iamhassi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some of the Superbowl ads are entertaining.

      Well...they USED to be....

      Last year, however, they thought it would be good to get all political, and slant a lot of them towards immigration (predominately touching about illegal immigration concerns).

      I'm guessing this year, we'll have more than our fair share of #MeToo related ads.

      I'll give them the 1st quarter, if no commercials are funny, I'm switching it off...as that I really don't care much for either team playing.

      The NFL has been losing viewers a lot last year or so...and they keep wondering why...?

      One clue...keep the fucking politics OUT of it, it is supposed to be leisure and escapism.....

      This. And I love how they're blaming it all on trump as if they forgot the football kneeling started in 2016 when obama was president. NFL is slowly committing suicide, like taking a teaspoon of cyanide every week.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    9. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is an "ad"?
      Shortened version of ADD x,y ...?
      25 years without TV, noscript and RequestPolicy in browser ....

    10. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No fucks given still. I'll be nodded a troll for this but I gave up social media because people couldn't stop with the barrage of opinions. Can't have an online discussion without someone pointing to how we all need to be informed. Some of us stopped caring and are letting the world go to hell.

    11. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by N!k0N · · Score: 1

      Maybe they want to develop an immunity, like with iocane powder.

    12. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes almost if not all ads are annoying especially the ones you get from tracking cookies. This one is just beyond stupid ever really try to get any real work done on a tablet? If you can with the half baked tablet version of software it takes way way too long, tablets are still best for consumption of data like emails websites videos etc. not creating data.

    13. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by inking · · Score: 1

      Take that back! Ukrainian pyramid schemes have great ads.

    14. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by dremon · · Score: 1

      _ALL_ads are annoying!

      Not all, for example these funny Dutch commercials are quite nice.

    15. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If your fandom of a sport is so tenuous that the adverts can make or break it, they have already lost.
      I just mute the TV and go and get a drink in the breaks - or talk about the bits we've seen so far with friends.

    16. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by mjwx · · Score: 1

      _ALL_ads are annoying!

      Yes but some are more annoying than others.

      I don't really like ads, but the Andrex or Morrison's ads don't make me want to throw my TV at the first smarmy, stick thin, bespectacled kid I see.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    17. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by null+etc. · · Score: 1

      _ALL_ads are annoying!

      This ad isn't annoying - it actually just demonstrates how insufferable most entomologists are.

    18. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only thing entertaining about them is the fact that people actually watch and like commercials.

      Good lemmings.

    19. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying ? by CodeArtisan · · Score: 1

      What's a commercial? Since we got streaming Netflix seven years ago, I hardly see them any more (aside from the brief viewing of OTA TV).

      In Netflix it's called "Product Placement". They will be delighted you haven't noticed.

  2. Every ad-writing person, ever: by TigerPlish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Every ad-writing person, ever: We did our job right!

    Adverts work by either appeal or by being annoying. But eventually one does learn to tune them out.. either by applying the brain filter, or by adblocking before it gets to the brain.

    --
    The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    1. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The commercials featuring mainstream music tend to be the most annoying. How many times did we have to listen to Chevy's Like A Rock commercial? For the love of Jesus.

    2. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's annoying, and then there's what they apparently did here, which is 'say something stupid'. It's closer to trolling than anything else.

      It's stupid because:
      1. A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. Just because it doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse doesn't mean it's not a computer -- and you can connect a keyboard and mouse to it if you want regardless.
      2. There will always be many, many applications where the power and flexibility of a full-size desktop computer are necessary or desirable. Now, someone will come along and say "Tablets will become more powerful to the point where desktops and laptop/notebook computers are irrelevant", but that's just plain wrong, too, because more traditional form-factor computing devices will also get more powerful simultaneously.

      Really, the basic, incorrect assumption here is that a 'tablet computer' is some totally different device compared to any other computer; it's not, it's just a different form-factor that doesn't include a keyboard and a pointing device (not counting the touchscreen interface) by default -- and you can add them easily.

    3. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Hardhead_7 · · Score: 2

      Every ad-writing person, ever: We did our job right! Adverts work by either appeal or by being annoying. But eventually one does learn to tune them out.. either by applying the brain filter, or by adblocking before it gets to the brain.

      iPad Pro: Apply Directly to the Forehead!

    4. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your points are valid and nicely elucidated...
      However I have to point out that many Grammar Nazis and other pedants chocked back a little sob when you didn't use irregardless...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    5. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like a rock, I was strong as I could be. Like a rock, nothin' ever got to me.

    6. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Until today, I thought those ads were for a Microsoft Surface. Did the ad-writers still do their job right?

      Since being irrationally angry at Microsoft still benefits Apple, I'm gonna say yes.

    7. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Advertisers would do well to understand that, contrary to popular belief, not all press is good press. When your advertisement is stupid or annoying, it plants the idea in my mind that you're a company that is only going to be stupid or annoying toward me. That's not something I'm willing to pay for. I'll avoid doing business with you once you've poisoned my mind toward your company and products.

      The same goes for legal squabbles and customer uprisings over retracted features or failure to deliver on promises, both of which register in my mind as "fraud".

      No product is so indispensable that I won't simply turn to a competitor or maybe even just go without. And no one is entitled to get my money, much less my loyalty.

    8. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      more traditional form-factor computing devices will also get more powerful simultaneously

      That is not a given. The same was once said about mainframe computers.

    9. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

      Every ad-writing person, ever: We did our job right!

      Adverts work by either appeal or by being annoying. But eventually one does learn to tune them out.. either by applying the brain filter, or by adblocking before it gets to the brain.

      You want to avoid being so annoying or offensive that the audience reaction is "I hate this company," but the conventional wisdom within the field seems to be that there's no such thing as bad publicity. If that was true, there would be no effort whatsoever to avoid scandals...

    10. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The commercials featuring mainstream music tend to be the most annoying. How many times did we have to listen to Chevy's Like A Rock commercial? For the love of Jesus.

      I'd watch the Like a Rock Commercials on an endless loop for the rest of my life if it meant never having to see another one of their fake focus group commercials

    11. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by imgod2u · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To your point #2:

      While there will always be *some* applications that can utilize the computing power of larger form factors, they tend to, over time, become more and more niche.

      Just look at laptop sales vs desktop sales. Same OS, same programs, but once laptops got "good enough", entire demographics began using them and forgetting about ever having a desktop.

      I expect the same will happen with tablets: the majority of users eventually will use a tablet as their primary computing device. There might still be a market for the 16-core mega-towers but only if you're a content producer. And even then, it might be relegated to 1 per office.

      There are many many content creators now that use "pro" laptops instead of desktops and that's plenty computing power for them.

    12. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1
      I thought it was:

      Like a rock I'm dull and boring

      Or that was the joke we had about those commercials in college.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    13. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly! And the reason we hate this ad is that it is *extremely good trolling*.

      If it was bad trolling I would laugh or ignore it, but the simple truth is that it makes me want to jump through the screen, grab the little shit in a headlock and scream "you want to know what a computer is? Look in your fscking hands then you smarmy little git! That! Is! A! Fscking! Computer! Right! There!"... and then use said computer to smack 80s throwback girl back to the 80s where she belongs.

      I salute whoever wrote it... and want to drop a mainframe on their heads.

    14. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by chispito · · Score: 2

      Really, the basic, incorrect assumption here is that a 'tablet computer' is some totally different device compared to any other computer; it's not, it's just a different form-factor that doesn't include a keyboard and a pointing device (not counting the touchscreen interface) by default -- and you can add them easily.

      The narrative is annoying, but the premise of the commercial is not "computers are archaic" but "The iPad Pro is a good computer." That is, adults are supposed to watch the commercial and think that, yes, a well executed tablet meets the criteria for 'computer' and is sufficient for my needs.

      The kid's question is meant to be taken both ways. And I am not trying to make Apple look better as I hate so many of their other ads, I just think it's a well done spot.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    15. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You're right. Tablet computers are simply computers. A computer is a computing device (input, output, processor) that the owner / user should be able to place any software on of their choosing.

      Except in their case, in which it's so restrictive, you'd be hard pressed to call it one. I'd call idevices a "console" (a specific type of computer which doesn't really have a mind of it's own and is very restrictive as to what you can do with it. It's never called a "console computer").

    16. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Obfuscant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's stupid because:

      Your points are mostly true, but they are not why the ad is stupid, and insulting, too.

      1. The "smart kid" who is using the Apple device knows what a computer is, she'd just playing stupid for pretend. You can't be older than 5 and not know what a computer is, and many sub-5s probably know, too.

      2. She just plain rude. Her next door neighbor is attempting to have a conversation with her, she knows that the question means ("what are you working on?"), but she flippantly dismisses her and continues tapping away on her computer after hardly acknowledging the existence of the other person. A more polite response would be to show her neighbor the cute bug document project she's working on and act like a real human with the person who lives next door.

      Congratulations, advertising team, for an ad that teaches me that Apple users are rude morons.

    17. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The narrative is annoying, but the premise of the commercial is not "computers are archaic" but "The iPad Pro is a good computer." That is, adults are supposed to watch the commercial and think that, yes, a well executed tablet meets the criteria for 'computer' and is sufficient for my needs.

      With the iPad Pro...it IS pretty powerful and I'd dare say it beats some laptops out there for power, and certainly for screen quality.

      I've been playing with one, doing Affinity Photo and doing some pretty heavy computational stuff, like focus merging about 22 RAW images. It is cranking through that faster than some older desktops or laptops I've seen.

      Is it a replacement, no...BUT....I likely may more often leave my laptop behind and just carry the iPad Pro while out and still do some high end image manipulation on it...till I get back home to the desk workstation set up.

      I"m currently using an older MBP, but it is on a stand and wired up to wacom tablet, usb and thunderbolt drives and devices, 27" monitor and good old fashioned buckling keyboard. It is NOT a portable computer. I'll soon be swapping it out for an iMac pro....., but even freeing it up from main use...I will be traveling with my iPad Pro more than the laptop. I need to do work, but usually, I do not need full blown desktop needs while on the road.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    18. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple must be thinking about ubiquitous low latency and high bandwidth 5G world where processing, even low latency one, can be found according to negotiated latency and other service requirements. Your computer dissolves into displays, haptic interaction surfaces, spaces and devices, and IO ports. All processing is provided by hierarchical cloud environment from the right next to you to the other side of the world and space. Having not enough low latency services around you? Carry a processing unit with you, on you or in you.

    19. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe, but I see it as an ignorant kid who doesn't know how things work, where they came from, and what things are used for. They're the kind who, when they grow up, won't know how to do simple things like change a light bulb or repair a toilet.

      It's a bit like the Spectrum commercial where the kids are watching television on a phone and a tablet. They're bewildered by the notion of watching television on an actual television. Kids like that irritate me.

    20. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      Adblocker or not, all I see are empty holes in the page design -____- but they still get me from time to time...















      BOOM! AUTO-PLAY VIDEO AD!

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    21. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      When your kids, or whoever, ask/beg for a 'tablet' for Christmas, consider getting them a finely polished piece of slice of rock, and a chisel...

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    22. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      It's actually pretty hard not to beat most stuff in the < $400 market segment, with their barely-dual-core CPUs at 1.5GHz and pervasive application of 1366x768 screens...

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    23. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      When your kids, or whoever, ask/beg for a 'tablet' for Christmas, consider getting them a finely polished piece of slice of rock, and a chisel...

      No, I'll just give them an aspirin, but not a gel cap version.

    24. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody denies that the tablet is a computer. Indeed, that's the whole premise of the ad.

    25. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, GOD YES!

    26. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything is technically a computer. My microwave or my fancy toothbrush have a CPU. That doesn't mean they're computers.

    27. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by GoJays · · Score: 1

      You mean the majority of Apple users? The ones who never properly learn to use the technology but have because of the "cool" factor?

      It reminds me of those iPhone users who suffer from Vertical Video Syndrome. They know their videos don't format properly yet they continue to do it... making the video nearly unwatchable on any device other than your phone. Based on the "What's a computer?" comment, it is safe to assume this little shit suffers from VVS as well.

    28. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Yep, it was. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/1... Your point would be more valid if mainframe computers weren't used anymore.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    29. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grammar Nazi here. "chocked"? Don't you mean "choked"?

    30. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to disagree with your points.

      1) The industry continually has tried to make the point that you phone or your tablet are not "computers" so if an 11 year old child always used their iPad to do computing tasks, he/she might not relate it as being a computer just like if you asked a teenager what they thought about the computer they carry around with them they wouldn't probably immediately start talking to about their phone.

      2) 15 years ago people said the same thing about laptops never replacing desktops and to be clear I'm not saying that the fact that many people only use laptops doesn't mean there is no reason for desktops. For many people there is no reason for both a desktop and a laptop. That said, for many users there is no reason for both a laptop and a tablet.

      So this might not be that great of a commercial because it appears to have not made it's point fully. The point is not that nobody needs a laptop anymore. The point is to counter the idea that a tablet is somehow not up to the task of eliminating the need for many people to have a separate "computer" other than their iPad.

    31. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      I expect the same will happen with tablets: the majority of users eventually will use a tablet as their primary computing device.

      LOL, so did Steve Jobs, about 10 years ago... He was wrong.

      In fact, it seems not a year goes by without someone claiming that "this is the year PCs will die and be replaced by tablets."

      http://time.com/3643693/tech-p...

      https://www.theguardian.com/te...

      http://www.datacenterjournal.c...

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/m...

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...

      I personally find the debate comical... what does "PC" stand for? Personal Computer; what is a tablet, if not a computer that is personal?

      Some folk would argue over anything.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    32. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by blackest_k · · Score: 1

      An ipad isn't quite the same, you can't add a mouse you can add a keyboard you can read the DCIM folder for photos on an SDCARD you can't write back to it...

      on the plus side it does work pretty well with network shares.

      I've taken an android tv box and set linux up on it so now its wifi is used to create an access point and it shares drives like a nas with a quad core processor 1.5 ghz and 1 GB of ram its a bit of over kill for a nas but now the ipad can be used without a regular computer or an internet connection. :)

    33. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by nasch · · Score: 1

      You can't use a bluetooth mouse with an iPad?? Surely that is not right...

    34. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've owned a couple of Tablet PCs, the ones that came out before the iPad. They were rather ungainly and expensive, and couldn't sit in your lap like laptop (Microsoft Surface seems to have the same problem). Part of Apple's success was that they ditched the keyboard for a touch screen (instead of a stylus) with a streamlined operating system. Their other success was that the hardware had advanced where SD storage could replace an HDD. Plus, they were cheaper than the Tablet PCs at the time.

      What I really object to with Apple is their pricing. These days you could go really cheap with Android or get a Windows 2-in-1 laptop/tablet for the price of an iPad. For the price of an iPhone 8, you could build a desktop PC with three monitors (albeit running on integrated graphics).

    35. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by blackest_k · · Score: 1

      Surprised me, I thought it would work like android.

      I believe some people have got a mouse working on a jail broken iPad.

      I did manage to get a usb graphics tablet working although it said it was unsupported it could detect the pen about an inch above the surface.

      https://discussions.apple.com/... read the thread it is rather a wtf moment.

    36. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by nasch · · Score: 1

      That is nutso...

    37. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by blackest_k · · Score: 1

      There is an exception if i have the ipad hooked up to my mac with duet (or pc not tried this) I can use the ipad to extend my desktop. e.g as the secondary display for lightroom. my trackpad mouse can then move onto the ipad screen. It's not the worst for speed either. it does have some nice features and its pretty responsive compared to my android tablet.

      Actually can get up to 4 screens going on my mac duet to the ipad, airparrot to appletv. and then just plugin an external monitor :) it can play with the chromecast too sometimes.

    38. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Laptop vs desktop is purely a power/money play. Tablets introduce far too many interface restrictions beyond laptops to replace it.

    39. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I just watched the commercial and wanted reality to intrude, and somebody to clock the little kid and steal the tablet. There were SOOOO many settings he was in where no young kid would be using a tablet without somebody mugging him for it.

    40. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congratulations, advertising team, for an ad that teaches me that Apple users are rude morons.

      I don't need an ad to teach me that. I see these assholes pushing by every morning in their peacoats with butter and jam slathered pieces of artisinal toast in one hand and their iWhatevers in their other hands. If I didn't instantly step out of their way while they're looking down at their fucking device I would be wearing a piece of greasy toast soaked in butter and jam right on my silk tie.

    41. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I'd give them a bound volume of lined paper, typically with the binding along the top edge.

    42. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Agreed - computing power and memory are physically shrinking faster than the typical user can find a use for a comparable volume of them. Or perhaps more to the point - computational energy efficiency is improving fast enough that the required cooling systems are shrinking rapidly. CPUs themselves never got much bigger than a postage stamp.

      There's much to be said for the desktop form factor, but communication buses have reached the point where you can plug your tablet/phone/whatever into a single Thunderbolt cable to connect to multiple 4k screens and all your desired peripherals to get virtually all of the benefits wherever you happen to be - I can readily see the day when instead of borrowing a friend's computer to do something you'll just borrow their "desktop" to plug in your own pocket computer.

      We're not nearly there yet, though Microsoft and several others are busy working on their "convergent interface"... maybe they'll manage something that doesn't suck before the day arrives. Myself, I think the two form-factors are likely too different in how they're used for a single GUI to avoid being deeply disappointing for one or both. But two interfaces overlayed on the same OS have plenty of potential.

      And of course if augmented reality catches on you have a third interface to deal with - but as a long-time glasses wearer, I'd have to say they need to come with something pretty frigging compelling to make always wearing/carrying glasses, or even contacts, broadly appealing. So my guess is that's not going to be a popular mobile interface until such time as neural interfaces become commonplace. (A prospect that disturbs me greatly, but does seem rather likely).

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    43. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Immerman · · Score: 1

      That's the thing with "eventually" - it covers a lot of territory influenced by many things beyond your ability to predict. Even if you're correct, the devil's in the details and you could be off by decades.

      But, the time is certainly coming - I've met several people who've discarded their desktop or laptop for a tablet. If all you do is browse the web and send an occasional email, there's not really much reason to use anything more complex.

      As for PC - it may theoretically stand for Personal Computer, but I'm not sure it's actually been used that generically since the "Wintel duopoly" dominated the market. PC became synonymous with Wintel machine - either a desktop or "luggable". Laptops/notebooks still counted - they were clearly still a PC, just in a different form factor. Macintoshes decidedly did not though, despite Apples being some of the early popular PCs when the term was still generic. Hence the Mac-PC "wars".

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    44. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A computer is one who computes. The word has an earlier meaning actually dating to before automated data processing equipment.

    45. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And still, if you ask people what a mainframe computer is, you'll get a stupid reaction like in the iPad ad. The PC may well become relegated to niche applications, like what happened to the mainframe computer which used to be what "computer" meant. It is already happening to the desktop PC. Most people mean "laptop computer" when they say "computer".

    46. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      Just look at laptop sales vs desktop sales. Same OS, same programs, but once laptops got "good enough", entire demographics began using them and forgetting about ever having a desktop.

      I thought I would always have a bigass desktop PC as my main computer, but I've moved to a laptop now. With a docking station, I have all of the same peripherals as on my desktop, plus I can just bring my computer with me, without having to maintain two separate devices.

      With gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac, networked storage is fast enough to be indistinguishable from local storage in most normal use (copying big files is a bit slower, obviously), so it's almost completely seamless.

      And it's not even a brand-new laptop, it's a refurbed T440, a 2013 i5-equipped model. Yet it's more than fast enough that I don't notice any reduction in performance, compared to the desktop.

      I only turn on the desktop once or twice a week now, for Windows gaming.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    47. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      He?

      --
      Eat the rich.
    48. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      Adverts work by either appeal or by being annoying.

      Proof of working by being annoying?

      One way that ads are meant to appeal is to portray a lifestyle (as this Apple ad does) which viewers (or at least some of them) wish to be a part of, or consider themselves a part of already. And they are kidded that just buying this stuff will be the entry ticket to that lifestyle and its image.

      However, many ads display a lifestyle (like the one Apple ad does) that many do not wish to be part of. I (or anyone else not living in the Amazon jungle) don't need any more Apple ads to make me aware of Apple's existence, and every ad I see for them only makes me want to distance myself further from their lifestyle - and many find likewise. After seeing ads like this I would be ashamed to be seen with any Apple stuff. So it does not work on people who find it annoying, even if it does work on those other people who find it cute.

    49. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your points completely ignore the overwhelming amount of PCs used fro office applications and the 1.4 billion active PC gamers worldwide. Yes casual users of electronic devices tend to prefer laptops or tablets but that does not change the fact that there is a market for power and that it will not migrate to these device types easily.

    50. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but I see it as an ignorant kid who doesn't know how things work, where they came from, and what things are used for. They're the kind who, when they grow up, won't know how to do simple things like change a light bulb or repair a toilet..

      This, a lot of kids think that milk comes from the supermarket in the US... Given that they're more intelligent than the average Apple user, its not a bad assumption.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    51. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, I had successfully managed to black-hole that ad in my brain until you reminded me of it just now. Too bad almost everyone else isn't old enough to remember it.

    52. Re: Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mainframe computers DO become more powerful every year! IBM is on a three year release cycle for new systems.

    53. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      So, I gather that you always refer to laptops as "laptop computers", and desktops as "desktop computers". And your smartphone as a "phone computer"?

