Yeah, the idea of apps tying somebody to a phone platform is beyond silly.
I've had an iPhone for about two years now, and intend to wait at least another year before bothering to upgrade.
At that point, if the Android is the best phone on the market (or if I've simply had it with AT&T's weaksauce network), a collection of easily-replaced $1.99 apps is not going to stop me from getting the phone I want.
And when a mac eventually de-evolves into a webcam with a wi-fi connection, fanboys will loyally claim that this and only this was what they were looking for in a computer.
That would be true if Flash was EVER a good way to develop cross-platform products. Anybody who has ever experienced Flash on a Mac laptop knows better. Nothing like having the whirring of the cooling fan completely drown out the sound of the YouTube video you were trying to watch.
Oddly, watching h.264 files via VLC or QuickTime doesn't have the same problem, even at much higher data rates.
When it comes to the two-term administrations of Eisenhower, Reagan, and Clinton, the first question one must ask any critic is, "what didn't you like, the peace or the prosperity?"
And there you have it folks. You expect a phone. When you see how well it does movies compared to your phone instead of how poorly it does compared to your computer, you're happy.
The interface simplicity also emphasizes this. We associate complicated interfaces with complex, difficult to use machinery. A 747 cockpit has a ridiculous number of switches, gauges & dials, a door just has a knob.
Yeah, but who wants a 747 filling the entry way to the bathroom, when a door does the job so well?
A lot of things about a 747 which make it very valuable, but comparisons of different tools, meant for different jobs, is completely silly.
I don't know, but when I discovered that the iPad can't print, even to a printer plugged right in to their "AirPort" hub, which supports printer sharing, I decided to pass on getting any of the iWork apps.
Fuck including a camera. Lack of printing is my biggest disappointment with the device.
That said, it's fantastic for the tasks I actually bought it for (mostly VNC), so I'm mostly happy with it. I just won't be selling off my laptop unless iPhone OS 4 addresses my few nitpicks like the printing issue.
Yeah, how does the battery hold up playing h.264 video on the "Jupiter" pad?
Oh yeah, that's right, it can't do it.
So one of the big selling features of the iPad... can't be done with that gizmo.
Okay, what does WiFi broadband surfing do to battery perfor... Oh.
Fine, how about when you turn on 3G for cell conne... Oh.
So, this is basically like comparing the Sony Walkman to the first iPod... Except that the Sony Walkman was an actual market success that people enjoyed owning.
As long as the power company has to install power lines to get power from the plant to where it's used, and all those lines have to cross government land
Only so long as government is a significant land owner. Some people believe it ought not be.
The second we take away the roads, power, water, garbage collection, phone, net access, schools, other fundamental services of a first world nation, we become a third world nation. You can say "free market" all you want, but history shows that companies will not deliver these fundamental services if they don't forced to do so. If you lived in small town America, away from high density populations, you did not get power for years after the rest of the country. The same goes for phones.
I want to live in a first world nation, where I have cheep, reliable access to these services.
In my town, power, garbage collection, phone, and net access is all provided by private enterprise responding to market demand. Even in the case of schools, where government provides it, private enterprise generally does a better job with a higher rate of consumer satisfaction. The only reason government is the sole water-line and sewage provider is because their own regulations protect their monopoly on it.
If your town can't have any of those things without government giving them to you, then maybe you should move to a "First World" city.
I use it for live applications at least as much as for recording. And besides, some of the finest recordings in history were done on 8, 4, and even 2-track devices.
Besides one word that makes this screen vastly higher-res than it's physical dimensions, my friend:
>I think that there is less difference between older and newer ipods than there is between P100 and Opteron 270 though.
Capacity, color screens, photos, games, video playback, web browsing...
If anything, the difference is MORE pronounced between a 10 year old iPod and a new one than between a 10 year old PC an a new one.
Heck, the only reason I'm not still using my "main" computer from 8 years ago is that it was destroyed by a lightning strike.
Old iPods can be kind of handy if you have need for portable storage larger than a USB thumb drive, but not as bulky as a full-sized hard drive. Sneakernet is not quite a dead concept yet.
I've got one headless mac running my music studio. I've been running it by logging on to it with my laptop, but a laptop is a pain in the neck when you're rehearsing, recording, etc., especially if you're standing up most of the time. It also means I don't need to print up lyric sheets if I'm learning a new song, since I can just read them off the iPad screen as easily as a book.
The studio computer is rack-mounted in a road case with my PA amp. Using an iPad, I can run sound for a full band from anywhere in the club with no need for a cable snake. Just garageband, WiFi, a shared desktop, and any laptop or smartphone running VNC. I've been doing it this way for a while and it's AWESOME, and will be even better using an iPad for the controller.
I also have a mac driving my media center. I don't care to turn on my projection screen just to launch iTunes so I can listen to music, so I remote to it. Doing so with a laptop sucks.
