This blog entry has nothing to do with science whatsoever, so if you don't want to read somebody ranting incoherently about something that has nothing to do with science for seven hundred words or so, then please feel free to leave. Only, this is my blog, and sometimes I feel the need to vent.
So the great brain of Apple, Steve Jobs, has unveiled his greatest innovation yet - the iPad. It's a portable device somewhere between a phone and a laptop, a netbook with its keyboard removed, named after a 21st century feminine hygiene product.
Before I continue, let me make something clear. There are many people in this world that I hate. People like evil crazy doctor, Harold Shipman, evil crazy President Saddam Hussein, and almost all children under the age of about twenty-one.
Apple fans (not just Apple users, like me, I'm talking the real fans here) rank somewhere at the bottom of that list. The reason is simple. Apple fans like to think they look something like the guy on the right in this photo:
Why, I don't know, because frankly when I look at that guy I want to punch him, even though I'm banned from punching anything until March after breaking my damned hand in an unfortunate incident with a particularly aggressive wall. But Apple fans don't even look like that, they look like this guy on the left here:
Oh my god, we drew on our faces, look how creative and fun we are!!!
I don't actually know if this guy is a real Apple fan, I just typed 'moron' into Google Images, but he's called 'Joey', and he looks like one. He probably did Arts at college or something. Anyway, Apple fans are basically smug morons who think they're cool but have no sense of real humour or irony. Apple themselves are the same, which is why in the UK they made this ad, using basically the two characters from Peep Show...
...without realizing that the Jeremy character shown as the Apple user here is a vain, self-obsessed fashion victim grade-A moron. Someone in Apple marketing with exactly no ability to detect irony, watched Peep Show, saw this moronic character pretending to be cool, and thought: "O-M-G, that guy is totally hip, let's use him as a representation of all Apple users."
But wait, maybe I'm missing an inside joke here. Maybe Apple really do think their users are mindless, fashion-crazed idiots. The evidence is abundant, as we'll see.
Okay, so I still haven't dealt with the question of what this device actually does. The reason is because I just don't know. I don't get it. It makes no sense to me. What exactly does it do that my Android smartphone and laptop don't do perfectly well already?
Confused, I turned to Twitter with the following question:
Please can someone explain to me what the iPad does, without using the phrases "netbook", or "between a phone and a laptop"?
Here's a collection of the answers:
@akwinters: Think iPod Touch, only you can't put it in your pocket.
@alanjames: its a bigger iphone that doesnt make calls.or an ipod touch optionally with 3g. Its a device for running apple approved apps
@rab_austen: I believe it's a larger and less portable iPhone, yet better because uhhh it's the same
@rab_austen: According to Apple the iPad lets you hold the entire Internet in your hands. bollocks
@andybold: iPad is a computer, that's all. But like the iPhone it works in very specific, apparently well designed, ways.
@nunquamsecutus: It's kind of like a keyboardless netboo... crap. Like a giant ipho... crap. Apple made it and it's shiny.
@weol: it's a giant iTouch for people with fat fingers
@acallister: allows for removal of traditional interface barriers from modern computing implementations by borrowing from the mobile world.
@nickjbarlow: It looks like it'd be the perfect way to find out 'how would an iPhone feel if I was 50% smaller?'
@richardlockwood Yes. It's a whizzy touchscreen computer that will sell its users an overpriced fucking mobile contract.
@JoBrodie ...ideal 4 geeks w chubby fingers / poor eyes?
@subtleguru IPad - get your mum to explain http://bit.ly/dse6uk
@cloud64 What it really does (ssh) is make shedloads of money for Apple.
@mattgemmell: iPad is the biggest advance in bathroom reading technology in human history.
None of these answers make any sense. Nobody has a fucking clue. I can't find one person who can tell me what the fuck this device actually does. Nobody. I've been in bars, I asked the Polish guy in the delicatessen I get my lunch from, I asked around work, and all I got was "who are you looking at," "co? pomi?dzy inteligentny telefon i laptop," and "it fills the gap between a phone and a laptop."
What gap? This is not a gap I have ever experienced in my working or social life before. You can't just make up a gap and then invent a product to fill it. That's like saying there's a gap between a fridge and an oven, and trying to sell a kitchen unit that keeps all your food lukewarm to fill it. Or saying there's a gap between cars and bikes, so lets make a car you can pedal. Who the hell wants a car that you can pedal? Who the hell wants an iPad?
