The hardest thing I've done in years was implementing interfaces to Amazon, eBay, UPS, FedEx, etc. Horribly designed. Badly documented. Constantly changing in small ways. Every time you think you have it some special case comes up or they change something and bang the shit hits the fan again. Very frustrating. I'm sure I could rewrite their code to be decent much quicker than dealing with the crap they throw out.
Give me pure computer science type problems any day where pure logic and good debugging will always lead to software that works.
The most important thing to comment is what your code doesn't do. If you didn't do it this mayor that way for some reason make a note. Otherwise some idiot, probably yourself, will come back to it later and get the bright idea to improve it in exactly the way you decided not to use for some specific reason. Don't know how many times I had to undo some brilliant fix because I forgot to write down why I hadn't done it that way.
As it is it's pretty easy to get listed in the top couple spots for most queries. It's only difficult if you want extremely competitive terms such as 'porn' or 'ipod'. I have tens of thousands of products that come up on the first page of most searches with the likely keywords. All you have to do is follow Google's directions and think about what you're doing. Even if you do hit page one for more competitive terms it usually isn't as valuable as you'd expect because conversion rates are much lower for generic terms.
And I hate product search sites like Nextag. They are little more than spam and should be treated as spam.
Modeling clay and paper I agreevare pretty good but for drawing you can't beat the iPad. It's easy and can offer a lot of options and you don't run out of paper, have to spend an hour finding stray crayons, figure out which marker wasn't actually a washable, etc.
For clay that Moon Sand is great. It doesn't get yick neat as fast.
Toy food, tents, swords, and such role playing props are always a big hit. My daughter especially likes anything she can do that imitates Mom or Dad. We got her some small pans, bowls, etc and the soft Ikea toy food and she will cook for us for hours and she enjoys her XO other than the fact it's hard to open. Not many fun games on it but she likes to just sit and type. Old remote controls and cell phones are prized too.
Had they ever actually been allowed to explore freely? Did anyone show them how to use it. I've allowed my daughter, nieces, nephews, friends kids, etc to use it and they all picked it up quickly and loved it. Obviously my daughter uses it the best because she has had full access most of her life but any kid will quickly grasp the basics if you show them.
The hardest interactions I've seen were accelerometer based play and dragging and dropping (such as puzzles) that require you keep constant contact. But even an 18 month old will start figuring those out if shown what to do. Multitouch support in the app can help too because I've noticed kids will have a finger tip touching the edge of the screen as they support the device and they won't understand why it stops responding to their active finger. The iPad is difficult for things that want you to shake it but that's true with adults too. As far as coloring, buttons, sliding, etc though kids will absolutely get it. And they quickly learn to leave the home button alone if they have a fun app they want to stay in.
I do wish Apple would give a control to keep icons from being moved or deleted. That is a little confusing I think because it happens when they don't realize they are doing anything such as when a hand is just sitting on the screen.
My daughter likes a good keyboard and mouse too but if the device doesn't have a touch screen she tells me it's broken. Not really surprised as we have multiple iTouches around, an iPad, a digital photo frame, a digital camera, and a video camera that all have touch screens. It also took her longer to really understand the relationship of these and what was happening on a screen. It's far more disconnected than a touch interface. Pretty much the same experience with joystick based stuff like from Little Leaps.
My 26 month old has been using an iTouch since she was 6 months old and an iPad since April. She carries them around without problem. The worst she's done was peel off the screen protector on the iPad. Both devices have survived with no damage at all. I can't say the same for the $100+ kid tough portable DVD player from Fischer Price. THAT was a piece of junk from the start and minor bumps give it problems.
Have you even priced kids toys? A doll can easily be $50. A decent Lego set can easily reach hundreds of dollars. One of the Leap Pad type machines is $50+ and the games are $10 - $20 each and aren't as kid friendly and the games aren't as good as the $5 iOS games. And none of them can store days worth of Dora the Explorer, Kai-Lan, etc in an easy to browse video library.
Certainly an iPad is cheaper and tougher than ANY other decent computing device. What laptop is essentially entirely a solid state device? Haven't seen any of them nearly as easy or fun to use either.
What is your time and money for if not to spend with your children helping them learn and enjoy life?
