Apple Chief Steve Jobs says using the iPad is like "holding the Internet in your hand." Blogger MG Siegler gushes it's like "holding the future." The first statement is ridiculous. The second is impossible.
No, it feels like holding a one-and-a-half-pound iPod touch. Or being really tiny and holding a regular iPod touch. Or being 15-feet tall and using Microsoft's table computer. Weird part: pick it up and play with it and the iPad works.
Does the gigantic iPod iPad have USB ports? No. Flash support? No. HDMI output? No. SD Card slot? No. Can it run several different third-party apps at once? No.
Will you ever need to clean the registry and defragment the hard drive? No.
The iPad sounds silly if you're shopping based on features and specifications. So Apple will have to get the device in front of as many people as possible. Apple's stores will give it that opportunity.
So what will these shoppers encounter? Touch the home button and it turns on. Immediately. Select an application and it starts. Instantly. If the 9.7-inch screen is what sets this apart from an iPod, less waiting is what sets the iPad apart from a netbook or a laptop. Less is more.
The software Apple has created for the iPad builds on these two qualities: speed and screen size. Open up the phone's iPad's photo application and you can instantly fill the screen with an image, swipe to the next picture, or pinch on a stack of photos to check them out. Same goes for every other application Apple has built for the phone that I had a chance to try, whether it's a book reader or a web browser. Playing with this machine is like eating Doritos. It's hard to stop.
Jobs' secret is that he's built a software company that makes hardware. The screen just provides a bigger window for that software. The 1 Ghz processor Apple has built for it is fast enough to make sure nothing gets in the way.
Caveat: I only had a few minutes with the machine. That's just enough time to poke at some apps and pound on the optional keyboard accessory, hardly a thorough test. I'd really like to spend some time with Apple's iWork productivity suite for the iPad, see how it works with web applications such as Google Docs, and loan the device to a 9-year-old boy or a chimpanzee to see what they do with it.
It's already plain, however, that some people will never like this machine. A pair of protesters from the Free Software Foundation holding a huge sign -- even bigger than the iPad -- outside Apple's event Wednesday had it right. When you purchase an iPad you're paying $499 for Apple to put its digital media store, software store, and digital book store in your face.
For some, that's a real problem. The rest of us own these general purpose machines we call 'personal computers' that let us do anything we have the wits to make them do. A so-called Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) with all the features the geeks say they want costs more than $1000... and it's a usability disaster.
Make a PC really small and it kind of sucks. Make an iPod really big, however, and it's kind of great.
Because the App Store is huge success with its 140,000 apps and 3 billion downloads. Why not build on that success?!
The iPad will open up a whole new generation of apps with shared folders, new gestures, and larger interface area. Don't expect the iPad apps to look and function like the iPhone apps. The iPad apps will be faster, easier to use, and much better. From now to July people will think they don't need one. From July to October they will think why they didn't buy one yet. Just like what happened to the iPhone.
Joe Hewitt left working on the Facebook app for iPhone because of Apple's requirement to vet every release of an iPhone app. Well, he sounds like he can't wait to get back, but for the iPad. He gets it.
First, most my video comes from YouTube. That plays on the iPhone using Quicktime. Movie previews play in Quicktime. So, not all video is Flash.
Second, your argument is based on how the Internet is currently. Apple's attempts to move video to an open source technology is based on how Apple wants the Internet to be in the future. As the Internet moves from Computers to mobile devices, Flash's dominance will fade.
Apple doesn't want to be a prisoner to Adobe's tendencies to embrace take it's time supporting APple technologies. So, it is attempting to kill it's dominance in favor of open technologies. .
Quote:
Originally Posted by kotatsu
Even if that were true in theory, it certainly isn't true in practice. Much of the web depends on flash. Want to watch a video online? That'll be flash. Want to play a game online? That'll be flash. Want to play Farmville? (which if you hadn't noticed, a LOT of people do) That'll be flash.
Flash is EVERYWHERE online. It's not going away anytime soon. Apple need to stop their petty argument with Adobe and accept the total dominance of flash.