Why is anyone even excited about new Apple launches anyway? Apple have only invented one good product in the entire history of the company, and that was the iPod, the best part of a decade ago. Every year, all they do is invent some new version of the iPod. First it was the photo ipod. Then it was the video ipod. Then they put a better screen on it, and made it into the iPod touch. Then they added a phone chip to it and made it the iPhone. Then when they realized it didn't have all the features that better smartphones have, like 3G, they released the iPhone 2 to catch up.
This year they haven't even managed to add any decent new features, all they've done is take an iPod Touch and make it bigger. Steve Jobs is pretending that this somehow puts it in a 'third category' between smartphones and laptops, but that's just a car you can pedal again. We've already tried the third category, they were called netbooks, and after about 18 months the makers came to an epiphany. They realized that nobody wants to buy a small, crap laptop, so they started making them bigger and with more features, and just turned them into laptops again.
This thing is just a bigger phone, but nobody wants a bigger phone. We've spent the last twenty years trying to make phones smaller, so why would you want to take a phone and make it bigger for absolutely no reason and no improvement in features? Here's a picture of the sort of man who gets excited by a giant phone:
...is this an Apple customer? Is this the future of the iPod? Is there anyone left at Apple with the guts to walk up to Steve Jobs and say to his face, "Hey man, your ideas suck?"
But it doesn't matter, because it's as if they think that all they have to do is get a man wearing black to show some shiny new toy on stage, and their legions of fans will crank open their wallets and buy it without asking any awkward questions like "what am I going to use this for?" or "how will I fit it in my pocket?"
Maybe the Mitchell and Webb advert wasn't an accident. Maybe Apple really do think their customers are vacuous morons, and casting the loser character from Peep Show as a Mac user was actually a really clever inside joke. It would explain a lot. It would definitely explain the iPad.
Follow me on TWITTER: @mjrobbins
http://layscience.net/trackback/919
If you've ever been unfortunate enough to use an "intellegent white board" then you'll know how absolutely piss poor they are.
I can see this being a boon for lecturing/teaching. Being able to walk around and look forward whilst scribbling on the pad would be superb.
Maths on the fly!
Often you'll be running an experiment, or taking observations and have to con a student into using a wireless keyboard. This would cut it out.
Powerpoint ruins so many methods of lecturing and this could really help.
So, er, for people who give talks then - IT'LL BE AS BIG AS THE IPOD!
Just in case my flu filled rant doesn't come across right, I should point out that I was being sarcastic with "as big as the iPod" bit.
Oh dear another bitter and twisted Apple-hater who would prefer us all to go back to MS-DOS and keeping the secrets in the IT department instead of having products that work.
It'll have to be on a lanyard or something... whiplash claims all round.
So this is halfway between a laptop and a phone?
Hmmmm whats halfway between a motorbike and a car?
This is the bleeding Sinclair C5 of the gadget world!
"Oh dear another bitter and twisted Apple-hater"
I hate many things. I'd hate to be defined just by my hatred on the iPad...
Martin is the editor of layscience.net.
Follow Me!
RSS | Twitter
This blog post is so full of win that it physically hurts. Sir I salute you.
You forgot to mention that Jobs always wants twice as much as anyone else for his fashion accessories.
As a Linux loving, Microsoft hating, IT manager, who does not own an iPhone, or iPodTouch, but does have a $40 iPod shuffle for listening to "In Our Time" in the car, and thinks that Apple makes the best laptops ....
I was hoping that this would be really good (even though I knew I wouldn't be able to afford it).
Good for what?
Well I use my laptop & PC for:
-a bit of email,
-a few simple games
-reading all of your favourite websites
-watching online video lectures
All of this I could do very comfortably from my sofa, to a great extent without a keyboard.
Also, having been looking at eBooks recently I do like the idea of having the entirety of the worlds knowledge in my hand.
It would also act as:
-music player
-portable DVD player
-digital camera download device.
-Address book
-notepad
-diary
-voice recorder
-recipe book
-sat nav
-electronic photo frame
-in car games for kids
So that's what I would buy a tablet for. It would be my primary computing device.
