Please, dude... I know you loooove Apple more like your (non-existing? this is/. after all;) girlfriend. And that’s all good. Do whatever makes your happy.
Way to completely miss my point that Apple's choices in the client world -- where they do have a lot of influence -- will be forcing the hands of web site owners. For this reason I do not "looooove" Apple.
But please keep it down with using the Apple brand name for every type of product out there. Ok?:) I hate to tell you, but: Reality does not equal Apple!;)
You could just as easily have said the factually correct thing: In 6 years time, there’ll be an awful lot of smart phones / mobile computers in the wild.
Currently Safari Mobile has ~60% of the mobile browser market. . Even if that drops to, say, 20%, do you reckon web sites would feel empowered to drop H.264 support, if that meant abandoning those users?
Plus, as I said, other popular mobile platforms are just as likely to be closed and locked down to H.264
I'd rather use a mouse for most of that functionality.
I've seen this a few times. I don't get it. A mouse is way of moving a "finger analogue" around a screen. Surely a real finger is better. Especially when you can use lots of fingers at once -- a mouse can only be one.
OK, if your screen is in the traditional desktop position, you'll tire your arms out by holding them up. That wouldn't work. But a tablet wouldn't be in that position. It would be ergonomically similar to writing on a pad of paper.
"GNU/Linux" is a fabrication of RMS that has a single task of giving the GNU foundation the illusion of being directly involved with the kernel development.
Quite the opposite. Just as TCP/IP means "TCP using IP as the next layer down", GNU/Linux means "GNU using Linux as the next layer down".
Rather than being "distressed", can I suggest a less emotional response? How about trying to understand what the real-world (as opposed to the "conspiracy theory") purposes for the decision in question?
Help me out. Why would Lexus lock me (and my friend the mechanic) out of the engine I paid for, other than to force me to use their expensive authorised service agents?
(Not saying that Lexus necessarily do this - but let's imagine they do, to keep the analogy alive)
Certainly, put warranty-voiding tamper stickers on the engine. But if I want to void my warranty, it should be possible to do so.
Buying a technical kit is not the answer. That first step from "not doing anything" to "doing technical shit" is too bold. Even in buying the kit, you're making a grand statement: we're about to start hacking. Too much pressure.
TOS's concern is that there used to be a route where you could just fall into hacking, almost without noticing. You'd have a device for one reason, then later, without expecting it, you'd be hacking on it.
Maybe it's not the best computer to learn on, as you don't seem to learn very much when everything is supposed to be so intuitive and so task focused, but as a tool to get certain types of work done, it's great, because you don't have to worry about anything but the job you want accomplished.
But why can't it be both? These things are not mutually exclusive.
What is the problem here? That you can't program the iPad on the iPad?
Yes. Because something like an iPad will end up being the only computer in some households. We don't yet know whether the iPad will be able to function without a "real" computer to sync to, but I believe Apple would be mad not to target that market.
Why do people buy computers? For web browsing, word processing, photos and games.
How do young people get into programming? By tinkering with a computer that was bought for some other purpose.
If you can't afford $100/year, you don't have an iPod/iPhone/iPad anyway unless you stole it. This is 2010, $100 is lunch money!
But the scenario we're talking about is, a kid has access to a device, bought for whatever reason (in Pilgrim's case, for his dad to do word processing), and to fall into hacking naturally.
Some kids would try a few lines of BASIC on their C64, then lose interest and play games for evermore. Other kids would drift from copying BASIC from magazines, to modifying it, to writing their own from scratch, to hacking assembly.
Nothing analogous to that is going to happen, if you have to pay $100 just to see if you like it.
Do you buy a new Lexus to mess around under the hood taking things apart? (Please don't nitpick the analogy. It could just as easily be a high-end clothes washer or a new 60 inch plasma TV.
No I do not. But I would be distressed to learn that Lexus (or Hotpoint or Sony) has actively taken steps to *prevent* me from messing about under the hood. Or to prevent me from paying someone else (who doesn't happen to be an "authorised service agent") to tinker with it for me.