      Alas, the language changes. Despite the fact that these things are all computers, people don't use the word computer all that much in referring to them. And kids learn language by connecting the words used to things. If you always call your laptop "my laptop", there's not really a good reason why a kid would necessarily connect the word "computer" to that thing you always refer to as "my laptop"....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    54. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by jawtheshark · · Score: 1
      Except of course, the iPad Pro is (in my country, I just checked) 715EUR for the smallest version (10,5", 64GB, Wifi-only), for which you can get laptops that are halfway decent. If you want the full package, that is: keyboard and pen, you add in another 173EUR for the keyboard and a whopping 105EUR for the pen. Let's ignore the pen, because most laptops don't have pens, but you would need a keyboard. The cheapest laptop-equivalent iPad Pro would as such be 888EUR.

      That's the price category you really have to look at. Laptops around 900EUR. A quick search of one of the online shops I use gives me this: Lenovo Ideapad 520s-14IKB: Intel Core i7-7500U Processor // 8 GB RAM // 256GB SSD // 14" at 1920x1080 for a whopping 849EUR.

      Sure, it's a normal laptop and it runs Windows 10, but the resolution is okay, it's got enough RAM and a decent processor. I also understand that the iPad Pro 10,5" comes with a 2224x1668 resolution, so that is indeed better than the Lenovo I picked. Personally, I'd pick the Lenovo any day over the iPad Pro.

      My point being: You cannot compare an iPad Pro to the sub-400EUR laptops. If you are in a sub-400EUR budget, you don't buy new. You buy refurb, and get yourself a business class laptop. A Lenovo X220 can be had for less than 200EUR, with a Sandy Bridge i5, 4GB RAM and a spinning disk. Add in another 200EUR to upgrade the RAM and get an SSD and you get much better value for that 400EUR that anything new on the market... or any iPad... for the matter. Granted, you are stuck with 1366x786 on most of those refurbs, but you wouldn't get anything better in the 400EUR budget class any way.

      Well, you could look into Chinese brands, but they are a whole different kettle of worms (even though I would recommend them in some use-cases)

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    55. Re: Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Definitely agree with that. Longtime gamer / Slashdot term / IT guy ( you get the picture) and I'm coming up with less and less reasons for my desktop to exist. Certainly less and less reasons to upgrade it.

      I still don't understand how anyone works without two monitors and a real keyboard, but obviously docking stations are fine.

    56. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      Referring to a Mac as if it is somehow different from a "PC" was nothing but marketing (obviously successful marketing, but marketing nonetheless). The term PC most definitely stands for "Personal Computer," as it has for the past 40 years, and it has nothing to do with Windows nor Intel - otherwise,what would you call a personal computer running non-Windows operating systems, like Linux or BSD (or OSx86), or with an AMD processor?

      I personally don't know anyone over the age of 12 who has utterly eschewed traditional computers for tablets and smartphones... YMMV I guess.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    57. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have been using a tablet with touch-screen and detachable keyboard as my main computer for several years. Mine is called a Microsoft Surface.

    58. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "PC" as an idiom stands for "IBM-PC compatible" and has for over 30 years.

      The Mac was not IBM-compatible for most of its existence. Ironic that Apple started that ad campaign just as they moved to Intel processors, finally making Macs 100% IBM-compatible.

    59. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's interesting advertisers still believe this. As their target demo, 18-40 white male with lots of disposable income, if an ad annoys me I will almost certainly not buy your product. There are exceptions but those tend to be extremely niche markets. If an ad REALLY annoys me, I won't buy from your company. For some reason companies still think their special but they aren't. There is almost always a decent, similarly priced competitor waiting to to take my business and not annoy me.

    60. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To your point #2:

      While there will always be *some* applications that can utilize the computing power of larger form factors, they tend to, over time, become more and more niche.

      Just look at laptop sales vs desktop sales. Same OS, same programs, but once laptops got "good enough", entire demographics began using them and forgetting about ever having a desktop.

      I expect the same will happen with tablets: the majority of users eventually will use a tablet as their primary computing device. There might still be a market for the 16-core mega-towers but only if you're a content producer. And even then, it might be relegated to 1 per office.

      There are many many content creators now that use "pro" laptops instead of desktops and that's plenty computing power for them.

      Everything eventually reaches a plateau or at least a point as which growth practically stagnates. We're basically at that point for the PC, regardless of the form factor. "Pros" using laptops is because the laptops are essentially as powerful as a desktop in 95% of the use cases. I do professional development on a nice laptop because I like the portability but I do get better performance on a desktop and at a lower price point for the high end specs.

      One day some new tech will come along that makes laptops insufficient and desktops will make a resurgence. Probably with pseudo laptop interface accessories so you get the best of both worlds. Right now raw hardware power isn't advancing quickly enough to justify re-buying and the trend is miniaturization/efficiency. Soon enough that will be exhausted and it will be something new. IT runs in cycles. It has for decades and will most likely continue to do so for decades more.

    61. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congratulations, advertising team, for an ad that teaches me that Apple users are rude morons.

      Um, they're Apple users. This is implied.

    62. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

    63. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except for the fact that Apple disallows all kinds of apps on their tablets. The best example being full on programming environments. Sure you can run Swift Playground and program a virtual robot but if you want to make iOS apps Apple requires you to buy a Mac. So really what they're saying is "if you just want to be a passive consumer and probably also never enter a STEM job and therefore never actually work for Apple then just use an Apple tablet"

    64. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She just plain rude. Her next door neighbor is attempting to have a conversation with her, she knows that the question means ("what are you working on?"), but she flippantly dismisses her and continues tapping away on her computer after hardly acknowledging the existence of the other person.

      This is exactly why most kids in the US will relate to her. Likely their target demographic for the ad. They're not all made for you, advertisers learned long ago you can't please everyone.

    65. Re:Every ad-writing person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, it is not the same for the dumb and Primitives, the kind who would blow away your computer factories if you tell them: no computer... Irregardless.

  3. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes this ad is annoying. Even if Kleenex and tissue are interchangeable terms, I can still say either one and be fucking understood.

  4. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 5, Funny

    I fail to see how this makes news on slashdot oh wait it's anti apple that might be how

    It's not even anti-Apple, we already know Apple only makes toys for the mentally impaired.

  5. I hate this commercial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is so smug and self aggrandizing. The very essence of Apple. Exponential smugness.

    1. Re:I hate this commercial by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Exponential smugness...is than an assholomorphic function?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:I hate this commercial by Ranbot · · Score: 3, Funny

      It is so smug and self aggrandizing. The very essence of Apple. Exponential smugness.

      Don't worry, Apple will tell us when to stop using computers. Apple knows what's best for us.

    3. Re:I hate this commercial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This commercial is so fake. Kids don't go outside. If they leave their safe space they might get triggered if the wind blows the right direction

    4. Re:I hate this commercial by MikeMo · · Score: 1

      Come on, fess up: you really just hate it because you hate Apple, right?

    5. Re:I hate this commercial by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      Or according to Nancy Grace; a horde of pedos will abduct them from their front yard.

    6. Re:I hate this commercial by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      It is so smug and self aggrandizing. The very essence of Apple. Exponential smugness.

      Then based on their history and market, it should do well :)

    7. Re:I hate this commercial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like Apple and hate this commercial. Life isn't binary.

    8. Re:I hate this commercial by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Binary allows this. That's a "10"

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    9. Re:I hate this commercial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it is, it has a vertical assymptote.

    10. Re:I hate this commercial by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Some older kids would have slugged the little tyke and made off with his fancy tablet in a half dozen of the scenarios he is depicted in during the commercial.

    11. Re:I hate this commercial by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      His? He?

      --
      Eat the rich.
    12. Re:I hate this commercial by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

      Correct. Check this summer how many kids are outside. Hardly any. For the past what, 5-10 years now. Too busy playing video games and having their face stuck to their "Smart" phones. Sad and pathetic.

    13. Re:I hate this commercial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you have it all wrong.

      It is courageousness. Apple is the first company to champion the rights of smug, arrogant, hipster d-bags.

      #SAHDlivesmatter

      Apple be hella woke, y'all.

    14. Re:I hate this commercial by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Whatever. Aren't we supposed to not make a big deal about it anymore?

    15. Re:I hate this commercial by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      I'm not a fanatic. I call it as I see it, and people are welcome to correct me, should I make a mistake.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  6. Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate to tell you but an ipad IS a computer. Just because the packaging of the computer is different doesn't mean it isn't a computer. Just like your cell phone is a computer. It has a processor, memory, operating system, drive... sound like a computer?

    1. Re:Hah! by Ranbot · · Score: 4, Funny

      But, it says "iPad" See?
      *points* ...it doesn't say "computer" anywhere. You're so dumb.

    2. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      No, it's not a computer. A computer can carry out an arbitrary set of instructions. An iPad can not, and will only do those things which Apple blesses.

    3. Re:Hah! by wed128 · · Score: 1

      but it *can* carry out arbitrary instructions. It's carrying out the instructions it's been given (by apple).

      The computer in your microwave can also carry out arbitrary instructions. Just like the one in your dishwasher, and the cruise control system in your car.

    4. Re:Hah! by imgod2u · · Score: 2

      To be fair, most electronic devices are "computers" if we go by that definition. But you'll never hear a TV, DVD player, watch, toy or walkie-talkie be referred to as a "computer".

      It might be one of those terms that become anachronistic one day. Kinda like "adding machine".

    5. Re:Hah! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I hate to tell you but an ipad IS a computer. Just because the packaging of the computer is different doesn't mean it isn't a computer. Just like your cell phone is a computer. It has a processor, memory, operating system, drive... sound like a computer?

      Your fucking microwave oven has a microcontroller, with an embedded processor, memory and several other peripheral subsystems.

      Does that make it a "computer"?

      No it does not.

      Having said that, I would also argue that an iPad (or similar tablet) likely would fit the definition of "general-purpose computing device".

    6. Re:Hah! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      No, it's not a computer. A computer can carry out an arbitrary set of instructions. An iPad can not, and will only do those things which Apple blesses.

      Really?

      You can't write something in Swift Playgrounds, or in XCode, and run it on an iPad?

      That sounds like a limitation in your brain, not the iPad.

    7. Re:Hah! by dfghjk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "It has a processor, memory, operating system, drive... sound like a computer?"

      It sounds like a microwave oven.

      Perhaps you need to get yourself a viable definition of computer before you go "telling" people what it is. You can start by avoiding definitions that fail to rule out the thermostat on your wall.

    8. Re:Hah! by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      No, it's not a computer. A computer can carry out an arbitrary set of instructions. An iPad can not, and will only do those things which Apple blesses.

      By that argument, any computer isn't a computer, because it can only do those things that are allowed by the CPU manufacturer.

    9. Re:Hah! by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      Your fucking microwave oven has a microcontroller, with an embedded processor, memory and several other peripheral subsystems.

      Does that make it a "computer"?

      Technically, yes, that makes it a Von Neumann architecture computer.

    10. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, most electronic devices are "computers" if we go by that definition. But you'll never hear a TV, DVD player, watch, toy or walkie-talkie be referred to as a "computer".

      I hear myself talk even though it's usually to myself.

    11. Re:Hah! by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      But you'll never hear a TV, DVD player, watch,

      I have a watch that is a computer for real. It is the EZ430 which has an MSP430 microprocessor in a watch form factor, and comes with software to program it. Not just tell it what functions to do, but actual programs. If you buy the full IDE you can modify the entire watch program. The free version is limited and has software for "watch", but not the full functionality of the installed demo program.

      The difference between TV, DVD, walkie-talkie, and the EZ430 is that you do not program the computer in the former, but you can in the latter. You tell the already programmed computer what of the preprogrammed functions it should do for consumer devices that contain computers; you program the computer in a computer. And yes, the iPad has a processor that you can program, so it is, indeed, a computer.

    12. Re:Hah! by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      but it *can* carry out arbitrary instructions. It's carrying out the instructions it's been given (by apple).

      And it can carry out instruction you give it, if you bother to learn how to program it. Your ignorance of how to do it doesn't change the hardware.

      The computer in your microwave can also carry out arbitrary instructions.

      Really? Can I program it to count down by twos?

      Can you not differentiate between "contains a computer" and "is a computer"?

    13. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm thinking that YOU missed the point here. If your thermostat has an OS and separate processor and memory... it's a computer.

    14. Re:Hah! by Frederic54 · · Score: 1

      Your microwave-oven has a hard drive? Pretty cool!

      --
      "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
    15. Re:Hah! by tepples · · Score: 1

      And it can carry out instruction you give it, if you bother to learn how to program it. Your ignorance of how to do it doesn't change the hardware.

      That could be taken either way. I guess a more useful definition of a general-purpose computer hinges on whether the public knows how to make and load programs on a particular device in a lawful manner.

    16. Re:Hah! by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      The PC in our workshop says "HP" and it runs Windows. It too does not say "computer" anywhere . You are even more dumb it seems.

    17. Re:Hah! by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      All computers are limited in some way. On the microwave you can program in arbitrary cooking times and power levels for each "job", my one even allows me to put in 99 seconds as a cooking time. On the Z80 used on CPM based computers you were limited to 64K (unless you did hardware tricks to do memory paging) and there was no multiply or divide instructions on the CPU, you had to create your own code to do it. Likewise floating point calculations were unsupported unless you wrote the code. All things we take for granted now. Can my word processor do cad-cam designs ?, no. Likewise the count down by twos, that is a built in limitation of the software, if the software was rewritten it it would be possible. The biggest limitation of most systems is the imagination of the users and programmers.

    18. Re:Hah! by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      Huh, I own a 1970s analog computer. No CPU, No memory, No keyboard or mouse, and yet works well for computing various arbitrary tasks, and completely programable.

    19. Re:Hah! by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      I guess a more useful definition of a general-purpose computer hinges on whether the public knows how to make and load programs on a particular device in a lawful manner.

      You keep using different words. "User-programmable" in one place, "general purpose" in another.

      NO, the definition of "computer" does NOT include whether Joe Public is smart enough to know how to program it or not. That's just fucking nuts.

      Joe Public could never have figured out on his own how to keypunch an LGO card and precede it with Cyber 6500 assembly instructions to program the mainframe computer being used by Michigan State University's CS department in the mid 1970's, nor would he have had any interest in doing so. And yet, if you walked into the CS department and started claiming that the 6500 wasn't a computer because the "general public" didn't know how to program it, and because you needed an expensive keypunch to create the punched cards that were fed as input, and you had to buy the cards themselves, they'd have laughed you out of the building.

      Just like I'm laughing at you, now.

    20. Re:Hah! by F34nor · · Score: 1

      Insightful, how? If theres is anyone on this site that didn't already know that an iPad is a computer they are a bot.

    21. Re:Hah! by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      What are your differentiating ? The "computer in your microwave" contains a computer ? Or it is a computer ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    22. Re:Hah! by fisted · · Score: 1

      The computer in your microwave can also carry out arbitrary instructions.

      Really? Can I program it to count down by twos?

      Sure, you need a screwdriver, a JTAG adapter and another computer.

    23. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it does. Even a digital clock is a computer.

    24. Re:Hah! by mjwx · · Score: 1

      "It has a processor, memory, operating system, drive... sound like a computer?"

      It sounds like a microwave oven.

      What Microwave has a disk drive in it? What OS, can I run Slackware on it?

      The term "processor", "memory" and "operating system" are pretty specific terms and clearly connotate to a computer even when not used in context. To pretend they are anything else is completely disingenuous and only make you sound like you have no idea what you're on about.

      Someone who doesn't know what a "processor" is will have no idea if a Microwave has one.

      English language puritans are incredibly stupid because they don't get that the language has evolved for fault tolerance, not grammatical accuracy.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    25. Re:Hah! by Ranbot · · Score: 1

      I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you did not miss the joke and you are just doubling down on my sarcasm.

    26. Re:Hah! by neurovish · · Score: 1

      The computer in your microwave can also carry out arbitrary instructions.

      Really? Can I program it to count down by twos?

      Challenge: Accepted!

      That will really fuck with people who come over and try using my microwave.

    27. Re:Hah! by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Joe Public could never have figured out on his own how to keypunch an LGO card and precede it with Cyber 6500 assembly instructions to program the mainframe computer being used by Michigan State University's CS department in the mid 1970's, nor would he have had any interest in doing so. And yet, if you walked into the CS department and started claiming that the 6500 wasn't a computer because the "general public" didn't know how to program it, and because you needed an expensive keypunch to create the punched cards that were fed as input, and you had to buy the cards themselves, they'd have laughed you out of the building.

      In my mind, the distinction between a general purpose computer (or, in common parlance, a computer) and an embedded system is whether it was designed and sold with the intent of letting the purchaser program it. Your microwave oven, despite theoretically being reprogrammable by people willing to crack it open and do horrible things to it, was not designed to be programmed, and comes with fixed programming from the factory, hence it is not a computer, though it contains a computer (which was probably not designed by the microwave oven manufacturer). Your desktop or laptop computer clearly was designed with that in mind, and thus is a computer.

      Devices like smart TVs blur the lines. To the extent that they allow third parties to write apps for them, they could be seen as computers, but to the extent that they are designed to prevent anyone from doing so unless they obtain special permission from the manufacturer, they really aren't general-purpose computers. They're embedded systems.

      An iPad is a computer, though not nearly as useful as a laptop or desktop, mainly for lack of a mouse cursor, a sufficiently large screen, and a sufficient corpus of high-end apps that aren't watered down to support only the limited features that are easily supported on a tiny screen operated with your finger without requiring a hardware keyboard. In other words, it is still very much a toy as computers go.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    28. Re:Hah! by wed128 · · Score: 1

      The "Computer in my microwave" is a computer. It has an ALU, a program counter, some ram, it runs a program. sounds like a computer to me.

    29. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would you guys stop with the hair-splitting already?

      EVERYONE here knows what a microprocessor is and what it does. They know how they're used in mobile devices and desktops and embedded systems, and arguing over what counts as a computer makes not ONE GODDAMNED BIT OF DIFFERENCE to anyone, it's pointless dick-fight pedantry. It helps NO ONE's understanding.

    30. Re:Hah! by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      The computer in your microwave can also carry out arbitrary instructions.

      Really? Can I program it to count down by twos?

      Can you not differentiate between "contains a computer" and "is a computer"?

      Yeah, I really can't understand the above discussion. The computer in your microwave clearly appears to be a computer, but yet there is an insinuation that something that contains a computer is being confused with a computer. I don't see any.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    31. Re:Hah! by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Not sure about "microprocessor" , but

      EVERYONE here knows what a microprocessor is and what it does

      I am pretty sure Obfuscant ( 592200 ) does not know what a "computer" is, and what contains it. Can you explain this : https://slashdot.org/comments.... ?

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    32. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NOT fucking interested!

    33. Re:Hah! by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      Ok, one of the ACs here was interested. He / She even posted that

      EVERYONE here knows what a microprocessor is and what it does

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
    34. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WHO GIVES A SHIT. Unless you're adding something to the sum of human knowledge (you're not) it's just pissing in the wind.

    35. Re:Hah! by bingoUV · · Score: 1

      One of the ACs here seemed to give a shit.

      --
      Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
  7. from the future? by oneiros27 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The only possible explanation that I could come up with is if the commercial was supposed to be someone from the future, and they're talking to someone so old that they were from today's era.

    But if you're going to do that, you need some flying cars or something to suggest that it's in the future.

    As it is now, it's just a free-range child mouthing off to her neighbor.

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
    1. Re:from the future? by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      What do you expect from kids when they have so much screen time? ~

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:from the future? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone needs to parody this add by adding a background voice where the neighbor mumbles "You're working on one... Stupid ass kid."

    3. Re:from the future? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      All I could think was who is letting their kid run around with a what $500+ piece of equipment to all over the city. Call me crazy but that just didn't sit well with me.

  8. it's not about the computer by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's because the kid acts like an arrogant rich twit who can't look away from his screen for three seconds to have a decent conversation with someone. He looks like a poster-boy for smartphone (or tablet in this case) addiction.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:it's not about the computer by GenYGuy · · Score: 2

      Yeah, Amazon tried something similar with the Fire Phone and look how that turned out...

    2. Re: it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thought it was a girl. Maybe he should have said "what's a gender". I believe our current definition of gender will change long before desktop computers fade away.

    3. Re:it's not about the computer by p4nther2004 · · Score: 1, Interesting
      Yawn. It's no about the computer. It's about the computer experience.

      Like Apple or hate it. Apple (and Jobs in particular) has worked for the last 20+ years trying to remove the "computer" from people who had to work with it.

      Did you ever get to work with an original Mac? The one that had a training cassette that was to be played with the original tutorial programs? The entire purpose of that machine was to make working with it so simply anyone could do it. (Even my mom...god rest her soui...as mathematically incompetent as she was had no problem using it.)

      Now compare that with trying to get a C64 to read from a floppy drive.

      Is the ad annoying? Sure. Apple haters are really going to hate it.

      But they should be running chrome books by now, anyway. :-)

    4. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a kid from the future. It's neither a boy or a girl. It reproduces by sending off DNA samples to a genetics lab in China.

    5. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly what I thought. And if the tablet they are using is so great, can't they use it to answer questions - such as "what's a computer"

    6. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He looks like a poster-boy...

      I honestly couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl in that video :-/

    7. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? You're comparing a C=64 to a Mac? C=64 to Apple II (or III (or even, shudder shudder Lisa), IBM PC, etc.), but not a Mac.
      Compare a Mac to an Amiga? Yes... but not a C=64 - the single best selling computer on the planet!

    8. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have used a different "original Mac" than I did. It needed as much training as anything else, just different training.