For the rare times when I do want to accomplish something that I would normally do on a laptop. (Photoshop? Web design? Video editing), I can just plug it into the keyboard dock, and remotely run one of my other computers, where the "heavy" apps will actually live from now on.
So there's no need for a "desktop replacement" laptop for me anymore. Just an iPad as a thin client to my "real" computers. I honestly can hardly wait.
1. It sounds like you could be diabetic or have other medical factors that are hurting your vision.
2. If you've been doing this for 25 years, most of them have probably been spent gazing into cathode rays, not reading LCD screens. My office didn't switch to LCD monitors until about a year and a half ago.
What for? The iPad is little more than an iPod Touch that won't fit in your pocket, and the market will judge it accordingly.
The iPod Touch sells like hotcakes, and the biggest drawback to using it for some tasks (such as book reading) is the small screen size.
So your description of it is one of the better arguments I've heard for why the iPad will be a big seller.
It's obvious that YOU won't buy one, but I'm guessing you have no interest in owning an iPod Touch either. I think the execs at Apple made the calculation that they don't need to sell one to BrokenHalo from Slashdot for their new gizmo to make money. We'll see whether they are right about that in a couple months.
Why the hell would they be honest with you? There is exactly zero reason for them to treat you well.
Reason One: They may wish to sell you more things in the future.
Apple has consistently and promptly taken good care of me whenever I've had warranty issues with zero argument and zero bullshit. It's a factor that I keep in mind every time I make another technology purchase.
Likewise, my car/home insurance policy is far from the cheapest on the market, but I was so thrilled with how professionally they've handled my claims in the past that I have no intention of ever changing providers just to save a little money.
Yes, you lose in the long run if you buy it, which is why I don't.
But then again, I'm a well-paid nerd, and if my HDTV fails I can manage to buy another.
(Actually, I have a "spare" projector that I'm mostly using for other applications, so it would just be a matter of hooking it up in the living room and limping along with "only" one HDTV projection system in my home until I got around to buying a new one.)
For some people, the assurance that their "big ticket" item will be replaced if something goes wrong is worth a few extra bucks at purchase time. In terms of long-term financial planning, it's an obviously stupid choice, but for more emotional-based reasons, it is an appealing option to the risk-averse.
If you say that the US debt is 10 trillion, then divide that by the number of people in the US (308,000,000) you get $32,467 per person. I don't know what the average number of people per household is, but I doubt it is 6, so 200,000 per house doesn't add up. 32.5k debt per person is alarmingly high though.
Subtract from that population number: all children & teens, all retired people, all stay-at-home moms, all the unemployed, and the full-time college students.
Then run those numbers again.
Then look at the OMB budget projections for the next couple years. Brace to be slightly more alarmed.
For $500, you could buy a pretty nice netbook (or even notebook)
Yes, but then you'd have a netbook, an object you need to set down on a table (or your knees) in order to use comfortably.
The iPad is a different object. It's not a device for sitting at and typing at. It's a device that you can use while walking around. Hold it in one hand, operate it with the other. I've spent plenty enough time clumsily doing that with laptops that I can see how this will be huge for certain people in certain situations.
You know what? I think you personally just sold me on this thing.
I'm a musician, and in my studio I run sound through a rack-mounted, headless Mac mini. I use Remote Desktop software to operate it via laptop (or sometimes iPhone) for both live sound and for recording... and sometimes it is a pain in the ass. Laptops are not really made to be operated while standing up, but just about every rehearsal session that's how I'm using it. Furthermore, I'm constantly printing out lyric sheets and/or chord charts so I don't have to read them off the laptop.
With an iPad (assuming somebody writes a full-screen remote desktop app for it), suddenly I need neither the laptop nor the printer. I can use it to set levels and effects on the "mixing board" (which is really just an open session of Garageband with monitoring turned on for all channels), and then if I'm working on a new song I can pull up the chart and set it on a music stand (if I'm playing guitar) or just hold it in one hand (if I'm just singing). If I'm working on learning of cover of some pop song, I can even just pull up the lyrics off various Internet sites, saving myself the hassle of copying the text to a new document and printing them.
Shit, this thing could make my life A LOT easier, in ways that hadn't even crossed my mind until now.
I might even sell off my iBook. I'm suddenly at a loss as to why I need a full-fledged laptop computer, when this + a desktop machine is actually a much more convenient configuration.
Slashdot Mirror
You know who never says that Jobs stole it all from Woz?
Woz.
Yes he did. What have you done that's so much better?
Yeah, the idea of apps tying somebody to a phone platform is beyond silly.
I've had an iPhone for about two years now, and intend to wait at least another year before bothering to upgrade.
