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The Apple iPad
January 27, 2010 11:03 AM   Subscribe

Apple announces something: The iPad, which all signs say is a tablet computer. Various people, from the Ceo of textbook and magazine publisher McGraw-Hill and Weblogs. Inc founder Jason Calacanis have talked about their experiences using and testing the device. But the most interesting aspect of the computer may not be the technology, but rather its potential for use in creating and participating in content creation which could revolutionize digital magazines and newspapers
posted by mpbx (1255 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite

Oh I hadn't heard about this.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:04 AM on January 27, 2010 [82 favorites]


I've got the oddest feeling of deja vu.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:04 AM on January 27, 2010


Here's a live stream of the event courtesy of the deleted FPP.
posted by delmoi at 11:05 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Maybe wait until the demo is over before we begin the whole "It sucks" vs. "it rules" thing.
posted by bondcliff at 11:05 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


A giant iPhone? Really?
posted by hiteleven at 11:05 AM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Wake me when there's a tablet that runs OS X and isn't just a big iPod Touch.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:06 AM on January 27, 2010 [24 favorites]


You've misspelt iPod.
posted by dng at 11:06 AM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


I figure it doesn't really need to be posted as 'best of the web' until it's on Apple's own friggin' site.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:06 AM on January 27, 2010


The "iBooks" app uses open-format ePub. Good on ya, Steve.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


Hmm, they should have called it the Newton II
posted by The Power Nap at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


Wow! A portable computer with a touchscreen! Apple is revolutionary again!
posted by Big_B at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Not wired. Less space than a PADD. Lame.
posted by niles at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


I felt a great disturbance in the TwitterVerse, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out "meh," and were suddenly disappointed.
posted by shmegegge at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [36 favorites]


The next iteration will be called the iPad Max. Or more appropriately, the Max iPad.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [68 favorites]


Let it be known that I made a Newton comparison in a previously deleted thread. I would like that remark to be inserted back into the records.
posted by hiteleven at 11:07 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


I want to ask all you advance detractors something: Would you honestly say you prefer the usability of the OS to that of the iPhone? I mean, yes, it does more, it's more powerful, but that's the device, not the OS. The iPhone's interface is vastly more usable for what it is. Taking that and making it more powerful sounds like exactly what I wish I was typing on right now.

Also: ten-hour battery life? Color me impressed.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Name Jason Calacanis
Location Los Angeles, CA
Bio I'm a cereal entrepreneur...


He doesn't seem to have a single tasty breakfast grain creation to his credit, though.
posted by weston at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Let it be known that I made a Newton comparison in a previously deleted thread. I would like that remark to be inserted back into the records.

It is written.
posted by jckll at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2010


Allow me to be one of the first to agree with everyone below when I say color me unimpressed by the giant iPod Touch. Show's not over, but looks like it still doesn't support multiple processes or flash.

Not quite powerful enough to be a computer, not quite small enough to be a mobile device, this is the uncanny valley of gadgetry.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [26 favorites]


Don't forget the Apple device that helps people sufferring from incontinence, iPeed.
posted by BeerFilter at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Its called iPad because Steve Jobs is just padding his pockets with money after reusing the same old ideas and names.
posted by lilkeith07 at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


They've had the iPad for quite a long time in New England. It is wicked assome.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [42 favorites]


I want to ask all you advance detractors something: Would you honestly say you prefer the usability of the OS to that of the iPhone?

what
posted by eyeballkid at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


I had a meeting, so I'm kind of reading through the engadget notes backwards...

So far it looks really cool. Basically the ultimate iphone/kindle super-gizmo. It may even make the NYT paywall less suicidally stupid.

The little dig at netbooks was kind of dickish though. You know what? given the choice between my netbook and a really cool giant iphone I'm keeping the netbook. Cheers, thanks!
posted by Artw at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


How much is it and can you look at old copies of Juggs with it?
posted by Mister_A at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


The Simpsons visit the Mapple Store

And part II

Because I believe nothing in life is truly complete without a Simpsons reference. And I was too late for the monorail thread.
posted by never used baby shoes at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


But the most interesting aspect of the computer may not be the technology, but rather its potential for use in creating and participating in content creation

You mean like a computer!!?!?!