(Likely, cars, washing machines and TVs do have such obstacles - I'm dumb enough not to have found out yet)
The solution for the text-entry issue is to accept the fact that the tablet form will never be good for text entry. Which is one of the reasons why Apple isn't positioning the iPad as a replacement for a full-function computer, and instead is thinking of it more as an appliance.
Except that it comes with iWork, and it's meant to be used for email.
Plus there's still a need for quite a bit of text entry on the Web. Enter URLs. Fill in forms. Type into Slashdot reply textboxes...
This is why browsing on the iPod Touch is a bit clunky - but we accept that in exchange for the portability. For something iPad sized, we're going to want a decent way to enter text.
By that logic a mouse is non-essential. But people like pointer-based interaction so much that they won't do without any more. Touch is going to become like that (especially as it becomes cheaper to provide).
Touch interfaces are nice. And multi touch is nicer.
I had to go back from a touchscreen TomTom satnav to a non-touchscreen Garmin -- it just felt unwieldy.
Once I'd used an iPod Touch for a while, I kept wanting to pinch-zoom the map on the TomTom.
There are certain things that just feel nice with mult-touch, and it also saves space by doing away with a trackpad.
As a frivolous example - a game like Crayon Physics will be tremendously more satisfying on a touch tablet, than when played with a mouse. But things like photo browsers, drawing apps, etc. will also benefit.
They need to solve the problem of so many things needing text entry, though. Decent handwriting recognition is surely the answer.
I assume it can multi-task, in the sense that it has concurrent processes running.
I assume they haven't found a UI model that's satisfactory to them, for moving between running programs without a window metaphor.
I guess there's also a performance consideration. They don't ever want their precious super-responsive UI to get clogged up by apps competing for resources (so give the UI a chunk of dedicated RAM and let the scheduler give it priority)
I suspect doctors, admin assistants, etc. will use Windows tablets because they're cheaper to buy, and the kind of company that builds solutions for that kind of sector tend to be Windows shops.
I think the iPad is a substitute for a laptop, for a certain kind of user who does little but browse the web, send/receive emails, and maybe play some casual games.
If that scenario happened, it would be because the damn consumer LIKED the product and it's accompanying business model. If you don't like the product of said company, don't buy it and for our sake, don't go bitching all over the interwebs how you feel it's so UNJUST that a business run their business differently from the way you would choose to.
The issue is that most customers don't understand these reasons for not buying a closed product. I understand how that feels -- I don't know enough about cars to make that kind of educated choice. I know that in a world where everyone was fully informed, an open car would depreciate in value less than a closed car, because the maintenance costs would be lower. But nobody thinks about that when buying a car, so it doesn't work.
Likewise, someone non-technical would happily buy a locked down computing product, and use it happily for a while. Then they might reasonably ask "I'd like to make it do [something]" - and the answer would be "Sorry, the way it is, is the way it is."
Buying or not buying are the ONLY true signals being transmitted in any market. Repeat after me: The Market Is The Best Way To Transmit Information. Listen To The Market. Love The Market. Obey The Market.
I'm not sure whether you were joking or not. But just in case - it's nonsense. It's a strong signal, to be sure, but all rational businesses heed much more than that.
The Market responds to all kinds of info. Just watch oil prices shoot up when the weather forecast is cold.
Slashdot Mirror
Please, dude... I know you loooove Apple more like your (non-existing? this is /. after all ;) girlfriend. And that’s all good. Do whatever makes your happy.
Way to completely miss my point that Apple's choices in the client world -- where they do have a lot of influence -- will be forcing the hands of web site owners. For this reason I do not "looooove" Apple.
But please keep it down with using the Apple brand name for every type of product out there. Ok? :) ;)
I hate to tell you, but: Reality does not equal Apple!
You could just as easily have said the factually correct thing:
In 6 years time, there’ll be an awful lot of smart phones / mobile computers in the wild.
Currently Safari Mobile has ~60% of the mobile browser market. . Even if that drops to, say, 20%, do you reckon web sites would feel empowered to drop H.264 support, if that meant abandoning those users?
