The new nano has a small screen and I'm sure has made a lot of people go wow! But has completely lost the point of the old nano. It requires more button presses to use and forces the user to look at the screen. Most people seem to use nano's in places like the gym or the car. Adding a touch screen is a disadvantage in those locations. They would have been better off keeping the old nano form factor and increasing the storage.
It's still an OS that can't have AV software installed on it. Therefore, better battery life than a tablet running Win7 once IT is finished loading it up with the required corporate bloatware.
On the other hand, if you need to run AV software because you want the freedom of enterprise OSs like Win7 rather than the more restricted iOS, then you are going to need a bigger battery again.
Not all apps need a back button. I know in WP7, at least, that the back button isn't even consistent in what it does. An on-screen back button can always be more clear about its context and what it will do.
I think the menu button is a bit of a cop-out. It seems like it's easier to add a menu than it is to really think about your GUI. It's like a dumping ground for things that you can't figure out where they should go.
I also feel the lack buttons is holding the iphone back, despite what 'focus groups' claim about the buttons, you simply end up wasting screen real estate with onscreen buttons.
What would those extra buttons do? I don't think the use of the extra buttons on Android and WP7 are that much of an advantage.
- it's all there and in 4.3" on this model, not 3.5" - honestly at 32, with my eyes - that's a bloody godsend.
A bigger screen, in itself, is always good. But the thing I like about the size of the iPhone is that I can easily use it with one hand. If something is a bit too small, I just hold it closer.
The only task I can think of that is much more suited to a tablet that benefits from precision is drawing/writting, as a finger is still just as big on a tablet.
I'm not sure pressing lightly to select something matters that much. iOS gets around this with tap and hold. Some Wacom tablet do 1024 levels of pressure -- it is more designed as a drawing feature than part of interacting with the GUI in general.
There are already styluses out there that work on the iPad. I'm guessing they have a metal tip coated in plastic.
Are there resistive touchscreens out there that have decent pressure sensitivity?
You can still get pressure sensitivity on a capacitive touchscreen via a stylus. I'm sure Wacom tablets have better pressure sensitivity than any resistive touchscreen and that's how they do it.
Why don't you think multi-touch is as useful on a tablet? Given there is more room to use your hand, it seems like the larger screen allows better use of multi-touch gestures.
That doesn't make much sense, though, does it? The only way it would make sense was if you could prove that they've had just as many security flaws as they would otherwise have had if they were more open.
I still think Apple make suitable servers, but more when you're talking about a Mac mini for home or small business.
It seemed to me that anyone who really needed the power of a stack of Xservers also required a capable IT person somewhere in their business, and therefore you could do the same thing with cheaper hardware and free software.
Or perhaps people who needed such hardware setups often required a couple of tweaks that couldn't be done via the nice GUI, therefore loosing the user-friendly advantage and requiring almost as much IT support as a non-Apple setup.
Given the amount of work both the Safari team and its competitors are doing trying to improve the efficiency of all aspects of the browser, I'd say HTML5 will be much more efficient that Flash for the kind of animation that is often used in Flash adds.
How about telling me why such a program is impossible?
Me too, but that doesn't define "great". On the iPad, the landscape keyboard is nearly impossible to use with thumbs. On the iPhone, the portrait keyboard is too small. Predictive text and correction is far below the quality you get on other platforms. And there's nothing like Swype.
Why would any large keyboard be designed to be used with thumbs? On the iPhone, I got used to the portrait keyboard that I rarely use the landscape mode anymore. How are other predictive and correction systems better? Do you have any research to show that Swype is more usable?
You need to do long key presses to get common alphabetic characters in Western European languages, keys that should have dedicated buttons.
You only need to hold it down for a second. Having dedicated keys would take just as long, since you'd have to switch keyboards.
They give inaccurate positions and often don't register touch at all.
Care to link to a review that says such a thing for a decent stylus made for a capacitive touchscreen? And are you talking about the iPad or iPhone touchscreen, or another device?
Unlike you, I have the facts, since I use both platforms regularly. I'm sorry that my observations don't fit your limited understanding.
Or, more likely, you're just an astrotufer, either working for Apple, or having your livelihood bound up with Apple products.
Either way: stop spreading lies.
