Does anybody else think he ought to be wearing a filter mask? That stuff has got to be incredibly toxic.
(via Effect Measure)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Does anybody else think he ought to be wearing a filter mask? That stuff has got to be incredibly toxic.
(via Effect Measure)
Poor PC users. Their inferiority complex is showing.
Pff. Completely indifferent to Apple.
http://www.ultrafeel.tv/wp-content/uploads/image/humor/hightech/iphone-ipad-iboard-imat.jpg SFW
In his defense, he does say “don’t breathe this!”. (Assuming, of course, that this is the “Will It Blend” video for the iPad; I’m at work, so GooToob is blocked.)
Some people have too much money.
“Will It Blend” has got to be one of the coolest viral ad campaigns ever. The shtick eventually gets boring, but I have to watch like ten videos in a row before I get bored.
“Don’t breathe this!” Awesome.
(BTW, I don’t think it has anything to do with being an Apple h8r, they just blend whatever cool technology gadget is in the news)
Ultra-light full laptop is cheaper than iPad.
Ebook readers are vastly superior than iPad for reading books(sunlight reading, battery life…).
What is the point of iPad?
That’s word for word what I was going to comment.
The ones who buy ipads? [/snark]
Just to be serious, the video was cut, so they might have removed the battery and anything else dangerous first.
OK, I’ve got that out of the way. Now we return you to your scheduled programming.
This brings back images of the Bass-O-Matic, no?
Swwweeeeeeeeeet. Look at it fly!
@6: You must own an iPad to be admitted into any trendy clique on any college campus. Except the Microsoft Gang. Then possession of an iPad is grounds for being flogged with a 3 foot black dildo.
I still think these videos are tremendously stupid.
If that guy had any charisma at all, it wouldn’t be half as amusing.
I work at an electronics store that carries this piece of fart, and I can safely say that it’s more of a novelty than anything else. Cult-like, elitist Mac lovers are the only ones buying this thing. I like to thank people for buying leading edge technology when it first comes out because it usually helps lower the costs, but I can’t thank the Mac cult because Apple never decreases prices. This thing will be unaffordable in every generation unless you buy it used.
Don’t get me wrong, Mac makes some great products. Macbooks are the most durable, high-quality laptops you can buy and are worth every penny. iMacs are just overpriced anal toys that can also run Photoshop. iPads are expensive novelty toilet paper.
Gimme my Linux and a custom built desktop, and I’m happy!
Just found this. VASTLY superior to the iPad and the same price http://www.entourageedge.com/devices/entourage-edge.html
I think iPads are marketed at people who buy George Foreman grills, fruit juicers, and mopeds. Sure, you can get the same result by using a more powerful general-purpose device, but certain consumers are willing to spend money for the convenience of a dedicated doodad. I don’t see a problem tapping into that niche, unless of course the rest of their product line suffers because of it.
I do wonder if the price will drop much; the iPad doesn’t seem to be launching as outrageously overpriced as the iPhone was.
I don’t get the friggin PC / MAC terf wars. I have a PC at work, MACbook I carry around, and 3 PC’s running windows at home, all connected to a RedHat Linux server. I also own an Ipod Touch (because AT&T service SUCKS where I live) that I can’t live without and just got an HTC Eris running Android. I want an IPAD in the worst way, cause I love technology and gadgets. It will probably serve as a great e-reader for me, plus have the functionality to use when I travel a bit more easily then my MACbook does, at least for the entertainment functions.
Every damn one of them has problems that make me scream (although to its credit, my newest Windows 7 PC has been a freakin dream of speed and reliability… so far, anyhow), and each does something I can’t do or can’t do as efficiently on the other.
Really… I don’t get the vitriol on either side… all of this shit is just cool, and I simply appreciate living in a time where I have access to any and all of it. Use what you need and what you like, and ignore the other shit if you like. Get over it. Really.
FYI: I’m an Apple fanboi, and even I won’t get an iPad unless things seriously change.
It’s the iPhone macro, now with less functionality.
Hey! I’m planning to buy an iPad as soon as version 2 is available (general rule of thumb is to avoid buying the first iteration of anything, says the guy who got a Mac in 1984) — they’re perfect for what I do.
And yes, I also have a netpc. It’s adequate. When I’m just plain typing, it’s fine — but it’s ugly and awkward. I will pay a little more for elegance.
<Trophy Wife™ joke goes here>
Apple does the same thing as many other computer manufacturer: periodically release new hardware with higher specs for the same price while discontinuing older models. I can’t go to Dell and buy the same computer I bought four years ago for less, but I can buy a much faster one for the same cost. Or I can buy a cheaper, relatively low-end model that has specs similar to my old high-end model. That’s the advantage of a broad product line.
I mostly use Linux myself, but I enjoy spending vast amounts of time tinkering with my computer. Most people don’t want to spend hours on Google figuring out what Subversion repository to download and compile just get their laptop’s wi-fi working, though, just like most people don’t want to put together their own computer in the first place.
