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[vsloathe]

/discuss

I've never looked at my iPhone and thought "gee wiz...if only this thing were just four times its current size!"

I also just bought a Nook and love the hell out of it so maybe I'm just cynical.

[kurdt]

By using phrase "super-sized iPhone" you demonstrate you don't get the idea behind iPad. I had the exact same thought when iPad was announced but after I gave it a thought I believe it will be the future of mass computing. Not that it will be iPad but it has shown it can be done.

[perkiset]

The similarity between the iPhone and iPad ends at the UI.

(Oh, that and they both can't make calls. Thanks, Stephen Colbert.)

The UI (iOS) is essentially an embedded appliance instance of OSX. The phone does what it can within the confines of its hardware - the iPad does what it can within the confines of its. The iPad really is a connection device - a perfect consumption of the day-to-day life stuff that we all wanted the iPhone to be, until we go this. Everywhere I go, people want to play with mine - and I've already got orders aplenty from clients, doctors and staff that have seen it and want one. When you grok what it really can do and what it can do for you you'll be intrigued in a different way.

It fills a niche that we didn't know existed - well, we all sort of thought it, but Apple put aluminum to it.

[nop_90]

Apple is the latest "buzz" right now.
There is a book on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy deals with finding new markets.

Sony did it 20+ years ago with the walkman.
Portable tape players where kiking around for a long time before sony came on the scene, but they where for "practical" things like dictation etc.
Edison did it 90+ years ago with the record player. Ability for user to enjoy music in his own home.

It you define a new niche, then for the first few years you enjoy no competition.
Probably when the bean counters take over Apple, it will end up just like Sony. It will take a few years.

Maybe i am not very impressed with the ipad because I was already doing all of the things that ipad users are probably using thier device for .
I was reading e-books on the go for the last 10 years. Why carry around a ton of paper, when I can just use a PDA that fits in my pocket, and i can have on it 100-500 books.
I got fedup of carrying arround a notepad. The pieces of paper get damaged, it is bulky etc. PDA same thing.
I guess that is one of the reasons i am not very impressed with the iphone. Yah it does its job, but for a lot of things it sucks shit.
PDF reader on iphone is a POS. There are tons of open source ones that are 10x better, but because apple locks their devices I can not install one.
IPOD player is a POS, it only plays the crap apple formats, you need to hook up to itunes to manipulate playlists etc.
I have an ASUS mini-book, it can do anything that an ipad can do and more. And it has a long battery life.

Bottom line is most people in the real world are fuking retards. Unless they are told what to do, they just stand there like a bunch of deer caught in the headlights.
Most large companies reward do nothing.
Ironically the military rewards getting things done. It is driven into your head, it is better to do something even if it is the wrong thing, as opposed to standing there like a fuking deer in the headlights.
I remember first time I got a job in the "real world". I wanted to do something, so i went to my supervisor. I asked her can I do this ?. She said I do not know. I have to ask my supervisor. When can you ask ? Ohh i don't know, he is on vacation for the next 3 weeks. So who is in charge right now ? No one. Basically sums up a modern western society.

When one of Edison's factories burned down, it was assumed it would take months if not years for Edison to get going again. He rebuilt the factory in 6 weeks and the new factory could product 2x as much as the old one. The number of things Edison innovated and put into production is amazing. Yes he made a lot of mistakes, spending his entire fortune attempting to extract iron with electricity was probably one of them But then again he bounced back and regained another fortune.

50+ years ago in america there where tons of "Apples", today because innovation is so rare, was was normal in the past is now amazing.
To quote the great general itself ""There are no bad soldiers, only bad officers", well that sums up american society itself.

[perkiset]

 

I believe the critical flaw in your thinking is that you believe people use the iPod and iPad and such because they're told to.

People have been trying for a long time to do the things that the iPad does, with little or no success. Same with the iPod. If you want to debate specs, then you are 100% correct: there've been lots of other devices that, in a variety of ways have been superior to the iPod. But viewed holistically, the iPod was the only one that really did it all easily. Really easily. And Apple was rewarded for their design and implementation.

Same with the 'pad. (Arguably, there is nothing in the market that is so thin, has such a battery life and many of the specs that the 'pad has, but that's neither here nor there) The market (ie., people in general) could give a sh!t about specs, processor speeds, RAM, type of storage, you name it. WGAF. They want it to work, work nicely, right now, and don't want to have to learn anything else. These are are fair concerns: the notion that technology is significant that we must take more time to learn how to use it is silly. If you want to sell me something, make it so that it fits me, not that I have to fit it. And that's where the iPad has and will be successful.

People like the pad because it does what we want it to, better than anything else out there. Period. And by "better" I mean holistically better. Sync. Get apps. Fire up, shut down. Navigate. Work. Play. It does all of these things quite well. Perfectly? Far from it. But a damn site better than anything else on the market today.

Ergo, people purchase it because they are, smartly, making good decisions about the tech they want to further invade their lives.

[nop_90]

I believe the critical flaw in your thinking is that you believe people use the iPod and iPad and such because they're told to.
...
Ergo, people purchase it because they are, smartly, making good decisions about the tech they want to further invade their lives.