    9. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That kid is a girl, according to the article

    10. Re:it's not about the computer by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      It's because the kid acts like an arrogant rich twit who can't look away from his screen for three seconds to have a decent conversation with someone. He looks like a poster-boy for smartphone (or tablet in this case) addiction.

      Is the kid in the commercial a girl or boy? These days it could go either way.

    11. Re:it's not about the computer by swb · · Score: 1

      And they managed to give the kid every imaginable annoyingly on-trend and precocious quality. He's an intellectual, an artist, a scientist, and environmentalist, a bike rider, coffee shop denizen, transit rider AND is gender-flexible with his painted fingernails.

    12. Re:it's not about the computer by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 1

      Which is why the ad is a winner. It appeals to duo-income parents who want to believe that the right consumer goods will unlock their children's supery dupery potential. If vicarious aspirations do not get them to reach for the wallet, then guilt over parental neglect surely will. But it is nice to start with the honey themes and let the darker subtext gnaw at their underlying anxieties.

    13. Re:it's not about the computer by p4nther2004 · · Score: 1
      Amiga came out in 1985 - a year after the Mac.

      But my point was the complexity that some people prefer. (I know I do).

      What was the command to get to a hard drive with a C64? OPEN 1,8,15,"N:NEWDISK,01":CLOSE 1 ?

      Mac? Stick the disk in the slot. (Not that Vanilla Macs came with hard drives) Using a Mac was like driving a car with an automatic transmission. Yeah, it did what I wanted...but if I WANTED control....

    14. Re:it's not about the computer by Yaztromo · · Score: 1

      And they managed to give the kid every imaginable annoyingly on-trend and precocious quality. He's an intellectual, an artist, a scientist, and environmentalist, a bike rider, coffee shop denizen, transit rider AND is gender-flexible with his painted fingernails.

      That is Hannah Alligood, and she is a girl. But please, don't let that get in the way of some good old-fashioned transgender bashing. Pathetic.

      Yaz

    15. Re:it's not about the computer by Yaztromo · · Score: 1

      Is the kid in the commercial a girl or boy? These days it could go either way.

      That's a 14 year old girl. But even if it weren't -- so what?

      Yaz

    16. Re: it's not about the computer by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      The kid was a "she".

    17. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's because the kid acts like an arrogant rich twit who can't look away from his screen for three seconds to have a decent conversation with someone. He looks like a poster-boy for smartphone (or tablet in this case) addiction.

      You bring up an interesting point, unwittingly it seems:

      Is this kid a boy or a girl or was he/she specifically cast to be as androgynous as the classic SNL character Pat, but without that androgyny being slapped in our faces. It almost seems like a coiled cobra waiting for someone to bring it up so they can spring the "homophobe" argument against them.

      Truth is no one cares what gender the kid was, but the went to great lengths to make it ambiguous to make it "clickbaity" and whilst this ambiguity is adding to the ambiguity of a commercial that does not really seem to have a clear point what it is advertising, they do something that annoys millions mildly in a non offensive way, well a way in which they cannot be called out for being mildly offensive whilst offending people and wow.. what do you know??? They managed to get a reaction!

      I say it is a sign of the times, not implying that the world is coming to an end.. the world will be just fine, but only in 2018 is it acceptable to use a commercial to make a point that no one is interested in and piss them off while doing it.. They might as well have hired Kylie Jenner to offer the kid a Coke after she got the shit kicked out of her by trying to stop a riot by giving the police one of those annoying 1/4 cans of pepsi. The Trump supporters and the white supremacists and the Hillary supporters and the Black lives matter crowd will be fighting over this at the water cooler which brings us back to the old Apple demographic of the 1990s, Apple products are for the evil ones among us. This all proves it! Fan the flames and use the heat to make the popcorn you are going to eat whilst everyone else is at each other's throats!

    18. Re:it's not about the computer by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      The Commodore 64 hard drive was hosted by a 6502-family controller at least as powerful as the one in the commie.

      It was sort of a silly thing. You could buy a whole IBM-compatible XT clone for what a commie hard drive cost.

    19. Re:it's not about the computer by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      Really? Seriously?

      Maybe you need glasses.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    20. Re:it's not about the computer by swb · · Score: 1

      See? You made my point. The deliberate smug promotion of transgenderism is part of why it's annoying.

    21. Re:it's not about the computer by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

      The stupidest thing about this ad isn't even the ending, it's the whole duration. The kid goes around to multiple areas in the city and in trees to...stare at the same screen. Making an ad about being in nature with your tech, but being in nature with your tech and not experiencing nature at all is completely disingenuous.

    22. Re: it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I couldn't tell, and apparently a lot of other people can't either. So, an effectively transgender F to M character in an ad? Wow, Apple really are ahead of the curve!

    23. Re:it's not about the computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you SEEN the bullshit you type on slashdot? No one wants to talk to your stupid ass and getting rid of their phones isn't gonna change that. Why the fuck do you want to talk to little kids so badly anyway? We taught them to NOT talk to strangers because of fuckers like you.

  9. Apple Ads, sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple Ads make me want to punch either the actors, or the creators, usually for their music and "plot" choices. This ad does both.

    Urge to punch, rising!!

  10. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is an iPad not a computer?

    1. Re:Huh? by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Is an iPad not a computer?

      It's nothing but verbiage semantics for GenZ marketing. The Millennial version is "what's a mainframe?"...

    2. Re:Huh? by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

      It's a tampon.

  11. The keyboard is the new headphone jack by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    Apple removed the useful headphone jack and yet other companies follow suit. The keyboard may be the next victim. It's just as easy to ignore why people need a keyboard as it is to ignore people who want a single standard headphone for everything.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      The keyboard may be the next victim.

      Haven't Amazon Echo and Google home already done this pretty effectively already? Even with Apple's HomePod entering the fray in a few weeks, Siri doesn't exactly threaten the keyboard.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    2. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No.... The whole point is the iPad Pro comes with a keyboard. It is Apple's version of a Surface and a big part of the ad is to down play that aspect by saying its not a computer (ie. Surface clone).

    3. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      If you want to call it a keyboard. It's not optimized for a lot of touch-typing. But then I guess macbook keyboards aren't really that either.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    4. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Voice controls have a long way to go before they match a touch screen or keyboard.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      We're living in the tail end of a period in history. It's the usual arc; something new is invented, it goes through a period of 'wild west' type freedom; open -- anything goes. Then slowly over time, industry and/or government steps in to regulate and lock it down. Usually under the guise of it being for our safety of course, or in the case of industry -- to extract as much profit as possible (the overlap of what they offer versus what we want as consumers is seen as money left on the table).

      That said, methinks the end game is to remove as much latitude in how you use devices as possible. In this case it's largely due to ads, and how to completely monetize every second of your existence.

      Expect locked down, gimped hardware that runs software that spies on you constantly. Coding will be reduced to playing tetris with drag an drop, pre-fabbed blocks of functionality. And you'll be force fed ads at every turn.

      On an aside, remember when you could buy something, and that was the end of it? Now every retailer, every company wants to scour as much information about you and your purchase. That trend will only accelerate.

      Bleak.

    6. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They didn't remove it from their iPads or laptops which is what we are talking about so I'm missing your point as it relates to this topic. But assuming you were just hating on Apple, the reason everyone is following suit on phones is because the headphone jack is inefficient, which is no surprise as it it 50 years old. Time to move into the digital age.

    7. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are stupid. I'm sorry but reading this shit you write it's obvious you are not an intelligent person, and yet you choose to talk at great length about it. Your ideas aren't even original. Please stop posting to Slashdot.

    8. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      thanks for the support AC, as always, an insightful comment!

    9. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's very much like that - the universities are teaching the future of computer science as cloud computing, big data, mobile and embedded systems with sensors.

    10. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, and Apple will remove their keyboards way before voice controls are functional. They are already signaling it. Both with this ad and by killing some macbook a few days ago (can't bother to remember what was the headline).

    11. Re:The keyboard is the new headphone jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The keyboard may be the next victim.

      Haven't you seen the current MacBook Pro keyboards? They've already started with the function key row!

  12. "What's a Computer?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    LOL, Apple just replaced the keyboard/mouse with a touchscreen. That's what an iPad is. It removed access to a filesystem also. It's still a (neutered) computer, no matter what that dumb, brainwashed kid thinks.

    1. Re:"What's A Computer?" by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

      Except physical computers technically aren't turing complete, because they don't have infinite memory.

    2. Re:"What's A Computer?" by geek · · Score: 1

      Infinity is a concept that doesn't exist in reality though. It can be disregarded entirely.

    3. Re:"What's A Computer?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Other technical terms in my lifetime that have been destroyed by marketing:

      OS
      AI
      Why not computer?

    4. Re:"What's A Computer?" by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 2

      My point is that for any realized computer, there will be turing computable functions that it can't actually compute because it would require more memory than it actually has access too.

    5. Re:"What's A Computer?" by behrooz0az · · Score: 1

      add hack, encryption, virus, code, and anything that has to do with apps.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
  13. Great for students writing code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All those non tech geeks writing swift code on their ipads because hey, what's a computer?

  14. poor kid needs a life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe make friends with other kids or something.

    1. Re:poor kid needs a life by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      They can't make friends with other kids. The off-camera chaperone, who is keeping everybody in the kid's vicinity from clocking them and stealing the tablet, won't let any other kids get near them.

    2. Re:poor kid needs a life by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

      Don't be silly! ;)

  15. When Marketing Goes Too Far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every company wants to experience what Kleenex, Google, Kiltz, etc. have which is having their named for product become synonymous with a thing or activity.

    Like iPad'ing is every gonna become a thing...or iPhoning...or whatever.

    Ubiquity is what makes Google, Google and Kleenex, Kleenex. You can't have that and exclusivity at the same time as a marketing strategy.

  16. Should've asked.... by yoey · · Score: 1

    .... "Is that a PC?"

    A "Computer" is too general. A PC could connote 1980s, IBM, Microsoft and Windows, etc.

    1. Re:Should've asked.... by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      .... "Is that a PC?"

      The neighbor didn't ask "is that a computer?" The goal of the question was not to find out what device the girl was using. The goal of the question was to find out what interesting thing the girl was doing on whatever that thing is. Not "what are you doing on your computer?" More like "You seem engrossed in something interesting, I'd like to have a friendly conversation about what it is and how you are doing. I've lived next door to your your entire life, I've been your babysitter when necessary, I know your parents and we play bridge together. I'm interested in you."

      "Fuck off old woman, this isn't a computer you dimwit. Leave me alone. I'm going to ignore you now. I'm Apple's prime demographic, so I don't need you."

  17. An iPad can replace a computer when... by qzzpjs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An iPad can replace a computer when they can actually write all the code for iOS on an iPad. Until then, people will need real computers.

    1. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by geek · · Score: 1

      Oh you can write the code on an iPad. It'll take a while but you can do it. Just try to fucking compile it though..........

    2. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What an arrogant ass you are.

      90% of "users" don't program, don't need to program and don't want to program.

      My father-in-law (in his 80's) had never used a computer in his life, he uses an iPad daily, it does all the things he wants/needs.

      Computers allow you to use software that other people have written, just like a radio/MP3 player allows you to enjoy music other people have written. Let me know when you can write a concerto like Bach did. Or perhaps next time you drive your car ask yourself if you could design and build your own.

      An iPad is so much more useful than my first "computer", a TRS-80 model 1, back when they were new.

      And yeah, I started by hand assembling Z80 code , putting into DATA/POKE loops in a BASIC program because I did not own an assembler.
      Waiting up to 20 minutes for programs to load via cassette tape.

      and of those who are coding, I bet 90% and more are using software (text editor, compiler, etc etc etc) written by someone else.

    3. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      How many people "program" is irrelevant. A computer is capable of building software, including the software that forms the computer itself. That's one of the many things a computer does that an iPad doesn't do.

      You are confusing your own ignorance for someone else's arrogance. Get some reading comprehension.

      "My father-in-law (in his 80's) had never used a computer in his life, he uses an iPad daily, it does all the things he wants/needs."

      "An iPad is so much more useful than my first "computer", a TRS-80 model 1, back when they were new."

      Funny how you seem to know inherently the difference between an iPad and a computer yet want to argue the opposite. Perhaps that's because you want to confuse "want to do" or "what is useful" with what a device is capable of.

      At your age, no reason to expect you will ever learn.

    4. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      A computer is capable of building software, including the software that forms the computer itself.

      There is nothing in the standard definition of "computer" that says it has to be powerful enough to compile its own operating system.

      Even so, all it would take is an assembler ported to the iPad for it to be able to do so, if one hasn't already been. An iPad is a pretty flexible computer once you learn enough about it and not parrot the apple-hater rhetoric.

    5. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " A computer is capable of building software", heres the thing, technically an iPad is capable, Apple does not allow it.

      I also know what paper tape, 8" floppy, CPM2.2, TRS-DOS, green screen, cassette tape, dot matrix printer, etc etc are, I have used all of them. That is due to a very long association with technology from the 1970's, I have also had to solder and piggyback 4116 memory chips to add RAM to a computer, use wire wrap, veroboard, and bishop graphics to lay out a PCB. I know what binary code is, what hand assembling is, hex codes, etc. No compilers back then.

      I also know the difference between Dell and HP even though they both run Windows. I also know about Linux, OSX, Unix, and MS-DOS.

      The fact that I recognise the difference between an iPad and a Mac (I also recognise the difference between a iPhone, iPod and iPad too) is irrelevant. My grandkids want to use the iPad, not the Mac.

      My local bank that supplies in store internet banking now uses iPads in their kiosks, not PCs like they used to have.

      I know what an 8bit computer is, now Apple is only allowing 64bit Apps.

      I have seen far more change in technology than you, use far more OS's than you, so I think I have a pretty good grasp on what a "computer" is.

      Oh and I have a lovely 1970's analog computer at home too.

    6. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No I think you are confusing the point. So many tasks can't be practically done on an ipad "including" writing the code for an ipad. There is a reason that tablet sales have been in the shitter for years and is unlikely to ever return from the shitter, barring some amazing new innovation that makes them practical for things like email, web browsers, writing documents and yes even coding. an ipad is far less useful than my first computer a commodore 64.

    7. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, once that happens, iPads can replace ALL computers. Until that happens it can only replace computers for the 98% of people who do not code! Which I hope you count among those who don't code.

    8. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet I know someone whose wife wrote her masters thesis on an iPad.

      You can write as much code as you like on an iPad, you just can't compile it.

      I use email and web browsing on my iPad, last time I went on a holiday around the world for 8 weeks I only had my iPhone and iPad with me. My laptop stayed home.

      The other reason tablets sales are falling is that they last longer, my iPad is a iPad mini version 2 and is years old, still does what I bought it for. Sure the OS can't be updated anymore, but it still works. I am pretty sure there is no spyware, bloatware on it, there is no virus checker that forces updates every year on me, it not full of junk left over from Apps that were uninstalled but left all sorts of libraries etc there. Theres no need to do a complete reinstall because of junk build up in the registry file, etc etc.

      Love to see you do email, web browsing, facebook, twitter, cloud storage, video capture/editing, photo capture/editing, reading news papers and books, listening to music, getting GPS coordinates for Maps and getting voice directions etc etc etc on your C=64, or use it on the go while in a library, or car, cafe, museum, train, plane.

      I use my iPad in microbiology labs because I can wipe it down with alcohol for sterilisation , used it in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant with approval from their compliance officer because of the same thing, any permeable materials such as paper manuals I take in can not be taken out.

      Its is a tool, just as my desktop is a tool. And I don't give a damn about this faux war OSX vs Windows vs Linux etc because I use all of them when they are the right tool for the job.

      99% of computers ever bought have never been used for writing code or compiling code.

    9. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by tepples · · Score: 1

      There is nothing in the standard definition of "computer" that says it has to be powerful enough to compile its own operating system.

      To compile its own operating system, I'll grant maybe not. But for user-written user-space applications, I think that's pretty important in order to consider a computer as general-purpose.

      Even so, all it would take is an assembler ported to the iPad for it to be able to do so

      Guess what Apple probably wouldn't allow.

      I'm aware of the existence of Swift Playgrounds. I don't know how it manages to work around the strict W^X policy in iOS against runtime generation of code. I'm also aware of a stipulation in the current App Store Review Guidelines implying that any user programmability is intended for education, not for production:

      2.5.2 Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code, including other apps. Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the Application completely viewable and editable by the user.

    10. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      But for user-written user-space applications, I think that's pretty important in order to consider a computer as general-purpose.

      Another goal-post move. Now it's "general-purpose" computers. But even so, the iPad is one. User-space applications can be programmed for the iPad. I'm glad you've finally admitted the iPad is a computer.

      Guess what Apple probably wouldn't allow.

      I don't give a fuck what Apple will or won't allow. A compiler is a second year CS graduate project at worst. Apple doesn't get to tell me I cannot run apps I've developed myself on my iPad.

      I'm also aware of a stipulation in the current App Store Review Guidelines implying that any user programmability is intended for education, not for production:

      Did you even look at the link I posted to the Apple Developer Program? How can you honestly claim that those apps are intended for education and not production? And who gives a fuck if the app I write for my iPad is for "education" -- the point is that I CAN write apps for it, and thus the iPad is a computer using any reasonable definition of such.

    11. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      The current IOS devices are far more "powerful" than any 68K and PPC "computers" Apple ever manufactured.

      Any registered developer who can load and test their Apps on their iPad can write and install their own compiler on an iPad if they wished to do so.

      Its only a limitation if you wish to offer/sell your software through the Applestore.

    12. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      As a guess I would say better than 90% of computers ever in existence have never been used to write code.

      It may be important to you to be able to write code, but to the majority its irrelevant

      However if we want to take a really broad view of programming then I would say Apple does include tools, its called Garage Band. Here using a special notation you can write arbitrary code (notes, length of note, instruments, etc etc) to create unique sources that other people can get, use and modify on their own iPads, and run so that it compiles into an audible output.It is even possible for different people to work on difference portions of that code and combine them into one piece. Indeed some bands have done exactly this and then made that compiled output available for sale via iTunes. Because of a lack of musical ability it may not meet most peoples view of programming, but then again writing swift code does not meet most peoples need for a computer.

    13. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by tepples · · Score: 1

      Did you even look at the link I posted to the Apple Developer Program?

      Membership therein expires after 365 days.

    14. Re:An iPad can replace a computer when... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I also know the difference between Dell and HP

      So do I. Dell is a company that makes Personal Computers (and some server hardware.) Hewlett-Packard is a company that made great test equipment. It's a defunct company, unfortunately, and another company has come along and stolen the brand name.

  18. Smug b*astards take note... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dad, what’s a “mainframe?”

  19. An iPad is a Computer by Wovel · · Score: 4, Informative

    An iPad is a computer. I am at a loss to understand the outrage. Does it do everything everyone might want? No. Does any other computer do anything anyone might want? No.

    Ads are generally dumb. There is no reason to get mad.

    1. Re:An iPad is a Computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But I'm not mad, just calling an ad stupid.

    2. Re:An iPad is a Computer by chispito · · Score: 1

      An iPad is a computer. I am at a loss to understand the outrage. Does it do everything everyone might want? No. Does any other computer do anything anyone might want? No.

      Ads are generally dumb. There is no reason to get mad.

      Outrage? Not sure I'm detecting that anywhere. It's clear that here people miss the point of the commercial: The question is meant to be more open ended than the way the kid poses it. It's meant to operate on both levels.

      What, after all, is a computer?

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    3. Re:An iPad is a Computer by zbaron · · Score: 1

      I'd wager that the people who are "outraged" with this ad are the same people who a little while ago would have belittled the iPad as not being a computer because of lame excuse a, b, or c.

  20. "What's A Computer?" by Archtech · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I'm glad you asked, kid. A computer is any device that's Turing-complete".

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
  21. A computer is... by kurkosdr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A computer is a device that is user-programmable, aka you are not restricted to the apps found in the vendor's app store. The iPad is a content delivery mechanism much like a BluRay player (which has games too thanks to BD-J)

    1. Re:A computer is... by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      I prefer the definition from "Time Bandits":

      "A computer is an electronic apparatus used for making calculations."

    2. Re:A computer is... by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      Every web browser would qualify as a "computer" by that definition (and you can argue it's true). And smartphones/tablets do have web browsers....

    3. Re:A computer is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So then a spreadsheet is programming. It allows the user to define a logical series of arbitrary steps that can handle arbitrary data and produce an outcome that can be replicated by others. A spreadsheet can also have bugs.

      Much the same way a compiler does, or an assembler, because both of those can only ultimately use instructions that the hardware designers allow you to use.

      Try doing a "long branch" on a Motorola 6800, best you could do was a jump of maximum 255 bytes.

      You have created a very narrow and wrong definition.

    4. Re:A computer is... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      A computer is a device that is user-programmable, aka you are not restricted to the apps found in the vendor's app store. The iPad is a content delivery mechanism much like a BluRay player (which has games too thanks to BD-J)

      Wrong.
      1. You can write apps yourself with XCode that will never be in the App Store.

      2. You can write Apps yourself on the iPad with Swift Playgrounds that will never be in the App Store.

    5. Re:A computer is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that's an electronic computer. Before electronic computers existed, there were mechanical computers, and before that it was a profession

      A computer is a person or device whose job is to perform calculations.

    6. Re:A computer is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      really show a web browser that is a device?

    7. Re:A computer is... by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Take it up with Terry Gilliam.

    8. Re:A computer is... by F34nor · · Score: 1

      Oh snap! Well played.