@Celtic Evolution: I agree that the vitriol is pointless, and as a user of all three major OS, I can safely say that they all have their advantages and quirks. But we must ask ourselves this: when will Apple cater to the poorer of technology users? I can hardly afford anything from Apple that I can find an alternative for, at a fraction of the cost. I can see paying for overall quality, but when you release products that are proprietary at the hardware level and hampered by the lockdown of software development (with the iPad), then how does that make a company and it’s following look?
Apple is a lot like the Catholic church: it is exclusive to those who don’t follow it like a cult, and it abuses it’s followers.
Like ’em or not (and I actually like Macs), the iPad is a bumwhoopie (aeronautical term for something that “can’t fly”) in that it is choked by its own creators at the software level.
May the FREE software revolution take over!
@Celtic_Evolution: My primary computer is a Linux box that I connect to through VNC so I can reach it from home, work, or on the road. I have a second Linux box running my server-type stuff and third I use for development. Between the two of us, my wife and I have four laptops: one Dell running Linux, one Dell running Windows XP, and two MacBooks, one of which dual-boots betwen Mac OS and Windows XP.
They all have their strengths and weaknesses; I just wish networking them all together weren’t such a pain in the butt. I think I’m gonna have to buckle down and configure Samba on the Linux file server for the other OSes. :-
Ooooh, it’s the battle of insecure, hypersensitive Mac users versus insecure, hypersensitive PC users! Just let me get some paper towels for the blood and energy drinks.
Wouldn’t want a stain, after all.
Was really excited when I followed your link, until I saw that its e-book format choices were just as limited as the nook and Kindle’s.
*sigh* Guess I’ll stick with my netbook for an e-reader until somebody comes up with one that can handle more than three formats.
Apple is a lot like the Catholic church: it is exclusive to those who don’t follow it like a cult, and it abuses it’s followers.
I desire to quote this. Many laughs were had when I read it.
I like computers almost any of them are amazing
and cool, really old ones and shiny new ones but absolutely none of them are perfect none of them
are any where near their own hype in greatness.
They can be useful and fun but every single one of them will let you down and mess with your head.
We are still in the “Sesame Street” days computers and have to have all the pretty colors and pictures and “ease of use” hype to sell them.
The problem with Apple is two pronged price first of all they ain’t that much better to warrant the price differential the other the “you are not able fix it you have to send it in to our superior tech shop” attitude that goes a long with ours never go wrong illusion they sell. they are just for me a little too “pretensions”
We are still in the “Sesame Street” days computers
So Mac and PC are a bit like Bert and Ernie secretly?
sorry spell check error @ #29
pre·ten·tious
/prɪˈtɛnʃəs/ Show Spelled[pri-ten-shuhs] Show IPA
–adjective
1.
full of pretense or pretension.
2.
characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
3.
making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.
uncle frogy
Pff, I’d like to see your Mac go up against my recently rebuilt 486. Can’t beat that MS-DOS and Windows 3.1. Does you Mac have a 5 1/4, drive? I think not. All the abandware I can download.
I think the guy is safe from the smoke. I mean he says “ipad smoke, don’t breathe that”
i think that is protection enough
Linux was here.
Mac is a loser!
I’ll go both ways:
Pro: I’m totally getting one of these things (but I’ll wait for the second version as PZ has suggested, since all first generation Apple products suffer from weird bugs discovered by those sorry early adopters on Release Day +2). But let’s face it, the iPad is a whole new class of product, not just a netbook replacement. Maps are like real maps, books are like real books, and apps simulating small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri are like real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And think of watching streaming movies from Netflix or Hulu in HD! And ten hours of battery life? Wowzers, you really can use this all day! Also, carrying it around will make you look cool, and we both know that’s the main goal here.
Con: For a defective, limited product this thing sure is shiny and impressive, but I’m not blinded by the design and sparkle. The missing features are not mere niceties – they’re the things I’d expect from such a device. No multitasking … really? My crappy desktop from 1998 can do multitasking. So can my BlackBerry. How hard is it to provide this basic feature of modern computing when it’s built into the underlying UNIX OS? And the screen is 4 x 3 … what’s with that? Has Apple not heard what year this is? I live in 2010, where TVs and other displays are wide. Watching Netflix or Hulu on this thing might have been fun if it weren’t for the black bars. Mark my word, real tablets will be 16 x 9, so expect something called the “iPad Widescreen” next year. And is there any reason users of this are content to be stuck in the AppWorld jail? It’s a comfortable jail, I’ll give you that, but it’s still a jail. Why can’t you install whatever you’d like on these things? Whose property is the iPad after you’ve bought it, yours or Steve’s? And here’s the kicker: no USB. Imagine taking a tablet PC with you to review the photos you just took on your digital camera. Photographers both amateur and pro would probably love a tablet that can do that, but it won’t be the iPad. After all, it can’t read your camera’s SD card, even with a USB dongle.