In many areas the iPad seems to meet my requirements.
ie. wi-fi, 3g, larger screen than Kindle etc, good video capability, decent battery life, ePub format for eBooks, external keyboard and stand to make it into a desktop PC (sort of).
However, I will not be buying one because:
1. No flash - I don't know how much my browsing etc would be affected by not having flash, but I am not going to pay 400 to find out.
2. No phone - if it has all the necessary parts to be a phone then it is just control-freakery to not allow it.
3. No stylus/handwriting recognition. If it is that shape then you should be able to write on it. No argument possible!!
4. Screen resolution too low. 1024x768. If I am using it as an eBook reader it is going to be very close to my face, therefore will require smaller pixels.
5. Border around screen to big - the black edge is close to 1" all around the device.
6. Screen too small - at 9.7" this is not big enough for my requirements. Get rid of the black border and make the screen 11"-12".
I hope that I can buy something suitable in the next couple of years.
"...named after a 21st century feminine hygiene product"
Umm... I think you'll find that we had pads in the 20th century. In the 21st century we will be mostly using mooncups.
Writing a 'review' about something you've never even used or been in the proximity of is certainly an interesting approach.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't feel you have to bore the universe justifying your contrari-ism.
It will sell. Lots. Get over it.
Writing a 'review' about something you've never even used or been in the proximity of is certainly an interesting approach.
Works for the Daily Mail film critics.
Articles just make me sigh these days, though once they'd rile me more. It's a shame the Apple/non-Apple divide seems to create such bile and invective. OK you don't get the iPad. Fine, it's not for you.
But it is for me. I'll grant you the idea that it sits between a laptop and an iPhone doesn't really make sense, but as a laptop alternative for those of us who don't want to lug a laptop around because what we do away from the desktop doesn't warrant it, it seems to tick most of the boxes.
It's not just a bigger iPhone; perhaps a bit more research was warranted here. It doesn't have a phone for starters. Sure, it runs iPhone apps, but what was it supposed to do: have yet another development environment and set of it's own unique apps?
This extra size is important. Good as the iPhone browser is, for a mobile, I'm sick of squinting at small text, seeing only a small portion of it and having to constantly flick through it. I want to sit in an armchair browsing the web and reading in comfort, which I do with my iPhone, but I don't want to have to sit legs together with a laptop on my thighs frying my bollocks. MIddle age is making me appreciate the benefits of text a bit larger.
It's a much more lightweight travel computer than a laptop, and has advantages over the iPhone, being able to upload photos from my DSLR being one. When away for a week an iPhone seems inadequate and a laptop overkill.
It takes imagination to see the possibility of a device like this and I have to say that you seem to have had an imagination failure. I can bung it on the wall in the kitchen and take recipes off the web at a size I can see. Yeah, I can do this with a laptop, but gunk in the keyboard doesn't wipe off with a damp cloth. There'll be corporate uses as it can replace a clipboard and notepad and connect straight to the company servers. OK, expense may be a factor initially, but price will drop rapidly,as it does with all high tech goods. Those with imagination will see the possibilities and get rich off of them, and good luck to 'em.
Shame you didn't include my other tweet where I feel I made a reasonable attempt to answer your question; not cherry picking were you? It was:
"What does iPad do? It's all about form and ergonomics. For me that's the key. Yes, same old, but in a much pleasanter package."
Hopefully this post expands on that. And my tweet you include about making a lot of money for Apple, well, I thought me putting 'ssh' in it made it obvious it was humourous. Oh well, the perils of having your writing misinterpreted.
And as to who would buy this,other than myself I have a proven answer (OK, sample group of 1, I admit). I popped down to sort something out for an elderly neighbour and showed her the iPad video. She's never wanted a computer but is very intelligent and used email via an old Amstrad phone thing which has now died. She immediately saw the potential and said she wants one: no need for a mobile contract, can do her email on it, can store pics of the garandchildren on it, can read her books on it. The iPhone isn't for her – small text, contract, etc. That's a huge and monied market: the non-computer literate over 50s who are curious and want a way in to the web world. Another imagination failure on your part perhaps, but I suspect not on Steve Jobs' part.
Sorry you don't get the iPad, with the unforgettable schoolboy association of its name firmly tattooing it on people's minds – cunning or stupid? Plenty of people do get it and it's a shame you have to be so rude about them; it's dropped you a fair few notches in my estimation.
