Zawinski: iPad just-slightly insufficiently futurey
jwz.livejournal.com
jwz.livejournal.com
I guess that's the selling point right there. It's not a computer that requires booting and starting up system services and logging in. It's an appliance you can immediately turn on and start using.
When I do the closelid/openlid thing on my Debian laptop, it takes a good 10-20 seconds for my wifi to reacquire...and that's after I log in. Then I need to tickle Chrome or my mail client to sync up. I'd say maybe 30 seconds before I can see new email or load a web page.
In playing with the iPad, I've found it just comes up right away and I can see mail in 10 seconds. I can also scoop the iPad off the counter with a drink and some other items and plop on the couch. Not as easy to do with my laptop.
I can see how the much longer battery life and the much more compact and unintimidating appearance helps with that.
Why more people don't do this, I don't know.
Must. Wait. For. Next. Version.
You know, the smaller one with the front facing camera. So my kids can do FaceTime with their grandparents.
Or the one with a (dare I hope) retina display. I guess that's probably a few versions out.
Today the screen is 132 ppi - taking that up to 326 ppi would make it somewhere in the vicinity of 2528x1896. Would Safari then be blowing up web sites so ~960px width sites don't look tiny on that resolution?
They wouldn't actually do that. They'd "just" double the resolution so the applications can easily be scaled up losslessly, as with the iPhone 4. So you'd get a 2048x1536 screen at 264dpi (one thing to consider is that you'd probably hold your iPad further from your eyes than your iPhone, so the you can have slightly bigger pixels).
Modern hardware absolutely isn't able to provide such pixel densities on such a small surface at an affordable price, and even less able to drive those things using mobile CPUs and GPUs (we're talking about the resolution of your average 30" screen, which still kicks modern GPUs in the teeth)
Video calls are most often made with a desktop computer or laptop. Laptops have a camera at the top of the screen. Most Webcams are attached to the top of monitors. So you are typically eye level with a desktop webcam or just above with a laptop. That's a fairly natural position.
With an iPad it is most often put on a table, your lap, held in your arm on an armrest or your lap or propped up on your lap or chest when lying down.
All of these cases would have a highly unflattering view if using video. "Looking up someone's nostrils" is how I'd describe it. I could see it working in the keyboard dock, if you have that (which I don't) but that mimics a laptop setup.
I'm not saying they won't add a front facing camera but just think about the practicalities of it.
As for Gen 2, I've gotten so much use out of mine that I won't think twice about selling it to buy the new one. I simply use it that much that it's a complete no brainer. Few devices I own, other than my PC, get that much use.
I'd like to see more memory. Not because I need it but because more applications will be possible with it. I'd also like to see digital out. There is a VGA out connector but it's analog and has idiotic restrictions on it like you can't play iTunes video on it, I guess as an appeasement to the idiots at the MPAA.
But front facing camera? For me it's pretty low priority.
As far as form factor goes, there might be a smaller one. Rumours of a 7" iPad persist. I'm frankly unconvinced. Even if there was one I wouldn't buy one. A 10" screen for a portable device is truly wonderful. I'm not going backwards, I don't care how much lighter it might be.
And as far as Android/WebOS/Windows tablets go, my own view is that the competition is AT LEAST two years behind. Sure in the next 6 months you're going to see any number of crappy tablets coming out but it will be at least 1-2 years before they'll have the polish, battery life and especially the ecosystem of the iPad.
Not because I'm utterly convinced of its utility but because for $99 I don't really care if it doesn't meet my expectations.
I agree. It doesn't weight much more than a paper tablet (or at least it doesn't feel like it) and that's one of the things it replaced for me. For me the size is perfect.
What if the camera wasn't fixed in one direction?
I have n iPhone 4 too and will certainly pull that out of my pocket and use it but at home I just prefer the larger screen.
The retina display makes a huge difference for reading, so I tend to use the iPhone for feeds and things, but for anything creative the iPad is the clear winner.
I configured her account so that she got a humble 1024x768 screen, so she could read what appeared on the screen. I know I could just tell X to use twice as many dpi as it wants, but this was a lot simpler.
OTOH, when I have to use her computer, I am always surprised by the endless screen real-estate. And, with the pixel-density properly configured, fonts are exquisitely drawn. And that's on a somewhat big screen. I can only imagine what would happen on a iPad-sized thing.
I see the potential to merge two great internet themes: apple fans and gold bugs. Rather than harken to yesteryear, we should use Apple products as a "store of value"!
Those aren't things you can explain — you have to experience using the iPad for several days to understand. It really is a different device from everything we are used to.