Didn't anyone, who saw the iPad event, read into the significance of the couch being on stage? Cook even made passive reference to it when he said "he gets to sit on the couch." There's meaning to that. Others here mentioned a cloud in Apple's future, and they would be right on the mark. You don't think Apple is opening that data center in North Carolina for nothing?
Apple's iPad is another piece to the Apple cloud puzzle. TVs are now offering Internet services, like NetFlicks and Apple has its own ideas on that. My guess is they are developing a Couch User Interface that everyone will want, and it will run top-notch app store software backed by a MobileMe cloud with proprietary security.
Every senior citizen who doesn't care about learning computers or want to be open to scams and malware will want Apples future. Students too. Many others will jump aboard the Disney Ship of computing in the Apple clouds.
Joe Hewitt left working on the Facebook app for iPhone because of Apple's requirement to vet every release of an iPhone app. Well, he sounds like he can't wait to get back, but for the iPad. He gets it.
From the linked post:
Quote:
iPad is an incredible opportunity for developers to re-imagine every single category of desktop and web software there is. Seriously, if you're a developer and you're not thinking about how your app could work better on the iPad and its descendants, you deserve to get left behind.
And there it is. The new platform. The one that gets new kinds of apps. Wildly popular apps, that do things differently. Things that you really couldn't do before, well.
Everyone posting "No Flash, no camera, no multitasking, no sale" over and over and over again are really, really missing the point.
The file system doesn't have to be confusing. Not having a file system works fine if you don't have a lot of files, and you don't need to segregate files by project.
Yes, it doesn't have to be confusing, but it's not intuitive. When we have paper folders, we might go three or four deep (folders within folders within folders) but not more.
In any case, studies have shown that people put documents on the PC/Mac desktop because they really don't want to get into the file hierarchy. (I personally keep my desktop empty.)
"You mean there's a place I can go to find ALL the apps for my macbook?"
"I don't have to search this site, search that site, just one place?"
"Developers are primaryly making apps for the mac?" 'It's about time!"
Really though I could see this coming from a mile away (if and when it does happen). It may not be exclusive and shut off like the iPhone, but there maybe a bundled App store someday for the mac. Apple has figured it out. They found a way to make an e-store for ALL of the available apps and it's in ONE place. The way "normal" people are in society, they want things to be easy, fast, and painless. It's called dummy proof.
Just because a system LOOKS watered down does NOT make it any less powerful. In Apple's case it tends to make it a more intuitive experience.
I'm going to also guess that Apple has NEVER liked the idea of a finder. No average user should be messing with a file system. Nor should they have to. We're witnessing the future and so many people on here lack the vision and creativity to see it.
There may have been touch screen phone b4 the iPhone, but I can tell you this, AFTER the iPhone (years after) other companies are just NOW coming out with copy cats that still can't compete. Apple is so far ahead it's ridiculous.
I see people on here cite this tablet or that tablet, yet they never once say how well said tablet is selling. How is that Tegra doing? If it's so great why don't you go get one of those? Don't like the iPad you have CHOICES. But to come here and complain because it's not what YOU wanted is asinine! Either make what you want or find somebody that does. It's nobodies responsibility to live up to YOUR expectations.
I totally agree...that is why Ballmer and Dell showed their products but did not demonstrate them because they had nothing to show! They are all waiting for Apple to show them the Apple way of doing things and then are stunned by its simplicity and ease of use.
"No big deal, just a giant ipod" is what they are saying, now they have to deal with a real product that will be available in 58 days for $499 starting price.
HP states their slate will be out in Q4 of 2010 Ballmer was doing nothing more than showing off a picture frame with a picture of a book on it...what a dork
Didn't anyone, who saw the iPad event, read into the significance of the couch being on stage? Cook even made passive reference to it when he said "he gets to sit on the couch." There's meaning to that. Others here mentioned a cloud in Apple's future, and they would be right on the mark. You don't think Apple is opening that data center in North Carolina for nothing?