Oh, I have an AppleTV too (saw Crispian's tweet). Great for storing lossless CD rips and outputting them via an optical cable to a HiFi DAC, and a damn site cheaper than a SONOS system, plus all the other stuff it does. Not a lot people do that with it, never seen it mentioned. It's a horse that fits my course.
Stick to 1023: great campaign, keep it up.
The price is about the only thing I do like about this. The base model is only slightly more expensive than a nexus One and the $30 pm unlimited data usage with no contract seems a pretty darned good deal to me.
I wonder whether they will allow a fully functional Skype app? If they do, then the fact it doesn't do calls won't matter because what you actually have is a fairly portable video conferencing device with all sorts of other useful things.
I wasn't convinced by the hype or the presentation and I agree with all the complaints that Jobs has created a gap in the market that perhaps doesn't exist to shoe-horn this into. But... at that price, if they allowed Skype it might just win me over anyway.
The iPad is about making computers for everyone, but not in that 80's way.
The desktop anology hardly fits computers anymore - "files" and "folders" so huge and filled with such bizarre things that many a layman is confused. The things, like a start-bar, which we take for granted are becoming so symbolic and distant from reality that it intimidates lots of people. My mother is only 45 and uses computers at work, but wouldn't know how to check a calander on her home laptop.
Now that I have an iPhone, I hardly use my PC anymore - I back it up, sync new podcasts and upload files to Open U because there isn't an App for That.
This device divorces distractions from what she needs - browsing, typing, music and movies. She doesn't need to worry about files and folders and commands - each button makes the entire screen become one specialised device that anyone could use, a radio for example.
It should be embraced. There will always be uses for a real computer, but not for my mum, or for me.
@cloud64,
You've made a wonderful case for a touchscreen tablet device - but certainly not for the iPad.
Not having flash is a killer for online video and the lack of multitasking is frankly hilarious,
What riles many of us about Apple is that their fans put them on massive pedestals; despite cultivating their own anti-competitive environment with the walled App store and lack of basic connectivity (USB anyone?).
A tablet device will appear that will have mass appeal but it will need leverage the form factor by utilising handwriting recognition and multimedia connectivity.
So this gap that Apple is talking about, where does my netbook fit? You know, the one that has 160Gb of memory, as opposed to the 16Gb for the Ipad. The one with the 10.5" screen (vs the 9.7" in the Apple). The one where I can window my applications and run multiple at the same time. The one that can run non-Apple programs. The one that has mobile broadband built in. The one that costs less that an Ipad. (oh yeah, it doesn't have a touchscreen - oh no, I guess I won't have to keep wiping grubby fingerprints off the screen every time I want to see something then)
A very basic misunderstanding
So the hype is sickening. The monolithic anti-competitive nature of Apple is vile. The money skimming off the top of any content delivery makes me want to punch someone - and the specs are a tiny bit below what most of the informed speculation was predicting (camera etc) but the point people are missing is that - This is less of a 'computer', more of an appliance.
The bloke I sit next to at work hates computers (as do I, which is unfortunate as we both work in IT Risk and Security for a major bank) and will do anything he can to avoid them outside of the office. His phone does nothing more than make calls, is 5 years old and lasts a month on a single charge - yet he is gagging to get one of these as it'll allow him to do the stuff that would otherwise force him to go into his study and power up his computer or unpack his dusty old laptop.
E.g. His wife reminds him that they need insurance for their holiday - he picks up his pad and orders insurance off the web. No 'computer faff' involved.
There are those of us who enjoy fiddling around with Linux and optimizing their online experience with firefox plugins, greasemonkey scripts and rss feeds.
Then there are those who just want to read the news, watch a movie or order holiday insurance.
This device is for those people. The consumers.
@Mich @cloud64 The lack of flash is both deliberate and something of red herring. The whole world is moving towards H.264 and HTML5 and breaking annoying proprietary formats such as resource hogging flash (slightly ironic moaning about proprietary formats in the same comment defending an Apple product). The only people who need to worry are Adobe.
