I do so to make them do what I want them to do. i.e. to increase their utility.
The central premise of my post was this is a complementary device, I already have devices that can cover what the iPad doesn't do. Every gadget I have, doesn't have to do everything, some can be more specialized. Would you complain that that a Kindle doesn't support VLC??
Given the size of the iPad means you need a bag if you're going to carry it around, Gates is probably right about netbooks being more popular.
I see it as a home gadget. As such I don't need a bag to carry it from my couch to my bedroom. If I want a real computer I have one at home, so a netbook isn't better at being a reader.
I don't claim netbooks have any competition. Again, central premise of my post. This device is meant to work with your computer not replace it .
This is not a 100% desktop replacement in tablet form, it is an E-reader on steroids, and I am perfectly fine with that.
All it would do is slightly alter you accommodation point. This is not going increase the strain on your eyes unless you are near the limit of accommodation.
And what my mom actually said often was "you are going to damage your eyes".
The thread I was answering claimed reading on e-ink was fine but LCDs would strain and damage your eyes. It is all nonsense.
I'm with you on the comics, less so on the books. I have no need to carry more than 2 books with me at any given time.
Well on books. I have tons of ebooks/pdf already that I don't read because I don't want to sit a computer to do it. The iPad unlocks these materials.
It isn't about carrying it with me, since other than maybe vacations, I don't see the iPad leaving my house, it is portable internet/reader within the home, at least that is how I see it ATM.
There have been many attempts to get luddites interested in the Internet in the past.
I gave my Mom a PC, and I spent a fair bit of time helping/instructing (but I don't live in the same part of the country), but I couldn't get her to stick with it. The mouse always seemed strange to her, and different mouse buttons where confusing and there was no luck at all managing files.
Something like this that you directly touch to control, and where you can't interact with the file system anyway, seems to have much more potential for her. I will buy mine and put it in her hands and see how it works out.
"I'd rather have something in a similar form factor, but with Win7,"
Well part of the form factor is using a lighter weight OS, permitting snappy performance on less powerful hardware and thus you save on cooling, battery power/size etc. Or they end up horridly underpowered for windows.
N900 doesn't excite me in the least. Linux and more open is nice, but I think the user experience is far behind. I don't need to program every device I own.
It seems like a contest between marketing check-boxes(MSI) and user experience(iPad). I would try the MSI Android panel if I could find one before buying the iPad, but I don't think the user experience will come close and in the end that is what will win iPad sales.
A big difference is the price range. At $1500 the Air was never going to sell big.
At $500 the iPad could easily sell big.
I can see a multi-tude of roles. I am almost certainly getting one as an e-reader/net surfer. It is perfect for reading comics on the couch, reading a novel in bed, whatever.
I can see getting one for my computer phobic Mom...
For a tech head like me, it is the relaxing on the couch consumption device when I am done working at my main computer. For computer phobics it might be an only device for email/internet/reading.
I am no market analyst either (those guys seldom earn their keep anyway), but I am betting on success. Though it might be slow as early adopters put one in the hands of friends and more sales are garnered, because I think the secret weapon will be the experience touching and gliding effortlessly on a big capacitive screen.
I see a lot of people simply reading a laundry list of what a laptop(and netbook) does vs iPad does and proclaiming laptop the winner.
But the two devices are not mutually exclusive and in fact are complementary.
You don't do your work on an iPad. You do your work on your Desktop/Laptop and when you want to kickback and read e-comics on the couch, you grab your iPad.
Want to check the news at breakfast, grab your instant-on iPad that you can control with a finger while eating at the breakfast table.
Cooking up something new for dinner, iPad in the kitchen with your recipe (no worry about food in the keyboard).
Finish reading a book in your bedroom at night.
This is internet/reader device for every room of the house, highly portable with a slick interface.
I am as big a tech geek as anyone here, but I have other devices to hack. I have no problem getting a really nifty reader/net tablet with a different form factor, high quality user interface and yet unimagined possibilities.