Yup, everything was carefully scripted at the iPad event. The updates were carefully laid out to convey specific messages to consumers, financial analysts, developers.
250m iPods, $50b revenue, largest mobile devices company by revenue, 50m store visitors, 75m iPod Touch/iPhone users, 125 million accounts, 12B downloads, A4 chip only for Apple, intersection of technology and liberal arts, etc.
Apple isn't hiding its vision. A few days ago, a blogger (forgot who) wrote about how Jobs at the 2001 MW Expo laid out Apple's digital hub/spoke/devices strategy, and that's exactly what they did though Apple's competitors still seemed to be surprised. Well, Apple just showed us a chunk of its third platform strategy. People should read and listen closely if they don't want to be surprised.
I think they're scared about the price. We have been hearing 700-900 and then it comes out and it $500. They must have crapped their pants right there. IF this was subsidized it would have been $100 low and $300 High. That's killer. The fact it's unlocked with no contract just makes it worse for the competition. We should be seeing desktop quality apps within a year.
I'm confused. I understand that to some people, Flash and multi-tasking and the ability to load any application you want are very important features. Apple thinks they're not so important for their mobile devices, and I agree. You guys are free to disagree as vehemently as you like, but I'm confused as to why you choose to spend so much of your time on Apple sites ranting about your frustrations, sharing your hostilities. Just go out, buy and enjoy the competing products that you prefer. That's perfectly okay by me!
There are two answers to this. Some people are just built that way. Or they haven't grown out of their juvenile delinquent time, yet. A common feature is that they repeat themselves often and have a snappy answer to 'everything'. Teenagers are like that when they first discover they have a voice (and a brain, to be fair). The other thing is that they get stuck. They throw in a negative comment and suddenly they are attacked from all sides. Naturally they must fire back and the never ending garbage thread has started. It is just as much our fault for not ignoring them. I suspect if they were ignored they would leave quicker. if you look through the recent threads relating to the iPad you'll find that many of the frequent poster lie low, or go away altogether, until the storm has died down. There really isn't much point talking when it instantly turns into a repetitive mudslinging match.
You know. I was thinking about the limitations of the iPad. How do you store files on it? Why no USB2 port? 64 GB flash memory max?
I was watching the keynote and the demo of iWork. I kept thinking, how did these files that they're playing with get on the iPad? How do you build one of these files from scratch using the iPad? Where are these files stored?
Lots of questions.
I'm not sure how Apple will do it. How do you make the file accessible so it can be attached to an email, or used by another app? On the iPhone, each app maintains its own files (see app like WriteRoom), and it can create new files from scratch.
Quote:
But you know what? I started thinking about the first Macintosh, this little box with this little screen and this device for your hand, tethered to the little box. What's with this graphical interface and how do you enter commands and tell it what you want to do?
Agreed. The iPad paradigm is almost completely new; some of it was revealed to us earlier through the iPhone and iPod touch, but much more will come now.
Quote:
Although I think the iPad currently has limitations (it can't function as a standalone device without an actual computer to sync with and obtain files from), I see a lot of potential.
Good thoughts. Right now, the iPad is a device (like the iPod/iPhone/AppleTV) to be attached to a digital hub (Mac/PC) via the iTunes spoke. But I think Apple is looking at making the iPad syncable to items other than the hub, like a Time Capsule or a Home Media Server or AppleTV. The iPhone/iPod touch (device) can already control the AppleTV (another device). At some point, they'll increase the amount of peer to peer interactions.
In addition, all the devices are already able to go straight out to the cloud to get content. At some point, Apple will also allow them to sync to the cloud instead of to a hub. The acquisition of lala and the NC data center seem to be linked to this.
Comments
Oh the fanboys are out already I see.
Oh come off it, what a stupid thing to say.
Glad to see you've addressed your own stupidity!
Hands On With Apple's iPad
January 29, 2010 - 8:30 am
Brian Caulfield
Apple Chief Steve Jobs says using the iPad is like "holding the Internet in your hand." Blogger MG Siegler gushes it's like "holding the future." The first statement is ridiculous. The second is impossible.