You can probably tell which of these positions I actually agree with. :)
@ #27, yeah. After looking at reviews, it seems like decent hardware severely hampered by horrible software choices. Since it runs Android, I’m hoping someone will figure out how to hack the thing (though it seems to be pretty locked down). Someone’s at least figured out how to install android apps to it, though.
#35 No Hulu or Netflix for you! (no Flash support)
Yes that’s it exactly the whole bunch including “Oscar’ and “Grover” and “Telly” and talking letters with big smiles, cute cartoons all to make the monkeys less afraid of the machine.
They even all use “hieroglyphics” pretty colorful and sometimes even animated but still sometimes as easy to understand as ancient Mayan.
They are still just a bunch of switches a really unthinkably complex and fast array but still just two position switches.
@36 Kaylakaze
Hampered? Locked down? That’s the beauty of Android, it’s really easily rooted (and this is intentional from Google). Custom ROMs and Kernels up the wazoo. For Android, you can go into the market and for free download a ROM manager with ClockWork to get all sorts of customized ROMs to flash the OS. Since it’s a *Nix OS all you need is to be rooted and you can do almost anything. I have my phone Overclocked to 1.25Ghz (admittedly not all that necessary).
Even if there isn’t a rooted ROM that works for that device, you can bet someone will root it (Heck 2.1 was rooted within hours of being released, the first one was done by some kid sitting in a lecture at school).
Another beauty of Android is that they don’t take the “Walled Garden” approach to the apps. They have an apps store where apps get submitted and approved (so you know they are safe) but you can download any package file and install it without going through the app store (this has to be enabled). Also the direct-connect (versus Sync) setup is really great. Plug in a Android phone to your PC/Mac and it mounts as an external storage device. This makes it easy to install packages, and transfer music/photos/videos to a fro.
I personally, if I am going to get a slate, will most likely wait for the eee PC tablet that’s going to have either Andriod, or more likely Chrome OS
@#39, yeah, but it hasn’t been rooted yet as far as I can tell. I fully expect it to be though and hopefully will have a job and can buy one when it does.
@@36 Kaylakaze
I guess I misunderstood your post – it does look a bit locked down. But someone will get it rooted…
It is rather amusing to see the “Will It Blend” video of an iPad. The “Will It Blend” line of blenders actually aren’t all that good, but they sure have a lot of publicity going. Kinda like Apple?
Apple has always pushed their publicity and popularity as much as their advertising, which is good business sense, but does bring out the enthusiasts.
I recounted my frustrations when using Apple products on another thread, but left out the raging frustration of having Quicktime take over my browsers. I don’t like Apple, which is not the same as saying that I despise Apple, although partisans will read it that way. I also cannot afford anything at this time, so the whole thing is moot.
Speaking of cost, what is it with this whole e-books thing? Why would you lug around a big electronic device to read books on? At least watch videos with it.
And to pay for e-books?!? I can download books as text files and HTML files from all over the net, for free. Yes, they are mostly classics, but riding the cutting edge of book-reading is so last millennium. Those free book files would work on anything electronic–I can even convert them into PDFs and read them on my phone, which has a chip for file transfers.
And why carry a book reader at all–why not carry a book, you know, paper? I can pick up paperbacks for 5 cents at garage sales, and seldom pay over 2 dollars for hardbacks at thrift stores, and if the selection is odd I at least expand my horizons. A paperback is small–I keep one in the glovebox and tuck it into my back pocket when going into restaurants. And a book is fast to start and stop …
If it were as magical as Steve Jobs claims why didn’t use its magic to save itself?
…and the sound of a million nerds raging over the poor iPad’s demise roars over the planet…
@41 JJ
It’s already been rooted. Isn’t that a bit sad though, that it even needs to be rooted? I will never buy a computer that doesn’t let me be root from the start. It would be like buying a car that won’t let you open the hood.
There are elements of the way Steve Jobs markets his stuff that smell too much like a cult to me (use of peer pressure for example) and I shake my head in disbelief that so many people buy into it. It’s exactly the same feeling I get when I think about how many people buy into religion.
@#37:
I understand it does both (or will soon), because those companies made iPad-compatible versions. To be honest, amongst all the omissions on this product (webcam, USB, multitasking, etc.) the one I actually agree with is Flash. Down with it! It exists and is successful because web standards (and the browsers that implement web standards) fell behind what average users and designers were looking for. The web failed to offer dynamic content, so Flash was the crutch we used to get by.
But now it’s getting so we don’t need such a plugin nearly as much, but the momentum of old technology can be strong. It takes a move like this to nudge the whole industry in the right direction. (I think of this as being like when Apple released the iMac with all the old peripheral ports absent, and USB in their place. People complained then; now the wisdom of the move is apparent.)
For the Apple lovers:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79395
The only iPad article you’ll ever need is here! (Hat tip to Making Light.)
1978: Apple introduces a home computer. Comments: you cannot be serious! A computer for the home? At that price? Apple is doomed.