Even with the limited uses I am considering now it is enough for me to head to the store once they are released.
I don't claim it is perfect, but a more fair comparison would be the Kindle Dx which has the same size screen and it also weighs over a pound and is priced at $489.
"I'd rather have an ugly device that limits my trips to the optometrist, than a beautiful device that fatigues my biological sensors."
This is nonsense. I remember being a kid reading and my Mom saying: "turn on more lights or you will strain your eyes". Old wives tale then and nonsense today. It might be a story sold by e-ink evangelists, but I have ridiculous hours looking at an LCD without eyestrain.
E-Ink has two actual advantages: Battery life and Sunlight visibility.
Not remotely enough to put up with disadvantages IMO.
Have you used a netbook? It's an exercise in frustration. Not to mention it isn't the form factor I want.
As far as various other tablets, where?
Check some hands-on videos for iPad vs netbooks or other tablets.
Everything else I have seen has clunky tacked on interfaces with sluggish response, While the iPad flies and glides. Also the iPad has a top of the line IPS screen vs TN crap on most competing devices, the screen might not matter to most, but I have an IPS desktop as well, I really don't like lesser screens.
There simply appears to be no contest in the experience delivered in terms of user interface/responsiveness/screen quality.
Aside from your point that it is too soon to call a flop, when it isn't even on the market, I suspect it will do quite well.
I want one for myself and it will be my first Apple anything. I don't think in terms of laptop vs iPad. The iPad is a complementary device for e-reading/couch surfing, seems absolutely the PERFECT reader for comics (.CBZ/.CBR). I haven't figured out everything I will do with it, but already enough that I plan to buy as soon as I can get one (well after a hands on to verify I really like it).
I note the one who called iPad flop was an anonymous coward. A non slashdotter, or someone without the courage to have their prediction on record?
That thing is some kind of Frankenstein monster of bad ideas grafted together.
Watch the hands on demo video, then watch any iPad hands on demo video.
The Lenova is brutally slow. I would tear out my hair in frustration. The iPad flys and glides.
Windows tablets have been failures because windows is aimed at desktop/mouse/keyboard experience, tacking on a superfluous touch interface does nothing for that.
I plan to try an iPad because the interaction looks so slick that it is actually fun.
It is an appliance but it appears to be a find instant on joyful net browsing appliance.
Even geeks have to realize there is a place for appliances.
mpeg-LA seems to be letting broadcasts go free for the next couple of years. Note that is only for the actual broadcast. They can open a can of whoop ass on various licensing fees whenever they feel it gets entrenched.
Theora support will have problems from those who really don't want open solutions (Microsoft,Apple).
The days of big changes from DX api change are gone. We had ridiculous hype for DX10 which turned out to be negligible improvement and even Faked "improvement" as in Crysis.
DX11 here is more of the same. Screen shots from both flipped back and forth to point out that this flag has more flap in it.
DX11 is the last reason to buy new graphics hardware (just as DX10 was). Buy new graphics hardware when you need the performance boost a new generation card will bring, or some new feature like Eyefinity if you want to use that, but DX11, that is 99% hype, 1% substance.
Both seem very limited and aimed at cellphones essentially. So it does seem they have huge overlap.
I was hoping Chrome OS would be more functional than Android (sort of lightweight Linux replacement) but it seems the opposite. It is just a browser. Yawn.
I really can't see the point of maintaining two cellphone "OS type" products.
I am huge BG/BG2/Planescape/NWN fan. As a single player campaign this is the best I have played. I have ~30 hours in and I don't think I am half done.
I won't claim the 6 origins lead to six playthroughs, the story converges about two hours in at Ostagar, though each will likely encounter a nemesis or friend from you origin that remembers you(I encountered many as a Dwarf Noble).