No, it feels like holding a one-and-a-half-pound iPod touch. Or being really tiny and holding a regular iPod touch. Or being 15-feet tall and using Microsoft's table computer. Weird part: pick it up and play with it and the iPad works.
Does the gigantic iPod iPad have USB ports? No. Flash support? No. HDMI output? No. SD Card slot? No. Can it run several different third-party apps at once? No.
Will you ever need to clean the registry and defragment the hard drive? No.
The iPad sounds silly if you're shopping based on features and specifications. So Apple will have to get the device in front of as many people as possible. Apple's stores will give it that opportunity.
So what will these shoppers encounter? Touch the home button and it turns on. Immediately. Select an application and it starts. Instantly. If the 9.7-inch screen is what sets this apart from an iPod, less waiting is what sets the iPad apart from a netbook or a laptop. Less is more.
The software Apple has created for the iPad builds on these two qualities: speed and screen size. Open up the phone's iPad's photo application and you can instantly fill the screen with an image, swipe to the next picture, or pinch on a stack of photos to check them out. Same goes for every other application Apple has built for the phone that I had a chance to try, whether it's a book reader or a web browser. Playing with this machine is like eating Doritos. It's hard to stop.
Jobs' secret is that he's built a software company that makes hardware. The screen just provides a bigger window for that software. The 1 Ghz processor Apple has built for it is fast enough to make sure nothing gets in the way.
Caveat: I only had a few minutes with the machine. That's just enough time to poke at some apps and pound on the optional keyboard accessory, hardly a thorough test. I'd really like to spend some time with Apple's iWork productivity suite for the iPad, see how it works with web applications such as Google Docs, and loan the device to a 9-year-old boy or a chimpanzee to see what they do with it.
It's already plain, however, that some people will never like this machine. A pair of protesters from the Free Software Foundation holding a huge sign -- even bigger than the iPad -- outside Apple's event Wednesday had it right. When you purchase an iPad you're paying $499 for Apple to put its digital media store, software store, and digital book store in your face.
For some, that's a real problem. The rest of us own these general purpose machines we call 'personal computers' that let us do anything we have the wits to make them do. A so-called Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) with all the features the geeks say they want costs more than $1000... and it's a usability disaster.
Make a PC really small and it kind of sucks. Make an iPod really big, however, and it's kind of great.
Because the App Store is huge success with its 140,000 apps and 3 billion downloads. Why not build on that success?!
The iPad will open up a whole new generation of apps with shared folders, new gestures, and larger interface area. Don't expect the iPad apps to look and function like the iPhone apps. The iPad apps will be faster, easier to use, and much better. From now to July people will think they don't need one. From July to October they will think why they didn't buy one yet. Just like what happened to the iPhone.
Did you read this yet? http://joehewitt.com/post/ipad/
Joe Hewitt left working on the Facebook app for iPhone because of Apple's requirement to vet every release of an iPhone app. Well, he sounds like he can't wait to get back, but for the iPad. He gets it.
Second, your argument is based on how the Internet is currently. Apple's attempts to move video to an open source technology is based on how Apple wants the Internet to be in the future. As the Internet moves from Computers to mobile devices, Flash's dominance will fade.
Apple doesn't want to be a prisoner to Adobe's tendencies to embrace take it's time supporting APple technologies. So, it is attempting to kill it's dominance in favor of open technologies. .
Even if that were true in theory, it certainly isn't true in practice. Much of the web depends on flash. Want to watch a video online? That'll be flash. Want to play a game online? That'll be flash. Want to play Farmville? (which if you hadn't noticed, a LOT of people do) That'll be flash.
Flash is EVERYWHERE online. It's not going away anytime soon. Apple need to stop their petty argument with Adobe and accept the total dominance of flash.
Apple's iPad is another piece to the Apple cloud puzzle. TVs are now offering Internet services, like NetFlicks and Apple has its own ideas on that. My guess is they are developing a Couch User Interface that everyone will want, and it will run top-notch app store software backed by a MobileMe cloud with proprietary security.