Yeah all the Unix stuff Mac OS is built on is sooo limiting when you could be using DOS batch files. And without Desktop Linux how can you experience the joy of being able to hand reconfigure complex permissions and config files just so sound works in all your apps! Damn Apple for taking away my batch files and hand edited config files!
I'm quite willing to pay a little more for a computer that isn't complete crap and butt ugly. Specs aren't everything.
You can keep your cheap crap PC. Enjoy your Dodge Neon and formica countertops too. That blow up girlfriend you have is as good as the real thing too I'm sure - read the specs: three holes, huge boobs, and you don't need to use birth control or share the remote! Hahaha you unexperienced n00bs crack me up.
I agree. I was hoping they'd announce a total rewrite of iTunes, or maybe an iPlay, that was lightweight and cloud based and instead they announce that they are layering in more useless crap.. bummer. iTunes is the worst part of the iDevice experience.
My personal theory is that life, the Universe, and everything evolve towards God and at some point any possible Universe will converge to create God. And by definition God exists in all times and places so once it exists it will have always existed. Before that Omega God will be an infinite number of minor gods created in the process of evolving towards God.
It's as wacko as any other theory but it works for me.
I love Apple products but I have a ever growing lists of stuff I'd like to see changed. It isn't usually the crap the idiots, that want to whine that it isn't exactly like every other device they have, complain about though. Most of my complaints are about thing they've added to be more like other crap devices. Folders are horrible and are a major step backwards. I'm hoping that they did printing right and didn't try to make it work with the existing a-driver-for-every-device model but we shall see. The buttons are a bad decision and should go. They wear out before anything else and don't add anything to the experience. Network files and easier file sharing between apps should be available but it should look nothing like anything we see on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. It should support automatic versioning and backup, simplify security, and not clutter things with details such as folders or network locations. It should have easy ways to quickly find the files you're looking for with the default view being the most likely suspects. Apple's multitasking model is better than that on other devices - it needs to grow still but it is a smart model instead of the brute force model we're used to. Cut and paste works better than on any other mobile I've tried but could use some minor tweaks - sometimes it is hard to activate and other times it jumps in there when you least expect it. And it needs to magnify the section you are working on more while you are cutting and pasting so you can work with the area with both hands. I still don't quite see why you need your email to integrate with your calendar. That's why you have a calendar app isn't it? Even for the business PC it's always seemed more hassle than it's worth. (Anyone have a good use case?) I can see some more flexibility in iTunes would be nice but I've seen many otherwise fine programs, especially media players, ruined by to much flexibility so it's a matter of finding the right balance.
Apple's approach is to do things slowly and actually consider them as they do them. So yes sometimes you wait for features and yes sometimes they still make mistakes or have to re-evaluate decisions as other factors change but overall it leads to a cleaner, better, design. Using a PC, Desktop Linux, Android, etc makes me cringe because overall they are badly designed. We have some WinCE mobile computers at work that each cost something like $2500 and you have to use this crappy little keyboard and trackball and a little pencil to poke at the crappy little icons and buttons. That is the perfect example of how a company like Microsoft just throws whatever crap they already have at a problem without bothering to try to see how to make a good user experience. Sure the damn things run IE and can print if you don't mind IE5 on a tiny screen and using the one printer from 1995 that the thing supports. Sure you could in theory run the apps you already know in an interface you already know except oops most of those apps won't actually run on WinCE on Bob's ARM processor and the ones that will don't work well at all on that tiny screen or resource limited system. So I guess you get a trade off. A low learning curve and the features you expect up front or a better longterm user experience. I like the later so I'll stick with Apple.
Just from looking at Apple and Nintendo's newest numbers it appears iOS devices are within weeks of surpassing the DS in units sold. Not counting older Gameboys or iPods.
I'd be surprised if it ever takes the top spot in phone sales though as cheaper devices will probably remain the most popular. As to one to one device sale comparisons though the iPhone holds up well against any other smartphone or PDA.
I took a road trip this past summer and met several people, just at gas stations and Walmarts and even church, that had iPads with them. I was actually surprised given the cost and newness.
They're going the way of Atari and Sega. No longer hardware companies but still producing games and cashing in on their brand power.
My Playstation doesn't have controller buttons either - if you want buttons you plug some in. Specialized cases can be changed in and out to allow an assortment of controller options while remaining easily replaceable when they wear out.