Now, that's some nice, obvious trolling;)
BTW, you didn't mention which note apps you had tried and what you didn't like about them. I'd really like to hear about those since I've been trying out a few myself.
Just as hopeless as parsing the data. Nobody knows how to do that for chemical formulas.
I don’t see why it’s so impossible.
And Apple's input methods are really lousy. Swype and Swiftkey on Android beat it hands down, and Graffiti with a pen is even better. Apple's misshapen keyboard is a pain to use, and it doesn't even have international characters. Sorry, but text input on the iPad is a joke.
The keyboard is great. In landscape, I can touch-type on it much faster than I thought I would be able to. Not as fast as a hardware keyboard, of course, but much faster than anything stylus-based. I would have typed some Russian characters, but Slashdot eats them up. Not sure what you’re on about there.
Pogo, Targus, and a bunch of others; foam-tipped, soft rubber tipped, and hard rubber-tipped. None of them work right, on any capacitive screen.
What do you mean when you say the don’t work right?
I also tried half a dozen different note taking apps and finally gave up.
Which ones? What didn’t you like about them, specifically?
I’m probably going back to a real tablet for note taking.
I’m going to stick with my over-priced toy. It’s been working out well so far. YMMV.
I'm sure someone will release such a product, but it won't make it an iPad killer because most people won't be taking detailed, handwritten notes often enough.
Also, unless the software can convert your input into something useful, there isn't that much of an advantage over pen and paper to most people. And once an app gets written to parse the data into something useful, then you can usually offer a better input method for that data to begin with, avoiding the need for an accurate stylus.
Which stylus have you tried and what app did you use, BTW?
Slashdot Mirror
The new nano has a small screen and I'm sure has made a lot of people go wow! But has completely lost the point of the old nano. It requires more button presses to use and forces the user to look at the screen. Most people seem to use nano's in places like the gym or the car. Adding a touch screen is a disadvantage in those locations. They would have been better off keeping the old nano form factor and increasing the storage.
Buy an iPod Shuffle.
It's still an OS that can't have AV software installed on it. Therefore, better battery life than a tablet running Win7 once IT is finished loading it up with the required corporate bloatware.
IT departments are often the odd-sized peg in many places. Nothing wrong with the iPad. Rollout is probably the problem.
Maybe the problem has more to do with the rollout than than iPad itself.
On the other hand, if you need to run AV software because you want the freedom of enterprise OSs like Win7 rather than the more restricted iOS, then you are going to need a bigger battery again.
Not all apps need a back button. I know in WP7, at least, that the back button isn't even consistent in what it does. An on-screen back button can always be more clear about its context and what it will do.
I think the menu button is a bit of a cop-out. It seems like it's easier to add a menu than it is to really think about your GUI. It's like a dumping ground for things that you can't figure out where they should go.
I also feel the lack buttons is holding the iphone back, despite what 'focus groups' claim about the buttons, you simply end up wasting screen real estate with onscreen buttons.
What would those extra buttons do? I don't think the use of the extra buttons on Android and WP7 are that much of an advantage.
- it's all there and in 4.3" on this model, not 3.5" - honestly at 32, with my eyes - that's a bloody godsend.
A bigger screen, in itself, is always good. But the thing I like about the size of the iPhone is that I can easily use it with one hand. If something is a bit too small, I just hold it closer.
Because it's the best product for how they want to use such a device?
Why would they want a clunky tablet PC, exactly?
The only task I can think of that is much more suited to a tablet that benefits from precision is drawing/writting, as a finger is still just as big on a tablet.
I'm not sure pressing lightly to select something matters that much. iOS gets around this with tap and hold. Some Wacom tablet do 1024 levels of pressure -- it is more designed as a drawing feature than part of interacting with the GUI in general.
There are already styluses out there that work on the iPad. I'm guessing they have a metal tip coated in plastic.
Are there resistive touchscreens out there that have decent pressure sensitivity?
You can still get pressure sensitivity on a capacitive touchscreen via a stylus. I'm sure Wacom tablets have better pressure sensitivity than any resistive touchscreen and that's how they do it.
Why don't you think multi-touch is as useful on a tablet? Given there is more room to use your hand, it seems like the larger screen allows better use of multi-touch gestures.