At that point, if the Android is the best phone on the market (or if I've simply had it with AT&T's weaksauce network), a collection of easily-replaced $1.99 apps is not going to stop me from getting the phone I want.
And when a mac eventually de-evolves into a webcam with a wi-fi connection, fanboys will loyally claim that this and only this was what they were looking for in a computer .
Don't be silly. There's no camera on an iPad.
That would be true if Flash was EVER a good way to develop cross-platform products. Anybody who has ever experienced Flash on a Mac laptop knows better. Nothing like having the whirring of the cooling fan completely drown out the sound of the YouTube video you were trying to watch.
Oddly, watching h.264 files via VLC or QuickTime doesn't have the same problem, even at much higher data rates.
When it comes to the two-term administrations of Eisenhower, Reagan, and Clinton, the first question one must ask any critic is, "what didn't you like, the peace or the prosperity?"
And I have an 8-track, but that doesn't mean I expect anybody to sell me new albums that work with it.
Thanks for that tip, AC. I'll look into those options.
And there you have it folks. You expect a phone. When you see how well it does movies compared to your phone instead of how poorly it does compared to your computer, you're happy.
The interface simplicity also emphasizes this. We associate complicated interfaces with complex, difficult to use machinery. A 747 cockpit has a ridiculous number of switches, gauges & dials, a door just has a knob.
Yeah, but who wants a 747 filling the entry way to the bathroom, when a door does the job so well?
A lot of things about a 747 which make it very valuable, but comparisons of different tools, meant for different jobs, is completely silly.
I don't know, but when I discovered that the iPad can't print, even to a printer plugged right in to their "AirPort" hub, which supports printer sharing, I decided to pass on getting any of the iWork apps.
Fuck including a camera. Lack of printing is my biggest disappointment with the device.
That said, it's fantastic for the tasks I actually bought it for (mostly VNC), so I'm mostly happy with it. I just won't be selling off my laptop unless iPhone OS 4 addresses my few nitpicks like the printing issue.
Yeah, how does the battery hold up playing h.264 video on the "Jupiter" pad?
Oh yeah, that's right, it can't do it.
So one of the big selling features of the iPad... can't be done with that gizmo.
Okay, what does WiFi broadband surfing do to battery perfor... Oh.
Fine, how about when you turn on 3G for cell conne... Oh.
So, this is basically like comparing the Sony Walkman to the first iPod... Except that the Sony Walkman was an actual market success that people enjoyed owning.
Making it a small fraction of the price in inflation-adjusted dollars might have something to do with it.
Nothing could ever compel me to spend $1000 in in '98 on a touch-screen computer (with a non-touch OS).
But $500 in 2010? Shit, I think I could dig that kind of cash out of my couch cushions.
As long as the power company has to install power lines to get power from the plant to where it's used, and all those lines have to cross government land
Only so long as government is a significant land owner. Some people believe it ought not be.
That's not evidence that private enterprise can't do it, merely that it's not allowed to.
The second we take away the roads, power, water, garbage collection, phone, net access, schools, other fundamental services of a first world nation, we become a third world nation. You can say "free market" all you want, but history shows that companies will not deliver these fundamental services if they don't forced to do so. If you lived in small town America, away from high density populations, you did not get power for years after the rest of the country. The same goes for phones.
I want to live in a first world nation, where I have cheep, reliable access to these services.
In my town, power, garbage collection, phone, and net access is all provided by private enterprise responding to market demand. Even in the case of schools, where government provides it, private enterprise generally does a better job with a higher rate of consumer satisfaction. The only reason government is the sole water-line and sewage provider is because their own regulations protect their monopoly on it.
If your town can't have any of those things without government giving them to you, then maybe you should move to a "First World" city.
I use it for live applications at least as much as for recording. And besides, some of the finest recordings in history were done on 8, 4, and even 2-track devices.
Besides one word that makes this screen vastly higher-res than it's physical dimensions, my friend:
Zoom
>I think that there is less difference between older and newer ipods than there is between P100 and Opteron 270 though.
Capacity, color screens, photos, games, video playback, web browsing...
If anything, the difference is MORE pronounced between a 10 year old iPod and a new one than between a 10 year old PC an a new one.
Heck, the only reason I'm not still using my "main" computer from 8 years ago is that it was destroyed by a lightning strike.
Old iPods can be kind of handy if you have need for portable storage larger than a USB thumb drive, but not as bulky as a full-sized hard drive. Sneakernet is not quite a dead concept yet.
I'm getting one mainly for one app: VNC.
I've got one headless mac running my music studio. I've been running it by logging on to it with my laptop, but a laptop is a pain in the neck when you're rehearsing, recording, etc., especially if you're standing up most of the time. It also means I don't need to print up lyric sheets if I'm learning a new song, since I can just read them off the iPad screen as easily as a book.