Also, lack of multitasking is another deliberate design choice, as it was with the iPhone and iTouch (More accurately it's 3rd party applications that aren't allowed to multitask. iPod, email polling, SMS and phone all work fine at the same time). Yes it's annoying that you can't listen to internet radio while you read your paper. But in a resource limited device which allows 3rd party applications you'll quickly find yourself with an unusable pile of shit if too many background processes are allowed to compete.
I am convinced that Apple will introduce a limited form of mulitasking in a future software release. Maybe allowing an internet sound stream or a skype call to run as a background process. It's certainly on the problem slate and will be interesting to see how they solve it.
I got all excited about it at first. Imagine, a way to browse the internet whilst lying on one's back on the couch, holding the tablet as one would a book. You just can't do that with a laptop.
But this thing is all DRM and app store, and I hear that it can't multitask, and there are rumours that one can't even have more than one internet tab open at a time. I've been using Opera since 1999 and tabbed browsing is a human right, dammit! For that matter, I suppose I also won't be able to use Opera on this thing.
So I'm going to wait for the Zune tablet to arrive, and download Opera onto it for all my browsing needs. Come on, Bill. Let's get this done.
First of all:
I really hate to break it to you, Martin, but Saddam Hussein isn't exactly "in this world" anymore.
Secondly:
What?!
Are you guys fucking kidding me? Be honest: how many of those buying an iPad will not be early adopters? Your parents aren't gonna buy this overpriced surfing-tablet and apple-approved content delivery system.
YES, you can.. You'll be buying it for the same price you could get a fully fledged (and tablet-capable!) small laptop, because it's Apple, and you can't install all your own stuff, because it's Apple. Hell, even my parents, 50+ years, know how to install shit on their windows machines, use skype, icq, thunderbird, firefox, etc pp.
People unable to use computers are not only not going to buy this gadget, they are also becoming increasingly hard to find, because they are dying out.
Thirdly, and completely OT:
Martin, we gotta start doing something about that bot-generated comment-spam.
History only repeats itself if one doesn't listen the first time.
Please can someone explain to me what the iPad does, without using the phrases "netbook", or "between a phone and a laptop"?
Well, I heard a guy calling it "Kindle killer" (not in these words, but that was the intent :)) I think that "web tablet" or "tablet PC" would be more appropriate. The idea has been around for some time before the bright sparks at Apple got their hands on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PC
Note that some of the devices listed in that article even have keyboards and can be used as a traditional laptop/notebook/netbook.
As for the "Kindle killer" thing, I agree with the commenter above that said that the iPad will su... will not be suitable for an e-book reader.
Thank you! Thank you for saying exactly what I've been trying to say to my Apple Fanboy "friends" all morning!
From now on, I will simply direct them to this post. You have saved me a lot of typing.
Thank you!
What?!
Are you guys fucking kidding me? Be honest: how many of those buying an iPad will not be early adopters? Your parents aren't gonna buy this overpriced surfing-tablet and apple-approved content delivery system.
Of course the early adopter and iBoner crowd are going to be buying it - that's Apple's legion of trend setting hipsters who it relies on to do its marketing.
The people who will buy it after that are the middle class media consumers. My mate's dad is more excited about it than his fanboy son because it'll let him read his paper on the sofa without having to do any computer fiddling.
Oh and Harold Shipman isn't 'in this world' any more either.
I think it says a lot that you've felt compelled to write this 'review' on a blog that really has nothing to do with such things (if you can indeed write a review of a product you haven't even been within a thousands of miles of, but that you've just seen a few pics of on teh interwebs). You've shown that Apple have the ability to at least create waves inside and outside of the realm of technology, even if you are one of the minority left who cannot see that their products have changed, and are still changing, the world that we live in. Like the iPhone, it might not be perfect in its first incarnation. But like the iPhone I think the iPad will also be a game changer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. There's lots I don't like about their philosophy and their methods. But the tech they produce is so good that it makes all that irrelevant; I can see past their flaws because they make up for it in abundance in so many other ways.
So you think it's pointless and won't sell. So what? Why bother yourself writing a page of self-indulgent bile about it? If it's a crap idea let it come out, fall flat on its face, and you can smugly tell yourself 'I knew that would happen'.
I think the real reason for the vitriol (and the peurile use of images of female sanitary products) is that you don't understand it. And we mock what we don't understand. Perhaps it challenges your established world view of technology? Maybe it shows you there are some guys out there smarter and with better foresight than you at some things, and some people don't like to be shown that.