DS may have sold more units but I don't know anybody over the age of 10 that uses a DS on a regular basis. Compare that to the fact that about two thirds of the people I know have an iDevice of some kind and those are quickly being switched over from older iPods to iTouches, iPhones, and even occasional iPads. I'd be surprised if they are still outselling iDevices. If they are it's because they're cheap but this will become less so as awareness grows of how much cheaper games are for iDevices. Unless of course Nintendo and Sony address that issue - which they should.
Some of us are more worried about our kids education, and keeping them quiet, than a couple hundred dollar device. Besides iDevices have proven to take the abuse surprisingly well - the 'kid tough' dvd/tv portable is big and bulky and crap and doesn't handle kids well (and cost $100) but I've never had an issue worse than stickiness with the iTouch or iPad. Compared to kid toys a $200 iTouch isn't a big investment. It's especially a good excuse to dispose of our old model so we can upgrade.
And it wasn't you, but an idiot AC, that said something rude about kids supposed to be playing games in the real world. I was all worried about that at first after hearing some of these supposed studies about how tv/games keep kids from learning. With some experience I learned the obvious that it's all about a good balance and spending time with your kid. It's the same bs as people that think kids should be outside and not reading books.
Built-in buttons wear out though. I'd rather see devices that support good add-on devices. The iTouch is shaped well for it but Apple seems to make it difficult somehow as we've seen few authorized add-ons. Probably the biggest fault with iDevices is it's weak hardware accessory ecosystem.
I almost never use any of my Sony or Nintendo products (well I use the Wii to watch Netflix).
I tried a couple months ago to buy some good Wii games for my toddler and was very disappointed. There were few titles available, they were expensive, and worst - they sucked and were not even playable by a toddler. Using either the Wii or Playstation is difficult for young children. We quickly went back to iTouch/iPad games. There are a lot of toddler games available, many are well made, and they are generally under $5 each. And iDevices are very easy to use even for young children. A six month old can play a game by themselves and by one year they are capable of navigated between apps. My two year old knows how to find videos, music, games, etc and has even recently figured out she can start her music and then switch to her drawing app and the music will keep going.
Myself, I rarely want to sit on front of a tv long enough to play a game and I don't want to carry a game specific device. The DS and PSP have sat in a drawer forever but I use my iTouch and iPad daily. The design also feels more comfortable and the features make gaming enjoyable. And again games are typically considerably cheaper and better made than titles available for the gaming consoles. Especially among casual gaming titles.
So to compete I think Nintendo, Sony, etc need to create a sleek adult, but kid tough, portable that does at least everything an iDevice does, with quality/affordable titles of all types, that is easy to use for all ages. Honestly, I think they've lost and just haven't noticed yet. They'd be better off creating games and accessories that work with iOS and Android devices. A good gaming case for an iTouch will be a real winner. Something with snap-on left and right controls that still leavesit slim enough to fit easily in your pocket. (Have seen several stabs at it but none were well designed.). Would love to see familiar Mario titles.
Ever tried ADHD drugs? They seriously give you super powers. You remember better, think better, and don't need to sleep. I was put on them about a year ago at age 32 and I seriously regret that nobody put me on them sooner. I've found them to not be addictive other than it sucks to go back to being tired and not as clear of thought. I don't even take them at the prescribed amount usually but instead keep the extras back for major project crunch times and long drives. I drove a roadtrip this summer where going both ways I drove non-stop for 24 hours without getting tired or fatigued.
The only negative side effect I've noticed is that you will eventually crash without sleep even with the meds and if you've pushed yourself into going non-stop for a week you're going to sleep all day and feel like shit. You really need to set a schedule so you can sleep on a regular basis.
Except that they push developers to create perfectly fine HTML 5 apps that will also bypass their App Store? That they initially only allowed developers to create web-based apps and only later added an App Store? Yeah, it's about the chokehold.
Mostly it's because Flash sucks. A little it's because Jobs doesn't trust Adobe not to try to wedge between Apple customers and it's App Store and just doesn't like them in general. Given the recent problems between Oracle and Google I think there is some evident wisdom in not putting third party languages, virtual machines, etc on your platform.
The biggest reason to avoid Flash is because it sucks. It is a security problem, it uses resources like crazy, and it crashes. It's probably the #1 problem people have with their web experience and they are just to dumb to know or care.