The hype on this is ridiculous, the device doesn't allow you to do anything new, except perhaps being the first large-screen multitouch device out there. It's just a slightly more convenient package for carrying around.

The business model stuff is actually a step backwards moving to a locked down, approved by apple, DRM larded world that previously was only used by game consoles and cellphones.

Rather then taking the open nature of personal computers and bringing them to the portable world, we're moving towards having the locked-down style of cellphones on larger and larger devices.
posted by delmoi at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [101 favorites]


It seems that they think of this as very much a one-way device, from the "content creators" to consumers. There's very limited connectivity, for example, no way to plug in a USB hard drive. Can one mount a network share on it? Does it have a user accessible file store, or is it just "apps", like an iPhone?
posted by bonehead at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Taking that and making it more powerful sounds like exactly what I wish I was typing on right now.

really? you'd rather be typing on a not-quite-ten-inch touch screen than a keyboard? I was expecting to be wowed by a macbook with a touchscreen and a full mac OSX app store to revolutionize the non-gaming app sales marketplace. this is a huge phone. color me unimpressed.
posted by shmegegge at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


hiteleven: "A giant iPhone? Really?"

I hope it comes with earbuds the size of golf balls.
posted by brundlefly at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [35 favorites]


Jobs said the iPad will be lightning fast: "It screams," he told a crowd.

iScream? sorry
posted by cashman at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [15 favorites]


We really need to just have a template thread for Apple announcements since we can pretty much predict ahead of time how they're going to go.
posted by bondcliff at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


"Come on, Steve, just think—think, dammit—you're running out of time," the exhausted CEO said as he glued nine separate iPhones to the back of a plastic cafeteria tray.
- Frantic Steve Jobs Stays Up All Night Designing Apple Tablet
posted by griphus at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2010 [13 favorites]


Andre the Giant has an iPod.
posted by demiurge at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Not quite powerful enough to be a computer, not quite small enough to be a mobile device, this is the uncanny valley of gadgetry.

On that note, I'm sure The Polar Express looks swell on it.
posted by hiteleven at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Also, how would a comic book page look on this device? Has anyone seen a dpi count yet?
posted by bonehead at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010


Or the iPood, for the constipated.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I kinda kept hoping Steve would walk up on the stage, scream "PSYCH!!!", and then walk off silently.
posted by briank at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010 [12 favorites]


Skip the technobabble, just tell me how this will revolutionize porn!!!
posted by Theta States at 11:11 AM on January 27, 2010


Being cruel is not mentioning the Newton... being cruel is mentioning the eMate.
posted by Artw at 11:12 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Meanwhile, isn't this going to cause some serious customer service/in-store sales issues in locations where "iPad" and "iPod" are homophones?
posted by griphus at 11:12 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


We really need to just have a template thread for Apple announcements since we can pretty much predict ahead of time how they're going to go.

And it would include that comment at least eighteen times.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:12 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


This is the device my mum has been waiting for. She really can't use computers, but loves the iPhone. Her only complaint is it's too small to use without specs. Combine that appeal with books for students and iWork and this is a macbook killer, I think.
posted by bonaldi at 11:13 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Also, how would a comic book page look on this device? Has anyone seen a dpi count yet?

They call it "pixel doubling" when they upscale an old iPhone app, so that suggests that the resolution must be.... 960x640?
posted by rokusan at 11:13 AM on January 27, 2010


Farewell JooJoo. We hardly knew ye.
posted by spilon at 11:13 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


really? you'd rather be typing on a not-quite-ten-inch touch screen than a keyboard? I was expecting to be wowed by a macbook with a touchscreen and a full mac OSX app store to revolutionize the non-gaming app sales marketplace. this is a huge phone. color me unimpressed.

I don't mind touch typing. I write extensively on my iPod as-is. Not just small things but mini-essays. Yesterday I wrote a five-paragraph paper in the middle of my class.

Give me a larger keyboard and I'm set. That's what I see this as.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:13 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Perhaps Ive gone curmudgeon, but Im an Apple fanboy and this just doesnt seem very "OMG I NEED THAT" to me.

Oh and having a netbook does me NO GOOD if I cant play the videos I want to.