Every senior citizen who doesn't care about learning computers or want to be open to scams and malware will want Apples future. Students too. Many others will jump aboard the Disney Ship of computing in the Apple clouds.
Did you read this yet? http://joehewitt.com/post/ipad/
Joe Hewitt left working on the Facebook app for iPhone because of Apple's requirement to vet every release of an iPhone app. Well, he sounds like he can't wait to get back, but for the iPad. He gets it.
From the linked post:
iPad is an incredible opportunity for developers to re-imagine every single category of desktop and web software there is. Seriously, if you're a developer and you're not thinking about how your app could work better on the iPad and its descendants, you deserve to get left behind.
And there it is. The new platform. The one that gets new kinds of apps. Wildly popular apps, that do things differently. Things that you really couldn't do before, well.
Everyone posting "No Flash, no camera, no multitasking, no sale" over and over and over again are really, really missing the point.
http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/201...nt-ipod-touch/
Hands On With Apple's iPad
January 29, 2010 - 8:30 am
Brian Caulfield...... [/B][/I]
Great article, Quadra. Thanks.
The file system doesn't have to be confusing. Not having a file system works fine if you don't have a lot of files, and you don't need to segregate files by project.
Yes, it doesn't have to be confusing, but it's not intuitive. When we have paper folders, we might go three or four deep (folders within folders within folders) but not more.
In any case, studies have shown that people put documents on the PC/Mac desktop because they really don't want to get into the file hierarchy. (I personally keep my desktop empty.)
Note to these also rans:
Your envy is showing. You've been upstaged, almost overnight, by a competitor with half your experience in mobile devices and gaming, respectively.
Best to start the anti-iPad FUD-machine NOW . . . and get in as many jabs as you can, because come April it's a whole new ballgame.
NOt really- looks like another hobby- AppleTV style. Very depressing actually.
Yes I would. In a minute.
I would also. It would be like....
"You mean there's a place I can go to find ALL the apps for my macbook?"
"I don't have to search this site, search that site, just one place?"
"Developers are primaryly making apps for the mac?" 'It's about time!"
Really though I could see this coming from a mile away (if and when it does happen). It may not be exclusive and shut off like the iPhone, but there maybe a bundled App store someday for the mac. Apple has figured it out. They found a way to make an e-store for ALL of the available apps and it's in ONE place. The way "normal" people are in society, they want things to be easy, fast, and painless. It's called dummy proof.
Just because a system LOOKS watered down does NOT make it any less powerful. In Apple's case it tends to make it a more intuitive experience.
I'm going to also guess that Apple has NEVER liked the idea of a finder. No average user should be messing with a file system. Nor should they have to. We're witnessing the future and so many people on here lack the vision and creativity to see it.
There may have been touch screen phone b4 the iPhone, but I can tell you this, AFTER the iPhone (years after) other companies are just NOW coming out with copy cats that still can't compete. Apple is so far ahead it's ridiculous.
I see people on here cite this tablet or that tablet, yet they never once say how well said tablet is selling. How is that Tegra doing? If it's so great why don't you go get one of those? Don't like the iPad you have CHOICES. But to come here and complain because it's not what YOU wanted is asinine! Either make what you want or find somebody that does. It's nobodies responsibility to live up to YOUR expectations.
Just wanted to share
Hell yes.
NOt really- looks like another hobby- AppleTV style. Very depressing actually.
How many posts with "hobby" and "AppleTV" have you had in the same sentence since the iPad was released?
C'mon, give us a break. We heard you! We heard you twice, the first time! Stop beating us over the head with it, and move on. Thanks.
Hands On With Apple's iPad
January 29, 2010 - 8:30 am
Brian Caulfield
I totally agree...that is why Ballmer and Dell showed their products but did not demonstrate them because they had nothing to show!
"No big deal, just a giant ipod" is what they are saying, now they have to deal with a real product that will be available in 58 days for $499 starting price.
