neutrino23

Siri is ok for me. I’m not a heavy user, but she gets it right much of the time. I can do simple unit conversions, arithmetic, check the outside weather, get the football scores and schedules just by talking to my Watch. That’s convenient. 

lkrupp said:

Amusing to me how liberal politicians are so eager to limit the size and power of corporations in the name of the people but think a giant, all powerful, all knowing, all controlling government is just fine. In fact the bigger the better as far as the size and influence of government with types like Warren.  

There is a big difference between corporations and our government. In principle, our government is us and is accountable to the voters. It is not some independent entity. If we don't like how things are going we can vote and change the leadership, as we did last November. We can show up at government offices and complain, as many did during the health care debates. Try showing up at the offices of the CEO of United Healthcare or Cigna and you'll get arrested. Warren's comments are rather broad brush, maybe necessary given the short attention span of media these days, but she is raising some important issues.

Apple showed off a prototype folding iPad in the Knowledge Navigator video released about 1990. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator

I find it hard to believe Apple will force us to plug in headphones through the Lightning connector. Not that I like the current analog plug but that the Lightning connector seems like a lousy connector for headphones. Lightning doesn't have that satisfying click when you plug it in. It just doesn't seem as robust. 

If we are going to see a replacement for headphone jacks which will likely last for decades I think we'll see something better thought out. The new Smart Connector seen on the iPad Pro would be a better candidate. It would break away like a MagSafe adapter. The port could be smart enough to know if you have digital or analog phones. The adapter to use your existing headphones would be relatively cheap. You could charge your device while listening to music. It is sealed to make your device water proof and dust proof. They could make this open source.

The point is not if an iPad can replace all old PCs, but can it replace many. To that I say yes, cautiously. If you simply try to replicate the same applications, forms and practices as before it will be hard. If you rebuild your business based on the strengths of the iPad then it should be easy. Most business people don't run PS or Autocad or Xcode. If you have access to information via a database program such as FileMaker, a CRM such as SalesForce, email, a browser a simple Office suite such as iWork you have covered well over half of what people do with older PCs. Lots of people in field sales, field service, training and applications, order entry, phone support, etc. don't use high end software. The biggest problem I see is legacy software that only runs on Windows, sometimes only XP. Lots of business software is available through apps or Safari (SAP, Concur, SalesForce, etc.) but what to do about some of the little utilities that are anchored in Windows? Maybe fast networks and VNC will come to the rescue?