    9. Re:A computer is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer the definition from "Time Bandits":

      "A computer is an electronic apparatus used for making calculations."

      Kind of makes you want to chuck a difference engine at that boy or girl or which ever that kid in the commercial is doesn't it?

    10. Re:A computer is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only, without the "electronic" - Babbage's machines are as much computers as the ipad is.
      Strictly speaking counting on your fingers is a very primitive computer (you can add two positive integers that total up to 5 or less on your two hands).

    11. Re:A computer is... by neurovish · · Score: 1

      A computer is a device that is user-programmable, aka you are not restricted to the apps found in the vendor's app store. The iPad is a content delivery mechanism much like a BluRay player (which has games too thanks to BD-J)

      How many /. accounts do you have?

  22. What's a computer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Your iPad is a computer. Your smart watch is a computer. Your graphing calculator from 1987 is a computer. Aside from the smarm in this commercial, I found it dumb that she says "What's a computer?" while her hands are actually right there on a computer.

    Making a computer in the shape of a tabled dosen't mean it ceases to be a computer.

  23. Re: who cares by servo335 · · Score: 1

    Keep reading and you will see all the hate slashdot has for Apple. I dont necessarily mean the editors per say but more the community

  24. Parental apathy by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 1

    Actually what annoys me more is the concept of the parents just abandoning their child, presumably because they are too busy working 24/7 so they can afford $1000 ipads and a city centre house with a garden.

    'Take your computer and fuck off out the house'
    'What's a computer?'
    'Less of your cheek. I've got to get a pointless report over to the boss before 11pm'

    1. Re: Parental apathy by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      "Less of your cheek" Is that the same as "stop dressing so slutty"?

    2. Re: Parental apathy by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 1

      Yeh, OK. I just realised that might be a Scottish/UK idiom ("stop your disrespect and back-talk").

  25. Even annoys my teen by valkraider · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This ad even annoyed my teenage daughter. We are a very pro-Apple family, so itâ(TM)s not because we dislike Apple. But she feels that of course the kid knows what a computer is, and that the ad makes kids look stupid or oblivious to the world around them and she doesnâ(TM)t like that stereotype. Even if you donâ(TM)t use a âoecomputerâ - you certainly can know what one is. A better response would have been something witty about progress, maybe like âoeThis is more than a computerâ or âoewho uses computers anymore?â or something. This is all even before we get into the fact that from a technological standpoint, an iPad *is* a computer...

    1. Re:Even annoys my teen by sl3xd · · Score: 5, Informative

      I know it's an extra step, but please tap the "send to" and select "request desktop site" before posting to Slashdot.

      m.slashdot.org doesn't handle Unicode.

      The desktop site is still pretty crippled, but it's able to handle U+2018 (‘), U+2019 (’), U+201C (“), and U+201D (”) correctly.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    2. Re:Even annoys my teen by jgrimard · · Score: 1

      WHY can't a bunch of computer nerds figure out how to fix the mobile site? If it can't handle posting a apostrophe then maybe they should just take the mobile site down. This is crazy!

    3. Re:Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Daily reminder that Slashdot is written in.. Perl. They probably can't even read and understand the source code they have written at this point.

    4. Re:Even annoys my teen by danbert8 · · Score: 2

      I'd say mod this up, but how this site handles unicode would probably fÿÜ{ that up too...

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    5. Re:Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a bunch of computer nerds

      What's a computer?

    6. Re:Even annoys my teen by nullchar · · Score: 1

      Why can't a geek, posting to slashdot, learn how to configure their IOS keyboard to not send unicode, but send ascii quote and double-quote?

      Many other comments make it appear to be simple to configure.

      Yes, it's annoying, but the site code is not actively maintained; so we have to live with it.

    7. Re:Even annoys my teen by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      WHY can't a bunch of computer nerds figure out how to fix the mobile site? If it can't handle posting a apostrophe then maybe they should just take the mobile site down. This is crazy!

      I have never understood why Slashdot has the most antediluvian comment system on the entire internet. It's like it's 1997 in here!

    8. Re:Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should I reconfigure my phone because slasdot is run by incompetent people?

    9. Re: Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Found an even a better solution. In iOS go to settings general keyboard and turn off smart punctuation.
      Just did it I'm testing now. I'm

      https://www.jordanmerrick.com/posts/ios-11-smart-punctuation

    10. Re:Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brilliant.

    11. Re:Even annoys my teen by valkraider · · Score: 1

      I feel like this is very ironic.

    12. Re:Even annoys my teen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously? this annoyed you?

      So if I asked your teenage daughter about her computer when she was doing something on her phone she would rebut me?

      The industry has tried to make the distinction and say the iPad is not a Computer. I and Apple disagree with that Idea. To get people to "Think different" they throw out the hypothetical, if the first computer you bought your daughter was an iPad and you used only iPads and iPhones for computing devices and talked about them as phones and tablets. You could perform all of the activities that most people need to perform, and when asked about your "computer" you might answer "what a computer". But in the commercial it is not the little girl asking the question it is Apple that is asking.

              "What's a computer"

      With the implied answer being that an iPad is a computer. Get it?
       

    13. Re: Even annoys my teen by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      I’m enough of a typography geek to prefer the correct punctuation.

      Ambidextrous quotation marks are just awful.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    14. Re:Even annoys my teen by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      I applaud the useful information, but still... it's never worth it to blame the user.

      Slashdot has made it clear they don't want to fix the problem, so direct your frustration at them (whether it helps or not).

    15. Re:Even annoys my teen by Lost+Race · · Score: 1

      Why should I reconfigure my phone because slashdot is run by incompetent people?

      Yes, that's exactly why.

    16. Re:Even annoys my teen by Fruit · · Score: 1

      I don't think he's blaming the user, just making a polite request. If anything, he's blaming Slashdot for the bug (correctly).

    17. Re:Even annoys my teen by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      I’m just bitching about /., and sharing the most useful workaround I’ve found.

      I’m a typography geek and never liked ambidextrous quotes. Professional typesetting doesn’t use ambidextrous quotes, and the tech has existed for years for regular computer users.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
  26. All Apple news is greeted by haters by Ghazgkull · · Score: 1

    How is this news? If you follow any tech news outlet, you know that every piece of Apple news is immediately jumped on by a rabid pack of trolls. For whatever reason, Apple anti-fans are the biggest vocal minority on the internet.

    1. Re:All Apple news is greeted by haters by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      How is this news? If you follow any tech news outlet, you know that every piece of Apple news is immediately jumped on by a rabid pack of trolls. For whatever reason, Apple anti-fans are the biggest vocal minority on the internet.

      Because they all are jobless neckbeards, with nothing better to do than post their slime from their parents' basements.

  27. The Evolution of Idiot-Proof. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    "Can an iPad replace your computer?"

    Of course it can. Software installations? There's an app for that. Web design? Fill-in-the-blank template. Communication? Tweet-filled emojis. Research? Ask Siri.

    We seem to overlook the side effect of dumbing down devices to create an idiot-proof UI for the masses; most users are not tech saavy because they don't need to be.

    It makes sense to devolve the computing environment.

  28. Apple and their dreams^w nightmares... by alexandre · · Score: 1

    In a post-Turing world, where 1984 will be ... like 1984.

  29. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As another person would say, Apple products are "made especially for idi - I mean - mommies and daddies."

  30. We were just talking abotu this ad! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What annoys me about it is the kid never even waits for the answer, like the Apple fanboys who wrote it just assumed the audience was watching with an "Ooooooh...SNAP!" reaction on their faces.

  31. Wrong protest! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    Unfortunately, people are playing directly into the hands of the "there is no such thing as bad publicity" trap because it bring awareness to their product. If they wanted to protest the commercial better then they should be posting things like, "Fuck you, Apple! #NeverBuyFromApple" which would have a better impact. The reason for this is that it sends a negative signal about a brand without leaving the ability for someone to dismiss it. It will leave people a bit bewildered but they will get the message you are trying to send instead of the one Apple is trying to send.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Wrong protest! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, people are playing directly into the hands of the "there is no such thing as bad publicity" trap because it bring awareness to their product. If they wanted to protest the commercial better then they should be posting things like, "Fuck you, Apple! #NeverBuyFromApple" which would have a better impact. The reason for this is that it sends a negative signal about a brand without leaving the ability for someone to dismiss it. It will leave people a bit bewildered but they will get the message you are trying to send instead of the one Apple is trying to send.

      I thought the already accomplished that with the commercial where the black guy switches to the Samsung phone because his iPhone wasn't waterproof and didn't have a headphone jack or a big screen so he buys a Samsung so his girlfriend doesn't continue having a better phone than him with a bigger screen.. and he walks by the apple fanboy line camping out for the iPhone X with the smug look on his face.. That was an apple ad in the regard you are talking about pissing people off using a kind of reverse psychology.

    2. Re:Wrong protest! by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      "Fuck you, Apple! #NeverBuyFromApple"

      At which point, Apple fans roll their eyes and buy a brand new compu -- I mean, iPad.

  32. I'm remind of... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...how Apple had to cancel the "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC" ads because everyone thought Mac guy was an insufferable douche and liked PC guy better.

    1. Re:I'm remind of... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      and that proves that most people didn't even understand the ads in the first place.

      They were not "Mac guy" and "PC guy", they were Mac and PC in human form.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:I'm remind of... by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      Apple has always looked down on geeks and nerds, at least their marketing department. You can get a sense of this toxic Apple culture from Tim Cook himself.

      The whole anti-nerd thing reeks of anti-intellectualism. We should probably be embracing people that can operate the machines that our modern civilization depends on.

      What's sad for Apple is they often want to embrace artists, but artists are geeks in their own way. Maybe geeks about paint and canvas instead of geeks about compilers and debuggers, but I really don't see a appreciable difference between people with healthy obsessions.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:I'm remind of... by ThisIsNotAName · · Score: 1

      I've always wondered how much damage those ads did to Justin Long's and John Hodgman's careers.

      I hate to even catch a glimpse of either of them after those commercials.

    4. Re:I'm remind of... by avandesande · · Score: 2

      The advertisers failed then. What they wanted people to think doesn't really matter in the end does it?

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    5. Re:I'm remind of... by geek · · Score: 1

      The problem is that they thought most people actually think at all. All evidence seems to be to the contrary.

    6. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong, sir. It proves that the **ad people** don't understand ads. It's their job to reach and convince their viewers. This (and that) one achieved the opposite.

      But, yeah, it's the *viewers* fault that the ad engendered disdain.

    7. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congrats, that is exactly what this is. Apple panned the Surface, then 5 years later copied it. They are very explicitly not wanting it compared to the Surface. Microsoft failed to sell the original Surface because it didn't fit their users needs, but was a great compromise to a useful Tablet like Windows experience. Now Apple with their shitty iOS is shoving the same specs down there consumers throats and pretend it is revolutionary.

    8. Re:I'm remind of... by nukenerd · · Score: 2

      H G Wells predicted this in "The Time Machine" :-

      Eloi : Apple users

      Morlocks : Nerd and geeks

    9. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They tried to sell the Mac off as the fun one and PC as the boring business machine. They failed partly because the Mac was nowhere near as capable for gaming at the time. Parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    10. Re:I'm remind of... by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

      Hodgman had a minor role on a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica after those commercials.

    11. Re:I'm remind of... by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      if you haven't noticed there's a trend in society as a whole towards anti-intellectualism. Look at the current US president, the whole climate debate, the vaccination debate.

    12. Re:I'm remind of... by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Think? It's a commercial, which most people zone out on anyway. I saw the ad and the apple guys is douchey and the pc guy looks like one of my friendly coworkers. When I see a commercial I could give a shit less what they are trying to say or sell me. Besides, even if you consider what they were trying to show I would rather use a dorky friendly computer and then a smug trendy one.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    13. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And since no one mentioned it...this is a shot at Microsoft, not a pitch for iPads.

    14. Re:I'm remind of... by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I believe Justin Long was in Live Free or Die Hard but I think that may have finished off his career.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    15. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I thought they ended when Justin Long got some bad publicity over getting arrested for drug possession and/or his popularity was getting high enough he could demand more pay than Apple was willing to give. Those adverts were quite popular but everything must come to an end.

      Maybe the joke was just getting old and Apple thought that carrying it on further was not productive as it once was.

    16. Re:I'm remind of... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 2

      Obviously the viewers were holding the ad wrong.

    17. Re:I'm remind of... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

      Hodgman has had guest character rolls in a bunch of things since then, has written several best selling books, and randomly appears all over Comedy Central and NPR. To the extent his career is "limited" at this point, I think it's more he reached the point where he can do whatever he wants and what he wants to do is mostly niche stuff rather than mass market stuff.

    18. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The PC was adorably awkward, and played by a very good actor.

    19. Re:I'm remind of... by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Steve: "Dude, you're getting a Dell!"

    20. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We should probably be embracing people that can operate the machines that our modern civilization depends on

      As a nerd, I can categorically state that people embracing me or any other physical contact is the last thing I want.

    21. Re:I'm remind of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For there to be a debate, There must be at least two sides. There is no "vaccine debate", just people trying to commit insurance fraud.

    22. Re:I'm remind of... by mjwx · · Score: 1

      and that proves that most people didn't even understand the ads in the first place.

      They were not "Mac guy" and "PC guy", they were Mac and PC in human form.

      No, people got that.

      It backfired because people thought the "PC" was relatable and the "Mac" was an insufferable cunt bucket.

      The PC was like your dad or uncle who was a bit old fashioned. You could easily take him to dinner with the family and he'd be completely inoffensive. The Mac was like an early 00's hipster, you'd pray he didn't have any questions about the menu otherwise the remaining guests will start to die of starvation before he'd finished verifying the organic and charitable status of the asparagus on a side dish before lecturing you on the evils of slave farmed carrots.

      Or maybe a different food analogy. The PC was like mashed potato, not going to set the world on fire but most people like it because it's simple and tasty. The Mac guy was like an sloth intestine wellington, wants to pretend it's cool, unique and original but in reality is utterly repulsive.

      I'm assuming I've made my point, the meaning of what the GP wrote does not change if you remove the word "guy" after PC or Mac.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  33. Apple can suck it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's no way I'm playing PUBG on a 10" screen!!

  34. Male or Female? by Zorro · · Score: 0, Troll

    Can't tell if the kid is male or female.

    California "thinking" in action I suppose.

    1. Re:Male or Female? by DogDude · · Score: 1

      Why does it matter? Are you a pedophile?

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    2. Re:Male or Female? by geek · · Score: 1, Troll

      Can't tell if the kid is male or female.

      California "thinking" in action I suppose.

      How dare you! Its clearly one of the other 33 genders you insensitive prick!

    3. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ^^^ Alabama "thinking" in action I suppose.

    4. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also noticed the androgynous look of the girl in the video. And it is a girl. Earrings, painted nails, pink framed eyeglasses are all very girly. If that isn't enough then look closely as she's on the bus with her feet up. If that's a boy then those pants are so tight it's shoved his dick so far up his ass that his reproductive health is at risk. Also, she's reading Wonder Woman, what boy reads Wonder Woman?

      Not only is the person in the ad genderless but also ageless. Is this girl an independent (and slightly tall) pre-teen? A college student? A young (and still youthfully playful) adult? She does not interact with anyone in her home so this give few hints on her age or social status. The few people she interacts with are also genderless, ageless, and with no obvious connection to her other than being friends. Of course the friends are of both genders and of ambiguous ethnicity.

      Now, what is her ethnicity? Can't pin that down either. And the city? All you see are some old brick row houses, pavement, and a train. She goes to eat at a place that serves tacos, which could also be just about anywhere. What season is it? What is the climate of this city? There's a few things that give it away as a fall day but it could easily be spring, a cool and rainy summer day, or even a warm winter day.

      They obviously went to great lengths to remove as many hints as possible of where, when, and who, so that the viewer could paint themselves in the picture. Not just that but the "why" is even ambiguous. Is this a person going out just to go out? Is she working on a school project? Is she a creative type out looking for ideas for work? Is she an office type just wanting to take a break and get some work done here and there?

      I think what adds to the annoying response at the end is the annoying ambiguity of the whole advert. They went so far to be a portrayal of everyone that they made an advert that portrays no one.

    5. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a girl surely? She looks like she stepped out of the 80s, but definitely female.

      To make it more tolerable note the 80s styling: perhaps the ad is set in a time when computers were rare and not knowing one when you saw it was more inderstandable, particularly one that appears to have come from 30 years into the future?

    6. Re:Male or Female? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      California "thinking" in action I suppose.

      No, because it is completely tone-deaf on race: the 'intelligent' white kid talking down to the 'ignorant' black woman at the end. It's actually rather offensive.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re: Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody in California knows what this kid is either other than stupid.

      Doesn't matter much since they'll be dead before they can pass on whatever genes they have using whatever technology they would need to use when nobody wants to touch you sexually. Probably walk into a street asking what a car is.

    8. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think your jump to that conclusion says a lot more about you than it does about Zorro

    9. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would it be less offensive if the neighbor was white?

      Is the kid really talking down, or is the neighbor the more intelligent one?

    10. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not a white kid. I don't know what race she is, and that is (IMHO) the point. She's as ageless, genderless, raceless, and generally as ambiguous as she could be as a person. That is also part of the problem (again IMHO). She's so much of a nothing/anything person that it borders on the uncanny valley.

    11. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      whaaaaaa? the white kid is the ignorant one that doesn't know what a computer is.

    12. Re:Male or Female? by blindseer · · Score: 0

      I found that odd as well. The ambiguity of the gender was taken a bit too far, to the point of being borderline creepy. After watching the advert a few times I noticed that she did a virtual signing of the guy's arm cast with "Scout". Watching it once more I caught that the disembodied voice at the beginning (which is hard to make out) called her Scout as well.

      Let's see, a tomboyish and independent thinking girl, probably about 10 years old, maybe a bit younger, perhaps up to her teens. And she goes by the name Scout. I think someone read To Kill a Mockingbird one too many times before writing this advert.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    13. Re:Male or Female? by blindseer · · Score: 1

      No, because it is completely tone-deaf on race: the 'intelligent' white kid talking down to the 'ignorant' black woman at the end. It's actually rather offensive.

      I think you need to read a book once in a while. I doubt her name (or nickname) being Scout is an accident.

      Also, she's got a racially ambiguous enough look that calling her "white" is impossible to state for sure.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    14. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You people will find injustice in absolutely anything.

    15. Re:Male or Female? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I think you need to read a book once in a while. I doubt her name (or nickname) being Scout is an accident.

      What book is that from?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    16. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To Kill a Mockingbird

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_characters#Scout_Finch

      It's been a long time since I read that book but I hear it referenced enough in pop culture that some of the major themes still stick with me. Scout is one of the few characters in the book that saw beyond prejudices.

    17. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The kid is talking down, thinking the neighbor as stupid. And the neighbor is the intelligent one.

    18. Re:Male or Female? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get used to it! That's how kids look like these days.

  35. Snotty and Condescending Just Like... by eepok · · Score: 1

    Back when I was at UC Irvine, the campus had come out with a donor marketing plan that many, many people found pompous and condescending. Check it out here: ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ). The general feel was "If you just see a normal every day object, you're an idiot."

  36. Parabolic Smugness by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    Well if it were parabolic smugness it would have a latus rectum.

  37. Logical progression for Apple by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    It's all about making iOS the dominant platform. You can see it in the way Apple deals/supports its Mac line compared to the iOS devices. You can see where it gets its revenue (75% or more from iOS). The "computer" - OSX - is a thing of the past, to be dropped into the dustbin as soon as they can replace all its functionality. Right now, Apple considers a Mac simply a means to build tools for iOS - but once iOS on an iPad Pro can do that - the Mac will go bye-bye.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re:Logical progression for Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IOS already IS the dominant platform and has been for years. Apple sells 10 times the number of IOS machines than it does OSX machines.
      Likewise IOS has more users than Windows does.

      When I started writing code I was counting CPU cycles on an 8051 to get timing loops right, hand assembling Z80 code and 6800 code and then burning that code into EPROMS for testing.

    2. Re:Logical progression for Apple by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      It's all about making iOS the dominant platform. You can see it in the way Apple deals/supports its Mac line compared to the iOS devices. You can see where it gets its revenue (75% or more from iOS). The "computer" - OSX - is a thing of the past, to be dropped into the dustbin as soon as they can replace all its functionality. Right now, Apple considers a Mac simply a means to build tools for iOS - but once iOS on an iPad Pro can do that - the Mac will go bye-bye.

      Sure, moron.

      That's why they just released an 18-core iMac; because you need that for iOS development.

      That's why they are completely revamping the Mac Pro to make it "modular". Because you need that for iOS development.

      You're one toxic piece of misinformed and misinforming Apple Hate.

      Go away.

  38. apple should show the new mac pro at Superbowl by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    apple should show the new mac pro at Superbowl with an kick as ad.

  39. Trumps third term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Many of our grandchildren will be asking "What's a computer" after Trump's third, and final, term. But this should not be surprising as they will also wonder what electricity is too.

    #nuclearwinter

  40. Found the LUDDITE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ONLY apps can app apps, and this appvertisement only has the appiest apps on the appiest Applet, NOT LUDDITE computers!

    Apps!