What I did was first play all 6 intros. These are story heavy and combat lite. They were all very good and good insight into the society of the world (castes/casteless, ghettoized elves freed from slavery) you get to see the class/race struggles from boths sides. It is a perfect intro to the world they created.
They have created a living breathing world populated by interesting and believable characters. The story is immersive, they voice acting is wonderful. I think everyone one you talk to in the game is voice acted, you don't read a line of their dialogue.
There are some issues of course.
Yeah there is the whole lame DLC stuff(Shakes fist at EA). Ignore. I bought the cheapest most basic version and I didn't even go online for my freebies. Unnecessary in a game this big.
There does seem to be some kind of resource leak for fragmentation that slows down loads after you play about 2 hours. You then need to save exit/restart (what I was doing when I spotted this review).
The RPG system. Well it's new, it will be tweaked, but it isn't multiplayer so "balance" between the classes is not much of an issue.
Bottom line here is a great story on the EPIC scale of LOTR, where you really feel at the center of it. Certainly there is some linearity, but that is part in parcel with telling an epic story based on you.
All in all epic storytelling wins the day. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to the Landsmeet to pick a new king.
" with hints of males helping to care for eggs and young, another behavior that is virtually unknown among spiders. "
Cynical attempt to milk BSG and Stargate franchise
on
Stargate Universe
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I watched it without reading a single review or press release. I had no expectations of what was to come. Warning some vague spoilers may be below.
Within 5 minutes it is clear that this is an attempt to graft BSG onto SG and in an attempt to milk both fan bases for the combined monetary gain. No doubt this idea seems brilliant in the board room.
But the execution is the worse of both worlds. It sucks all the fun, and chemistry among lovable characters out of Stargate and replaces it with a superficial BSG veneer of angry distrust and melodrama. Nothing is left of Stargate, but the gate mechanism and some tired cameos.
The have nothing of BSG world that made it great. Instead they assume dark, dire, angry, whiny = deep. It doesn't. It just equals annoying.
This seems like what you would get if your made your writers watch a few episodes of BSG and make a list of BSG items. Then crib the ones you can get away with (IE nothing to do with Cylons).
So we get dark dingy sets, angry distrusting characters, angry mob scenes, obligatory pointless sex scene, heavy flashback, heavy melodrama. None of the the heart and soul from either show.
After seeing this appear to be a cheap BSG knockoff a quick bit of googling revealed that they at least admit this is what they were trying to do.
"creators of "Stargate Universe," the upcoming spinoff of the long-running "Stargate SG-1," took the stage today, panelists promised a fresh, more "Battlestar"-like take on the space opera."
I am annoyed by the cynicism and lack of originality in trying to give Stargate a BSG makeover and by the end result which felt like punishment to watch.
Slashdot Mirror
but a thin display without native rez, and CRT colour quality is still my dream
The variable resolution of CRT was a technological artifact, resulting from the NEED to scan across the display. We no longer have that need.
Going forward all consumer displays(in foreseeable future) will have a set, native resolution.
You get a sharper display, and you get perfect geometry. I will take that over blurry/variable geometry CRT any day.
I do so to make them do what I want them to do. i.e. to increase their utility.
The central premise of my post was this is a complementary device, I already have devices that can cover what the iPad doesn't do. Every gadget I have, doesn't have to do everything, some can be more specialized. Would you complain that that a Kindle doesn't support VLC??
Given the size of the iPad means you need a bag if you're going to carry it around, Gates is probably right about netbooks being more popular.
I see it as a home gadget. As such I don't need a bag to carry it from my couch to my bedroom. If I want a real computer I have one at home, so a netbook isn't better at being a reader.
I don't claim netbooks have any competition. Again, central premise of my post. This device is meant to work with your computer not replace it .
This is not a 100% desktop replacement in tablet form, it is an E-reader on steroids, and I am perfectly fine with that.
That is just as ridiculous.
All it would do is slightly alter you accommodation point. This is not going increase the strain on your eyes unless you are near the limit of accommodation.