1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh. Comments: you cannot be serious! A computer with a “mouse”, and “windows”? Apple is doomed.
1995: Apple still has a one-button mouse. Comments: you cannot be serious! Only one button on your mouse? Why not zero? Apple is doomed. (Apple current mice have zero button).
2001: Apple introduces the iMac. Comments: a computer with no floppy disk? in lickable colors? Apple is doomed.
2001: Apple introduces the iPod. Comment (on slahdot): “No wireless, less space than a nomad. lame”. Apple is doomed.
2007: Apple introduces the iPhone. Comments: No copy/paste? No physical keyboard? On a phone a that price? Apple is doomed.
2010: Apple introduces the iPad. Comments: No USB port? No camera? Only a giant iPod touch? Apple is doomed.
@Bostonian
RE: Flash – The lack of flash support really is going to cripple this thing, at leased for a while. I agree that flash is horrible for video content and shouldn’t be used for such. When HTML5 video is finally here in full (youtube and vemio are already creating HTML5 versions), we can ditch flash based video for good.
There’s issues with that too – FireFox won’t be able to watch YouTube via HTML5 – they are using the h.264 codec, which is proprietary and requires licensing. Since Mozilla (FireFox community) is all about the open standard, they were pushing for the open oog codec.
But, one of the reason begin thrown around that flash isn’t being supported on the iPad (other than it kills CPU, drains battery, creates security holes and can be fairly buggy) was that Apple’s trying to kill flash for the one thing it’s good for -interactive content, and more so online games.
Who’s going to go purchase a game in the app store, if I can go to addictinggames.com and find a free clone of the game there? Granted, flash games can’t support all of the same stuff that a full-featured app can (like accessing the accelerometer, or maybe it can?) but there’s a real conflict of interest there.
It seems apple want’s to kill flash faster than it’s willing to die. Apple’s always had gripes about flash. They are not making Adobe very happy either, which isn’t a very good move seeing that main reason to use an Apple computer is to run Creative Suite. My ¢2
This appealed to the minimalist in me http://tinyurl.com/yepo99l
Still think Macs are the spawn of santa though.
@45 John
Quick clarification, when I was talking of rooting, it was in reference to that specific device, have they rooted for it? I guess it doesn’t really matter the as long as it’s a version that supports the HW.
And I get you point, I was surprised my Droid required me to root the thing. But I do understand – with a rooted device you can brick them pretty easily if you don’t know what you are doing.
But that’s part of it, Google made sure it was easy to root, and lets you download rooted ROMS in the app store (OK managers that link you to the ROMs). So, although it’s not rooted out of the box, they give you the venues to do it automatically(See: Rom Manager in app store, ClockworkMod).
OK, people, all this talk of “rooting” is going too far. Don’t you know that Australians read this blog?
Wow. Don’t you people have RoHS there? (Restriction of Hazardous Substances)
No…no. Decadence, destroying a perfectly good, perhaps great, device for shit purposes. It might have been the iPad that was going to solve global warming. Gotta stop somewhere.
jdmuys (@49):
Heh. Nice timeline. What it points out is that Steve Jobs’ intent, from the very beginning of the company, has been to make computers that were not just for “computer people.” Sometimes the company has backslid toward a more traditionally computery product line (see also the Mac II era, which was all about more and more ports and slots), but the historical trend has been toward products that are designed for people who are less and less specially interested in computers. (As an aside, I’ve always thought this is the main reason Jobs is the Steve that’s still at Apple: Woz is much more in the techie/hacker mindset.) That “computer people” often don’t like Apple products is both predictable and understandable; what I don’t get is why they get their collective knickers in such a twist over the fact that other people (i.e., the people the products are actually made for) often do like them, and frequently even love them.
Anyway…
Not only was Apple doomed, according on some, but writing itself: I was a graduate student in Creative Writing at Binghamton (then called SUNY-Binghamton; now called Binghamton University, I hear) when the Mac was first released, and I recall a long, impassioned conversation with one of my fellow students who was convinced that, by putting pictures and pointing ahead of text and typing, GUIs would be the final nail in the coffin of the written word!
That was a somewhat idiosyncratic position on his part, but I heard plenty of others make similar predictions. Of course, previous generations writers said similar things about word processors… and electric typewriters before that… and manual typewriters before that… and ballpoint pens before that! (Cue wistful reminiscences about Hemingway writing in pencil on yellow legal tablets in 3… 2… 1….) ;^)
JJ (@everywhere, but most recently @50):
Not for nuthin’, but…
I generally make it a point not to mention typos or one-off errors (FSM knows I make enough of them myself), but you’ve done this consistently over a couple days now, across at least two threads.
Isn’t it a bit odd to make a blender square?
I think it’s usually easier to get stuff out of a round container, and I imagine the the corners will allow big pieces to hide, unblended.
Does the blender blend?