No VLC = eat shit

Im not paying you dicks $9.99 just because I get a wild hair up my ass to watch Summer Rental
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:14 AM on January 27, 2010 [9 favorites]


Lots of talk about comcis folks about how this might be the future of the medium... there was that with the iPhone as well of course, but in the end the things that worked bets were these one panel views which removed a lot of the point - this thing obviously doesn't have that. Warren Ellis moans about his data plan here, but really I think syncing by wire would be a more likely way of doing it.
posted by Artw at 11:14 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Steve snarks on Netbooks because they're slow then raves about how his 1GHz processor "screams?"

Yeah, ok...
posted by jckll at 11:14 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


$29/mo unlimited data with no contract sounds awfully nice.
posted by rokusan at 11:15 AM on January 27, 2010


spilon: "Farewell JooJoo. We hardly knew ye."

How come? Did you visit that link? It's already playing Avatar, man!
posted by Joe Beese at 11:15 AM on January 27, 2010


And it would include that comment at least eighteen times.

Which is why I set up my macros on Tuesday.
posted by bondcliff at 11:15 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


ArtW- I would appreciate never again having to suffer the mental image of Warren Ellis moaning, thanks.
posted by griphus at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010


The netbook snark really is the turd in the punchbowl.

WTF is your Air for Steve? Sweet fuck all and fail, that's what.
posted by Artw at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


Can you replace the battery without sending it to Apple and losing stored content?
posted by rocket88 at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


$29/mo unlimited data with no contract sounds awfully nice.

And unlocked.
posted by rokusan at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010


I guess iPad's a relief of sorts, but now I'll have to deal with the inevitable glut of "... with wings!" jokes. To be fair, though, I personally think I'd really prefer a vertical screen web-browsing experience, and am curious about how a comic page would look on the thing.

And it goes without saying that I'm happy that the rabid Apple people have found a new reason to live that will last them for the next twelve months or so.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010


I want a tablet. I was excited when TechCrunch came out with theres. But this? This is gonna be too expensive for what amounts to a big iPod Touch.

As a geek the thing I am most curious about is the A4 processor.

Otherwise, meh. Unless it were cheap as shit, but knowing apple, it isn't.
posted by symbioid at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I too am waiting to see how this thing handles my archive of CBR and CBZ files...
posted by Theta States at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010


Skip the technobabble, just tell me how this will revolutionize porn!!!

You can hold the screen directly against your junk without that pesky keyboard getting in the way.

Also: No keyboard = no sticky keys.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010


for example, no way to plug in a USB hard drive

Is this true? Is there any way to get content you already own onto the thing, other than through download? That would make it something I'm just not at all interested in. I have a hell of a lot of content, so I would kind of need a content delivery device to be able to access it at speeds that don't suck.
posted by OmieWise at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


resolution must be.... 960x640?

For a 10" (diag) screen, that's about 115-120 dpi. Not great really for a book reader. Comic book pages will be legible but not pretty at that resolution.
posted by bonehead at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not since the Wii has a such gimicky piece of technology picked such an ill-advised name.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 11:16 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


Not quite powerful enough to be a computer, not quite small enough to be a mobile device, this is the uncanny valley of gadgetry.

If that's true of the iPad, it's true of eReaders and Netbooks.
posted by weston at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


AT&T?
posted by R. Mutt at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010


Unlocked GSM? Hmmmm...keep talking.
posted by reformedjerk at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010


Eagerly awaiting the iPed, the iPid, the iPud, and the iPyd.
posted by flatluigi at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010


griphus - Eh? Any post by Warren Ellis is 3 parts moaning, 2 parts New Scientist and 1 part letching over cam girls.
posted by Artw at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This can't be safe...
posted by davey_darling at 11:17 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


And the Welsh-exlusive iPwd.
posted by flatluigi at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2010 [18 favorites]


(it counts sheep)
posted by flatluigi at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2010


The no contract data plan is pretty sweet.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2010


Only on Metafilter would 5 of the first 50 comments be related to the device's ability to display comics...
posted by jckll at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


$499
posted by bonaldi at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010


$499
posted by R. Mutt at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


no way to plug in a USB hard drive

Is this true?