  41. It also annoys Mac users by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That pisses off a lot of Mac users. See the MacRumors forums if you don't believe me. Mac mini was last updated in 2012. It was downgraded in 2014. Apple is on the verge of killing the MacBook Air even if their new butterfly keyboards are crap, they're so obsessed with USB-C that they're dropping USB-A even though a lot of people still ASK for them. Don't like the overpriced MacBook? Buy an overpriced MacBook Pro instead! It's like they think everyone is as rich as americans. Mac Pro? They released a freakin' no-future-upgrade-path of a cylinder tower instead. Would have been cool for a Mac mini, pointless for pros.

    Tim Cook really does seem to think iPads can replace computers, including Macs.

    But most people with a Mac need to have it, just as PC users need their PC. Whatever your choice of OS, computers are tools to work with, not toys to consume data.

    If a stupid tablet was enough, we'd buy tablets!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:It also annoys Mac users by F34nor · · Score: 1

      That's fine if you could run OSX on them. Fuck artificial scarcity, fuck Apple, & fuck planned obsolescence.

    2. Re:It also annoys Mac users by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Yes of course, adapters!

      I'll simply plug my USB-A flash drive into the only USB-C port of a MacBook and... oh wait, it's being used to charge the computer.

      That's alright, I bought a brand new USB-C flash drive for my MacBook, so I'll simply plug it into the only USB-C port of a MacBook and... oh wait, it's being used to charge the computer.

      So, people are supposed to be impressed by an ultra-thin laptop which requires them to bring adapters and a freakin' USB HUB to do anything?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:It also annoys Mac users by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Yes of course, adapters!

      I'll simply plug my USB-A flash drive into the only USB-C port of a MacBook and... oh wait, it's being used to charge the computer.

      That's alright, I bought a brand new USB-C flash drive for my MacBook, so I'll simply plug it into the only USB-C port of a MacBook and... oh wait, it's being used to charge the computer.

      So, people are supposed to be impressed by an ultra-thin laptop which requires them to bring adapters and a freakin' USB HUB to do anything?

      Look, I really won't try to defend the MacBook (non-pro)'s inclusion of only ONE USB-C port. IMHO, that IS stupid.

      The ONLY way it makes sense is that you certainly CAN unplug your charger from the port for a couple of minutes under almost any circumstances to get something onto/off of a Flash Drive, or do a wired backup/restore of an iPhone/iPad/iPod. So, from that standpoint, it is no worse than the original Google Pixel laptop, which also only had one USB-C port for everything.

      But as far as the MacBook Pro 2016/2017, that argument simply doesn't hold water.

  42. Hidden Figures by PetiePooo · · Score: 0

    Has anyone seen Hidden Figures? Back when NASA was preparing to launch their first satellite, "Computer" was someone's job title. Someone who sat at a desk all day solving equations and formulas all day. If you asked someone back then, where's the computer, they'd point to the desk's seat, not the desktop.

    The meaning of many words change over time. Get over it! It's self centered and ignorant to assume that one's current vernacular will remain unchanged in the future.

    1. Re:Hidden Figures by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Has anyone seen Hidden Figures? Back when NASA was preparing to launch their first satellite, "Computer" was someone's job title. Someone who sat at a desk all day solving equations and formulas all day. If you asked someone back then, where's the computer, they'd point to the desk's seat, not the desktop.
      Exactly!

      The meaning of many words change over time. Get over it! It's self centered and ignorant to assume that one's current vernacular will remain unchanged in the future.

  43. Apple dosen't do computers anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apart from the $5000 iMac and Mac Pro, Apple sells Facebook machines with limited RAM and ports.

    1. Re:Apple dosen't do computers anymore by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Apart from the $5000 iMac and Mac Pro, Apple sells Facebook machines with limited RAM and ports.

      16 GB is the top end for MANY laptops, and there is no other laptop with as much I/O expandability as the 2016/2017 MacBook Pro.

    2. Re:Apple dosen't do computers anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      16 GB is the top end for MANY laptops

      ...which is why I'm still using a 17" MacBook Pro that I bought almost six years ago. It's had just about everything but the battery and screen replaced so far. I have also accumulated some "spares", in addition to a few Mac Minis from that era. The current generation isn't as crap as some of their PowerPC machines from the '90s, but I'm still doing what I can to wait them out and hope that they'll regain some sanity, and step back from their obsessions with "thin", "round", "touch bar", and "soldered". Of course they dropped the Air, their regular laptops have become almost the same, except for the choice of something more usable.

  44. They are not the target audience. by Narcocide · · Score: 1

    The target audience is adults who never learned to type and still can't read above a 4th grade level. The fact it happens to also alienate the well-educated is actually part of the design. This will work very well, unfortunately.

    1. Re:They are not the target audience. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. What utter and total ignorance.

      better than 90% of "well educated" computer users who can "type" never program, only ever run software they are supplied.

      And I know a LOT of people with PhDs who are extremely well educated in a range of fields (Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Microbiology, Genetics, etc) who are are damn near incompetent on a computer, a few of the older ones don't even know how to start a video chat session. Oh, they also use iPads for teaching purposes because you can write on them, erase parts of equations and give oral explanations while recording it all to create online tutorials.

    2. Re:They are not the target audience. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      The target audience is adults who never learned to type and still can't read above a 4th grade level. The fact it happens to also alienate the well-educated is actually part of the design. This will work very well, unfortunately.

      You're an idiot.

    3. Re:They are not the target audience. by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      You're an idiot.

      It's completely understandable you'd want to believe that. I wish it were true, myself.

    4. Re:They are not the target audience. by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure they all hate this commercial too. Maybe you should actually ask them, assuming you're not just a shill like the other guy.

  45. It's Apple boasting, total vanity by DCFusor · · Score: 1

    To me, the point was, they made it soooo good it's a completely transparent tool now - no learning curve, it knows what you want and does it, or um "it just works", only Apple's been failing that one more and more seriously of late. Spinning that they've gotten better - the opposite of reality - ain't gonna fly in a time when a lot more people then usual are flat broke anyway and can't afford an Apple tax for something that's no longer even close to being superior. Hubris and vanity is how I took it. And yes, annoying.

    --
    Why guess when you can know? Measure!
    1. Re:It's Apple boasting, total vanity by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      ... the point was, they made it soooo good it's a completely transparent tool now - no learning curve, it knows what you want and does it, or um "it just works", ...

      The same can be said about a toothbrush, but there's even a learning curve for that -- to use it effectively, anyway.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  46. That's what a 15 years old life looks like today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    only usually is a phone, not an iPad they use...

  47. The network by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 1

    is the computer.

    --

    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
  48. What's a thousand bucks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the most basic configuration, the iPad Pro with a keyboard costs $938. They might as well make an ad where the kid answers "What's a thousand bucks?" to make it even more clear, that Apple toys are for people with money and will to waste it.

  49. Annoying ad by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another annoying ad is the Geico ad where the gecko is hosting a meeting in a conference room, and a call-in attendee is speaking at the same time he is. It's annoying when it happens in real life - We don't need to see it in a commercial.

    1. Re:Annoying ad by hawguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Another annoying ad is the Geico ad where the gecko is hosting a meeting in a conference room, and a call-in attendee is speaking at the same time he is. It's annoying when it happens in real life - We don't need to see it in a commercial.

      I hadn't seen that one - I thought it was funny *because* that exact scenario happens in real life.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    2. Re:Annoying ad by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's also a perfect example of exponential backoff.

    3. Re:Annoying ad by DaMattster · · Score: 2

      Another annoying ad is the Geico ad where the gecko is hosting a meeting in a conference room, and a call-in attendee is speaking at the same time he is. It's annoying when it happens in real life - We don't need to see it in a commercial.

      That one is every bit as annoying as the iPad Pro commercial. It makes me think of Dilbert cartoons depicting meetings.

    4. Re:Annoying ad by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      I hadn't seen that one, but it reminded me of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    5. Re:Annoying ad by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Oh, and this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    6. Re:Annoying ad by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      WOW! So to be clear, what does Geico do again? Does it fix this situation or cause it? I'm genuinely confused as to why I should download Geico. What was shown in the advertisement seemed to be a horrible experience with no indication that the app would change that at all.

      I'm not being funny here. That advert told me nothing about the product other than associate it with a really annoying scenario. Is it a replacement for Skype? Does it invoke a sense of dread without needing to attend a meeting? What did it win an award for? Whoever came up with this should honestly not be in marketing.

    7. Re:Annoying ad by hawguy · · Score: 1

      WOW! So to be clear, what does Geico do again? Does it fix this situation or cause it?

      That's not the purpose of the ad -- it assumes some familiarity with Geico.

      I'm genuinely confused as to why I should download Geico.

      No wonder, since you apparently live in a cave and have never heard of Geico or even know why your might use a company's mobile app. If you were a Geico customer then it's pretty clear what the mobile app does.

      What was shown in the advertisement seemed to be a horrible experience with no indication that the app would change that at all.

      I'm not being funny here. That advert told me nothing about the product other than associate it with a really annoying scenario. Is it a replacement for Skype? Does it invoke a sense of dread without needing to attend a meeting? What did it win an award for? Whoever came up with this should honestly not be in marketing.

      The ad wasn't meant to solve your video conferencing needs, it was meant to be an entertaining video to raise awareness of the mobile app, and maybe get some people to share it. And hey it worked -- you found the video on Slashdot and you don't even know what Geico is and you know they have a mobile app. I'm a Geico customer and didn't know they had a mobile app until I saw that video.

    8. Re:Annoying ad by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      No wonder, since you apparently live in a cave and have never heard of Geico

      Well I have now. Clearly it's a company that ads geckos to meetings.

      The ad wasn't meant to solve your video conferencing needs, it was meant to be an entertaining video to raise awareness of the mobile app, and maybe get some people to share it. And hey it worked -- you found the video on Slashdot and you don't even know what Geico is and you know they have a mobile app. I'm a Geico customer and didn't know they had a mobile app until I saw that video.

      If the mobile app was useful and you as a customer needed a video ad to find out then the marketing department should also fire the people who weren't working on this advert. Also entertaining videos on their own do nothing. After watching it I have zero inclination to even type Geico into google.

      I'm glad marketing works on you so easily, but then as an existing customer who apparently just needed to find out they had an app, they could have told you in a much cheaper way.

  50. Re: who cares by gnick · · Score: 1

    Keep reading and you will see all the hate slashdot has for Apple.

    And that makes Apple special? There's plenty of /. hate for Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and more. There are also users that love those companies, although MS lovers are a minority.

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  51. She's a girl, folks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you can't tell, something is wrong with you...

    1. Re:She's a girl, folks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you can't tell, something is wrong with you...

      That's Hannah Alligood, an actress known for playing a gender confused teen on the show "Better Things". She likely got the TV role because of her androgynous looks. It's quite likely she got this Apple advert role for the same reason. If you go look at some other recent photos of her, especially in her TV role, then it might be clearer on how people might be confused.

  52. educational by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly the kid isn't getting a good education with her iPad if she doesn't know what a computer is

  53. Old people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lol old people need to lighten up.

    1. Re:Old people by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

      Get off my lawn.

  54. It takes Courage(TM) by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 2

    to keep insulting your customers.

    1. Re:It takes Courage(TM) by geek · · Score: 2

      You misspelled sheep

  55. mainframe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A mainframe is a small super computer.

  56. Every pendant person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually we'd point out the user interface in a tablet is geared towards finger/stylus interaction. The interface in a regular computer is geared towards keyboard/mouse interaction. The differing screen sizes plays an important role. If one wants to say that's not important and they're both computers then a Raspberry Pi is a computer as well.

    1. Re: Every pendant person, ever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But, eh? A raspberry pi is a computer.

    2. Re:Every pendant person, ever: by fisted · · Score: 1

      then a Raspberry Pi is a computer as well.

      Well no shit. Raspi is a hugely powerful computer compared to the computer in, say, your e-toothbrush.

    3. Re:Every pendant person, ever: by Gonoff · · Score: 1

      ...then a Raspberry Pi is a computer as well

      When was that ever in question? In fact, a Raspberry Pi may even be more of a computer than any tablet - Apple or otherwise.

      --
      I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
  57. That's only the first step by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    The next one is a kid on Facebook not knowing what the internet is.

  58. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its 2018 not 2008 grandpa. Linux printing works great now. Thanks Apple for your work on cups.

  59. Yes, Kids are dumb...Mac using Kids are dumber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nuff Said

  60. I rolled my eyes at this. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

    ... a child with an iPad doesn't even know what the word "computer" means.

    Because that kid is dumb or uneducated. Even if we accept Apple's premise, History would still exist and that kid would certainly know that word from there and how her iPad came to be and it is actually a type of computer.

    I hate marketing people -- probably more than lawyers and politicians.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:I rolled my eyes at this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point isn't that the name exists or not, it is a way of saying, "computing is so easy, you can just do it, you don't have to think about it!"

      If I remember correctly, some years back there was this programming language ZPL which was to make parallel programming a lot easier to deal with... one of the quotes they had on their website somewhere was from someone at their PhD defense, having used ZPL, got a question about MPI... and their response was, "what's that?" That's the kind of computing that people go for... make it so transparent, you don't have to think about it.

  61. Writer's Desk by holophrastic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A hundred years ago, authors wrote books/manuscripts with pen/pencil and paper. Neither pen, nor pencil, nor paper requires a desk. An author can easily operate a pen, and write a book from a park bench, or lying on the floor. Police detectives can write in their paper notebook while walking the streets of any city on-foot.

    And yet, with the mobility of pens and paper, authors still had writing desks, and police still did written reports from a desk.

    The keyword in "desktop computer" isn't "computer", it's "desk".

    A desk is a marvelous thing. It's an organizational structure. It's a focus. It's big. It's dedicated. It's productive.

    If you can do anything from an ipad, then you can do six anythings concurrently on a desktop with one large screen. You can do 18 anythings concurrently on a desktop with three large screens. And if one of your "anythings" involves another something -- like an object, or another person, or a product sample, then your desk supports that kind of additional item.

    And if one of your "anythings" involves real collaboration with three other humans, in one place, as most creative tasks do, then a big desk in a big room with a big screen allow three humans to function in parallel (as opposed to series).

    If you can accomplish your task in a 12" screen, then enjoy your flattened 1980s original imac. 12" doesn't get much accomplished these days. It does, however, do the same thing that it always did.

    Your ipad is harder to read than an old newspaper, more awkward than an old book, bigger than a walkman, has worse sound than a record player, and is more delicate anything that's ever been handheld before. It's wonderful and amazing for all sorts of other reasons, especially for varied functions, but it is absolutely worse at each individual effort.

    Jack of all trades, master of none. If you don't plan on excelling at anything, the ipad is the perfect device for you.

    Some advice: when you hire a contractor to build your house, don't hire one who comes with a swiss army knife. You want the guy with the big rusty hammer, and the big box of screw drivers.

    1. Re:Writer's Desk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Excellent posting. Though, being a carpenter by trade and training, I could argue your last paragraph a bit. :D

    2. Re:Writer's Desk by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      I'm not much of a whittler myself; perhaps a swiss army knife would excel at whittling, though I have my doubts one would stand up to professional whittling tools.

      And now that I've used whittling five times, I've reached my whittling quota for 2018. Woohoo!

    3. Re:Writer's Desk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't tell if you just don't know or don't care and want to make a point. Maybe your response will clear things up.

      1) Many web pages have no benefit to being full screen on a 24" monitor (let alone 3 of them) and there is no tangible benefit to a low resolution screen of that size vs the high quality high resolution 10.5 in iPad screen in many cases.. Not for everything, but for email, facebook and most webpages, many people will not see a 3 to 1 benefit, based on their use habits. What many of them do benefit from is the ability to do this anywhere they are, without have to go to a specific place and sit down to a specific task.

      The text on an iPad is actually far crisper than that of a newspaper with far higher contrast and unlike that newspaper can zoom in to make the reading experience that much more enjoyable (with out the ink transfer to your hands). It allows people to carry the equivalent of thousands of pounds of books and weighs about the same as a large paper back and less than most hard back books. By volume it is smaller than a walkman and it can produce sound that is every bit as good as even the best record player with losses 24bit 44khz (and with effort 96khz) (analog vs digital arguments aside).

      By it's self it is probably not much more delicate than the walkman or the record you mentioned above and far less fragile than many things. In a reasonable case it is down right sturdy.

      There is nothing absolute about what you have put forth and as you said it does so much more! So when you read that totally bias article in the news paper you can quickly search a dozen other sources to better understand it. An when you finish that book you can find out about the dozens of others available from that author or authors like him/her. And without other hardware you can share your music on the go with the amazing built in speakers ( that your walkman and record player lack)

      As for builders, I'll hire the one with the battery powered, power tools with their multiple bits and the compressor with all the fixings!

    4. Re:Writer's Desk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a horrifically narrow viewpoint.

      Hundreds of years ago composers used a piano paper and pen, not a desk. And yet they were productive. Now they can use an iPad.

      Police now use iPads and other mobile computers so they can check number plates, user IDs etc without needing to go back to the station and wait days for a reply.

      I use an iPad to carry service manuals for scientific instruments on it, I can wipe it down with alcohol when I enter and exit PC2 labs, if I take paper in, it stays in.
      I flick been PDFs and web browsers, I order service spares and I play music and check my emails on it. I can do keyword searches in the PDFs, com thing I can not do with a book. I have filemaker databases on it for tracking instrument service histories.

      I write my service notes on it so they can be printed/emailed.

      the uses of an iPad are limited by peoples own imagination, and from what I have seen on here there are a lot of severely limited people who think their own narrow view/use is it.

      A builder with no imagination will build a perfectly functioning box for people to live in. One who thinks outside of the box will build a beautiful home.

      Why is so much software ugly, awkward, unintuitive, its because the programers lacked the imagination to make it better.

    5. Re:Writer's Desk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TL; DR. Yawn, how'd this get marked "interesting?"This must be that mansplaining thing I keep hearing about.

    6. Re:Writer's Desk by holophrastic · · Score: 2

      (I think your final word should have been "fittings", for the compressor tools. fun.)

      Let's take some of those individually.

      bigger and lower resolution is better for multiple humans. Think of a movie screen.

      Higher contrast is WORSE for reading. Welcome to human eyes. Better for marketing punch, worse for reading. Zooming is useless for reading -- eyes move faster than fingers. Reading a newspaper is never about reading every word. It's about scanning large pages to find what interests you. Layout counts.

      To that end, all web-sites on small screens are just useless in terms of layout. Nice long column of five words by ten lines at a time. That's just terrible for actual reading. Might as well be looking for a rat in the dark with a laser-pointer as a flashlight.

      But here's where, as you say, my point is very different. It's a perspective difference that's apparent with your sound quality comment. The ipad produces terrible sound. That tiny speaker is just plain awful. Aside from the actual audio definition, turn on the kitchen sink, and that little bit of water will literally drown out the ipad's speaker from across the room. The ipad needs some real speaker accessories to produce worthwhile sound in a decent-sized room.

      That's the perspective. the ipad is useless for anything actually worthwhile. Fantastic for useless shit. It's a great distraction. It'll entertain one child. It's distract one bus commuter. It'll let a grown adult just while away a day on facebook. But none of those tasks are a) worthwhile, b) not doable with all sorts of things like sudoku puzzles, or c) actually VALUABLE to one's life.

      I work at a desk, with a very large desktop computer system, and an even larger desk. One window is useless to me. Whatever I'm doing requires a source document, and inspiration document, an instruction document, my input document, and at least one output document. Typically, that might be, respectively, the client's content word document, the graphic designer's artistic mockup, the client's e-mail instructions, my programming window, and then the web browser output and error consoles. All visible simultaneously is effortless. The same job from a tiny laptop takes ten times as long, all spend switching and moving and remembering and copying and confirming.

      So I'll just say this. I use computers to make money. The work I do, I sell. Either my time, or my effort, or my results. If I'm sitting at this desk, and working at this keyboard, then I'm making money purely by doing so -- the computer isn't a part of the value, it is the whole value.

      I'll say that there is absolutely nothing that I can do on an ipad to make money. Sure I can present work on an ipad, and sure I can discuss work on an ipad, but the ipad alone can't do all of the tasks necessary to actually earn money -- it can't do any of them at speed.

      It's not a productivity tool. It's not profitable for anyone to use. It's very profitable for everyone to sell.

      If I want to make money with an ipad, it's really easy. I build software on my desktop computer, and sell it bundled with an ipad. It's that simple.

    7. Re:Writer's Desk by holophrastic · · Score: 1

      You read my words backwards. I didn't say that an ipad was useless. I said that a desk is useful. Hence, a desktop can't be replaced by an ipad, because the desk has function.

  62. That's so funny by Lucas123 · · Score: 1

    After seeing the commercial for the first time my wife and I looked at each other and remarked something to this effect: "She doesn't know what a computer is. Is that kid just stupid, or completely undereducated?

    1. Re:That's so funny by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that was my main problem with that ad. It's weirdly and completely disconnected from reality - the kid's statement is just not remotely believable, and that pretty much destroys the whole concept the rest of the commercial builds up. I get what Apple thinks they're saying... but it just doesn't work.

      I have a teenage niece who, in a lot of ways, could be that kid. My niece takes her iPad (which has a keyboard case) almost everywhere and does just about everything on it. But she knows what a "computer" is - she just doesn't need to use a traditional computer for much of anything she wants to do.

      I think the commercial would work much better for "the masses" if, at the end, the kid had said something along the lines of "it's not a computer, it's my iPad - I do everything with it."

      FWIW I have an iPad, and I have a computer - and I use them both, but for different things.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:That's so funny by Heathren-bert · · Score: 2

      I think it might have been better if the kid would have just said "Everything", then had the iPad logo. And I'm not an Apple user.