Plus, as I said, other popular mobile platforms are just as likely to be closed and locked down to H.264
Why would they?
Apple will be raking in the royalties when MPEG LA (of whom they are members) start charging.
In 6 years time, there'll be an awful lot of iPhones/iPads (and their descendants) in the wild.
Expect H.264, and maybe some other patent-encumbered standards, to be the only video format a web site can use in order to be viewed on these devices.
The options for video websites in 2016? Pay up, or abandon iPhone/iPad users. Plus who knows how many other closed platforms.
Google seems to be changing video on Youtube to use HTML 5 pretty quickly. Why can't other people?
Because they feared the charges in 2011.
Now they can fear the charges in 2016 instead.
I'd rather use a mouse for most of that functionality.
I've seen this a few times. I don't get it. A mouse is way of moving a "finger analogue" around a screen. Surely a real finger is better. Especially when you can use lots of fingers at once -- a mouse can only be one.
OK, if your screen is in the traditional desktop position, you'll tire your arms out by holding them up. That wouldn't work. But a tablet wouldn't be in that position. It would be ergonomically similar to writing on a pad of paper.
"GNU/Linux" is a fabrication of RMS that has a single task of giving the GNU foundation the illusion of being directly involved with the kernel development.
Quite the opposite. Just as TCP/IP means "TCP using IP as the next layer down", GNU/Linux means "GNU using Linux as the next layer down".
Rather than being "distressed", can I suggest a less emotional response? How about trying to understand what the real-world (as opposed to the "conspiracy theory") purposes for the decision in question?
Help me out. Why would Lexus lock me (and my friend the mechanic) out of the engine I paid for, other than to force me to use their expensive authorised service agents?
(Not saying that Lexus necessarily do this - but let's imagine they do, to keep the analogy alive)
Certainly, put warranty-voiding tamper stickers on the engine. But if I want to void my warranty, it should be possible to do so.
Buying a technical kit is not the answer. That first step from "not doing anything" to "doing technical shit" is too bold. Even in buying the kit, you're making a grand statement: we're about to start hacking. Too much pressure.
TOS's concern is that there used to be a route where you could just fall into hacking, almost without noticing. You'd have a device for one reason, then later, without expecting it, you'd be hacking on it.
Maybe it's not the best computer to learn on, as you don't seem to learn very much when everything is supposed to be so intuitive and so task focused, but as a tool to get certain types of work done, it's great, because you don't have to worry about anything but the job you want accomplished.
But why can't it be both? These things are not mutually exclusive.
What is the problem here? That you can't program the iPad on the iPad?
Yes. Because something like an iPad will end up being the only computer in some households. We don't yet know whether the iPad will be able to function without a "real" computer to sync to, but I believe Apple would be mad not to target that market.
Why do people buy computers? For web browsing, word processing, photos and games.
How do young people get into programming? By tinkering with a computer that was bought for some other purpose.
Mac OS X is free with the purchase of Mac hardware. :P
Or, a charge for OSX (and iLife) is included in the price of Mac hardware.
If you can't afford $100/year, you don't have an iPod/iPhone/iPad anyway unless you stole it.
This is 2010, $100 is lunch money!
But the scenario we're talking about is, a kid has access to a device, bought for whatever reason (in Pilgrim's case, for his dad to do word processing), and to fall into hacking naturally.
Some kids would try a few lines of BASIC on their C64, then lose interest and play games for evermore. Other kids would drift from copying BASIC from magazines, to modifying it, to writing their own from scratch, to hacking assembly.
Nothing analogous to that is going to happen, if you have to pay $100 just to see if you like it.
Do you buy a new Lexus to mess around under the hood taking things apart? (Please don't nitpick the analogy. It could just as easily be a high-end clothes washer or a new 60 inch plasma TV.
No I do not. But I would be distressed to learn that Lexus (or Hotpoint or Sony) has actively taken steps to *prevent* me from messing about under the hood. Or to prevent me from paying someone else (who doesn't happen to be an "authorised service agent") to tinker with it for me.