@Valis #54
Nope, that’s a European standard that sadly was not adopted in the US. Though many products are sold in the US with the RoHS stamp, mostly because they are the same hardware as that sold n the EU (often under different trademarks)
@52 JJ
Agreed. I really think android got that right. Root shouldn’t be the default (MS finally learned this with Vista) but it should be supported. We shouldn’t be made to feel like we are breaking the law just because we want to get under the hood.
Sili (@57):
The square carafe of that blender (and the shamrock-ish design of the classic Waring blender) is intended to turbulate the stuff being blended, so it doesn’t just spin around in equilibrium with the blades. If I were posting from home, I could quote Alton Brown’s Gear for Your Kitchen, but the long and short is that round blenders might be good for getting stuff out of; for actually blending stuff, not so much.
I was fairly unimpressed but the more I see of it, the more I think this will be another turning point in the evolution ;-P of computing.
I support about 1500 machines in higher ed.. with about a 50/50 mix of Windows and Mac and a lot of Linux for computation.
I’m already hearing back from colleagues that this has the potential to revolutionize textbooks with it’s ability to include rich content. One specific example was from someone doing support in a Medical School (my last Edu employeer) Imagine rich visuals and multi-media in place of flat photos in the anatomy work. ..animations of bio processes .. live quizes with feedback.
I’ve also already heard back from friends who’s technophobe parents are going to buy one. It’s simpler than a computer and it’s going to open up technology to a lot of people.
I had no intention of buying one but I can honestly say that I’m lusting after one now. I think I could almost move from a full-time laptop to a nice desktop and an iPad.. if I’d stop working at home so much. I’d much prefer the iPad on trips.. except IT conferences where I need a real computer.
I think they’re going to sell a boat load of them.
One problem, I’ve heard reports that the wireless reception is disappointing compared to other devices.
P.S. to the haters.. We see a LOT of iMacs come through. We installed at least 30 in the last few weeks. They’re fantastic machines.
They compete on price with all-in-one PCs.. last time I looked they were cheaper. They’re way better looking and of course they run OS X [Free BSD] and Window and Linux. I love when gamers still say Macs are Toys. I run Apache and MySQL on my laptop. It’s a portable workstation and a development server.
In stunning cognitive dissonance they brag about their pimped $1-2000 PC Gaming consoles which are mostly used as toys while I’m running Unix that “just works”. :-)
P.P.S. My office 27″ iMacs (with 30″ screen rez) play the hell out of my Steam games. :-)
..and the war goes on. :-P
I don’t hate Apple per se, it’s just that so far as I can tell, the only difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is that Steve Jobs wants us all to use his crappy software *and* his crappy hardware.
As I said above, Apple really knows how to work the free publicity. I do have a kvetch, based on all the pictures I see in the news of people lurching out of stores, waving their iPad box in the air like a bloody scalp. Why, if the device is so frikkin’ amazing, isn’t it out of the box and running by the time the folks get out the door?
@Bill,
My Apologies on the grammar, I guess it’s a force of habit :). I will make note in the future
Although I have watched this phenomenon in mute frustration many times, I had no idea it was the blender shape to blame. Yea, I learned something today!
Interesting. I had not thought about it that way.
Of course, I don’t actually have a blender. Only recently bought a stick blender, and that so far covers my need well enough.
@#62, I can’t think of any other purpose for an iPad other than interactive books, which is why I thought to compare it to the enTourage eDGe. There’s big talk about iPads as college textbooks, but they’d serve even better in early grades. Small kids wouldn’t need to carry around book bags as big as they are, for one. And two, kids could have ALL their past textbooks at their disposal instead of just their current ones, the way they do in Japan.
@LightningRose #63
That’s not the only difference between the two. Bill Gates is also doing a lot of good in the world. How many lives has Jobs saved with his “magical” devices?
#64:
Have you ever seen unboxing photos/videos? That’s some weird shit. Some people have such lust for gadgets (especially, though not exclusively, Apple’s) that they turn the process of unwrapping it into a form of nerd porn (SFW).
JLoom | April 6, 2010 10:25 AM:
You fit an iMac up your rectum? I am impressed.
Ah, I can almost smell the pureed Apple! Yummy! : )
Unboxing? Yeah, I saw one unboxing vid once, because somebody linked to it to make fun of the kid making it–he was holding the camera with one hand, doing a breathless running commentary, and trying to open all the packaging with the one hand and little attention that he had left.
If you bought a new blender or toaster, would you unpack it in the middle of the mall? No matter how excited you were about it, I don’t think so.
Also, have you ever purchased an Apple product? The packaging is typically superbly well designed, and well worth saving for future use; you wouldn’t want to just toss it in a public wastebasket.
Jobs once said “Apple cannot make a $500 computer without it being a piece of junk. It’s just not in our DNA.” And he proved himself right.
The saddest thing about this is, it *could* have been an amazing machine. The A4 SOC inside is based on the Cortex A9 CPU…you know, the one that gets about 5x the performance per watt of Intel’s Atom? If you open an iPad, it’s almost entirely taken up by the screen and battery; the motherboard is the size of one you’d expect to see in a smartphone. And there are two gigantic empty pockets toward the bottom, pieces that should have been filled with 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1x VGA out, and a slot for user-expandable flash storage.