Or perhaps the truth is you secretly really fancy an iPhone or an iPad and, in true schoolboy fashion, you're being mean to Apple because of it.
Ps. Sent from my iPhone.
I have an Apple laptop. I have always had Apple laptops. They used to be loads better than PCs until PCs started copying Apple.
This does not make me an Apple fanatic. There is a big difference between Apple users and twats who will buy any new gadget.
So stick that up your jumper.
"I have an Apple laptop. I have always had Apple laptops. They used to be loads better than PCs until PCs started copying Apple."
Ah the old, and misguided, who copied whom argument. I think you'll find Apples became good when they copied a *nix OS. As for copying PCs (even though Macs are PCs) I presume you mean x86/windows/linux? Well guess what runs the new Apples? I'll give you a clue; it's not IBM any more.
Seriously, this argument is like watching bald men fighting over a comb. Of course everyone copies each other, you don't ignore an innovation when building a new product; that would be stupid.
Anyhoo, I use OS X, Win and Linux and I've complaints about them all. I don't understand people who want to cheer-lead a particular OS. If you've not contributed to it why are you so interested in advertising the damn thing? Slavish devotion and an inability to realise that what's good for you may not be good for everyone else don't make your opinion very credible. Honestly have half of you even bothered to properly use the other OSs you whinge about? I doubt it.
@cloud64.
Do you take it up the ass from jobs whilst handing your hard earned over to him.
Appletv? Dumbass.
Apple Share price
Perentage change on the day
down 4.2%
Game changer - meh.
@Anonymousity - Share prices usually dip the day after an expected product announcement because the pre-announcement price factors in the hype.
The age old wisdom goes - 'Buy on the rumour. Sell on the news'
@Gift - I think you've totally missed Tessa's point
The underlying processor or hardware platform mean sod all to the top level user and MS have clearly been taking UI lessons from Apple in the last few iterations of windows - and the ONLY thing that matters to top level consumers is the surface interaction (Simple shiny hardware, intuitive UI) and the price.
I also use OS X, Win and Linux and have complaints about them all. But would not (currently) recommend Linux to any friends and family and cringe whenever they tell me they've bought a windows machine if they're not a 'computer person'. Since people around me started buying Macs, I've had a massively reduced number of headache inducing support calls.
So on that basis I totally support Apples move to raise the layer of abstraction from 'computer' to 'appliance'.
So let me get this straight...
You haven't used it or even been in reach of it and yet you pass some of the most scathing comments about not only the device but all individuals who use Mac products in any shape or form...
Is your tiny imagination as to the possibilities of progress in the computing market so infinitely minuscule that you can see no potential to a device such as the Ipad, even in this its very first iteration?
I have been directed here by a google fanboy who thinks the sun shines out the @$$ of the android phone and yet its pillaged all the concepts of the iphone which he loathes so very much. Its also come out 3 years later...
Should I check back in 3 years when google makes an android tablet and see you drooling over the numerous possibilities of the same device you have so blatantly dismissed here and now?
It saddens me to see individuals such as yourself who refuse to even try Apple products but openly dismiss all their products and the users of those products as inept and shortsighted.
Sigh... see you in 3 years when google releases its Android kindle/Ipad and I look forward to all the amazing comments over how much better it is than anything that has come before... very sad...
@crutchley
@Anonymousity - Share prices usually dip the day after an expected product announcement because the pre-announcement price factors in the hype.
Only if the product/service doesnt stand up to scrutiny
Crutchly, at this point it is obligatory to mention Xerox...
And no, you're just spinning Tessa's words to suit your argument; the accusation was copying in general nothing specific.
I agree consumers like "the shiny", that's why Windows and OS X are largely designed for morons and much of the important stuff is hidden or can't be altered. Apples may play nicer but then again they're not targeted by malicious software owing to their small market share; you can't blame MS for problems manufactured elsewhere. That said, being based on *nix does make a for a more stable system, but a lot of the advantage is lost because apple have locked most of it down; you want to do something then got to do it the Apple way or go whistle. (I'm looking at you Dock.)
"I also use OS X, Win and Linux"
Sure you do and if you're happy paying over the odds for your shiny-hamstrung-box then good for you, but don't be surprised if other people beg to differ.