And what my mom actually said often was "you are going to damage your eyes".
The thread I was answering claimed reading on e-ink was fine but LCDs would strain and damage your eyes. It is all nonsense.
Only if you have the disposable cash and gadget luggage space to buy both.
This may be a huge surprise, but I already have a computer. So I only need to buy an iPad to add to it.
Now if I had no computer at all I would agree. I would get a computer before an iPad.
I am sure it isn't for everyone. I would rather do them on an inexpensive lightweight, touch device that just looks more enjoyable to interact with.
That and I wouldn't try reading in bed with my desktop...
I'm with you on the comics, less so on the books. I have no need to carry more than 2 books with me at any given time.
Well on books. I have tons of ebooks/pdf already that I don't read because I don't want to sit a computer to do it. The iPad unlocks these materials.
It isn't about carrying it with me, since other than maybe vacations, I don't see the iPad leaving my house, it is portable internet/reader within the home, at least that is how I see it ATM.
There have been many attempts to get luddites interested in the Internet in the past.
I gave my Mom a PC, and I spent a fair bit of time helping/instructing (but I don't live in the same part of the country), but I couldn't get her to stick with it. The mouse always seemed strange to her, and different mouse buttons where confusing and there was no luck at all managing files.
Something like this that you directly touch to control, and where you can't interact with the file system anyway, seems to have much more potential for her. I will buy mine and put it in her hands and see how it works out.
"I'd rather have something in a similar form factor, but with Win7,"
Well part of the form factor is using a lighter weight OS, permitting snappy performance on less powerful hardware and thus you save on cooling, battery power/size etc. Or they end up horridly underpowered for windows.
Win7 Tablets exist and they are largely a failure. Read this Cnet review on the new Archos 9.
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablet-pcs/archos-9-pc-tablet/4505-3126_7-33800951.html
N900 doesn't excite me in the least. Linux and more open is nice, but I think the user experience is far behind. I don't need to program every device I own.
I think the biggest competitors will be Android tablets like this MSI:
http://phandroid.com/2010/01/29/msi-android-tablet-harmony/
It seems like a contest between marketing check-boxes(MSI) and user experience(iPad). I would try the MSI Android panel if I could find one before buying the iPad, but I don't think the user experience will come close and in the end that is what will win iPad sales.
A big difference is the price range. At $1500 the Air was never going to sell big.
At $500 the iPad could easily sell big.
I can see a multi-tude of roles. I am almost certainly getting one as an e-reader/net surfer. It is perfect for reading comics on the couch, reading a novel in bed, whatever.
I can see getting one for my computer phobic Mom...
For a tech head like me, it is the relaxing on the couch consumption device when I am done working at my main computer. For computer phobics it might be an only device for email/internet/reading.
I am no market analyst either (those guys seldom earn their keep anyway), but I am betting on success. Though it might be slow as early adopters put one in the hands of friends and more sales are garnered, because I think the secret weapon will be the experience touching and gliding effortlessly on a big capacitive screen.
I see a lot of people simply reading a laundry list of what a laptop(and netbook) does vs iPad does and proclaiming laptop the winner.
But the two devices are not mutually exclusive and in fact are complementary.
You don't do your work on an iPad. You do your work on your Desktop/Laptop and when you want to kickback and read e-comics on the couch, you grab your iPad.
Want to check the news at breakfast, grab your instant-on iPad that you can control with a finger while eating at the breakfast table.
Cooking up something new for dinner, iPad in the kitchen with your recipe (no worry about food in the keyboard).
Finish reading a book in your bedroom at night.
This is internet/reader device for every room of the house, highly portable with a slick interface.
I am as big a tech geek as anyone here, but I have other devices to hack. I have no problem getting a really nifty reader/net tablet with a different form factor, high quality user interface and yet unimagined possibilities.
Even with the limited uses I am considering now it is enough for me to head to the store once they are released.