The iPad *has* been jailbroken, and it seems to run Linux competently, but the problem is that you do not normally have the option to do this. As a previous poster mentioned, Android all but tells you outright to root it; Apple will probably push a firmware update to stop this from happening soon. You are not free. And you spent a ridiculous amount of money not to be free.
But then, what do I know? I’m just the weird chapstick dyke with a thinkpad and a love of Gentoo @_@;
I’m frightened
It’s for people with no computer knowledge who think it makes them look cool. Sorta like every Apple product.
Erm, no. But then, I don’t get very excited about blenders or toasters. I have, however, sat in the mall to open a new item and look at it while waiting for the wife and kids. Especially when the item was designed to be used in a portable fashion, like on a mall bench, like an iPad is, and is not an item designed to be carted home, then uncrated, put on a countertop, plugged into a wall and used in messy food preparation. You know, like a blender or a toaster.
An iPad is in a little box, for the love of Christ. Toting around the iPad and the box it came in is not hard to do. Nor is getting the iPad back into the box, likely. And I never said to throw the packaging away, did I? (Fanboy think any who ain’t lovin’ is stupid hatin’.)
An iPad is a portable electronic item, kinda like, I dunno, an iPhone. When I bought a cellphone at the mall store, I walked out with it charged, running, and all my contacts in it, texting my wife that I had a new phone. Excited, even.
Why not have the iPad up and running for the purchaser? Maybe for customer assistance, for customer enthusiasm, and for better free publicity?
Seriously. The iPad is being sold in an Apple store, innit? The store could charge it up, turn it on, otherwise prepare it, load a vid and slide it back into the box, or just set it on top of the box. That way, when the white-gloved clerk hands it reverently to the customer, it springs into life with that goofy _1984_ advert.
Or anything else Apple could imagine, except having the most exciting and amazing device ever brought down from the mountain schlepped out of the store in a cardboard box.
And Windows is for mindless corporate drones, and Linux is for 14 year olds with poor hygiene, and BSD is for 50 year old virgins with neckbeards. Hurray for brainless, insulting stereotypes!
Can’t say I hate Apple – they do sell a niche product that has loyal followers -kinda like the RCC.
This seems appropriate about now…
http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2008/10/9/how-to-advertise-windows-vista.html
I have computer knowledge and have absolutely no desire to look cool, yet I have an iMac, a Macbook pro and an iPod Touch and love them all (unlike my Dell, which I’m probably going to hackintosh when I find the time). What’s your problem with people who don’t want to waste time trying to get their computers to work when they could be doing more productive things, like reading Pharyngula (or writing it in PZ’s case)?
I never got why some people despise easy-to-use computers, of which the iPad is a prime example. I’m sure you like fiddling around with whatever you buy, but people like me like to buy things which just work out of the box (and keep on working for that matter). The easier things work, the better. I’d rather have less functionality as long as what the product does what it does well and without any hassle.
And about the openness of the iPad: an open gaming environment killed Atari’s consoles, Nintendo came along with a closed environment and pretty much saved the gaming industry. Bad software means bad publicity, even though your product may be flawless. The increased possibility of illegally obtaining products in an open environment (as we see in the PC gaming market, for example) also makes for either a lower selection of games (piracy is a substantial part of the production cost of games and programs) or causes the creators of these programs to use some very weird and annoying anti-piracy methods (look up Assassin’s Creed II’s method). These are things content creators for a closed system don’t have to worry about. Things might be cheaper when you can get them illegally, but nobody’s going to keep making stuff just so the majority pirates it.
The fact that for example Android is so flexible might also be a problem for it. We see a lot of products today using older versions of Android just because updating to a newer version would take too much work. Different resolutions, processors, devices, ports, and so on also make developing content for Android-based devices a lot more challenging.
Apple’s closed system, whilst it might not sound perfect, does get the job done. Add quality products to that and you’ve got yourself a success, whether you as a techie like it or not.
I’m probably getting an iPad when it comes out here in Belgium. I don’t like waiting a year for products when most problems with 1st generation products are either not global (which means you can ask for a replacement) or are eventually fixed by software updates, it’s not like the price is going to drop much any way. Life’s too short to wait, and I could really use an iPad since I despise netbooks and my 17″-Macbook is a little too big as a portable device.
llewelly @71 FTW
My reaction to this thing is: “Too big, but at least it works right, unlike the prior ‘Palm’ devices. Bloody wish that hadn’t been the case, because despite entering information into one being annoying, and the screen small for web viewing, it was pocket sized, where this thing isn’t. Unfortunately, Palm had a whole “old” idea on proprietary, and even if/when you managed to find a way to jam something else in it, it a) took up too much space, b) didn’t really work as intended, due to how it handled file types, and c) you couldn’t upgrade the memory on the damn thing. All that changed of course, when they became #$%@$% phones, and I couldn’t have one at work any more anyway…
I’ll wait for the Caprica model, like… Version 40 or something? lol
@75
Actually its a Cortex ARM A8 with “what looks and performs like a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU” – the exact same guts as an iPhone. Not too sure how that stacks up power efficiency wise vs the atom.