It appears to be. No mention of a USB plug anywhere in the announcements, though maybe I missed something. Rather a weird omission, IMO, but then this is Apple.
posted by bonehead at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010


delmoi: Computers are shit. We joke all the time about how shitty computers are. There is so much wrong with even OS X, which I love and cuddle with, that chances are no one person is aware of just all that's wrong with them.

This is a revision of the concept of computing. Yes, it's an extension of the iPhone, so it's more evolutionary than revolutionary, but this is the first time that same design is big enough to consider using it as an actual workstation.

Clamshell laptops (i.e. most laptops) are pretty damn ugly. You have a single point of interaction, the trackpad, and moving and clicking with it are two separate steps. Scrolling is another. Typing is another. We're all used to it because we've had it for twenty years, but it's not good. My grandparents hate it. They don't get it. They'll get this.

Here, you tap the calendar and you have a full-functioned calendar. No app folder. No complicated things. It responds to your touch. My grandparents get the iPhone; well, this is the same thing, but it's a computer in full.

$499 is a pretty acceptable price for all that it is.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010 [15 favorites]


$499, KTHNXBAI!
posted by Artw at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Ohh, the price point $499. Pretty cheap. Cheaper then I expected, and something that competes pretty well with netbooks.
posted by delmoi at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Sweet fancy fuck! I think that's pretty good pricing.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


From $629 with 3G radio or $499 with WiFi only.
posted by rokusan at 11:19 AM on January 27, 2010


If that's true of the iPad, it's true of eReaders and Netbooks.

Not really. eReaders use e-ink paper, which was what eventually turned the tide for avid readers.

Netbooks are essentially small, cheap, portable, fully-functioning computers. I can jump from me regular laptop to my netbook with a USB key full of files and not miss a beat.
posted by hiteleven at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


$499. At least the price point is fair for it.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2010


Also: ten-hour battery life? Color me impressed.

Yes, I am sure this figure will turn out to be no more wishful thinking than the same spec on every mobile device ever.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


No mention of an SD card reader either, which is frankly weirder. No pictures on your iPad? That's a really strange design choice.
posted by bonehead at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2010


I'll sit and wait for the non-idiot price.
posted by Artw at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


"So $499 for 16GB of iPad. That's our base model. 32GB is $599, 64GB is $799. 3G models cost an extra $130. $629, 729, and 829 with 3G."

I am disappoint.
posted by longdaysjourney at 11:21 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


But... is there one more thing?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:21 AM on January 27, 2010


I personally am rather disappointed that Steve Jobs was not actually using this opportunity to unveil the doomsday device (which, let's face it, we all know he is designing) with which he plans to rule the universe, crush his enemies, lamentations of their women, &c.
posted by elizardbits at 11:21 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


The docking charger is a real keyboard. Cute.
posted by rokusan at 11:21 AM on January 27, 2010


just tell me how this will revolutionize porn!!

no front-facing camera :( or wings ;)
posted by kliuless at 11:22 AM on January 27, 2010


$499 is the cheapest

16GB/32GB/64GB
WIFI $499/$599/$699
WIFI+3G $629/$729/$829

So $729 + $29/mo ... under $1000 indeed
posted by jckll at 11:22 AM on January 27, 2010


Adam, have you followed any Apple announcement in the last 5 years? They've never lied about their iPhone/Macbook battery claims. If they say 10 hours, I buy that they have 10 hours.

They just announced a keyboard dock. This keynote isn't fucking over. If you're going to snark then wait till after Steve Jobs tells you how dumb you are.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:22 AM on January 27, 2010


Lack of background processing/multitasking is a dealbreaker. If I can't read my Spanish newspaper, then switch to a dictionary to help with the problem words without opening and closing each program (and then having to find my place again in the paper), I'm not in.
posted by hiteleven at 11:23 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


This keynote isn't fucking over. If you're going to snark then wait till after Steve Jobs tells you how dumb you are.

THIS IS SO NOT OVER!!!!!!1
posted by jckll at 11:23 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Computers are shit. We joke all the time about how shitty computers are.

this whole comment is pretty funny. you are hard up to love this thing, man. If you want a netbook/ereader without a keyboard, then go you. but to go from that to "computers are shit, and this is the future of computing" is kind of absurd.
posted by shmegegge at 11:23 AM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


ArtW - "Any post by Warren Ellis is 3 parts moaning, 2 parts New Scientist and 1 part letching over cam girls."