A lot of the second group didn't "get it". Once they used it many of them were convinced. Basically, those that haven't tried it tend to be more negative about it as a whole.
There is something about the experience that is hard to articulate. The feel of it, the convenience of it, the fact that's instant on, the UI... just the whole package really.
The problem is the complete lack of copyediting shortcuts. There are no keys for moving the cursor, or selecting next. There isn't even a forward-delete key.
When I write long text and long emails I will invariably need to go back and copyedit my work, and iOS gives me very little to make that job easier. (Android is even worse.)
It bugs me so much I actually drew up a prototype iPad keyboard [1].
3 years in with iOS and I'm still far more comfortable and productive writing long text on my Blackberry than on an iPhone or iPad.
Sadly, I could.
OT, but I pictured him in a deserted island with big LCD monitors in the walls of the hut running kool screensvers!
OK, back on topic - I find the iPad a bit tiring to be held reading a book. My hands need rest from typing when I am not at my desk!
It's eady to drop and also calls home all the time, which I do not enjoy. It feels like every app is watching you.
Overall, it's a good device though. I hope for others that are much more open, soon!
Did they really? Haven't they used a digital picture frame and though "Gosh, wouldn't it be cool if this could show the weather...and had a web browser...and let me play movies from my server..."
I find it difficult to believe that so many intelligent people (of which jwz is definitely one) purportedly couldn't see the obvious appeal.
I've been using small devices as PMPs for a while (whether smartphone or touch or zune) and the desire for something larger is, again, obvious.
Though I'll hold my breath for the Galasy S Tab.
Yes, I have had those thoughts. I also thought "I'd be willing to pay $5 for that. Oh well." So sure I understand that these things are appealing for coffee tables or salesmen, but I (still) don't see myself using one very much.
As for time savings and convenience, even having used the iPad for a few minutes one day, I don't think it would save me any time at all compared to using my laptop. iPad is less convenient for carrying around than my Android phone, and its software keyboard makes it less convenient for programming than my MacBook Pro. Yes I know I could add an external keyboard, but then I would have to haul around two pieces instead of one, and I'd still be stuck programming on a 9.7" display.
The iPad is an unusual product, because doesn't address an obvious need. Laptops were just portable desktops. mp3 players were digital Walkmans. Smartphones are a combination of PDA, mp3 player, and phones. Most new classes of electronics are just an extension of an existing product in an obvious but technically-challenging direction. The iPad is more like the original PC - superficially similar to its predecessors, but used quite differently.
People use their iPads in their own way. For me, the killer app was as an e-reader. I could easily read books and pdfs on my laptop, but the tablet form-factor is far more pleasant for reading. Reading on a laptop is a chore, whereas reading on the iPad feels quite natural.
What trips people up about the iPad is that it isn't about the functionality. My MBP is more capable in almost every way. It's value lies in the fact that it does certain things extremely well that no other electronic device has been good at until now.
The iPad is more like the original PC -
superficially similar to its predecessors,
but used quite differently.
Of course this had nothing to do with the capabilities of the technologies but everything to do with positioning.
Experience. The iPad is far from the first device in the tablet form factor, and far from the first tablet device to promise a revolution. It is, after all, not even the first Apple tablet device.
I think the problem has been that tablets have always lagged behind even laptops in what they could afford in terms of processing power and such; it wasn't until the Great Stagnation of CPU speeds and the relatively recent focus on low-watt-yet-powerful CPUs and GPUs that the segment became viable. No longer does it feel like you've stepped ten years back in time when you turn on a tablet. You have, except with a much better graphics card, but a ten year old-ish machine with a better graphics card is still a decent machine for most uses, so you don't feel it. Smartphones rode the same wave a few years ago. (Plus the work on faster browsers helps a lot too, even an older machine feels a lot faster on those.)
It's also pretty easy to think that a laptop is good enough. I know, because I still think a laptop is good enough for me. Perhaps my usage is abnormal but I spend a lot of time on my laptop typing, and I don't just mean for programming.
Haven't they used a digital picture frame and though
"Gosh, wouldn't it be cool if this could show the
weather...and had a web browser...and let me play
movies from my server..."
But to be fair, 6 years ago, my terminals were like that. So I guess this hacker/matrix mode goes away with time.
OK, from an engineering standpoint, this probably isn't the best. (It seems that apple sometimes ignores the fact that computers get hot...)
But I think we could turn this into a marketing selling point; Vampires are hot right now, vampires hate the sun.
The iPad, the latest in Vampiric computing.
Then you can sell it with sexy twilight/trueblood vampires. (In black mock turtlenecks/sweaters, of course).
It'll be awesome.
Unless you want infra-red, then it can do it all day long, right?