  63. Quick, call the FCC! by NotFamous · · Score: 1

    A commercial not accurately depicting reality. I am stunned, speechless really.

    --
    Some settling may occur during posting.
  64. It's not a car - it's a Volkswagen! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, too bad for you, VW... I'm a-shoppin' for a car!

    "We know what a car is, you disrespectful smartasses!!"

  65. What's a computer? by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    Eat yerself fitter!

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  66. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um, if your mind is so worthless that you have to spend a Saturday searching stackoverflow to print to your wireless printer from Linux (Where CUPS makes printing a breeze) then by all means, use a Mac (or an iOS device).

  67. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I fail to see how this makes news on slashdot oh wait it's anti apple that might be how

    It's not even anti-Apple, we already know Apple only makes toys for the mentally impaired.

    You know what's the definition of "mentally impaired"?

    Calling the most successful company of ANY type on the planet a "Toymaker for the mentally impaired".

  68. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you try using an Apple toy with anything that isn't another Apple toy, you're going to spend at least as much time as that Linux user trying to troubleshoot it, except you're far less likely to find a way to fix it in the end other than to -surprise!- buy more Apple stuff.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  69. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    Its 2018 not 2008 grandpa. Linux printing works great now. Thanks Apple for your work on cups.

    Which they COULD have snatched-away from the Open Source world.

    But didn't.

    And in fact, just announced that they are switching it to the Apache 2.0 License.

    Remember that, Apple Haters.

  70. We've been here before by petes_PoV · · Score: 1, Interesting
    What is an abacus?
    What is a slide rule?
    What is a log table?

    The tech changes and the terminology changes with it. The ad is (apparently) a prediction and it is pretty certain that at some point in the future the word "computer" will be just as obsolete as the other terms. Who in the real world actually "computes" anything, anyway?

    However, it is questionable if, in the world where the word "computer" has slid into obscurity, whether Apple will still be around to say "We told you so!"

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    1. Re: We've been here before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was taught in 1st fucking grade what all those things were. And im not even that old. I'm 34.

    2. Re:We've been here before by Signal+Promise · · Score: 1

      Well at the rate they update their own line of computers, you'd think this phrase is occasionally asked by the people working for Apple. Their iMac Pro outperforms their Mac Pro. The Mac mini still comes with the 5400 RPM Hitachi harddrive that needless makes the thing seem like there's molasses inside.

    3. Re: We've been here before by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      I'm 57, and although I know what all those things are, I wouldn't be able to use any of them efficiently. It's much easier to write a quick program on the computer to do it for me, and has been ever since 1980 when I was in college.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    4. Re:We've been here before by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Isn't the actual name of their company "Apple Computer"?

    5. Re:We've been here before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is an abacus?

      What is a slide rule?

      What is a log table?

      The tech changes and the terminology changes with it. The ad is (apparently) a prediction and it is pretty certain that at some point in the future the word "computer" will be just as obsolete as the other terms. Who in the real world actually "computes" anything, anyway?

      However, it is questionable if, in the world where the word "computer" has slid into obscurity, whether Apple will still be around to say "We told you so!"

      Don't worry, Doctor They will be along to mop that mess up soon. Don't know what I'm talking about?? Wow looks like the old guy has already been here! Gotta love how effective a piece of "fake" fake news can be.

  71. Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Millenials are why we can't have nice things. This commercial is typical of millenial thinking by ignoring reality and history. Also, I like some Apple stuff, but I'm not stupid enough to think a single Apple product is the best tool for all jobs.

    ipads are good for sitting on the john taking a shit, or reading an ebook.

    Nobody lays on their stomach in the grass to play with a computing device.
    Nobody.

    1. Re:Millenials by DarkRookie · · Score: 2

      I am a Millennial and I cannot stand iPads or tablets in general.
      I bearly tolerate Android for a phone.
      I like my desktop.

      Also, tablet are terrible for reading books. YMMV of course.

      I did with my Gameboy. That is a computing device. :P

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    2. Re: Millenials by loufoque · · Score: 0

      I *barely* managed to understand what you wrote.

    3. Re: Millenials by fireman+sam · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually...

      "barely tolerate" is when one sits silently through an annoying situation,
      "bearly tolerate" is when one stands up tall and menacing, then proceeds to tear to shreds whatever they've found annoying.

      --
      it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
    4. Re:Millenials by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      The probability of this poster not being a millenial/post-millenial themselves is vanishingly small.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    5. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Iâ(TM)m playing on my iPad in the grass right now.

      Whatâ(TM)s a âoecomputing deviceâ?

    6. Re: Millenials by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      *barely tolerate* can also be when one sits naked while people poke fun at them.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    7. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just the other day a conservative millennial on redstate.com was lamenting that another millennial was disrespectful to ww2 veterans because.....he edited Male actors out of Saving Private Ryan....

    8. Re:Millenials by rednip · · Score: 1

      Sometimes the challenges faced by a generation are different, but most often they tread well worn ground. One trope in particular is the 'older person' with a rose colored vision of the past and an intergeneral chip on their shoulder. Did you ever think you'd age enough to be a crotchety old man? Congratulations, it's happened.

      --
      The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
    9. Re: Millenials by reanjr · · Score: 1

      I really want more information. Did he replace them with women? Was it just tanks driving and shooting themselves? Was it cut down to a 10 minute movie?

    10. Re: Millenials by Immerman · · Score: 1

      And "beerly tolerate" is to deal with something annoying by consuming alcohol until they enter one of the previous two states.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    11. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, this is what old ad execs think millennials are like.

      Also the kid in the commercial is generation z, millennials are born before 2000, and are all adults now.

    12. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy shitballs, I thought he was joking.

      http://www.nme.com/news/film/someone-edited-men-saving-private-ryan-peaceful-2221827

      Yep it's some feminist thing. Edit women out of Star Wars: partarchial shitlord, edit men out of WWII: sjw hero

    13. Re:Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are no "millennials", there is no "avocado toast", the entire thing is made up by shit media for clicks.

    14. Re: Millenials by peragrin · · Score: 1

      40 years old
      Just two days ago I laid on stomach on the floor in front of my fireplace and did my taxes.

      Nice warm fire. Of course I am still skinny enough I can lay on the floor.

      Also contray to popular belief you can file your taxes in Feb and not pay any amount due until April 15th.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    15. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep it's some feminist thing. Edit women out of Star Wars: partarchial shitlord, edit men out of WWII: sjw hero

      You totally missed the point. Granted, it was a stupid point, but
      you missed it nonetheless.

    16. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly something that supports apostrophes.

    17. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does.
      This is an apostrophe: ’
      This is a foot mark: '

    18. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I knew it was coming. In fact, I've been looking forward to it for quite some time, now.

    19. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am a millennial too and felt like that until I got a surface. My iPad and my android tablets are boxed and one is being used as a dedicated MyFitnessPal device. But the surface - I can use it for almost anything

    20. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not a millenial and I use my tablet (Surface Pro) for in a research/research computing setting daily. I don't understand why people scoff at the devices so often unless you really need a larger screen or more hefty local graphics rendering.

      The one downside that irritates me is the lack of modularity/upgrade paths (in particular, with the battery), though I do understand some sacrifices are made for compactness.

      As a kid, I used to be team desktop and couldn't understand why anyone would pay a premium for laptops which cost much more and perform far less. Keeping in mind the transition to multicore arch due to power density/heating constraints, as I grew up and went to college, I realized the portability of a mobile workstation offered a very useful compromise in my lifestyle. At this point, most my computing that requires heavy lifting is ran remotely on dedicated hardware. I can still perform fairly intensive analyses on local datasets, the only shortcoming is really localized graphics rendering limitations for sophisticated visualization needs (which remote rendering can accomplish but it's just not enjoyable to work with).

      Most pilot/testing can be done locally on modern ultra portables. For heavy use, I need a cluster anyways so I'm not reproducing that at home.

    21. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah. People aren't talking about desktops. It's desktops and laptops versus tablets. Tablets and tablet OSes are basically consumption devices. That is all.

    22. Re: Millenials by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

      will iam sorry i coudltn fix it

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    23. Re: Millenials by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what's a surface ?

  72. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by bad-badtz-maru · · Score: 5, Funny

    Funny that you use that example. A few months ago, a house guest tried to print to my wireless Brother printer from their iPad. They kept whining that it was just prompting them for "an AirPort device". They were never able to print.

  73. Stupid Apple stunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes pissed me off too.
    Then again I have been staying away from apple products since 2000.

  74. Trying to Force it. by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

    It's like the nerdy kid trying to be cool. It's obvious whats going on, and it's failing miserably.

    To my knowledge, NO company has ever turned their corporate brand into a product name without first dominating the market. You dominate the market - as 80%+ - then it happens. You can't try to rename the product with your brand name and hope it lets you reach 80% market saturation.

    And Ipad, while strong, do NOT dominate the tablet market. They never hit more than 65%, and in 2017 they were as low as 25%/

    As the Liar in Chief would say, "Sad".

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  75. Re:who cares by dead_user · · Score: 1

    Hey, that's from a Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie skit!

  76. Who took my PUNCHCARDS ? by redelm · · Score: 1

    Where is _my_ computer? Paper Tape? Punch Cards? :)

    BTW, I have kbds (PS/2, BT or USB OTG) for all machines, RPi, iP5 on up.

  77. AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A computer is anything that makes an AI.

  78. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If you try using an Apple toy with anything that isn't another Apple toy, you're going to spend at least as much time as that Linux user trying to troubleshoot it, except you're far less likely to find a way to fix it in the end other than to -surprise!- buy more Apple stuff.

    That is a giant steaming pile of bullshit. I have been using Apple toys for decades and I have used them with a long string of non-Apple toys and so far they have worked fine together with the exception certain Microsoft VPNs, the occasional WiFi hotspot and most HP and Samsung printers but that's mainly because HP and Samsung printers seem to be total crap since they don't work very well with my Linux box or the Windows grey-boxes at work either.

  79. It doesn't annoy me, it's just Apple being Apple by istartedi · · Score: 3, Informative

    It doesn't annoy me. It's just Apple actually TELLLING us what we've long observed: that they don't want real computing being done with their hardware. They want you to be a media consumer in their walled garden. No arbitrary programming languages, no installing your own OS on the hardware, none of the things that we associate with computers.

    They want to kill computers. That's Apple's vision of the future--children never seeing an actual computer. They want it to be like my early childhood, except with a fancier TV.

    Apple has its spaceship castle. Time to raise the drawbridge.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  80. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uh, if they snatched it away from the Open Source world, much fewer would use it. You understand that many (especially the vocal) the Open Source world woould bend over backwards to avoid "binary blobs".

    APL would have been stuck using another system that they would have to maintain themselves and have far fewer vocal "we need open source!" proponents.

  81. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny that you use that example. A few months ago, a house guest tried to print to my wireless Brother printer from their iPad. They kept whining that it was just prompting them for "an AirPort device". They were never able to print.

    That's Air Print, and Brother wireless printers are Air Print enabled. If your house guest was getting complaints about AirPort devices he was messing around in the network settings, not the print settings.

  82. Samsung got it right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That Apple ad rubs me the wrong way, too. And from a company that should be much better at "the feels".

    If you want to see an ad that REALLY got it right, watch Samsung's "Growing up" ad. That ad pushes ALL the right buttons that have annoyed iPhone users about Apple's choices over the years without being the least bit condescending, like some of their early ads were. If anything, the tone is sympathetic. Really brilliant.

    And I say this as an iPhone user who has no plans on switching.

    1. Re:Samsung got it right by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Samsung just did something really annoying: They pulled an Apple with the Galaxy S8, and gave it a Samsung proprietary USB connector, instead of using the micro-USB connector that has been the defacto standard for portable devices for years now! So, if you want to charge you Samsung phone in your car, you either need to take your AC adapter cord with you everywhere, or buy more cords from Samsung! Samsung usually does things right... except when they try to copy Apple! (The USB-C standard should be fine for charging anything.)

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re:Samsung got it right by jason777 · · Score: 1

      Uh, or get a $2 usb-c to micro usb adapter. They didnt go proprietary, they went with the new standard.

  83. RE: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by SB5407 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'.

    I disagree.

    A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out arbitrary sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. The iPad is not a computer because it is very restricted/limited (apps are restricted to the walled garden of Apple's App Store for example).

  84. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by mrun4982 · · Score: 1

    Then either there was something wrong with your printer or your guest is a complete moron. I print from my iPhone and iPad to my Brother printer all the time. It's trivial to do so. Even my wife can do it.

  85. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by mrun4982 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've never had any problems using my Apple "toys" with non-Apple devices. I print stuff. I use a VPN to log into other networks that don't use Apple routers. I remote desktop into windows/linux machines all the time. I SSH into non-Apple computers. I mount NFS shares from non-Apple servers. I sometimes use them as remote controls for my Rokus. I'm confused. What problems are you describing? My home is mixed with Apple and non-Apple stuff and they can all talk to each other just fine.

  86. I will consider an iPad Pro a real computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...when I can store, play, and update my entire 800GB Steam library with the graphic capability of a 1080Ti, use a controller of my choice, and not be crowbared into the "Apple Ecosystem"..

  87. Itâ(TM)s annoying because itâ(TM)s stupi by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 0

    One: while the iPad contains a computer, it is itself NOT a computer, if by computer you mean a general-purpose programmable computing device. It cannot replace a computer because, for example, it lacks the ability to connect peripherals, like a mouse, for example. While it CAN take a few specific ones, Apple seems to have decided to arbitrarily limit it. Even though Apple makes a mouse AND A TRACKPAD, and they totally COULD make it so the iPad could replace a computer, they have decided not to do so, because frankly, they are dicks.

    Two: the adorable girl in the ad maybe asks the question because she is keenly aware the iPad is SO not a computer, that the question confuses her, not because she does not know what one is... big difference. So...

    Three: if Apple wants us to think of the iPad as a real, actual computer, maybe they should get off their asses and give iOS the peripheral support and ability to install 3rd party apps that it is currently ALSO glaringly lacking in, perhaps even maybe come up with a dock that uses the side keyboard connector on the Pro model, or a lightning connector dongle to make a set of USB ports, etc., and support the same in software.

    Until then, I do not care how many bullshit ads Apple runs pretending an iPad is a computer. It just is not one. They may as well make an Apple iBicycle and make ads pretending it is a CAR. It is NOT, and never will be. Period.

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  88. Missing the point by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    The point is, the WIMP interface will eventually go the way of the rotary dial telephone. The younger generation is growing up using the multitouch interface, which is a lot more intuitive for certain actions like resizing or rotating things on screen. Ok, I'm overstating the case; the IBM PC keyboard will be around for a long time, still doing the same tasks that people used to use typewriters and adding machines for: rapid entry of text or numeric input. And speech will replace the poorly conceived touch interface now being put in every automobile (pretty stupid to design a car with an interface you have to look away from the road to use!) A combination of touch and AI-assisted speech I/O will be used elsewhere. But I still prefer typing because i can type faster than I can talk, and it's is less awkward to fix my (frequent) mistakes when I'm typing. Another prediction: the most important job skill in the future will be the ability to work well with AI. That's why I'm trying to train all my family and friends to talk to computers now, with Amazon Alexa, Google Home Advisor, and Siri being the training wheels used (Cortana is a lost cause.)

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Missing the point by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      I don't buy the speech interface. It's noisy in most human environments. Maybe it would work in a commuter car, but add some kids and forget about it.
      Anywhere outside a car, people want some privacy. Have you heard people's "computer talking" voice? It's loud.

  89. Slashdot apostrophes s inability... by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 0

    ...to handle apostrophes in posts written on an iPhone is likewise very annoying.

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  90. Hmmm by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 0

    What's a floppy disk? What's a CRT? I know I barely use my home desktop, so it's not hard seeing a family in the near future not having one.

  91. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Obfuscant · · Score: 0

    A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out arbitrary sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically.

    You fail CS100. A computer is a device that has input, output, storage, and processing. An iPad is a computer.

    The iPad is not a computer because it is very restricted/limited (apps are restricted to the walled garden of Apple's App Store for example).

    So the supercomputers being run by NCAR are not computers because you cannot program them yourself? In case you missed the announcements, Apple runs a Developer Program which allows people who pay the money to program apps for iOS and MacOS. Once you get the license and keys, you can write your own programs to do whatever you want. I've done it, and I find Xcode to be a very nice development platform.

    If you don't want to pay for the developer license, you can still use Forth ($0.99), or Python ($9.99), as just two examples of programming languages that run on iOS/iPad. I am sure there are others, but those two are the first two I found.

    You can feel free to disagree that iPads are computers, but you are so obviously wrong that you might think about not saying it in public again.

  92. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by sexconker · · Score: 1

    A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out arbitrary sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically.

    You fail CS100. A computer is a device that has input, output, storage, and processing. An iPad is a computer.

    No, u fail. A computer is a fancy clock.

  93. Future problems... today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I find it annoying because I get to deal with people like this... they call in for tech support and they don't know how to use "desktop" computers. They can't open folders to locate a file. They can't copy and paste... hell, half of then can not just go to to a web page, our web address is stamped right there into the physical product they are holding... and they can't get to our website. ... that girl shows where the stupidity started.

  94. Unfortunately Apple is probably right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    my kids never want to go on the family computer but fight over the tablet.

  95. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by SB5407 · · Score: 1

    Because you feel so strongly about this you better go edit Wikipedia then because that is what it says.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Let me know when you've made the edit.

  96. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

    Streaming directly to a TV from your phone is easy with android stuff and requires an AppleTV for iPhone, for example.

  97. A Mac is a peripheral for programming an iPad by tepples · · Score: 1

    A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out arbitrary sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. The iPad is not a computer because it is very restricted/limited (apps are restricted to the walled garden of Apple's App Store for example).

    What you say is true of an iPad that is not connected to a Mac. But an iPad connected to a Mac is a "computer" by your definition.

  98. hell yes!!!! stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I agree.. it is anoying..
    you have this androgynous thing. in a coffee shop, slamming her maxi-pad on the counter like she is some important executive, zipping in and out like she's cool right.. The demo an App lats native on most samsung devices, and then someone asks whats she doing on her computer, to which she runs away from says whats a computer.. I wanna slap her.. Like the typical elitist Apple community,, they allow themselves to be deluded..
    If it's not a computer than it's just another fuck-pad
    To that i ask, which is worse?
    Aside from that, how is it different than the way more mature Surface-Pro..

    1. Re:hell yes!!!! stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, I agree.. it is anoying..
      you have this androgynous thing. in a coffee shop, slamming her maxi-pad on the counter like she is some important executive, zipping in and out like she's cool right.. The demo an App lats native on most samsung devices, and then someone asks whats she doing on her computer, to which she runs away from says whats a computer.. I wanna slap her.. Like the typical elitist Apple community,, they allow themselves to be deluded..
      If it's not a computer than it's just another fuck-pad
      To that i ask, which is worse?
      Aside from that, how is it different than the way more mature Surface-Pro..

      thumbs up

  99. THANK YOU by adosch · · Score: 1

    ...I really wish I knew what marketing firm and/or team was trying to 'go for' on this commercial. It's super F annoying for sure.

    I found the "What's a computer?" icing on the cake to watching that turd 'slap-collapse-close' the $500+ iPad on the counter of the taco shop like it was so much F effort to maybe have respect for what the new-kids call a device that has more compute power, CPU and GPU, that I had with any of the 10 computers I had growing up in the 80's and 90's prior to college. Nonsense.

    I wish she would have fell out of the tree and had the broken arm vs. her friend and crushed that iPad.

  100. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by tepples · · Score: 1, Informative

    So the supercomputers being run by NCAR are not computers because you cannot program them yourself?

    The owners of those supercomputers can program them themselves. The owner of an iPad cannot program it without additionally purchasing a sufficiently recent Mac, whose price typically exceeds that of the iPad. A used pre-2010 Mac will not work, nor will a computer other than a Mac.

  101. Depends by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1

    I suppose an iPad can replace a computer if you want to view cat videos. If you want to do word processing, spreadsheets, or even explain in detail why the guy posting on your favorite forum is an idiot, it's not even close to replacing the computer.

    Maybe most people don't do the first two, but how could anyone do without the last?

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    1. Re:Depends by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      If you want to do word processing, spreadsheets, or even explain in detail why the guy posting on your favorite forum is an idiot,

      I'm not going to call you an idiot, but bluetooth keyboards and USB OTG have been a thing for years now.

      "office" apps have also been a thing on tablets for years now, as well as Google Docs.

  102. Looking forward to that day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm looking forward to the day when Apple stops making computers, then the rest of their products will whither and die.

  103. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    You ask for a computer for Christmas, and mom buys you a Nintendo 3DS. Do you applaud her for being "technically correct, the best kind of correct" (Futurama)?

  104. Very annoying by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    I think it is the music that makes the ad so obnoxious. The music is just terrible and repeats that same old stupid refrain, "Where is it you want to go?" It is a song that I would expect to appear on Idiocracy. The entire ad just does not make me want to go and get an ipad.

  105. Apple's annoying people... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... would suffice as title, no need to single out just one of their last rants, ads, fads, or whatever that comes out of Cupertino these days: all that Apple does it annoying the majority of us and has been gaining momentum in annoying for the past years.