How's that mind's eye holding up?
posted by griphus at 11:24 AM on January 27, 2010


Except for the keyboard they just announced, Shmegegge?
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:24 AM on January 27, 2010


I really want to suggest a moratorium on lame and obvious jokes about feminine hygiene products, including all use of the words wings, maxi and workflow and any remark about a danging white power cable.

...but if I do that, one of you jackasses will accuse me of posting during a bad time of the month.
posted by rokusan at 11:24 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


The hype on this is ridiculous, the device doesn't allow you to do anything new, except perhaps being the first large-screen multitouch device out there.

HP's version will let you play Frogger!
posted by zarq at 11:24 AM on January 27, 2010


Keyboard dock. I could replace my MacBook Pro with this for SSHing into work from the coffee shop.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:24 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


$29/mo unlimited data with no contract sounds awfully nice.

It's nice, but not by any means revolutionary. I'm already getting the same thing from T-Mobile on my Android phone for $25/mo, and it's tetherable to boot.
posted by teraflop at 11:25 AM on January 27, 2010


This keynote isn't fucking over.

Was this keynote over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!
posted by chinston at 11:25 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


iPad or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

That being SAID. having a portable sketchpad with a decent stylus then I would be fucking happy camper.
posted by The Whelk at 11:25 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


If you're going to snark then wait till after Steve Jobs tells you how dumb you are.

14:30 "YOU ARE EXACTLY THIS DUMB," SAYS JOBS WHILE GESTURING TO A TAPIR
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:25 AM on January 27, 2010 [80 favorites]


Eat up martha
posted by wcfields at 11:25 AM on January 27, 2010 [12 favorites]


. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
posted by nicepersonality at 11:26 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


And I am really shocked by the price. Who else sells a touchscreen netbook for $499?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:26 AM on January 27, 2010


Google has already come out with a giant version of the iPod touch
posted by KokuRyu at 11:26 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


OH AND ONE MORE THING
As CEO of Apple, I review all of our purchases. And lately, I've been noticing that one thing, one little thing, has been way out of whack: printers. Ink cartridges, ink nozzles, every thing about them is just super expensive.

Until today.

Introducing the world's first wireless, bluetooth capable printer that doesn't use any ink. At all. We call it... The iTherm. It uses standard, open thermal printing technology to print out semi-glossy copies of whatever documents you want. 60DPI quick printing, and a crisp, super readable 120DPI for your more important things. You'll never have to worry about "Letter or Legal?" because the paper's on a spool. Today, we're making printing easy... The Apple Way.

hello rmazar
posted by boo_radley at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


This keynote isn't fucking over. If you're going to snark then wait till after Steve Jobs tells you how dumb you are.

Are you fucking kidding me?
posted by OmieWise at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2010


Can I tether my iPhone to it? That'd being the price down to "might be able to convince my wife" levels.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2010


delmoi: Computers are shit. We joke all the time about how shitty computers are. ... Clamshell laptops (i.e. most laptops) are pretty damn ugly.

Man, talk about spoiled. I mean, you can buy a machine with more computing power then existed in the whole world in, I dunno, 1980 and it's "shit" You can surf the internet, watch video online, play 3d games, or whatever else you want to do but they're "shit" because... well I don't even know you didn't actually say what was wrong with them just that "people aren't aware of all that's wrong with them"

But if what's "wrong" with them is the user interaction (which is the only difference here) then how is it even possible for there to be problems that people don't know about?

This is the kind of "wrong" that only exists because amateur UI nerds feel that the computer doesn't implement their pet theories. Just because a UI doesn't work the way you, personally, would have it work doesn't actually mean it's "wrong"

And anyway, I don't exactly know what the huge problem is, I don't have any trouble using a computer. Most people don't. They haven't had problems with crashing in almost 10 years and the problems of spyware are mostly in the past as well.

As far as laptops being ugly, uh, I disagree. A lot of them look fine these days.
posted by delmoi at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2010 [16 favorites]


I find 10 hours a little hard to believe given iPhone battery life... still, plenty of space in there.