HP states their slate will be out in Q4 of 2010
Didn't anyone, who saw the iPad event, read into the significance of the couch being on stage? Cook even made passive reference to it when he said "he gets to sit on the couch." There's meaning to that. Others here mentioned a cloud in Apple's future, and they would be right on the mark. You don't think Apple is opening that data center in North Carolina for nothing?
Yup, everything was carefully scripted at the iPad event. The updates were carefully laid out to convey specific messages to consumers, financial analysts, developers.
250m iPods, $50b revenue, largest mobile devices company by revenue, 50m store visitors, 75m iPod Touch/iPhone users, 125 million accounts, 12B downloads, A4 chip only for Apple, intersection of technology and liberal arts, etc.
Apple isn't hiding its vision. A few days ago, a blogger (forgot who) wrote about how Jobs at the 2001 MW Expo laid out Apple's digital hub/spoke/devices strategy, and that's exactly what they did though Apple's competitors still seemed to be surprised. Well, Apple just showed us a chunk of its third platform strategy. People should read and listen closely if they don't want to be surprised.
How many posts with "hobby" and "AppleTV" have you had in the same sentence since the iPad was released?
C'mon, give us a break. We heard you! We heard you twice, the first time! Stop beating us over the head with it, and move on. Thanks.
Would you prefer I add it to my signature then?
I'm confused. I understand that to some people, Flash and multi-tasking and the ability to load any application you want are very important features. Apple thinks they're not so important for their mobile devices, and I agree. You guys are free to disagree as vehemently as you like, but I'm confused as to why you choose to spend so much of your time on Apple sites ranting about your frustrations, sharing your hostilities. Just go out, buy and enjoy the competing products that you prefer. That's perfectly okay by me!
There are two answers to this. Some people are just built that way. Or they haven't grown out of their juvenile delinquent time, yet. A common feature is that they repeat themselves often and have a snappy answer to 'everything'. Teenagers are like that when they first discover they have a voice (and a brain, to be fair). The other thing is that they get stuck. They throw in a negative comment and suddenly they are attacked from all sides. Naturally they must fire back and the never ending garbage thread has started. It is just as much our fault for not ignoring them. I suspect if they were ignored they would leave quicker. if you look through the recent threads relating to the iPad you'll find that many of the frequent poster lie low, or go away altogether, until the storm has died down. There really isn't much point talking when it instantly turns into a repetitive mudslinging match.
You know. I was thinking about the limitations of the iPad. How do you store files on it? Why no USB2 port? 64 GB flash memory max?
I was watching the keynote and the demo of iWork. I kept thinking, how did these files that they're playing with get on the iPad? How do you build one of these files from scratch using the iPad? Where are these files stored?
Lots of questions.
I'm not sure how Apple will do it. How do you make the file accessible so it can be attached to an email, or used by another app? On the iPhone, each app maintains its own files (see app like WriteRoom), and it can create new files from scratch.
But you know what? I started thinking about the first Macintosh, this little box with this little screen and this device for your hand, tethered to the little box. What's with this graphical interface and how do you enter commands and tell it what you want to do?
Agreed. The iPad paradigm is almost completely new; some of it was revealed to us earlier through the iPhone and iPod touch, but much more will come now.
Although I think the iPad currently has limitations (it can't function as a standalone device without an actual computer to sync with and obtain files from), I see a lot of potential.
Good thoughts. Right now, the iPad is a device (like the iPod/iPhone/AppleTV) to be attached to a digital hub (Mac/PC) via the iTunes spoke. But I think Apple is looking at making the iPad syncable to items other than the hub, like a Time Capsule or a Home Media Server or AppleTV. The iPhone/iPod touch (device) can already control the AppleTV (another device). At some point, they'll increase the amount of peer to peer interactions.
In addition, all the devices are already able to go straight out to the cloud to get content. At some point, Apple will also allow them to sync to the cloud instead of to a hub. The acquisition of lala and the NC data center seem to be linked to this.