I don't claim it is perfect, but a more fair comparison would be the Kindle Dx which has the same size screen and it also weighs over a pound and is priced at $489.
"I'd rather have an ugly device that limits my trips to the optometrist, than a beautiful device that fatigues my biological sensors."
This is nonsense. I remember being a kid reading and my Mom saying: "turn on more lights or you will strain your eyes". Old wives tale then and nonsense today. It might be a story sold by e-ink evangelists, but I have ridiculous hours looking at an LCD without eyestrain.
E-Ink has two actual advantages: Battery life and Sunlight visibility.
Not remotely enough to put up with disadvantages IMO.
So what else is new? Did anyone expect different?
This is the default position of Microsofts old guard to any competitor product.
Android:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/11/06/microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-pokers-fun-at-google-android
Chrome:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/14/steve_ballmer_laughs_off_googles_chrome_os_threat.html
iPhone:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/microsoft-ceo-claims-new-zune-market-share-laughs-at-iphone/
Gates playing down iPhone:
http://www.iphoneworld.ca/news/2007/02/03/bill-gates-wont-buy-an-apple-iphone/
Have you used a netbook? It's an exercise in frustration. Not to mention it isn't the form factor I want.
As far as various other tablets, where?
Check some hands-on videos for iPad vs netbooks or other tablets.
Everything else I have seen has clunky tacked on interfaces with sluggish response, While the iPad flies and glides. Also the iPad has a top of the line IPS screen vs TN crap on most competing devices, the screen might not matter to most, but I have an IPS desktop as well, I really don't like lesser screens.
There simply appears to be no contest in the experience delivered in terms of user interface/responsiveness/screen quality.
Aside from your point that it is too soon to call a flop, when it isn't even on the market, I suspect it will do quite well.
I want one for myself and it will be my first Apple anything. I don't think in terms of laptop vs iPad. The iPad is a complementary device for e-reading/couch surfing, seems absolutely the PERFECT reader for comics (.CBZ/.CBR). I haven't figured out everything I will do with it, but already enough that I plan to buy as soon as I can get one (well after a hands on to verify I really like it).
I note the one who called iPad flop was an anonymous coward. A non slashdotter, or someone without the courage to have their prediction on record?
I haven't got the e-ink religion, so iPad for me all the way.
I was actually planning to get an e-reader, but when the entry price for iPad was announced, I switched to waiting for an iPad.
The only problem I see with it is waiting till the end of march to get one.
That thing is some kind of Frankenstein monster of bad ideas grafted together.
Watch the hands on demo video, then watch any iPad hands on demo video.
The Lenova is brutally slow. I would tear out my hair in frustration. The iPad flys and glides.
Windows tablets have been failures because windows is aimed at desktop/mouse/keyboard experience, tacking on a superfluous touch interface does nothing for that.
I plan to try an iPad because the interaction looks so slick that it is actually fun.
It is an appliance but it appears to be a find instant on joyful net browsing appliance.
Even geeks have to realize there is a place for appliances.
http://www.osnews.com/story/22828/MPEG-LA_Will_Not_Change_h264_Licensing
mpeg-LA seems to be letting broadcasts go free for the next couple of years. Note that is only for the actual broadcast. They can open a can of whoop ass on various licensing fees whenever they feel it gets entrenched.
Theora support will have problems from those who really don't want open solutions (Microsoft,Apple).
So we have an impasse.
If you ever cycle commuted, you should know that the main issue isn't getting "worn out", it is arriving soaked in sweat.
You need shower facilities, you need to bring a change of clothing, store sweaty clothes etc... To much aggravation for me.
But if I could just twist and go and arrive clean and dry at work, then it would be viable. I could pedal on the way home.
+1
I want the NWN camera as well. This one suffers a bad dose of consolitis. Yeah I know less restrictive than the console, but it is still crap.
The days of big changes from DX api change are gone. We had ridiculous hype for DX10 which turned out to be negligible improvement and even Faked "improvement" as in Crysis.