That doesn't make much sense, though, does it? The only way it would make sense was if you could prove that they've had just as many security flaws as they would otherwise have had if they were more open.
I still think Apple make suitable servers, but more when you're talking about a Mac mini for home or small business.
It seemed to me that anyone who really needed the power of a stack of Xservers also required a capable IT person somewhere in their business, and therefore you could do the same thing with cheaper hardware and free software.
Or perhaps people who needed such hardware setups often required a couple of tweaks that couldn't be done via the nice GUI, therefore loosing the user-friendly advantage and requiring almost as much IT support as a non-Apple setup.
HTML 5 is an option on iOS.
I'm flattered you think I'm an artist, but most of my work is actually in software development and interface design.
Which note taking apps did you try out?
Given the amount of work both the Safari team and its competitors are doing trying to improve the efficiency of all aspects of the browser, I'd say HTML5 will be much more efficient that Flash for the kind of animation that is often used in Flash adds.
Well, it sure is when you have a dedicated h.264 hardware decoder, like in iOS devices.
You don't even own an iPad, do you?
This has been fun, though.
Well, then you know little about usability.
How about telling me why such a program is impossible?
Me too, but that doesn't define "great". On the iPad, the landscape keyboard is nearly impossible to use with thumbs. On the iPhone, the portrait keyboard is too small. Predictive text and correction is far below the quality you get on other platforms. And there's nothing like Swype.
Why would any large keyboard be designed to be used with thumbs? On the iPhone, I got used to the portrait keyboard that I rarely use the landscape mode anymore. How are other predictive and correction systems better? Do you have any research to show that Swype is more usable?
You need to do long key presses to get common alphabetic characters in Western European languages, keys that should have dedicated buttons.
You only need to hold it down for a second. Having dedicated keys would take just as long, since you'd have to switch keyboards.
They give inaccurate positions and often don't register touch at all.
Care to link to a review that says such a thing for a decent stylus made for a capacitive touchscreen? And are you talking about the iPad or iPhone touchscreen, or another device?
Unlike you, I have the facts, since I use both platforms regularly. I'm sorry that my observations don't fit your limited understanding.
Or, more likely, you're just an astrotufer, either working for Apple, or having your livelihood bound up with Apple products.
Either way: stop spreading lies.
Now, that's some nice, obvious trolling ;)
BTW, you didn't mention which note apps you had tried and what you didn't like about them. I'd really like to hear about those since I've been trying out a few myself.
Just as hopeless as parsing the data. Nobody knows how to do that for chemical formulas.
I don’t see why it’s so impossible.
And Apple's input methods are really lousy. Swype and Swiftkey on Android beat it hands down, and Graffiti with a pen is even better. Apple's misshapen keyboard is a pain to use, and it doesn't even have international characters. Sorry, but text input on the iPad is a joke.
The keyboard is great. In landscape, I can touch-type on it much faster than I thought I would be able to. Not as fast as a hardware keyboard, of course, but much faster than anything stylus-based.
I would have typed some Russian characters, but Slashdot eats them up. Not sure what you’re on about there.
Pogo, Targus, and a bunch of others; foam-tipped, soft rubber tipped, and hard rubber-tipped. None of them work right, on any capacitive screen.
What do you mean when you say the don’t work right?
I also tried half a dozen different note taking apps and finally gave up.
Which ones? What didn’t you like about them, specifically?
I’m probably going back to a real tablet for note taking.
I’m going to stick with my over-priced toy. It’s been working out well so far. YMMV.
Happy trolling.
I'm not sure Chrome OS will be a big success, but I think Google would have taken such connectivity issues into consideration.
I'm not sure why they have both Android and Chrome OS -- they seem to intersect and overlap awkwardly.
I'm replying with one right now.
I'm sure someone will release such a product, but it won't make it an iPad killer because most people won't be taking detailed, handwritten notes often enough.
Also, unless the software can convert your input into something useful, there isn't that much of an advantage over pen and paper to most people. And once an app gets written to parse the data into something useful, then you can usually offer a better input method for that data to begin with, avoiding the need for an accurate stylus.
Which stylus have you tried and what app did you use, BTW?
Looks like there is a good opportunity for a chemistry note-taking app.
And there's nothing stopping you from buying a stylus if you really need it, is there?