The studio computer is rack-mounted in a road case with my PA amp. Using an iPad, I can run sound for a full band from anywhere in the club with no need for a cable snake. Just garageband, WiFi, a shared desktop, and any laptop or smartphone running VNC. I've been doing it this way for a while and it's AWESOME, and will be even better using an iPad for the controller.
I also have a mac driving my media center. I don't care to turn on my projection screen just to launch iTunes so I can listen to music, so I remote to it. Doing so with a laptop sucks.
For the rare times when I do want to accomplish something that I would normally do on a laptop. (Photoshop? Web design? Video editing), I can just plug it into the keyboard dock, and remotely run one of my other computers, where the "heavy" apps will actually live from now on.
So there's no need for a "desktop replacement" laptop for me anymore. Just an iPad as a thin client to my "real" computers. I honestly can hardly wait.
Two things:
1. It sounds like you could be diabetic or have other medical factors that are hurting your vision.
2. If you've been doing this for 25 years, most of them have probably been spent gazing into cathode rays, not reading LCD screens. My office didn't switch to LCD monitors until about a year and a half ago.
What for? The iPad is little more than an iPod Touch that won't fit in your pocket, and the market will judge it accordingly.
The iPod Touch sells like hotcakes, and the biggest drawback to using it for some tasks (such as book reading) is the small screen size.
So your description of it is one of the better arguments I've heard for why the iPad will be a big seller.
It's obvious that YOU won't buy one, but I'm guessing you have no interest in owning an iPod Touch either. I think the execs at Apple made the calculation that they don't need to sell one to BrokenHalo from Slashdot for their new gizmo to make money. We'll see whether they are right about that in a couple months.
Why the hell would they be honest with you? There is exactly zero reason for them to treat you well.
Reason One: They may wish to sell you more things in the future.
Apple has consistently and promptly taken good care of me whenever I've had warranty issues with zero argument and zero bullshit. It's a factor that I keep in mind every time I make another technology purchase.
Likewise, my car/home insurance policy is far from the cheapest on the market, but I was so thrilled with how professionally they've handled my claims in the past that I have no intention of ever changing providers just to save a little money.
Yes, you lose in the long run if you buy it, which is why I don't.
But then again, I'm a well-paid nerd, and if my HDTV fails I can manage to buy another.
(Actually, I have a "spare" projector that I'm mostly using for other applications, so it would just be a matter of hooking it up in the living room and limping along with "only" one HDTV projection system in my home until I got around to buying a new one.)
For some people, the assurance that their "big ticket" item will be replaced if something goes wrong is worth a few extra bucks at purchase time. In terms of long-term financial planning, it's an obviously stupid choice, but for more emotional-based reasons, it is an appealing option to the risk-averse.
If you say that the US debt is 10 trillion, then divide that by the number of people in the US (308,000,000) you get $32,467 per person. I don't know what the average number of people per household is, but I doubt it is 6, so 200,000 per house doesn't add up. 32.5k debt per person is alarmingly high though.
Subtract from that population number: all children & teens, all retired people, all stay-at-home moms, all the unemployed, and the full-time college students.
Then run those numbers again.
Then look at the OMB budget projections for the next couple years. Brace to be slightly more alarmed.
For $500, you could buy a pretty nice netbook (or even notebook)
Yes, but then you'd have a netbook, an object you need to set down on a table (or your knees) in order to use comfortably.
The iPad is a different object. It's not a device for sitting at and typing at. It's a device that you can use while walking around. Hold it in one hand, operate it with the other. I've spent plenty enough time clumsily doing that with laptops that I can see how this will be huge for certain people in certain situations.
You know what? I think you personally just sold me on this thing.
I'm a musician, and in my studio I run sound through a rack-mounted, headless Mac mini. I use Remote Desktop software to operate it via laptop (or sometimes iPhone) for both live sound and for recording... and sometimes it is a pain in the ass. Laptops are not really made to be operated while standing up, but just about every rehearsal session that's how I'm using it. Furthermore, I'm constantly printing out lyric sheets and/or chord charts so I don't have to read them off the laptop.
With an iPad (assuming somebody writes a full-screen remote desktop app for it), suddenly I need neither the laptop nor the printer. I can use it to set levels and effects on the "mixing board" (which is really just an open session of Garageband with monitoring turned on for all channels), and then if I'm working on a new song I can pull up the chart and set it on a music stand (if I'm playing guitar) or just hold it in one hand (if I'm just singing). If I'm working on learning of cover of some pop song, I can even just pull up the lyrics off various Internet sites, saving myself the hassle of copying the text to a new document and printing them.
Shit, this thing could make my life A LOT easier, in ways that hadn't even crossed my mind until now.
I might even sell off my iBook. I'm suddenly at a loss as to why I need a full-fledged laptop computer, when this + a desktop machine is actually a much more convenient configuration.