DX11 here is more of the same. Screen shots from both flipped back and forth to point out that this flag has more flap in it.
DX11 is the last reason to buy new graphics hardware (just as DX10 was). Buy new graphics hardware when you need the performance boost a new generation card will bring, or some new feature like Eyefinity if you want to use that, but DX11, that is 99% hype, 1% substance.
Both seem very limited and aimed at cellphones essentially. So it does seem they have huge overlap.
I was hoping Chrome OS would be more functional than Android (sort of lightweight Linux replacement) but it seems the opposite. It is just a browser. Yawn.
I really can't see the point of maintaining two cellphone "OS type" products.
I am huge BG/BG2/Planescape/NWN fan. As a single player campaign this is the best I have played. I have ~30 hours in and I don't think I am half done.
I won't claim the 6 origins lead to six playthroughs, the story converges about two hours in at Ostagar, though each will likely encounter a nemesis or friend from you origin that remembers you(I encountered many as a Dwarf Noble).
What I did was first play all 6 intros. These are story heavy and combat lite. They were all very good and good insight into the society of the world (castes/casteless, ghettoized elves freed from slavery) you get to see the class/race struggles from boths sides. It is a perfect intro to the world they created.
They have created a living breathing world populated by interesting and believable characters. The story is immersive, they voice acting is wonderful. I think everyone one you talk to in the game is voice acted, you don't read a line of their dialogue.
There are some issues of course.
Yeah there is the whole lame DLC stuff(Shakes fist at EA). Ignore. I bought the cheapest most basic version and I didn't even go online for my freebies. Unnecessary in a game this big.
There does seem to be some kind of resource leak for fragmentation that slows down loads after you play about 2 hours. You then need to save exit/restart (what I was doing when I spotted this review).
The RPG system. Well it's new, it will be tweaked, but it isn't multiplayer so "balance" between the classes is not much of an issue.
Bottom line here is a great story on the EPIC scale of LOTR, where you really feel at the center of it. Certainly there is some linearity, but that is part in parcel with telling an epic story based on you.
All in all epic storytelling wins the day. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to the Landsmeet to pick a new king.
You know something like the iPod touch, but with android?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091012121331.htm
" with hints of males helping to care for eggs and young, another behavior that is virtually unknown among spiders. "
I watched it without reading a single review or press release. I had no expectations of what was to come. Warning some vague spoilers may be below.
Within 5 minutes it is clear that this is an attempt to graft BSG onto SG and in an attempt to milk both fan bases for the combined monetary gain. No doubt this idea seems brilliant in the board room.
But the execution is the worse of both worlds. It sucks all the fun, and chemistry among lovable characters out of Stargate and replaces it with a superficial BSG veneer of angry distrust and melodrama. Nothing is left of Stargate, but the gate mechanism and some tired cameos.
The have nothing of BSG world that made it great. Instead they assume dark, dire, angry, whiny = deep. It doesn't. It just equals annoying.
This seems like what you would get if your made your writers watch a few episodes of BSG and make a list of BSG items. Then crib the ones you can get away with (IE nothing to do with Cylons).
So we get dark dingy sets, angry distrusting characters, angry mob scenes, obligatory pointless sex scene, heavy flashback, heavy melodrama. None of the the heart and soul from either show.
After seeing this appear to be a cheap BSG knockoff a quick bit of googling revealed that they at least admit this is what they were trying to do.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/08/tca-press-tour-stargate-universe-producers-aiming-for-battlestar-galacticalevel-quality.html
"creators of "Stargate Universe," the upcoming spinoff of the long-running "Stargate SG-1," took the stage today, panelists promised a fresh, more "Battlestar"-like take on the space opera."
I am annoyed by the cynicism and lack of originality in trying to give Stargate a BSG makeover and by the end result which felt like punishment to watch.
YMMV of course. Some people apparently loved it.