The only other mobile that maters besides iDevices is Android devices. Sure they have Flash, or will, maybe, kind of, but it's going to suck even more than on a PC because it's not a full PC version of Flash, Flash developers tend to be stupid and block browsers that could use their site because they just check for IE, and most Flash just isn't designed for mobiles.
It's complete bullshit that it's hard to do 99% of what Flash does in HTML 5. Most of it can be done in pre-5 HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You could say that the Flash tools are well known by people that aren't up to developing without the tools or simply don't want to. Adobe could pretty easily make their tools export the same stuff as HTML 5 and it seems I've heard they were planning on doing so. There are also plenty of tools to convert Flash to HTML 5 with little effort on the part of the developer.
Flash probably does offer more DRM than HTML 5. In my opinion that is a reason for me not to use it.
Advertisers like Flash because it lets them track people who think they've blocked cookies and because they can make loud, blinky, annoying ads. Another reason for me not to use Flash.
Video codecs are a problem but not a big one. All major browsers are quickly moving towards a couple likely standards and most will probably support all the other options if you have the needed codec installed. This is no more a problem then having Flash installed.
I doubt Flash is going to die anytime soon, unfortunately, but it is past it's prime. Browsers should have natively supported it's functionality, without the problems, years ago and mostly didn't because IE didn't feel like bothering to support that functionality. Using it's suck factor to control the market. Other browsers are finally making enough progress against IE now that IE is having to work a little harder so things are changing.
I applaud Apple for not pushing garbage on it's users. It's to bad Google couldn't do the same. I am surprised that neither made the obvious move of including a Flash translator to transparently convert Flash to HTML 5 or even to their own native code. Don't run the garbage from Adobe but offer the functionality to users even if it will suffer the not-made-for-mobile problem still. Sounds like a win to me.
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How much does a tech addiction add to my bottom line?
Have you ever tried to get an advanced stylesheet to work in IE? Some sort of advanced training, and a kindly god, is needed.
The hardest thing I've done in years was implementing interfaces to Amazon, eBay, UPS, FedEx, etc. Horribly designed. Badly documented. Constantly changing in small ways. Every time you think you have it some special case comes up or they change something and bang the shit hits the fan again. Very frustrating. I'm sure I could rewrite their code to be decent much quicker than dealing with the crap they throw out.
Give me pure computer science type problems any day where pure logic and good debugging will always lead to software that works.
The most important thing to comment is what your code doesn't do. If you didn't do it this mayor that way for some reason make a note. Otherwise some idiot, probably yourself, will come back to it later and get the bright idea to improve it in exactly the way you decided not to use for some specific reason. Don't know how many times I had to undo some brilliant fix because I forgot to write down why I hadn't done it that way.
Any idiot can see what your code does.
I thought it was a collapsed oil well.
As it is it's pretty easy to get listed in the top couple spots for most queries. It's only difficult if you want extremely competitive terms such as 'porn' or 'ipod'. I have tens of thousands of products that come up on the first page of most searches with the likely keywords. All you have to do is follow Google's directions and think about what you're doing. Even if you do hit page one for more competitive terms it usually isn't as valuable as you'd expect because conversion rates are much lower for generic terms.
And I hate product search sites like Nextag. They are little more than spam and should be treated as spam.
Modeling clay and paper I agreevare pretty good but for drawing you can't beat the iPad. It's easy and can offer a lot of options and you don't run out of paper, have to spend an hour finding stray crayons, figure out which marker wasn't actually a washable, etc.
For clay that Moon Sand is great. It doesn't get yick neat as fast.
Toy food, tents, swords, and such role playing props are always a big hit. My daughter especially likes anything she can do that imitates Mom or Dad. We got her some small pans, bowls, etc and the soft Ikea toy food and she will cook for us for hours and she enjoys her XO other than the fact it's hard to open. Not many fun games on it but she likes to just sit and type. Old remote controls and cell phones are prized too.
Had they ever actually been allowed to explore freely? Did anyone show them how to use it. I've allowed my daughter, nieces, nephews, friends kids, etc to use it and they all picked it up quickly and loved it. Obviously my daughter uses it the best because she has had full access most of her life but any kid will quickly grasp the basics if you show them.