(Likely, cars, washing machines and TVs do have such obstacles - I'm dumb enough not to have found out yet)
Facebook does as much caching as it can - I mean, they're not daft. They're probably the world's greatest experts on large scale MySQL + memcached.
But sometimes cached data isn't good enough. Facebook users expect their statuses, messages and comments to reach their friends within seconds.
The solution for the text-entry issue is to accept the fact that the tablet form will never be good for text entry. Which is one of the reasons why Apple isn't positioning the iPad as a replacement for a full-function computer, and instead is thinking of it more as an appliance.
Except that it comes with iWork, and it's meant to be used for email.
Plus there's still a need for quite a bit of text entry on the Web. Enter URLs. Fill in forms. Type into Slashdot reply textboxes...
This is why browsing on the iPod Touch is a bit clunky - but we accept that in exchange for the portability. For something iPad sized, we're going to want a decent way to enter text.
How is it compared to typing on an onscreen keyboard?
By that logic a mouse is non-essential. But people like pointer-based interaction so much that they won't do without any more. Touch is going to become like that (especially as it becomes cheaper to provide).
If you don't know the meaning of a common semi-technical phrase, it's probably better to just look it up, than to loudly proclaim what you don't know.
Touch interfaces are nice. And multi touch is nicer.
I had to go back from a touchscreen TomTom satnav to a non-touchscreen Garmin -- it just felt unwieldy.
Once I'd used an iPod Touch for a while, I kept wanting to pinch-zoom the map on the TomTom.
There are certain things that just feel nice with mult-touch, and it also saves space by doing away with a trackpad.
As a frivolous example - a game like Crayon Physics will be tremendously more satisfying on a touch tablet, than when played with a mouse. But things like photo browsers, drawing apps, etc. will also benefit.
They need to solve the problem of so many things needing text entry, though. Decent handwriting recognition is surely the answer.
Well, technically it is. But as long as it remains a "computer for entertainment only" I'm comfortable with it being a closed system too.
The iPad seems too general purpose for this to apply.
I assume it can multi-task, in the sense that it has concurrent processes running.
I assume they haven't found a UI model that's satisfactory to them, for moving between running programs without a window metaphor.
I guess there's also a performance consideration. They don't ever want their precious super-responsive UI to get clogged up by apps competing for resources (so give the UI a chunk of dedicated RAM and let the scheduler give it priority)
I suspect doctors, admin assistants, etc. will use Windows tablets because they're cheaper to buy, and the kind of company that builds solutions for that kind of sector tend to be Windows shops.
I think the iPad is a substitute for a laptop, for a certain kind of user who does little but browse the web, send/receive emails, and maybe play some casual games.
If that scenario happened, it would be because the damn consumer LIKED the product and it's accompanying business model. If you don't like the product of said company, don't buy it and for our sake, don't go bitching all over the interwebs how you feel it's so UNJUST that a business run their business differently from the way you would choose to.
The issue is that most customers don't understand these reasons for not buying a closed product. I understand how that feels -- I don't know enough about cars to make that kind of educated choice. I know that in a world where everyone was fully informed, an open car would depreciate in value less than a closed car, because the maintenance costs would be lower. But nobody thinks about that when buying a car, so it doesn't work.
Likewise, someone non-technical would happily buy a locked down computing product, and use it happily for a while. Then they might reasonably ask "I'd like to make it do [something]" - and the answer would be "Sorry, the way it is, is the way it is."
You think Apple doesn't have people analysing places like Slashdot?
It's 2010. The producers of Lost study Lost fan forums, and make agile changes to the show in according to what they find.
If the makers of a TV programme do that, surely savvy makers of gadgets study comments on prominent tech blogs.
Buying or not buying are the ONLY true signals being transmitted in any market. Repeat after me: The Market Is The Best Way To Transmit Information. Listen To The Market. Love The Market. Obey The Market.
I'm not sure whether you were joking or not. But just in case - it's nonsense. It's a strong signal, to be sure, but all rational businesses heed much more than that.
The Market responds to all kinds of info. Just watch oil prices shoot up when the weather forecast is cold.