Wow. If we were into blogging just for the hit-counts, we might consider just troll-baiting apple-users and -haters, huh?
Funny thing though, that none of the fanboys have yet answered your twitter question/challenge - only strawman after strawman after strawman....
Oh well, back to writing my next blog post, titled "20 Reasons Windows Sucks, 20 More Reasons Apple Sucks, and Some More Reasons Linux Sucks" - watch this space
History only repeats itself if one doesn't listen the first time.
Haha, Mus you're thinking just what I was thinking. Not that LS needs the traffic... then again neither does the Inq and they pull this a lot more often.
@Gift - of course if this is a history discussion (it's not) then Xerox came up with the WIMP first.
The point is that the WIMP still requires a learning curve that a sector of consumers are unwilling (maybe unable) to travel and calling them morons is a cheap shot.
Since moving to *nix, Apple also raised the layer of abstraction to the UI making it more intuitive and it's precisely BECAUSE "apple have locked most of it down; you want to do something then got to do it the Apple way or go whistle." that things cock up less often. No worrying about drivers misbehaving, registry corruption due to install/uninstall hell and a billion different combinations of hardware - all of which are things which a 'non-computer' consumer should never need to get involved with.
Ultimately different products are made for different consumers. My Mrs watches Eastenders and Coronation St, which I don't get at all - but I accept that they're just not made for me, rather than just saying that anyone who does watch them is a moron.
Sure you do and if you're happy paying over the odds for your shiny-hamstrung-box then good for you, but don't be surprised if other people beg to differ.
I'm not sure what point you're making here. I use Linux at home for Desktop and Server, Windows at work and OS X when I'm at my partner's house. Sounds like you were just being snarky. No problem.
@Anonymousity - Only if the product/service doesnt stand up to scrutiny
This is false - it's a well known markets cliche (and probably self fulfilling) that traders will invest heavily on the back of a rumour and ride the wave of hype - then sell off dramatically when that rumour becomes news. You'll generally only see a gain after a product announcement if there was no rumour at all or the product significantlly overshoots the rumours (never gonna happen with this product)
Some interesting example of this phenomena dating back to the 50s here.
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/buy_on_the_rumor...
"...calling them morons is a cheap shot"
OS's for the masses, must be idiot proof it's not exactly out of line to describe them as made for the lowest common denominator.
"No worrying about drivers misbehaving, registry corruption due to install/uninstall hell and a billion different combinations of hardware - all of which are things which a 'non-computer' consumer should never need to get involved with."
Indeed and the flip side is they are less flexible, occasionally in a show stopping fashion. For example, my Macbook couldn't access my Nikon camera over USB. "It just works" for an apple approved subset of devices/software. If it doesn't fit that list you can expect to wait a while or, alternatively, do as much or more hunting around for a fix (often not to find it).
"Sounds like you were just being snarky"
Just reminding a fanboi who
"would not (currently) recommend Linux to any friends and family and cringe whenever they tell me they've bought a windows machine if they're not a 'computer person'."
that all is not roses in the Apple garden. Ignoring the fact windows, and to a lesser extent ubuntu, are also fairly successfully targeted at 'non-computer people' the hardware is still over-priced. I'll recommend an apple PC to light-weight users as and when the price drops, not before. My love affairs don't extend to corporations, no matter how shiny their toys are. ;)
@Gift - sorry who's the fanboi you're refering to?
Sorry, the GUI... blah blah... generic windows complaint... blah blah... allusions to the complexity of linux... blah blah, is usually quite diagnostic. :D
I would love to have an iPad - mainly for easy web browsing on the sofa - but I'm not going to because I don't need one so it will be a waste of money.
Watching the demo last night, I couldn't help but wonder if one of the main things the iPad will do is introduce current Microsoft users to iWorks, thus making the decision to switch from MS to OS X that much easier?
BTW, I've recently switched to OS X (and haven't looked back) but have zero intention of getting an iPhone
It's something that we can all use and will make us feel like we're in some sort of science fiction movie.
Maybe we can read a newspaper on it or something.
If it had a camera (wait for iPad 2 I suspect) then it would be a bit like the tablet from 2001 Space Odyssey...
@gift Well I assure you i'm no 'fanboi'. I don't even own a Mac and don't plan to buy an iPad.