The hardest interactions I've seen were accelerometer based play and dragging and dropping (such as puzzles) that require you keep constant contact. But even an 18 month old will start figuring those out if shown what to do. Multitouch support in the app can help too because I've noticed kids will have a finger tip touching the edge of the screen as they support the device and they won't understand why it stops responding to their active finger. The iPad is difficult for things that want you to shake it but that's true with adults too. As far as coloring, buttons, sliding, etc though kids will absolutely get it. And they quickly learn to leave the home button alone if they have a fun app they want to stay in.
I do wish Apple would give a control to keep icons from being moved or deleted. That is a little confusing I think because it happens when they don't realize they are doing anything such as when a hand is just sitting on the screen.
My daughter likes a good keyboard and mouse too but if the device doesn't have a touch screen she tells me it's broken. Not really surprised as we have multiple iTouches around, an iPad, a digital photo frame, a digital camera, and a video camera that all have touch screens. It also took her longer to really understand the relationship of these and what was happening on a screen. It's far more disconnected than a touch interface. Pretty much the same experience with joystick based stuff like from Little Leaps.
My 26 month old has been using an iTouch since she was 6 months old and an iPad since April. She carries them around without problem. The worst she's done was peel off the screen protector on the iPad. Both devices have survived with no damage at all. I can't say the same for the $100+ kid tough portable DVD player from Fischer Price. THAT was a piece of junk from the start and minor bumps give it problems.
Have you even priced kids toys? A doll can easily be $50. A decent Lego set can easily reach hundreds of dollars. One of the Leap Pad type machines is $50+ and the games are $10 - $20 each and aren't as kid friendly and the games aren't as good as the $5 iOS games. And none of them can store days worth of Dora the Explorer, Kai-Lan, etc in an easy to browse video library.
Certainly an iPad is cheaper and tougher than ANY other decent computing device. What laptop is essentially entirely a solid state device? Haven't seen any of them nearly as easy or fun to use either.
What is your time and money for if not to spend with your children helping them learn and enjoy life?
Maybe Skype will actually stop sucking if Cisco buys them.
Yeah all the Unix stuff Mac OS is built on is sooo limiting when you could be using DOS batch files. And without Desktop Linux how can you experience the joy of being able to hand reconfigure complex permissions and config files just so sound works in all your apps! Damn Apple for taking away my batch files and hand edited config files!
I'm quite willing to pay a little more for a computer that isn't complete crap and butt ugly. Specs aren't everything.
You can keep your cheap crap PC. Enjoy your Dodge Neon and formica countertops too. That blow up girlfriend you have is as good as the real thing too I'm sure - read the specs: three holes, huge boobs, and you don't need to use birth control or share the remote! Hahaha you unexperienced n00bs crack me up.
My Dell came with Windows on it. Doesn't that count as a root attack?
I agree. I was hoping they'd announce a total rewrite of iTunes, or maybe an iPlay, that was lightweight and cloud based and instead they announce that they are layering in more useless crap.. bummer. iTunes is the worst part of the iDevice experience.
My personal theory is that life, the Universe, and everything evolve towards God and at some point any possible Universe will converge to create God. And by definition God exists in all times and places so once it exists it will have always existed. Before that Omega God will be an infinite number of minor gods created in the process of evolving towards God.
It's as wacko as any other theory but it works for me.
I love Apple products but I have a ever growing lists of stuff I'd like to see changed. It isn't usually the crap the idiots, that want to whine that it isn't exactly like every other device they have, complain about though. Most of my complaints are about thing they've added to be more like other crap devices. Folders are horrible and are a major step backwards. I'm hoping that they did printing right and didn't try to make it work with the existing a-driver-for-every-device model but we shall see. The buttons are a bad decision and should go. They wear out before anything else and don't add anything to the experience. Network files and easier file sharing between apps should be available but it should look nothing like anything we see on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. It should support automatic versioning and backup, simplify security, and not clutter things with details such as folders or network locations. It should have easy ways to quickly find the files you're looking for with the default view being the most likely suspects. Apple's multitasking model is better than that on other devices - it needs to grow still but it is a smart model instead of the brute force model we're used to. Cut and paste works better than on any other mobile I've tried but could use some minor tweaks - sometimes it is hard to activate and other times it jumps in there when you least expect it. And it needs to magnify the section you are working on more while you are cutting and pasting so you can work with the area with both hands. I still don't quite see why you need your email to integrate with your calendar. That's why you have a calendar app isn't it? Even for the business PC it's always seemed more hassle than it's worth. (Anyone have a good use case?) I can see some more flexibility in iTunes would be nice but I've seen many otherwise fine programs, especially media players, ruined by to much flexibility so it's a matter of finding the right balance.