  106. Post PC Era by Whatchamacallit · · Score: 0

    I've been in the computer industry for 38 years! The ad doesn't offend me. What it portends is the coming of the Post PC Era. It is true that iPads and Tablets are not quite there yet. But right now, the average home user can buy an iPad, keyboard, (optional) Pencil stylus and a wireless printer and never have to use a normal computer. Many of the Millennial's are using large smartphones and don't even own a computer. This is Apple's dream of a computer for everyone. Heck you hardly need any training with an iPad. Kids pick it up instantly. Google Chromebooks, Google Fuchsia, and who knows what else may be born to provide simple appliance computers to the masses. You can get an entry level iPad for $329.

    That does not mean that computers are going the way of the Dodo Bird. You still need a computer to write the code for these mobile devices. Computers are still required to run the data centers that power the Cloud. You still need a real computer for programming, But let's face it, right now you can SSH over a cellular data connection to a cloud server and restore a GNU Screen or Tmux session and code your brains out in ViM/Emacs or other console editor. Disconnect and reconnect even with a different device and you can pick up where you left off. Easily collaborate over the Internet. You can graphically share a screen but it's not entirely seamless and feels like you are remote controlling something foreign due to the differences in user interface.

    Could you one day see something like Xcode on an iPad? Well for coding iOS applications, it is quite likely. The latest iPhone as 6 CPU's, a high speed dual core, a low speed quad core plus a couple extra CPUs dedicated to Machine Learning. Give it a few more years and you could have 12 or 18 cores and ridiculous GPU in a mobile device. Go check out the benchmarks, an iPhone 8 comes very close to competing with laptops.

    The ad is showing how useful an iPad is and how a kid might not care about a computer because that iPad does everything she can think of. Course she doesn't have a super geek dad teaching her C/C++/ObjectiveC/Swift/Ruby/Python, etc., etc.

  107. poor thing..NOT, stil Another Apple Drone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amorphous, insolent, apple-washed being..
    It's running apple's new A12 NIE (neroleptic infrence engine)
    like the rest of it's kind, they will never know true-anything..

    every time an orifice opens, that thing wastes my precious resources, like AIR.
    I bet that thing will never re-produce..
    Is this Apples attempt at contraception?(if you keep fucking this is what your future may look like, you may bring something into the world like this, and we, Apple will welcome their warped thinking into our family.)
    like a virtual prophylactic?

    1. Re:poor thing..NOT, stil Another Apple Drone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its narco_leptic interface engine
      he said prophylactic
      He, He, cool.
      CornHollio, I am the great Corn Hollio, I need TP for My BungHole

  108. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just because you're successful doesn't mean you don't owe your success to exploiting idiots.

    Just look at Trump...

  109. I'm all for 'justifiable child-stomping' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    notice: the little idiot doesn't even phrase "what's a computer" as a question.

  110. Annoying music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "singing" is the annoying part.

  111. Re:who cares by CrashNBrn · · Score: 2

    Sure, if the only measure of "successful" is has the biggest pile of rotting money.

    I would say the most successful company was AT&T/Bell Labs. But you know they actually made shit.
    C. Unix. Actual Telecommunication hardware.

  112. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Them being successful just means there a lot of mentally impaired people that like toys. You have confused profit with merit.

  113. That's a boy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really? I had no idea what the gender of the child was, even after multiple viewings. Just like Teletubbies.

    There response also indicated to me that the child had been educated in the United States.

    1. Re:That's a boy? by oakgrove · · Score: 1

      There[sic] response also indicated to me that the child had been educated in the United States.

      Never fails.

      --
      The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  114. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That just means there's big business in exploiting stupidity.

    We knew that from P.T. Barnum.

  115. Then why does Apple still sell "computers"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple doesn't know who it is anymore. They have this commercial that challenges the relevancy of a "traditional" computer while they still slog laptops, desktops, and their new uber-imac, in what can only be explained by some dog-eating-its-own-tail marketing fiasco. They have removed any relevant ports from their laptops, essentially turning them into an ipad-like device, yet they still refuse to implement a touch screen interface. With the recently announced demise of the MB Air (frankly one of the best pieces of kit to every come from the company) they just put another round through the foot. Meanwhile the Board has decreed that Apple CEO, Tim Cook, must travel by private jet for security reasons, and you begin to understand why, so as to not have to publicly answer questions like "what the h*ll are you doing?"

  116. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not sure what your point is. If targeting the mentally impaired with toys is hugely successful and profitable what is the problem? it sounds more like you have issue with being classified as mentally impaired?

  117. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guest IS a complete moron, for sure. She's an in-law.

  118. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by E-Rock · · Score: 2

    Depends. I can stream from my iPhone to my friend's chromecast, from the youtube app.

  119. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    That is a giant steaming pile of bullshit. I have been using Apple toys for decades and I have used them with a long string of non-Apple toys and so far they have worked fine together with the exception certain Microsoft VPNs, the occasional WiFi hotspot and most HP and Samsung printers but that's mainly because HP and Samsung printers seem to be total crap since they don't work very well with my Linux box or the Windows grey-boxes at work either.

    Maybe if by "work at the same time" you mean you can fit them in your vagina at the same time. You know VPNs and WiFi hotspots aren't tangible things though, right? As for the printer, all I can suggest is keep trying, everyone has a dream to strive for.

  120. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 0

    Sure, if the only measure of "successful" is has the biggest pile of rotting money.

    I would say the most successful company was AT&T/Bell Labs. But you know they actually made shit.
    C. Unix. Actual Telecommunication hardware.

    Sounds like jealousy to me...

  121. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    You know what's the definition of "mentally impaired"?

    Calling the most successful company of ANY type on the planet a "Toymaker for the mentally impaired".

    Actually, I'll have you know the average IQ is 100. You could cater to nothing but the mentally impaired and control half the world's wealth by definition.

  122. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by sconeu · · Score: 1

    Why? It'll just be reverted.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  123. Who cares ? by Big+Bipper · · Score: 1

    Most people aren't computer literate anyway, they're barely appliance literate. This is similar to thinking they can cook because they can usually push the buttons on a microwave correctly.

    --
    You live and learn, or you don't learn much.
  124. An Ipad IS a computer by MacColossus · · Score: 1

    That is why the ad sucks. It's like saying if you use an Ipad you are computer illiterate.

  125. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the supercomputers being run by NCAR are not computers because you cannot program them yourself?

    The owners of those supercomputers can program them themselves. The owner of an iPad cannot program it without additionally purchasing a sufficiently recent Mac, whose price typically exceeds that of the iPad. A used pre-2010 Mac will not work, nor will a computer other than a Mac.

    But it can still be done, why does an additional cost/piece of hardware invalid it?

  126. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    You know what's the definition of "mentally impaired"?

    Calling the most successful company of ANY type on the planet a "Toymaker for the mentally impaired".

    Actually, I'll have you know the average IQ is 100. You could cater to nothing but the mentally impaired and control half the world's wealth by definition.

    I would doubt that the sub 100 IQ'ed control half the world's wealth, by definition. Trump notwithstanding, LOL!

  127. If and only if associated with a Mac by tepples · · Score: 1

    Xcode does not run on an iPad, a pre-2010 Mac, or a non-Apple PC. Using Xcode as your defense means an iPad is a general-purpose computer if and only if it is associated with a sufficiently recent Mac.

    1. Re:If and only if associated with a Mac by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Xcode does not run on an iPad, a pre-2010 Mac, or a non-Apple PC. Using Xcode as your defense means an iPad is a general-purpose computer if and only if it is associated with a sufficiently recent Mac.

      I notice you CONVEEEENIENTLY ignored my mention of Swift Playgrounds, which DOES run on an iPad.

    2. Re:If and only if associated with a Mac by tepples · · Score: 1

      I skipped Swift Playgrounds because I lack an informed opinion on it, because I haven't tried it, because I don't own an iPad.

    3. Re:If and only if associated with a Mac by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      I skipped Swift Playgrounds because I lack an informed opinion on it, because I haven't tried it, because I don't own an iPad.

      Nice excuse.

      Read:

      https://developer.apple.com/sw...

      Yes, it's oriented toward "playing around" (hence the name), and oriented towards kids (is that a bad thing?); but it looks like it nicely dovetails (no pun on the Swift logo) into XCode Development (which you can be cynical about; but not THAT cynical).

      All in all, it seems like a great way to teach kids (and not-so-kids) coding, with some instant gratification that sure beats my first BASIC program!

  128. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    I would doubt that the sub 100 IQ'ed control half the world's wealth, by definition. Trump notwithstanding, LOL!

    If you think Trump and/or his supporters are idiots you're delusional. He won with an Army of nerds shilling for him for free because he represented their interests for a change and in addition he himself has an IQ no less than 4 s.d. above average. But hey, whatever helps you stop crying and go to sleep at night; personally I look forward to another 7 years of you idiots buttraging all over the place.

  129. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am sure that your wife appreciates your high opinion of her ...

  130. If it's practically Turing complete by tepples · · Score: 2

    By that argument, any computer isn't a computer, because it can only do those things that are allowed by the CPU manufacturer.

    As far as I'm aware, CPU manufacturers aim to make their products LBA-complete,* such that they can do anything a linear bounded automaton can do. What significant parts of LBA completeness are not "allowed by the CPU manufacturer," other than as part of a smart card or other deliberately locked down SoC intended for security against physical access?

    * Technically, it's impossible for a physical computer to be Turing complete, as a Turing machine has unbounded tape. An LBA is the same as a Turing machine except for having bounded tape.

  131. Count me in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It bugs me on many levels. For one thing *that iPad is a computer*. Secondly, was this kid designed by a focus group in a laboratory? Genderless, raceless, personality-less, heartless. Also, great job explaining things to your child, mom. Lastly: the kid walks around entirely alone, eyes glued to the screen, taking in literally nothing of the world around them or anyone in it. To me it actually makes a fantastic case for precisely why we SHOULDN'T be giving our kids iPads, In addition to how we shouldn't be parenting them. Total fail, Apple. Total fail.

  132. Modularity is the loyal old friend of openness by mohsel · · Score: 1

    So it doesn't surprise me that, with every single iteration, there is less modularity in those devices. the big guys are orienting the masses towards to one brick of closed monolithic software/hardware thing that is conditioning the "computing" behavior of their users.

    I am not comfortable on tablets, the Ux makes me feel trapped in a glass. i need my shell, and the possibility to replace a hardware component if I want to, this used to be a standard. but what was the standard few years ago will be niche in the very near future

  133. A paid proprietary add-on turns it into a computer by tepples · · Score: 1

    I have a watch that is a computer for real. It is the EZ430

    Most digital wristwatches aren't nearly as user-programmable as the eZ430-Chronos.

    And yes, the iPad has a processor that you can program, so it is, indeed, a computer.

    The iPad is not shipped as a general-purpose computer but can be turned into one with an additional purchase of a proprietary product. In the case of an iPad, buying a Mac new enough to run the latest Xcode turns it into a general-purpose computer.

    If one could program it using only free software (as opposed to the full IDE or Xcode), I would count it as already general-purpose. Android devices are this way, as Debian provides a functional free subset of the Android SDK.

  134. Who cares -- where's my full size tower? by sandbagger · · Score: 1

    The Mac Pro 5,1 is the computer that makes the content the other 80 per cent of computer users reads on their iPads.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  135. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by BlueLightning · · Score: 1

    Then either there was something wrong with your printer or your guest is a complete moron.

    Holding it wrong, obviously.

  136. iPad users clueless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This tells me that iPads are for ignorant morons that don't know what a computer is and if I want to be counted amongst those morons I should save up to buy one.

  137. I assumed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The intention of the ad was to deliver the message that even an idiot can work an iPad.

  138. High school computer science by tepples · · Score: 1

    90% of "users" don't program, don't need to program and don't want to program.

    As more school corporations incorporate computer science into the high school curriculum, "I don't wanna program" will feel more like "I don't wanna go to school."

    1. Re:High school computer science by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      No it will feel just the same as those that hate Maths, Gym, Music.

      And when they are adults and in the workforce better than 90% of people will never use those skills they were taught ever again.

    2. Re:High school computer science by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Look, computer science has been in school curriculum's since "I" was a kid, and that was back in the 80's. It was an ELECTIVE then and it is an ELECTIVE now.

      Sure, they might do a quick code:blocks hour of code thing in math or science class in grade school, but the actual computer science class in high school will be an ELECTIVE.

  139. Linear bounded automata by tepples · · Score: 1

    Then let me amend Archtech's suggestion to account for the flaw you point out:

    "I'm glad you asked, kid. A computer is any device that's LBA-complete".

    "What's an LBA?"

    To unlock the answer, translate the article "Linear bounded automaton" into simple English.

  140. Re:who cares by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Guess what the best selling beer in the world is? Budweiser.

    Obviously, it's the best beer, then.

  141. Long branching on the 8-bits by tepples · · Score: 1

    Try doing a "long branch" on a Motorola 6800, best you could do was a jump of maximum 255 bytes.

    On both the Motorola 6800 and the MOS 6502, a long branch is possible though not position-independent. It is encoded as a short branch with the opposite condition around an absolute jump.

  142. Re:who cares by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

    Big Monsanto/Walmart/Verizon fan here, I see...

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  143. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who's a bigger idiot, the idiot leading the charge off the cliff, or the ones who follow after when he tells them it doesn't hurt on the way down?

  144. SoylentNews anyone? by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some of the apathy toward fixing encoding is a legacy of vandals abusing Unicode control characters to mess with the layout and abusing foreign language characters to post obscene glyph art. If Unicode support matters to you, you could always use SoylentNews instead.

    1. Re:SoylentNews anyone? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Some of the apathy toward fixing encoding is a legacy of vandals abusing Unicode control characters to mess with the layout and abusing foreign language characters to post obscene glyph art. If Unicode support matters to you, you could always use SoylentNews instead.

      I really don't care about the Unicode stuff. I'm a USian, and we don' need no steenking Unicode just to talk.

      But it's the hundred other things that no other comment system seems to suffer from that annoy me.

      And, oh yes, the complete lack of a rich text editor. The fact that I have to use ignorant HTML tags JUST to bold or italicize something is beyond ridiculous. This is not an HTML coding test; it's a damned comment system! And it's damned inconvenient when typing on anything but a full-blown desktop keyboard!

  145. Irritating but essentially correct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Although I too find the commercial irritating, it's essentially correct. A couple of years back, I asked my class ( a group of about 35 pre-service teachers) two questions 15 minutes apart: (1) Should students be allowed to have cell phones in the classroom?, and (2) Should students be allowed to have powerful handheld computers in class?

    The majority (all but two) of the students answered no to the first question. All students voted yes to the second question. However, as you will note, they're actually the same question, just phrased differently. Many of the students had never realized that SmartPhones are really handheld computers. I was not surprised by this result, but the students were when they realized it.

  146. There's only two things you need to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This article was published by Business Insider, and pushed by editor msmash. Both are Apple haters.

    That is all.

  147. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a "computer" is anything that does computations.

    Humans, now and again, are considered computers; in fact a certain National Aeronautics and Space Administration is well known for its employment of human computers.

    Pretty sure they made a movie about 'em.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  148. Possible != common by tepples · · Score: 1

    The owner of an iPad cannot program it without additionally purchasing a sufficiently recent Mac, whose price typically exceeds that of the iPad.

    But it can still be done, why does an additional cost/piece of hardware invalid it?

    Anecdotal evidence is evidence that something is possible, not that it is common. Because the majority of iPads are not owned by Mac owners, most iPads are not general-purpose computers.

    Now consider why it isn't common. Because of the relative prices of the device (iPad, $500) and the peripheral that enables general-purpose computation thereon (Mac, estimated $1000), one cannot assume that anyone who owns the device either also owns or can easily afford the enabler. Thus you end up with sticker shock causing people to prematurely dismiss joining the free software user community entirely. A concrete example: If you own an iPad and a Mac, and your friends own iPads, you can't assume that they also have access to a Mac. Thus you can't privately share your improvements to an app with them, and they therefore cannot benefit from your improvements.

    1. Re:Possible != common by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Anecdotal evidence is evidence that something is possible,

      Links to programming languages for the iPad is now "anecdotal"? Proof that something is possible is sufficient to disprove the claim that something is not possible. You can program your iPad if you are smart enough and can afford ninety-nine cents US. That disproves the claim that it is not a computer because you cannot program it.

      Now consider why it isn't common.

      It isn't comment because the vast majority of people have no interest AT ALL in programming their iPad to do anything other than what existing apps do, or the knowledge of how to program if they did have that interest.

      one cannot assume that anyone who owns the device either also owns or can easily afford the enabler.

      If you can afford $500 to buy the iPad (mine just cost $180 refurb, btw) you can probably afford the $0.99 to buy an app that allows you to program for it. That may be $0.99 more than the cost of some other app, I haven't wasted my time looking for anything cheaper.

      In any case, you being too cheap or too poor to buy the tools to program a computer doesn't change the computer. It is still programmable by people who care enough.

      Thus you can't privately share your improvements to an app with them,

      So? That's how you define "computer" now? Did you fill in the holes where the previous goalposts were? Someone is going to break an ankle if they step in one.

    2. Re:Possible != common by tepples · · Score: 1

      In any case, you being too cheap or too poor to buy the tools to program a computer doesn't change the computer. It is still programmable by people who care enough.

      Would you likewise consider a video game console to be a user-programmable computer because "people who care enough" can start a game studio and buy a multi-thousand-dollar devkit?

    3. Re:Possible != common by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      Would you likewise consider a video game console to be a user-programmable computer because "people who care enough" can start a game studio and buy a multi-thousand-dollar devkit?

      Yes. And now we've moved the goalposts again, with "user-programmable". The cost of the programming software is not relevant to what the hardware is.

      I deal with land mobile radios all the time. The hardware to program the frequencies into them is not free, and yet the manufacturers call the radios "programmable". Are they "not programmable" because the stuff to program them isn't free? The correct answer is no, they are programmable. The fact that YOU can't do it because you won't spend the money for the hardware to do it changes nothing.

    4. Re:Possible != common by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Would you likewise consider a video game console to be a user-programmable computer because "people who care enough" can start a game studio and buy a multi-thousand-dollar devkit?

      What a silly rhetorical question, since I know that you know about the Net Yaroze for the PSone, the PS2 Linux kit, and the PS3's ability to run Linux.

      I suppose now you'll bring up how Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft make it so HARD for aspiring developers like yourself to make a commercial game.

      How many years have we had this discussion? You've had YEARS to fulfill your dream and you haven't done it. You've not produced a complete game, you haven't gone to work for an established dev. All you've done is WHINE about barriers to entry, which don't seem to stop other people who want to do games for non-PC platforms.

      You know about Axiom Verge, right?

      http://www.axiomverge.com/

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      The game is on WiiU, Switch, Xbox One, PS4, Vita as well as Windows, MacOS and Linux.

      ONE guy did that game.

    5. Re:Possible != common by tepples · · Score: 1

      You've not produced a complete game

      I would bring you up to date on this, but that would be off-topic in this particular Slashdot story.

  149. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kind of. They can, they just can't install the software. It's not that it technically can't, it's that the security permissions don't allow it.

  150. Re: who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's also from a comedian stand up routine where he s taking the audience, as they're a new employee, through a day in the life of tech support.

  151. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

    The owners of those supercomputers can program them themselves. The owner of an iPad cannot program it without additionally purchasing a sufficiently recent Mac, whose price typically exceeds that of the iPad.

    I've already provided links to two different programming languages for the iPad, neither of which breaks the bank in price.

    In any case, you being too cheap to buy the required equipment to program your computer doesn't turn it into a "not computer". It just means you are not interested enough in wanting to program it yourself using xcode or swift.

    As for the comment by another about how Wikipedia defines a computer, well, I yield to the perfection of technical documentation that is Wikipedia. I shall ignore every CS class I've had that provides a useful definition and carry the Wiki-flag to my grave.

  152. Re:A paid proprietary add-on turns it into a compu by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    Most digital wristwatches aren't nearly as user-programmable as the eZ430-Chronos.

    For fucks sake, I didn't say that every watch was a computer. Fucking learn how to read, god damn it.

    The iPad is not shipped as a general-purpose computer

    Yes, it is. The PC you buy from pieces isn't shipped to you as a computer, but fuck all if it isn't a computer when you put it all together -- even before you install an OS.

    Imagine the fun of trying to get your "computer" fixed when it won't boot, using your stupid definition. You call the computer repair people. "I have something that needs to be fixed. Can you come fix it?" "Is it a computer." "No, it isn't." "We fix computers. Call someone else. CLICK". You certainly cannot call a thing that doesn't do ANYTHING a computer if a computer has to have free programming software and the ability for everyone to program it. How do you program a computer that doesn't even boot up?

    If one could program it using only free software (as opposed to the full IDE or Xcode),

    Another goal post shift.

    Android devices are this way, as Debian provides a functional free subset of the Android SDK.

    Hypocrite. Android devices are not shipped with the tools to program them, either. The cost of the tools does not define what a computer is.

  153. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by lgw · · Score: 1

    Try the simple act of plugging an Apple toy into the projector in a conference room without buying more parts.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  154. Re:who cares by lgw · · Score: 1

    Why would you argue that? Do you deny that the most popular music on the planet is targeted for the mentally impaired? The most popular fashion accessories?

    Making a lot of money means the vendor is smart, not that the customers are smart (in fact, it typically suggests they aren't).

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  155. Appropriate for Apple users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not a kid in the future, that's what Apple users are like. Content with whatever piece of shit their overlords give them and buying their buzzwords together with the devices.

  156. Really? by p4nther2004 · · Score: 1
    What was the setup required for the old image writer printer?

    Hint - there wasn't any installation. It literally was "plug-n-play".