SOURCE: http://gizmodo.com/5510191/deconstructing-the-ipads-a4-chip-its-still-a-giant-iphone
The full teardown of the iPad:
http://www.chipworks.com/Apple-iPAD-Teardown.aspx
Menyambal (@78):
I didn’t mean to be making any big deal about it; I just don’t think it’s necessarily to be expected that people unwrap stuff they’ve bought right in the store… nor that, as you seem to think, it’s particularly telling or damning that iPad purchasers are taking them home in the box they came in. YMMV.
If it hasn’t already been mentioned, HP are releasing their version of the iPad shortly. Called the HP Slate its has two cameras, usb and handles Flash.
I have no need for something like this, but for people who do, the market seems quick to react to another Apple innovation. I just wish they’d put non slip rubber around the edge of these things (smart phones etc) so they are not so easy to drop by klutzes such as myself.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/HP-Slate-Features-3Megapixel-Camera-Atom-Processor-Suggests-Leak-771078/
From the article:
Hewlett-Packard’s upcoming tablet PC will be priced at $549 for its base model, and include a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, inward-facing VGA Webcam, and outward-facing 3-megapixel camera, according to a purported internal presentation leaked online on April 5. Although HP has claimed that its Adobe Flash support and camera modules will give it an advantage over Apple’s iPad, a specs comparison shows that the iPad has advantages in battery life, higher screen resolution, larger screen, and lower price for its 16GB WiFi-only model. The iPad selling 300,000 units by midnight on April 3, its first day of release, places pressure on other manufacturers to introduce a successful rival tablet.
Here’s what’s really in an iPad.
http://www.out-at-home.com/archives/1012
Bill Dauphin, I seem to be lurching in my writing. I can’t seem to get a point across clearly about anything other that grimly technical stuff.
I just thought that Apple missed a chance to get all those news pictures of a working iPad instead of a box with a picture of an iPad on it. But what do I know?
Sorry if I offended anyone other than raving fanbois.
I use a computer to do three things:
1. Surf the internet (Macs do this satisfactorily).
2. Write reports (not a problem with Mac computers).
3. Play games, particularly turn-based strategy (TBS) games like CivIV. There are two expansions for CivIV along with a bunch of player-developed mods. The game is patched to V1.91. All of these expansions and mods play on Windoze boxes (well, XP or higher). The situation is not as good for Mac OS X. The expansions are there, except they’re not complete. The latest patch available is V1.74, which means about half the mods can’t be played.
When I can find the same games for a Mac as I can for a Windoze box then I’ll consider getting a Mac. Until then I’m not going to bother.
#79:
And with at least 3 virtualisation products available for Macs, you can be all of the above at the same time!
#87 Fil
See now, this is what I hate most about apple. HP has been making Tablet PCs for years. They made a slate back in 2002. Lots of companies have made slates. Apple fans have begged apple for years to follow suit. The constant demand built to a point where a company (Axiotron) started selling their own modified macbook tablets.
Apple finally ships a tablet and everyone acts like they are innovating when they are in fact way late to the party. I gotta give it to them though, they really are masters of marketing. It’s what they do best.
Bikies get Tattoos as a pointless badge of identity to their clique.
Arty-farty nerds whos’ sense of fashion outbalances their technical knowledge get iPads as a pointless badge of identity to their clique
I like the looks of it.
I think it’ll sell well.
@ John Frum. #92
I agree with you. Perhaps I should have said Apple’s innovative advertising instead (so much of which has been free, as in news items, of late).
I just haven’t been paying any attention to tablet PCs because they are not for me.
Anyway, perhaps those who don’t much like Jobs or Apple can get a giggle out of these “Calvin and Jobs” parodies. ;-)
http://laughingsquid.com/calvin-and-jobs-parody-in-mad-magazine/
Only In America!
A blatant rip-off of David Letterman’s long running
Will it Float segment.
Surely the iPad will have an app that says “the cow says…” and then you have to touch the picture of a cow to make it moo and so forth. PlaySkool style.
Not that I would turn down such an ostentatiously fashionable gadget if it were handed to me; I’m just not willing to pay what they’re asking for it. I suppose that’s why I don’t use Macs in general.
Hey, Lab Coat Goggle Guy… You can keep your Blendtec. I LOVE my Vitamix!
LightningRose @ 63,
Hah! Tell me this all you couch detectives out there… has there ever been a documented instance of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates being in the same room at the same time?! Huh? And I’ll bet all of you still think that Superman and Clark Kent were two different people as well!
What? No vibrating butt plug port?
Interesting that some people think it’s good that Apple make computers not aimed at the computer literate.