Apple's approach is to do things slowly and actually consider them as they do them. So yes sometimes you wait for features and yes sometimes they still make mistakes or have to re-evaluate decisions as other factors change but overall it leads to a cleaner, better, design. Using a PC, Desktop Linux, Android, etc makes me cringe because overall they are badly designed. We have some WinCE mobile computers at work that each cost something like $2500 and you have to use this crappy little keyboard and trackball and a little pencil to poke at the crappy little icons and buttons. That is the perfect example of how a company like Microsoft just throws whatever crap they already have at a problem without bothering to try to see how to make a good user experience. Sure the damn things run IE and can print if you don't mind IE5 on a tiny screen and using the one printer from 1995 that the thing supports. Sure you could in theory run the apps you already know in an interface you already know except oops most of those apps won't actually run on WinCE on Bob's ARM processor and the ones that will don't work well at all on that tiny screen or resource limited system. So I guess you get a trade off. A low learning curve and the features you expect up front or a better longterm user experience. I like the later so I'll stick with Apple.
Just from looking at Apple and Nintendo's newest numbers it appears iOS devices are within weeks of surpassing the DS in units sold. Not counting older Gameboys or iPods.
I'd be surprised if it ever takes the top spot in phone sales though as cheaper devices will probably remain the most popular. As to one to one device sale comparisons though the iPhone holds up well against any other smartphone or PDA.
I took a road trip this past summer and met several people, just at gas stations and Walmarts and even church, that had iPads with them. I was actually surprised given the cost and newness.
They're going the way of Atari and Sega. No longer hardware companies but still producing games and cashing in on their brand power.
My Playstation doesn't have controller buttons either - if you want buttons you plug some in. Specialized cases can be changed in and out to allow an assortment of controller options while remaining easily replaceable when they wear out.
DS may have sold more units but I don't know anybody over the age of 10 that uses a DS on a regular basis. Compare that to the fact that about two thirds of the people I know have an iDevice of some kind and those are quickly being switched over from older iPods to iTouches, iPhones, and even occasional iPads. I'd be surprised if they are still outselling iDevices. If they are it's because they're cheap but this will become less so as awareness grows of how much cheaper games are for iDevices. Unless of course Nintendo and Sony address that issue - which they should.
Some of us are more worried about our kids education, and keeping them quiet, than a couple hundred dollar device. Besides iDevices have proven to take the abuse surprisingly well - the 'kid tough' dvd/tv portable is big and bulky and crap and doesn't handle kids well (and cost $100) but I've never had an issue worse than stickiness with the iTouch or iPad. Compared to kid toys a $200 iTouch isn't a big investment. It's especially a good excuse to dispose of our old model so we can upgrade.
And it wasn't you, but an idiot AC, that said something rude about kids supposed to be playing games in the real world. I was all worried about that at first after hearing some of these supposed studies about how tv/games keep kids from learning. With some experience I learned the obvious that it's all about a good balance and spending time with your kid. It's the same bs as people that think kids should be outside and not reading books.
Built-in buttons wear out though. I'd rather see devices that support good add-on devices. The iTouch is shaped well for it but Apple seems to make it difficult somehow as we've seen few authorized add-ons. Probably the biggest fault with iDevices is it's weak hardware accessory ecosystem.
How is using 3D better than scaling? Scaling is a lot less work and looks just as good.
I almost never use any of my Sony or Nintendo products (well I use the Wii to watch Netflix).
I tried a couple months ago to buy some good Wii games for my toddler and was very disappointed. There were few titles available, they were expensive, and worst - they sucked and were not even playable by a toddler. Using either the Wii or Playstation is difficult for young children. We quickly went back to iTouch/iPad games. There are a lot of toddler games available, many are well made, and they are generally under $5 each. And iDevices are very easy to use even for young children. A six month old can play a game by themselves and by one year they are capable of navigated between apps. My two year old knows how to find videos, music, games, etc and has even recently figured out she can start her music and then switch to her drawing app and the music will keep going.