I am frankly amazed at the kind of price jack-ups they expect to get away with to give the thing a sensible amount of flash memory. I'll definitely be letting someone else subsidise their fantasies until that's sorted out.

Still, snark asside, though the iPhone looked cool as a slideshow the proof of the thing was in the way you could play with the thing for five minutes and know that you definately needed to have one... if this thing generates the same reaction then they'll be raking in the gold.
posted by Artw at 11:27 AM on January 27, 2010


It sucks.
posted by theCroft at 11:28 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


It rules!
posted by theCroft at 11:28 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Goddammit, it's fairly priced?

I had a week's worth of snark saved up for this...

Hmmm, still wondering how it handles CBR files...
posted by Theta States at 11:28 AM on January 27, 2010


I find 10 hours a little hard to believe given iPhone battery life...

A month of standby power surprises me more, actually.
posted by rokusan at 11:29 AM on January 27, 2010


Are you fucking kidding me?

Considering half the things people were complaining about here were all announced minutes after they snarked, I'm not. This keyboardless thousanddollar tablet does suck; it's a good thing Apple announced neither.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:29 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


TWITTER HAS FAILED TO CRASH, APPLE IS OVER.
posted by Artw at 11:29 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Not quite powerful enough to be a computer, not quite small enough to be a mobile device, this is the uncanny valley of gadgetry.

Or for those of us getting older and clumsier; something portable enough for me want to take to take it places and unwieldy enough for me to drop.
posted by jalexei at 11:29 AM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


zarq: "HP's version will let you play Frogger!"

Did you see that thing? It's like... 3/4" thick! Disgusting.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


And I am really shocked by the price. Who else sells a touchscreen netbook for $499?

I'd take multitasking over touchscreen.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


I have real doubts about the typing.
posted by Artw at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


WHERE MY 256 GB IPOD CLASSIC AT?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


No mention of an SD card reader either, which is frankly weirder. No pictures on your iPad? That's a really strange design choice.

You plug in a USB cable and plug it into your computer and it syncs, like an iPhone.

. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Can you bother to pay attention for five seconds? It has wifi.
posted by rtha at 11:30 AM on January 27, 2010


The iPod and iPhone were smash hits not because of Apple die-hards, but because they appealed to the lawyer & dentist crowd...they became yuppie must-haves. Somehow I don't see that happening with this thing.

Over to you, Google.
posted by hiteleven at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I could replace my MacBook Pro with this for SSHing into work from the coffee shop.

I've SSH'd from my iPhone 3G a few times. It works well enough for restarting something or slapping some script that isn't working right, but I wouldn't want to type more than a half-page or so.

Same as anything else on a phone, I guess.
posted by rokusan at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2010


It's possible to note the existence of this device without some kind of reaction, you konw.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Steve, can you wrap this up? I need to get back to work.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'll sit and wait for the non-idiot price.

Were there other Apple products that dropped as sharply in price as the iPhone? Considering that I've seen $1k as the projected price, $499 seems like a really reasonable price for a tablet computer / upsized iPod Touch ($199 for 8gb, up to $399 for 64gb), and they have so much infrastructure built around the iPhone/iPod Touch that this seems like something of an upgrade to what they already have vs. something experimental and new.

I'm all fanboy over this, mostly because I've wanted a tablet for quite a while, and that pricepoint is great, especially against Tablet PC prices (mind you, the iPad is slate, where those other models at $1,500 USD+ are either convertable tablet PCs of one sort or another). But given the lack of solid specs and details (external HD use, line-in jack, resolution and touch sensitivity, potential to be used as a tablet for a desktop PC/Mac), I'm waiting for more solid info.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:32 AM on January 27, 2010


No mention of an SD card reader either, which is frankly weirder. No pictures on your iPad? That's a really strange design choice.

Just goes to show that these devices are designed for consumption, not for your creative participation, or for creative production. The dominant mode is pay and download.

