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This iPad thingie then
Jan. 28th, 2010 01:47 amI am perhaps something of a luddite when it comes to technology. I still shoot film. With cameras 20 years old. My phone is a Nokia 3310. I listen to a Discman on the way in to work. (It plays MP3 CDs I'm not that far behind the times).
So I am, as you might expect, not excited by the iPad. And the first things I read confirmed my suspicions. It probably isn't for me. And I couldn't really see why anyone else would want one. You can't make calls, so its not as useful as a phone. No videoconferencing, no quick snapshots. So you won't leave the iPhone at home anyway. And virtually everything a laptop does, it does worse. You need an adapter to give you a USB port. And then it describes itself as being a "camera connector kit" Does that mean I can print from it? Or connect a scanner? I doubt it. Nothing other than proprietory software sounds bad to me. I've never used iPhoto. How does it compare with Photoshop CS2? Even if iits good, for anything other than basic tweaking I'd want to be able to use an external mouse or graphics tablet- its got bluetooth, so hopefully that's doable- but by the time you start adding these peripherals you're getting back into laptop territory.
There's certainly no support for Flash, so the only way to view embedded content would be with a trillion and one applicatons. Which seems crazy. I care nothing for a camera in something like that, but clearly several people do. It does however have support for all the iPhone/iPod apps. Which is very nice and gives you a massive ready-made suite of programs, like light-sabres, virtual beer glasses, and things that are actually useful like a word-processor. Tablets as a whole might have a wonderful variety of industrial applications, but I don't think the iPad will be exploiting them just yet. (Its only 2010 after all).
But then I read a bit more. And I can see how even I might get a use out of it. I do not own a laptop. I honestly haven't seen the point. Most of my computer use is either surfing the net, listening to music, watching videos (I recently sent the TV back home as I haven't turned it on in months), and playing music. All of this the iPad will do perfectly well. With one small exception. It does not multitask, other than, presumably allowing you to play music and do one other thing. I think I might be spoiled by Firefox here, as I've lost count of the add-ons I could install to control other software, check websites and suchlike without even switching tabs.
However the other thing I use my computer for that the iPad is photo manipulation. There is no way an iPad will replace my set up (extra monitor, scanners, graphics tablet, printer, card readers, etc). Once I've plugged all that in there is absolutely no value in me having a laptop, either, as I'm tied to the desk anyway. Better to have something with a big screen and a keyboard I can actually write on than something small and cramped. But as I say. This isn't what I do most of the time. I can see it being extremely useful to be able to throw something nice and light in the suitcase, and keep myself entertained in the evenings. No more working out which books to take with me- its an ebook reader, I'll have a small library thank-you. I can have a variety of films, and most of my music collection. That should keep me occupied through a wet weekend in Wales when the rain's horizontal, and you really don't want to leave the caravan (Yes I've been on holidays like that).
Except the memory is tiny. The cheap one is 16GB. The expensive ones are 64GB Most people with digital SLRs have 4-8GB sitting in their cameras, and another two or three to spare. This is not the relatively portable storage for anyone moderately snap-happy that even a cheap laptop would be. Anyone serious would use a notebook- Still a market for the Airbook then.
However, as I've said most of what I do most of the time could very easily be done on the iPad. The portability would be quite nice- though I'm not sure how ubiquitous free wifi is in the UK compared with the states. My inbuilt pessimism tells me I'd need the 3G version if I took it out of the house. And the keyboard looks horrible to use. I have tried using the one on an iPhone briefly. I didn't like it much. Then again, I like the tactile feel I get from typing.
So for me it would be a toy. For the people who find computers strange and bewildering beasts it will be very nice. Until they want to do two things at once, or print a document, or... And then there's all the fans who'd buy a turd if you polished it and stuck the Apple logo on it. So I'm sure it will sell well enough, and then maybe when you get to the 3rd or 4th generation we'll have a product I'd actually be interested in.