If Apple made cars aimed at people who don’t know how to drive, or kitchens aimed at people who can only use a microwave, or sunbeds aimed at people who don’t know about sunburn and skin cancer…it might be a different story.
But I’m sure they’d have defenders even then, twisting themselves into logical knots.
Kraid (@98):
I’m honestly not 100% sure you meant this as an insult or complaint, and if you didn’t, please forgive me. If, as it appears on first blush, you did mean this as a criticism… why FFS??
I’m quite sure there will be tons of apps and media available aimed at early childhood, including virtual versions of classic PlaySkool toys, picture books, and educational games. Why would this be a bad thing? Ever raised a young child? The difference in cost between physical toys and books and their digital equivalents alone would probably pay for the iPad several times over by the time the little rugrats hit kindergarten. And if developers are even half as clever as I think they will be, there will be powerfully interactive and interconnected early childhood apps that will blow away what’s available to parents today. This thing is going to be a freakin’ FSMsend for parents of infants and young children¹!
Kapitano (@102):
This is precisely the wrong metaphor, and a perfect example of the cultural/cognitive schism I’ve been trying to articulate in these two iPad threads: What Apple has done is not the equivalent of making a car for people who don’t know how to drive; it’s the equivalent of making a car for people who aren’t (or maybe just don’t want to have to be) auto mechanics or customizers.
A handful of (actual, nonmetaphorical) cars are, in fact, made with aftermarket customization in mind (IIRC, Scion has a couple models aimed at the tuner market, to name just one example, and of course there are kit cars); a larger (but still relatively small) number of cars are made for people for whom driving itself is a point of interest, and who want their cars to challenge their skills; the vast majority of cars are made for people who just want to get themselves and their stuff where they’re going… and want to do so with as little effort or thought wasted on the process as possible.
So what Apple has really done is make a computer that’s the equivalent of a regular car for regular people, instead of a tuner car or an “ultimate driving machine.”
And BTW, the user interface of a car is designed to require as little effort or attention paid to the process of driving, so that the user (aka driver) can focus instead on the road, the other traffic, and the destination. And that basic interface doesn’t change all the time, nor is it particularly customizable (tilt wheels and adjustable seats, sure, but no real ability to customize the basic layout or function of the controls). All this is precisely what Apple says it’s trying to do with the iPad user interface.
The thing is, the techie anti-iPad argument seems to be based on the presumption that the computer equivalent of tuners and hot-rodders and performance driving hobbyists are (or at least, ought to be) the market, and nobody else has any right to expect computers (or computer-like devices) to be designed for them… a position that implicitly suggests everyone who’s not part of (or at least willing to become part of) the techie elite is somehow undeserving of access to the things we use these devices to access.
Look, I’m a charter subscriber to MAKE magazine: I totally get — and to a large degree, celebrate — the fact that there’s a maker/hacker ethos, and that there are people who don’t feel like they really own anything until they’ve taken it apart, and who want to hack everything they own right down to their toothbrushes. That’s cool… but those people are not the norm. They’re not even really the norm among self-described tech geeks, and they’re vanishingly distant from the norm in the larger population. Most people just want their gadgets to do what they do without forcing them to think about process or gadget maintenance, just like they want their cars to get them where they’re going with minimum effort and fuss. That’s maybe not the way you think about things, but it’s not a character flaw, either!
There are plenty of people making products for geeks and tinkerers and customizers. Apple is trying to make a product for other people. I still don’t get why that seems to piss so many people off.
¹ Also, setting aside my philosophical objections to homeschooling, homeschoolers should be creaming in their jeans over this thing: It’s potentially a whole school library — a whole school, really — that you can hold in your hands, and even though it’s not cheap, it’s got to be cheaper than all the books and equipment it has the potential to replace.
That is what your iPhone is for, you eeedeeeyut!
Take a look at this. Admittedly, it’s a child who has used an iphone before, but look at how easily she manipulates it, and figures out what to do and how, and quickly becomes accustomed to it. That’s basically the only thing I’ve seen thus far that made me go “Huh, I guess it does have its uses”. (I lol’d at her “WHERE’S THE CAMERA?” comment, though)
@ Bill Dauphin, 103:
You make a good point… the iPad would be good for “edutainment” software and that sort of thing.
The reason I suggested it mockingly is that Macs in general, and the iPad in particular, seem a little PlaySkool to me. Not to rehash years of Mac vs. PC arguments, but it’s like the training wheels are permanently welded on. Some people are totally OK with that. I’m not entirely against it (your car analogy is fair), but I won’t pay twice as much for that feature.
Go ahead and get the jokes about the fact that its author is named Jesus out of your system, and then read this piece from Gizmodo. It’s what I’ve been trying to say, and more.
iPhone OS update today
Thank you, Bill. That sentiment is exactly how I feel. This notion some people have that a device that was not designed for them should not be designed at all is astonishing. The article you linked sums it up well. There’s really nothing else I have to say about it that you or Diaz didn’t already.