[NTLK] OT: Mossberg gives thumbs up to iPad

[Lord Groundhog]

~~~ On 2010/04/03 01:50, James Fraser at
wheresthatistanbul-newtontalk at yahoo.com wrote ~~~

> Perhaps a camera unit could be incorporated into a small swivel turret-type
> housing at the top of the iPad?


But where *is* the "top of the iPad?  That will depend upon the user:  does
he or she prefer to work in landscape or in portrait?  Does he or she even
do things the same way all the time?  Suppose I want to video conference
with someone on the left of the screen while browsing my documents/the web
for some needed source material on the right this time, but tomorrow I just
want to conference in portrait?  Will Apple design the iPad-with-camera so
only one orientation is optimal?  Will I get to choose?  Will I have to make
do with the camera being off to one side or the other?  This isn't as
straightforward as it might seem.

And that still doesn't address the "sea-sickness factor" of a camera that is
constantly producing all the random wobble of a hand-held camera in one of
those fly-on-the-wall documentaries.

Although at first I had my doubts about leaving off the camera, the more I
think about it, the better that decision looks to me.

Going back to my idea of tethering a camera or camera phone, in some
circumstances that could also be the answer for video conferencing.  But
frankly, IMO tablet computing just isn't the form factor for camera work
unless it has a stable stand or dock of some kind.

 
Shalom. 
Christian 

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942



~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Fight Spam.  Join EuroCAUCE: http://www.euro.cauce.org/
Get MUGged and love it: http://www.oxmug.org/
Join today: http://www.newtontalk.net/