[NTLK] ipad

[Lord Groundhog]

~~~ On 2010/01/28 07:04, Ryan Vetter at physicalconstants at yahoo.ca wrote ~~~

> ...                           Eventually, the haters will become lovers.
> 
> This device is going to grab us all.  By the end of this year, people won't be
> asking what can the iPad do for me.  They'll be asking where they can get one.

Please don't misunderstand, Ryan.  I don't hate the iPad.  I just don't see
the point.  And just BTW, if people really do stop asking "what can the iPad
do for me?" as you suggest, that's a worrying development in the nature of
modern culture.  Just my opinion.

Let's look at how this works.

Can the iPad replace my MacBook?  No.  It can't even replace one of my
Pismos, which are only 3 years younger than my Newts.

An iPad will let me play, relax over a set of espressos while I read online
or offline, and maybe make me look cooler than I usually do (and that in
itself would be an achievement; but then again, if I cared about looking
cool I'd try to fix myself).  Great for recreational uses, no doubt about
it.  But it doesn't *do* anything I can't already do on one of my laptops or
on my Newtons.  (By "do" I mean *what* it does, not how flashy and slick it
is in doing it.)

OTOH, if I want to do serious research for work, I'll need my laptop.  That
thing is just too weak.  Does it really not multitask?   That's fine on my
Newton, which allows me to trigger my mind into getting on with a single
task without outside distractions, but I have laptops for the outside world,
so there's no loss.

So if I'm packing for a research trip or even for an extended holiday, what
do I need to bring?  Right now, a laptop and my Newt.  And if I owned an
iPad, what would I need to bring?  I'd still need the laptop and the Newt --
the iPad would not be enough by itself.  In either case, a cell phone is a
given; I am *not* using a thing that looks like a clipboard for phone calls!

I'm sure there are people for whom iPad will be "enough" computing, or for
whom it'll be a good intro to the Apple Experience, or whatever.  I'm just
not sure that's a customer base that justifies failing to release a true
tablet computer at this stage.  It's as if Jobs decided that if he could
target 4 or 5 niche markets with a single device, that would make a nice
chunk of change and justify not being more ambitious.

Now if this thing ran a real OSX instead of the gelding iPhoneOS, and if it
were a fully functioning tablet counterpart to a netbook, I'd be excited
even though it couldn't replace my Newton.

 
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

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