    Of course, the downside was that was the ONLY printer you could use.

    But compare that setup with say Linux CUPS.

    1. Re:Really? by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Of course, the downside was that was the ONLY printer you could use.

      There were two, you're forgetting the LaserWriter

      But compare that setup with say Linux CUPS.

      You may not be aware of this but modern versions of CUPS on Linux can and will set up your printer without you the user actually doing anything.

    2. Re:Really? by p4nther2004 · · Score: 1

      There were two, you're forgetting the LaserWriter

      The laserwriter came out in 1985....a year after the original mac. (Never used it myself, it was more expensive than the mac)

      You may not be aware of this but modern versions of CUPS on Linux can and will set up your printer without you the user actually doing anything.

      Usually...depending on how unique a setup you have. It's also 2018. (Not 1984) :-)

  157. Consuming vs Creating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tablets are made for *consuming* content.

    A keyboard/mouse is designed for *creating* content.

    With the exception of a few artists I know who make good use of tablets that are pressure sensitive enough to be used as direct drawing tools, for everything else you're going to need a keyboard and/or mouse.

    Try doing CAD design on a tablet... Those things have a million hotkeys for a reason. Creating is complicated and detailed.

  158. Lost In Words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's a programmable processor?

    What's the difference?

  159. Re:A paid proprietary add-on turns it into a compu by tepples · · Score: 1

    Android devices are not shipped with the tools to program them, either.

    They can be programmed with tools that are 1. manufactured by multiple and 2. more widespread. In fact, you don't strictly need a PC, as Android tablets have had AIDE for far longer than iPad has had Swift Playgrounds.

    The cost of the tools does not define what a computer is.

    Now that I think about your example of building a desktop PC from parts, I have realized something.

    (Or does realizing something imply a prohibited movement of the goalposts?)

    I have realized that my complaint is not even about the price per se. It's that manufacturers of incomplete computers have been systematically misleading the public about how complete their products are. Prior to the introduction of Swift Playgrounds, it was quite expensive to complete a $200 refurbished iPad by adding a Mac.

  160. Re:A paid proprietary add-on turns it into a compu by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    They can be programmed with tools that are

    YOU claimed that iPad are not computers because they are not shipped with the tools to program them. Well, neither were ANY of the Android devices I own. If the iPad is not a computer, then neither are Android devices.

    Now that I think about your example of building a desktop PC from parts, I have realized something.

    Thank God for small favors.

    (Or does realizing something imply a prohibited movement of the goalposts?)

    Only if you move the goalposts as a result. Is English not your first language?

    I have realized that my complaint is not even about the price per se.

    None of us cares about your complaints, we're talking about whether an iPad is a computer.

    It's that manufacturers of incomplete computers have been systematically misleading the public about how complete their products are.

    If you're using that as your new definition of "computer", then yes, you've just moved the goalposts yet again.

    Prior to the introduction of Swift Playgrounds, it was quite expensive to complete a $200 refurbished iPad by adding a Mac.

    You don't have to "add a Mac" to turn an iPad into a computer. This is irrelevant. Not having a Mac to go with your iPad doesn't mean the iPad is incomplete. It means you don't have a Mac to go with it.

  161. iPad is computer, but how does its biz model help? by tepples · · Score: 1

    OK, fresh topic:

    I concede for the moment that a computer that the general public cannot program is nonetheless still a computer. I therefore must agree that the child in the ad is ignorant (whether intentionally or not) for not being aware that an iPad is one.

    But a question is raised: How does it benefit the public to make the tools for programming a computer sold to the public cost several times more than the computer itself?

  162. white people problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this ad annoys you, get a fucking life.

  163. It's the girl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The girl knows exactly what her mom is talking about when asked what she's doing with the computer she can't take her eyes away from for a moment. She's an annoying little self-absorbed bitch, and it's no wonder why she spends the whole day alone. Typical Apple fan smugness: "This isn't just some tablet, it's an iPad, peon. You disgust me, stop interrupting me."

  164. Better parenting by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

    Mom: What are you doing on your computer?
    Brat: What's a computer?
    Mom: What you won't be using for 24 hours when I take your ipad away if you talk to me dismissively like that again. You have a one hour computer timeout so we can talk again about why you don't have friends and how important it is to interact with actual people in real life.

    --
    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
    1. Re:Better parenting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuck yea!

  165. And I hate that girl by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    I've always liked Pamela Adlon, but I stopped watching Better Things because the kids (the commercial girl in particular) were annoying as fuck. Also, it wasn't a funny or interesting show.

  166. we should - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We should just start calling all computers iPads then until it becomes synonymous so Apple loses the trade mark due to genericization.

    1. Re:we should - by Hentai007 · · Score: 1

      good idea.

  167. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are an idiot?

    Anyone with the ability to program can program an iPad to do what ever "arbitrary sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically". Wether or not they are allow to publish and distribute those pieces of code on Apples App Store has nothing to do with the question of is the iPad a Computer!

    ALL OS's limit program functionality to protect themselves. The fact that Apple puts a few more restrictions to better secure this device for the average consumer in no way makes it any less of a computer. Please tell me what restriction you believe is placed on the iPad that hobbles it so that it doesn't meet your Computer definition.

  168. What's a Shovel? by popdookey · · Score: 1

    I want the neighbor to cross the fence, smack the tablet with a shovel, and say "I don't know what a computer is, either."

    --
    Success without humility is an indulgence in arrogance
  169. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The house guest tried to get access to Wi-Fi; the printer complaint was just pretext.

  170. Apple wants to become Xerox or HP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of toner or ink, they want to sell non-replaceable batteries.

  171. Re:who cares by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

    I can introduce you to Professors in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Microbiology, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Engineering, etc all of whom use Macs.

  172. Computers vs. tablets and phones by DulcetTone · · Score: 1

    A computer generally enables you to create. The other platforms enable you to consume.

    --
    tone
  173. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Paper doesn't make you smart, it just shows you did the work in relation to it.

  174. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by bingoUV · · Score: 0

    Come on! The owner of the devices recently became famous for remotely "programming" the devices. They slowed the devices down when they become old enough.

    The owner can programme. The user, renter, lessee if you will, cannot always programme.

    --
    Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
  175. Unfortunately by n329619 · · Score: 1

    around 90% of the people wouldn't feel annoyed. They even might feel better at buying the iPad after the ad because it sounds less complex than a computer.

    I have seen people (close acquaintances) of all age ranging from, older people, baby boomer wives, and even college kid stating that "computer is hard" or "I don't know what to do with it" today. Yes, today. Some of them doesn't even own a computer at home or own one that is usable today. Worst of all, some of them only use a computer because they need to use it in office and in school. They never use one outside from it.

    Sadly even twitter proves it. All those related tweets have around 2k likes, which is not a lot compare to this stupid post with around 500k likes.

  176. Re:iPad is computer, but how does its biz model he by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

    How does it benefit the public to make the tools for programming a computer sold to the public cost several times more than the computer itself?

    Benefit the public? Why is that a consideration? the vast majority of the Public don't have the desire or knowledge to program that computer.

    And those that DO tend to have the money and are WILLING to buy the tools.

    Think about all those slashdot geeks who have mentioned using Borland C's compiler on their DOS machine.

  177. Re:who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I fail to see how this makes news on slashdot oh wait it's anti apple that might be how

    It's not even anti-Apple, we already know Apple only makes toys for the mentally impaired.

    You know what's the definition of "mentally impaired"?

    Calling the most successful company of ANY type on the planet a "Toymaker for the mentally impaired".

    Oh well , we have come a long way from the difference engine, I mean seriously you would get your nuts caught in the gears trying to download porn on that thing right? Imagine trying to explain that one to the emergency room doctor! Awkward!

  178. Re:who cares by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

    No, the PhD that you require to get an academic position in my country proves you are smart, as does the many years of teaching and research you need to do before you can become a professor. That title is only awarded on merit, not on time served or just "doing the work".
    Then there are the various research medals, earning a fellowship to the royal society , etc.

    Its ranks a lot higher than uninformed opinion.

  179. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    You must be trolling. There are entire fields of fake science (e.g. sociology, psychology, etc.) Nobody who teaches does so because they're good at science, they do so because they can't do anything in science. Sometimes that's merely being too autistic to get funding, but that's relatively rare, especially in tenured positions which are 99% politics. Paper exists so wealthy people can vet poor people to fill roles without having to be bothered to learn anything about them, that's the only purpose of it in the modern world. Of course one of the motivations is for people to pretend they know more than others, which is the category most PhD holders fall into. The competent scientists are overwhelmingly dropouts who discovered something along the way and realized it was a waste of time to keep going with it.

  180. Re:who cares by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

    That maybe true in the USA, but other countries have more rigorous standards. Did you note I said "Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Microbiology, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Engineering", you know the hard sciences. Also, academics are initially put on fixed term contracts here, if they fail to produce result they don't get renewed contracts. Even those who are employed full time can get pushed out the door if they fail to produce results. The results are based on peer reviewed publications (quality of journal matters), how often your papers are referenced by other academics/students, Conference presentations, how much research money you bring in, collaboration peers, etc etc etc etc. Each academic has to produce a full portfolio of these every 3 years.

  181. Not a fan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hate the arrogance that comes off that girl in the end of this commercial. Turns me off of buying apple products.

  182. Tripp and Tyler's Parodies by antdude · · Score: 1
    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  183. Re: Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Modded down? You're posting anonymously - why should you care? I don't even waste mod points on anon posts. When I post anonymously, I say, "come whack me stupid."

  184. Re:Apple's 'What's a Computer?' Ad is Annoyin GNAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    relax bud, its click-baited /.
    get bent..
    there is no place in society for that language

  185. So, what have we leanred from this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well we have determined the thing is a Girl, Hannah Alligood.
    Wow, gotta love Clik-Bait.

  186. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The iPad is a computer. It's just not YOUR computer.

  187. What's an iPad? by Xenna · · Score: 1

    Tablet sales have fallen for the third successive year. Also, I have noticed personally that the iPads in my house get used less and less. Somehow the gap between PC's and smartphones seems to be getting smaller.

  188. Using a tablet as a computer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To use a tablet as a computer, you would need to

    - Connect a 24 inch screen (whether Excel or Visual Studio, those who need a computer need a monitor with room for actual work).
    - Connect a keyboard and mouse
    - Install a keyboard and mouse friendly operating system instead of the touch OS the tablet came with (note that this is the part Microsoft got wrong with Windows 8/10).

    Once you have done that, you might as well get rid of the now unused tiny screen, which at this point serves only to make the device more expensive.

    Oh look, we just invented the Raspberry Pi.

  189. This is the world for youngsters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure this annoys old people who still use computers, but my grandchildren do everything on tablets and phones. So yeah, grandpa, tell me about the old days when you used taperecoders, recordplayers and computers.

  190. Re:Major Intel Drop today by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

    BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

    --
    Eat the rich.
  191. Apple is for uneducated and ignorant only? by misnohmer · · Score: 1

    It seems Apple is saying their products are aimed at people who don't know or care what a computer is. Maybe it's their new marketing strategy, or maybe, must maybe, if you know what a computer is you won't want to buy Apple products?

  192. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A computer is a bunch of rocks that only conduct electricity above a certain value.

  193. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pythonista and Swift playgrounds allows you to do that. Does that then change your view of an iPad with regards to it being a computer?

    The former is something that has allowed me to spend far more time on my iPad Pro than my desktop. Granted, my iMac is rather old, but there are things that the iPad can accomplish in a fraction of the time.

    I haven't seen the commercial in question,I haven't seen a commercial since the "I'm a Mac" commercials were airing. However I feel that in a couple of iterations, the iPad could very well be a desk/laptop replacement. That, or the "guts" of an iPad will be used to make Apple laptops and desktops, with other hardware glued on for expanded storage and Intel compatibility.

  194. This is Possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After America has fully embraced the Idiocracy, an iPad would be perfect for everything. In an Idiocracy you have nearly all lusers, and a select few with the knowledge to be an administrator. Common core math is one of those examples on how to sabotage a generation into becoming incapable of understanding technology and how it works. That saves the internet from total annihilation from those pesky 14 year old hackers.

    For now and the near future at least, an iPad isn't going to be host a virtual server, a sql server, a file server, and provide a development platform for my personal needs. So I guess this commercial isn't marketed toward my group. So they can continue to live in whatever fantasy land that makes Apple money.

  195. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try the simple act of plugging an Apple toy into the projector in a conference room without buying more parts.

    Needing to buy an adaptor to plug your laptop into an antiquated projector with a heavy duty DVI connector does not equal the device you are trying to plug in being unable to work with macOS. It just means that you are e cheapskate to buy an adaptor. If you don't like the fact that the computer industry evolves quickly then you should really go join an Amish community or something, nothing much has changed there since the 18th century.

  196. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is a giant steaming pile of bullshit. I have been using Apple toys for decades and I have used them with a long string of non-Apple toys and so far they have worked fine together with the exception certain Microsoft VPNs, the occasional WiFi hotspot and most HP and Samsung printers but that's mainly because HP and Samsung printers seem to be total crap since they don't work very well with my Linux box or the Windows grey-boxes at work either.

    Maybe if by "work at the same time" you mean you can fit them in your vagina at the same time. You know VPNs and WiFi hotspots aren't tangible things though, right? As for the printer, all I can suggest is keep trying, everyone has a dream to strive for.

    Awwww... are we so completely out of arguments that our only recourse is to attack our opponents person? Oh and just for your information I did not say "work at the same time" anywhere in my post and I do happen to have a vagina and I happen to be very picky about what I insert into it so your pathetic insult is completely lost on me. As for WiFi and VPNs you said 'If you try using an Apple toy with anything that isn't another Apple toy' that means connecting and I don't give a rats ass what kind of a connection it is, wireless or wired, it's all the same to me. A 'using one device with another device" usually requires a connection and you made the asinine assertion that Apple products cannot be connected to any peripheral that isn't from Apple which is a pretty stupid claim to make in the first place.

  197. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    If you spend your time searching for solutions to basic wireless problems on stackoverflow your time is worthless regardless of which system you use.

  198. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Then either there was something wrong with your printer or your guest is a complete moron.

    Well fuck, normally I recommend Apple products to complete morons because computers are hard. What are we to do now?

  199. I'm still not sure... by MerlTurkin · · Score: 1

    ....if that's a boy or a girl in that ad. Remember when you can easily tell if someone was male or female? WTF?

  200. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by cmseagle · · Score: 1

    I'll play along.

    The iPad has a web browser pre-installed, and several others can be downloaded from the App store. These web browsers support Javascript. Javascript can carry out an arbitrary sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. Ergo, the iPad is a computer.

  201. You dumb ho by macdaddy357 · · Score: 1

    What's a computer? That, you dumb ho!

    --
    How ya like dat?
  202. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by SB5407 · · Score: 1

    This has been an interesting discussion. I'm not sure I stand by my original statement above. This discussion has thrown the whole PC/iPad/Laptop/Computer thing upside down for me, sent it awash in mind in an amalgam of:

    • Disdain for snotty hipsters
    • Disdain for over priced fashion-piece electronics
    • Rage against the consumerist machine
    • Furor over the shackles of a walled garden and closed ecosystem
    • And fervent pedantry
  203. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Oh you like the photo/song/video on my phone? Of course you can have a copy I'll just bluetooth it to you...

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  204. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by SB5407 · · Score: 1

    As for the comment by another about how Wikipedia defines a computer, well, I yield to the perfection of technical documentation that is Wikipedia. I shall ignore every CS class I've had that provides a useful definition and carry the Wiki-flag to my grave.

    No need. I repudiate my earlier claim. Cheers!

  205. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Funny that you use that example. A few months ago, a house guest tried to print to my wireless Brother printer from their iPad. They kept whining that it was just prompting them for "an AirPort device". They were never able to print.

    That's Air Print, and Brother wireless printers are Air Print enabled. If your house guest was getting complaints about AirPort devices he was messing around in the network settings, not the print settings.

    But I thought they just worked?

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  206. Re:who cares by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    I fail to see how this makes news on slashdot oh wait it's anti apple that might be how

    It's not even anti-Apple, we already know Apple only makes toys for the mentally impaired.

    You know what's the definition of "mentally impaired"?

    Calling the most successful company of ANY type on the planet a "Toymaker for the mentally impaired".

    But what if that's what they do?

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  207. Re: A 'tablet' is actually a 'tablet computer'. by SB5407 · · Score: 1

    The user, renter, lessee if you will, cannot always programme.

    I agree with your sentiment. Shades of Stallman here.

  208. Let me fix this. by swilkers808 · · Score: 1

    Just go with "Apple is annoying people".

  209. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by lgw · · Score: 1

    It's a problem only Apple users have - everyone else works normally with office equipment.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  210. Re:Apple makes tech for the "time is money" crowd by neurovish · · Score: 1

    I have a brother printer and it prints just fine from my iPhone. I think your house guest may have been defective.

  211. A computer is what makes an iPad work. by Neuroelectronic · · Score: 1

    Without computers serving it everything, an iPad wouldn't be able to do much.

  212. iPad? by willgill · · Score: 1

    With stellar sales of 2-in-1s, you may ask, "What's an iPad?" Answer: What your kid plays with at restaurants.

  213. Finally gave in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last weekend, for the first time in many many years, I allowed a buying decision to be influenced by an advertisement. And it just so happened to be an Apple advertisement. I don't entirely regret it, but next week I think I will be switching back to Granny Smith anyway. The red ones just don't do it for me.

  214. This commercial is the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I seriously will be running my porn server on a 35 iPad cluster server in the near future.....not.

  215. or not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i don't understand why they didn't just implant the thunderbolt and the micro-SIM card holder in the first few weeks after birth(*)?
    this way the video would just show a regular drooling kid staring into blank space ...

    (*) as i understand, there's a special offer: the implanting will be done for free if parents sign-off on contract that locks the kid to one [unamed] wireless-carrier for life.

  216. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 0

    I would doubt that the sub 100 IQ'ed control half the world's wealth, by definition. Trump notwithstanding, LOL!

    If you think Trump and/or his supporters are idiots you're delusional. He won with an Army of nerds shilling for him for free because he represented their interests for a change and in addition he himself has an IQ no less than 4 s.d. above average. But hey, whatever helps you stop crying and go to sleep at night; personally I look forward to another 7 years of you idiots buttraging all over the place.

    I KNEW any mention of President Dumpster would derail the conversation.

    Thanks for taking the bait, morons! LOLOLOL!!!

  217. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Guess what the best selling beer in the world is? Budweiser.

    Obviously, it's the best beer, then.

    Maybe not the best (which is most assuredly a SUBJECTIVE quality); but I would hardly call Anheiser Busch (or whatever the name of the German brewery it is that bought them a few years back) a "Toymaker brewery, that only makes beers for the mentally impaired."

    THAT's the difference.

  218. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Big Monsanto/Walmart/Verizon fan here, I see...

    Entirely a different argument.

    And for the record: No.

  219. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Why would you argue that? Do you deny that the most popular music on the planet is targeted for the mentally impaired? The most popular fashion accessories?

    Making a lot of money means the vendor is smart, not that the customers are smart (in fact, it typically suggests they aren't).

    Where is that correlation coming from, and does it smell up there?

    Smart people buy things, too.

  220. Doesn't add up by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    This brave new world where people only consume, not create. So when this happens, no new programs will be written?

    the desktop has been dead since tablets were introduced. The laptop has been dead since smartphones. The laptop will continue being dead for many years to come.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  221. what’s a computer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do believe Apple has released the fastest desktop computer ever made in the form of the iMac Pro.. sure one cannot get into it but it surely has enough I/O to slap a lot of things onto it. Apple has not stopped making content creating hardware at all. They make certain specific kinds and don’t pretend to be for Everyman or woman. They seem pretty successful doing so.

  222. Re:who cares by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

    I dunno. Have you seen the people who drink Bud? :^D

  223. You don't know what a computer is? by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

    When the kid with the iPad said "What's a computer?" I thought they were showing that they were designed for the retarded.

    If the kid really didn't know that what they're using is a form of computer, it implies they're either somehow lacking in super basic information about technology (i.e. stupid) or have a serious mental disability.

  224. Re:who cares by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    So you admit outright to having no point? Excellent concession.

  225. Re:who cares by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    So you admit outright to having no point? Excellent concession.

    Nice try.

  226. Bring Back Ellen Feiss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to employ a young lady to sell me Apple products you're going to have to bring back Ellen Feiss. Oh, and you'll have to bring back the ipod nano. That's the only Apple product I've ever owned. But yeah, bring back Ellen. She was awesome because she writes really good papers.

  227. Logically by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    This is just Apple recognizing that their user base is a bunch of idiots. That's how I looked at it anyhow. If you're too dumb to even know what a computer is, well you better buy an iPad!

    Joking aside, I think eventually the Apple trend is going to start waning. They built their brand around "Devices that just Work". I believe this is becoming less and less true. Not sure why this is, lack of corporate focus, drive for more cutting edge features, or just greed. However in a total anecdotal way I don't use Apple products (anymore), while my girlfriend does. I seem to pretty much just coast by without any problems, while she has constant issues, and she used to work for Apple support a couple years ago. Most of the problems seem to be around poor design choices Apple has been making the last number of years. While the design choices might seem advantageous to the Apple bottom line, the resultant user experience has been diminished quite a bit. I know my girlfriend is getting pretty tired of my smugness every time she is having charging issues or whatever, and my Android just keeps ticking away without an issue (and cheaper, and more flexible, etc..).