But frankly the real kicker for me is this quote: "Closed devices are the future of computing." It is probably true. And that is something I am truly afraid of.
So I am, as you might expect, not excited by the iPad. And the first things I read confirmed my suspicions. It probably isn't for me. And I couldn't really see why anyone else would want one. You can't make calls, so its not as useful as a phone. No videoconferencing, no quick snapshots. So you won't leave the iPhone at home anyway. And virtually everything a laptop does, it does worse. You need an adapter to give you a USB port. And then it describes itself as being a "camera connector kit" Does that mean I can print from it? Or connect a scanner? I doubt it. Nothing other than proprietory software sounds bad to me. I've never used iPhoto. How does it compare with Photoshop CS2? Even if iits good, for anything other than basic tweaking I'd want to be able to use an external mouse or graphics tablet- its got bluetooth, so hopefully that's doable- but by the time you start adding these peripherals you're getting back into laptop territory.
There's certainly no support for Flash, so the only way to view embedded content would be with a trillion and one applicatons. Which seems crazy. I care nothing for a camera in something like that, but clearly several people do. It does however have support for all the iPhone/iPod apps. Which is very nice and gives you a massive ready-made suite of programs, like light-sabres, virtual beer glasses, and things that are actually useful like a word-processor. Tablets as a whole might have a wonderful variety of industrial applications, but I don't think the iPad will be exploiting them just yet. (Its only 2010 after all).
But then I read a bit more. And I can see how even I might get a use out of it. I do not own a laptop. I honestly haven't seen the point. Most of my computer use is either surfing the net, listening to music, watching videos (I recently sent the TV back home as I haven't turned it on in months), and playing music. All of this the iPad will do perfectly well. With one small exception. It does not multitask, other than, presumably allowing you to play music and do one other thing. I think I might be spoiled by Firefox here, as I've lost count of the add-ons I could install to control other software, check websites and suchlike without even switching tabs.
However the other thing I use my computer for that the iPad is photo manipulation. There is no way an iPad will replace my set up (extra monitor, scanners, graphics tablet, printer, card readers, etc). Once I've plugged all that in there is absolutely no value in me having a laptop, either, as I'm tied to the desk anyway. Better to have something with a big screen and a keyboard I can actually write on than something small and cramped. But as I say. This isn't what I do most of the time. I can see it being extremely useful to be able to throw something nice and light in the suitcase, and keep myself entertained in the evenings. No more working out which books to take with me- its an ebook reader, I'll have a small library thank-you. I can have a variety of films, and most of my music collection. That should keep me occupied through a wet weekend in Wales when the rain's horizontal, and you really don't want to leave the caravan (Yes I've been on holidays like that).
Except the memory is tiny. The cheap one is 16GB. The expensive ones are 64GB Most people with digital SLRs have 4-8GB sitting in their cameras, and another two or three to spare. This is not the relatively portable storage for anyone moderately snap-happy that even a cheap laptop would be. Anyone serious would use a notebook- Still a market for the Airbook then.
However, as I've said most of what I do most of the time could very easily be done on the iPad. The portability would be quite nice- though I'm not sure how ubiquitous free wifi is in the UK compared with the states. My inbuilt pessimism tells me I'd need the 3G version if I took it out of the house. And the keyboard looks horrible to use. I have tried using the one on an iPhone briefly. I didn't like it much. Then again, I like the tactile feel I get from typing.
So for me it would be a toy. For the people who find computers strange and bewildering beasts it will be very nice. Until they want to do two things at once, or print a document, or... And then there's all the fans who'd buy a turd if you polished it and stuck the Apple logo on it. So I'm sure it will sell well enough, and then maybe when you get to the 3rd or 4th generation we'll have a product I'd actually be interested in.
But frankly the real kicker for me is this quote: "Closed devices are the future of computing." It is probably true. And that is something I am truly afraid of.