I'm under no delusion at all that Apple is an awful, profit grabbing, margin exploiting, control freaky bunch of scumbags.
GUI Blah blah blah - Sorry you think the interface is so irrelevant in a technology discussion. If you're actually interested in a discussion about this (Which I doubt now), this bloke's speculative analysis is pretty spot on, tho he's obviously a shrieking 'fanboi' too.
http://gizmodo.com/5452501/the-apple-tablet-interface-must-be-like-this
Generic Windows complaint - ones I have to help sort out time and time again and am getting sick of. The reason the complaints are generic is because they happen so often.
Allusions to the complexity of linux - it doesn't need alluding to - Linux is complex. Even Karmic (which I'm very impressed with) relies on a reasonable learning curve. You could spend your whole life tinkering with it to get it to do what you want. I certainly wouldn't sit my gran in front of it and expect her to have a clue what she was doing.
In fact the iPad is probably the first computing device i'd even consider giving her (She's 87, spent her whole life as a teacher and certainly no moron)
WRT Answering the original tweet - I assumed the question was rhetorical and it's clear that this thing is just a media interface. I mean it's not that hard to 'get' is it? Or was it just an opportunity to attract attention, troll bait and take the piss out of hipsters? Because if so, Charlie Brooker did it with the Mac/Peep Show/Smug tossers thing ages ago.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/05/comment.media
"Well I assure you i'm no 'fanboi'. I don't even own a Mac and don't plan to buy an iPad..."
LOL Crutchly, really no need for the long reply. My jaundiced view of these arguments makes me tetchy; I didn't read properly and a few regular expressions triggered a moan ;)
As I said, sorry about that. Just grouchy. Anyway it could have been worse, at least no-one complained about "one buttoned" mice... :D
@gift I really suck at writing - it always comes out unnecessarily verbose. Hence I just lurk here at LS and never get involved in comment threads.
This is the first time I've actually felt qualified to contribute (as a compsci grad and working in tech)
As I said, sorry about that. Just grouchy. Anyway it could have been worse, at least no-one complained about "one buttoned" mice... :D
There's still time ;)
*skulks off back to lurksville*
"even if you are one of the minority left who cannot see that their products have changed, and are still changing"
Yup, Apple products are definitely changing, they are getting fatter with less features.
But I'll tell you what isn't changing, the fact that whenever you buy an Apple product you are also signing a contract of, "If i ever want to enjoy any multimedia whatsoever on this 800$ gadget, i have to get it from Steve Jobs" I do not feel like buying a movie from itunes if i already have a digital copy, i do not feel like having to get a completely new ipad if mine were to break and have no way of retrieving the data stored on it, thanks to Apples love of nailing absolutely every detachable component to the motherboard. Can you tell me why an ipod classic can have a 120gb hdd and be 1/4th the size of the ipad, yet the ipad can only get 64gb?
well, apparently even some apple-fanboys are disappointed. compare:
before and after.
I love that @Tessa said 'stick that up your jumper'! Brilliant. I'm not even joking. That was the best sentence in this whole thing... Not that I didn't enjoy the first and several other posts... It cheered my whole evening up, and I wasn't even unhappy! Not since I took that tablet anyway.
Personally, i look forward to a mobile computing device that will not give me a repeated stress injury in my neck or hand (laptop) when i use it too long, and will not strain my eyes and fingers when i need to browse (iphone.)
I am 27 years old, and i have returned to doing everything on my desktop computer.
As a long time (since 2001) user of Tablet PC's I had been worried these past 6 months (since I bought my latest tablet - HP Touchsmart TX2) that I had jumped too soon, and not waited (for the long awaited) Apple attempt at Tablets...
I am now very happy I did not wait. The iPad misses the single most important feature of tablets; being able to write on the things!! For me, the handwriting capabilities, and being able to search my handwritten notes (within OneNote or EverNote), being able to write comments in documents, spread sheets, or presentations, etc., is the single most brilliant capability of a tablet. So not worried...why would I want a bigger iTouch?
That being said, I am delighted that the iPad has finally surfaced, and at good prices. I hope this means that the whole tablet market will become more competitive.
I also wish that HP / MS would have rewarded me with a cent for every sale I have caused them! So many people have been blown away when I start scribbling on my screen...