You have addressed what pisses me off, but you have missed the mark .

For starters people do not base decisions on logic.
This has been confirmed time and time again.

The biggest secret to getting people to do what you want is by making them think it is their own idea in the first place.
Also as a leader or persuader you must act as if you have all the answers, even if you have no idea.
Basically there are techniques and tricks. It is very educational for example to go to a Billy Graham revival (unfortunately Billy is not longer as charismatic as he used to be, old age:)). Examine the crowd how they become into a type of trance. He can spout the most ridiculous stuff, and anyone will follow it . And so called educated people are just as subseptable.

[nutballs]

My dad has a nook and loves it as well. It does a great job doing what it is supposed to do, which is, be an ebook reader. It is not a good toaster. Neither is the iPad.

The iPad is a device to consume with. The nook is a device to consume books with, the iPad is to consume more than that. You can create with it, and people will try to force it to be a creation device, but it is not that. It could be in a pinch, but not day to day. Though with a keyboard it could be a writing tool long term.

The problem is that most of the critics are expecting it to be a replacement for a laptop, specifically the laptop THEY use. It is not. It is s replacement however for the laptop (even desktop) for what most people SHOULD have. Most people just consume. They do not create other than a few snippets of text for Twitter or facebook. The iPad would be perfect for most folks I think. I would switch my dad if he didn't have a laptop.

I even am probably going to toss my laptop. I only use a laptop for pinch work. I do not use it anything long term. Real work is done on my desk, work when I am out is done on my lap. But that is over powered and bulky and frankly way more than is needed. Because of remote desktop I can get access to my full desktop in a few seconds, and do whatever craze y ass high end shit I might need to do.

[perkiset]

Well said Nuts.

@ Laptop: When I get a wired ethernet dongle for the iPad, and native terminal and some other tools then I'll dump the lappy. It has a very specific purpose: full blown computing work when I am away from the desk. But the fact of the matter is that 90% of the time when I am out with clients (&c) I just don't need all of that. I want to move a lot faster and lighter. And the 'pad will do that for me.

To your point, people keep looking for the One Device To Rule Them All. Ain't gonna happen - or at least not for people like me.

[isthisthingon]

One pad to rule them all and in the darkness bind them?  Fuckin-A 

Seriously I'm probably the exception here but I either want a keyboard and "mouse" or don't bother me unless it's an emergency (cell).  So same as nuts I do most everything on desktops.  But if I want computer functionality I at least want a keyboard so I can write and a pointing device (away from the damn screen) so I can select things.  So a laptop has been and still is a perfect thing for me.  If I wanted something even smaller I'd get a netbook (the crowd gasps and moans in disgust).

Honestly here's what ITTO would or perhaps will do someday: http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download-netbook

Oh yeah, has anyone seen 10.4 yet?  I've been playing around with Ubuntu 10.4 beta 1 and it's awfully sweet.  The majority of the feedback is lukewarm in terms of the new interface.  Unsurprisingly, I'm in the minority on this as well.  Although I hate the attempt to completely mirror OS-X in terms of window dressing, the new color scheme is purpley-purrfect

[perkiset]

  you SO wish you had a Mac.

Honestly did not expect to be so incredibly confortable with the keyboard. It's really weird. I purchased a Bluetooth just because I thought Id need it. Haven't used it since the first day.

It's surprisingly sufficient 

[nutballs]

i was just about to post the same thing.

Itto you would be REALLY surprised how well and easy you can type on the touchscreen. I even was pinky-shifting. My prior post was typed on it btw.

[isthisthingon]

>you SO wish you had a Mac.

I wasn't aware of this.  Since you seem so certain you must be correct

>Honestly did not expect to be so incredibly confortable with the keyboard
>Pinky...

Pinky-shifting?  Ok I think you're talking about laying the iPad flat and typing on it no?  I imagined holding it with both hands and then thumb/nose/stiff-member typing away.  I suppose if it's flat and you're typing on a virtual keyboard that would work better.  Looking forward to seeing it in action someday.

Hey mom, look what I found!

[perkiset]

Pinky shifting ... I totally get it. When I read that Nuts I suddenly got the image of Data working over a control surface in any number of Next Genation shows or movies. The way his finges would just fly over the glass surface reminds me a bit of what it looks like when I'm typing on this thing.

Given the thickness and power of it, the little thing is like a Star Trek device. It really is.

[vsloathe]

Yeah I just bought a laptop that has a core i7 (8 cores the OS can use, wha?!) and a Geforce GTS 360m

I will be acquiring an iPad soon as I've signed on to do some development for the device and asked that one be provided in the terms of my contract. But it falls incredibly short of the mark of something I would use in the field for anything more than writing notes. I can't develop on it, I can't game on it. Those are the two things that I use a computer for 99.999999% of the time. Ok, maybe not 12 9's like that, but you get the picture.

And I realize I'm being contracted to develop an app for it because people WILL buy it and it IS what most people want or need out of a mobile computing device. It's just not for me and I don't understand how it works so well for my fellow "power users".

[jammaster82]

Awesome, way to go VS!