Myself, I rarely want to sit on front of a tv long enough to play a game and I don't want to carry a game specific device. The DS and PSP have sat in a drawer forever but I use my iTouch and iPad daily. The design also feels more comfortable and the features make gaming enjoyable. And again games are typically considerably cheaper and better made than titles available for the gaming consoles. Especially among casual gaming titles.
So to compete I think Nintendo, Sony, etc need to create a sleek adult, but kid tough, portable that does at least everything an iDevice does, with quality/affordable titles of all types, that is easy to use for all ages. Honestly, I think they've lost and just haven't noticed yet. They'd be better off creating games and accessories that work with iOS and Android devices. A good gaming case for an iTouch will be a real winner. Something with snap-on left and right controls that still leavesit slim enough to fit easily in your pocket. (Have seen several stabs at it but none were well designed.). Would love to see familiar Mario titles.
I've seen more of the opposite problem. Parents irrationally avoiding giving medication to kids that need it.
Ever tried ADHD drugs? They seriously give you super powers. You remember better, think better, and don't need to sleep. I was put on them about a year ago at age 32 and I seriously regret that nobody put me on them sooner. I've found them to not be addictive other than it sucks to go back to being tired and not as clear of thought. I don't even take them at the prescribed amount usually but instead keep the extras back for major project crunch times and long drives. I drove a roadtrip this summer where going both ways I drove non-stop for 24 hours without getting tired or fatigued.
The only negative side effect I've noticed is that you will eventually crash without sleep even with the meds and if you've pushed yourself into going non-stop for a week you're going to sleep all day and feel like shit. You really need to set a schedule so you can sleep on a regular basis.
Except that they push developers to create perfectly fine HTML 5 apps that will also bypass their App Store? That they initially only allowed developers to create web-based apps and only later added an App Store? Yeah, it's about the chokehold.
Mostly it's because Flash sucks. A little it's because Jobs doesn't trust Adobe not to try to wedge between Apple customers and it's App Store and just doesn't like them in general. Given the recent problems between Oracle and Google I think there is some evident wisdom in not putting third party languages, virtual machines, etc on your platform.
The biggest reason to avoid Flash is because it sucks. It is a security problem, it uses resources like crazy, and it crashes. It's probably the #1 problem people have with their web experience and they are just to dumb to know or care.
The only other mobile that maters besides iDevices is Android devices. Sure they have Flash, or will, maybe, kind of, but it's going to suck even more than on a PC because it's not a full PC version of Flash, Flash developers tend to be stupid and block browsers that could use their site because they just check for IE, and most Flash just isn't designed for mobiles.
It's complete bullshit that it's hard to do 99% of what Flash does in HTML 5. Most of it can be done in pre-5 HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You could say that the Flash tools are well known by people that aren't up to developing without the tools or simply don't want to. Adobe could pretty easily make their tools export the same stuff as HTML 5 and it seems I've heard they were planning on doing so. There are also plenty of tools to convert Flash to HTML 5 with little effort on the part of the developer.
Flash probably does offer more DRM than HTML 5. In my opinion that is a reason for me not to use it.
Advertisers like Flash because it lets them track people who think they've blocked cookies and because they can make loud, blinky, annoying ads. Another reason for me not to use Flash.
Video codecs are a problem but not a big one. All major browsers are quickly moving towards a couple likely standards and most will probably support all the other options if you have the needed codec installed. This is no more a problem then having Flash installed.
I doubt Flash is going to die anytime soon, unfortunately, but it is past it's prime. Browsers should have natively supported it's functionality, without the problems, years ago and mostly didn't because IE didn't feel like bothering to support that functionality. Using it's suck factor to control the market. Other browsers are finally making enough progress against IE now that IE is having to work a little harder so things are changing.
I applaud Apple for not pushing garbage on it's users. It's to bad Google couldn't do the same. I am surprised that neither made the obvious move of including a Flash translator to transparently convert Flash to HTML 5 or even to their own native code. Don't run the garbage from Adobe but offer the functionality to users even if it will suffer the not-made-for-mobile problem still. Sounds like a win to me.