Of course, people will hack it wide open, but it would be so much cooler if someone designed something specifically to make shitloads of awesome art on, IN ADDITION to making the most lucrative content-stuffer ever.
posted by fake at 11:32 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Anyone see an accessory port on it? And the dock port doesn't count since it will be occupied when, er, docked. This thing would make a decent platform for a videophone app if you could stick a camera on it. Preferably one that could be made to face forward or backward depending on what you were using it for.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:32 AM on January 27, 2010


I still hate the idea of having to purchase a separate connection plan for every. fucking. device. Internet + phone at home, internet + phone on my actual phone, and now you want me to pay another thirty bucks for yet another internet connection? Can't I just pay one price and carry my connection around with me?
posted by backseatpilot at 11:33 AM on January 27, 2010 [27 favorites]


There's very little that this does that i wouldn't rather do on the iphone or my macbook.
posted by empath at 11:33 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


SD cards are one of those things that Apple is solidly against, like radios on MP3 players and second buttons on mice that aren't some weird multitouch thing... I'd be hugely suprised to see one.
posted by Artw at 11:34 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Daddy Google is noting your concerns with the new iPad and will have something out shortly.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:34 AM on January 27, 2010


Starting at $500 is actually a good bit better than I thought. Not being able to connect a USB is an issue, though.
posted by Mister_A at 11:34 AM on January 27, 2010


It really seems like it's just going to be a stepping stone for better products down the road.
It got a big 'meh' out of me, and I've been an Apple fangirl since I was a child.
posted by d13t_p3ps1 at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


No mention of an SD card reader either, which is frankly weirder. No pictures on your iPad? That's a really strange design choice.

You sync with iPhoto to get your pics, apparently. The video they're showing now seems to have one too many holes, but maybe it's a second dock connector and not an SD card slot.

That being SAID. having a portable sketchpad with a decent stylus then I would be fucking happy camper.

There's a company that makes a stylus that's compatible with Apple-style capacitive touchscreens, but there's no pressure sensitivity. At least not built into the iPad's screen. Possibly someone could make a powered Bluetooth stylus that transmitted pressure information to a drawing app.

Big questions for me: why no camera of any kind? I was hoping for a front facing camera with software and hardware to correct for perspective distortion. That is, a mechanism for keeping the user looking more or less as though they were facing head on even if they're holding the tablet at an angle.

Second big question: no mic, but can it at least accept an iPhone style headphone + mic? How about a Bluetooth headset? 3G is all well and good but much better if it can do Skype calls.

I still hate the idea of having to purchase a separate connection plan for every. fucking. device. Can't I just pay one price and carry my connection around with me?

Yeah, this, seriously.

SD cards are one of those things that Apple is solidly against

Which is they started installing SD card readers in their laptops...
posted by jedicus at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


You plug in a USB cable and plug it into your computer and it syncs, like an iPhone.

Yes, I much prefer the clunky, Big Brother-esque monster that is iTunes to simply plugging in a USB key and moving my own files around.
posted by hiteleven at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010 [14 favorites]


Google can fuck off until their phone has multitouch. Until then it is worthless.
posted by Artw at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


Any video out of usage? Text entry in particular?
posted by phrontist at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


If I didn't just get a new laptop, I would actually consider getting this - and I say that as someone who doesn't worship at the Church of Steve. Good battery, neat verticalness, decent price (In USD, at least). Obviously, the price would be higher in Canada and I'd need to know more about what exactly it can and can't do, but still, initially I am more impressed than I thought it would be.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


oh man I just burned my cookies! Rats - I may have to bake another batch.
I can't believe your getting an IPS screen on this thing for less than 500.
posted by zenon at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2010


Two years from now, when you can't go into a coffee shop without seeing people working on their iPad, and the product itself has transformed dramatically, and every freaking laptop in the world has become an iPad knockoff, and we can't believe we were ever okay with using mouses or little touch pads because the way we interact with the Web using a touchscreen is so much more intuituve and provides so many unexpected and useful options --

Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010 [49 favorites]


You plug in a USB cable and plug it into your computer and it syncs, like an iPhone.

So, like an iPod touch, this is not a primary device then. Apple sees this as secondary to a main computer, not as a primary device, a central hub that is all one needs to work on the web, store and retrieve files, etc.... That's a very strange and disappointing choice. I had high hopes that this could be, well, a stand-alone device, a netbook (which mostly are ugly, I'll freely admit) done right. Instead, it's a big iPod.
posted by bonehead at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010 [9 favorites]


as far as laptops being ugly, uh, I disagree. A lot of them look fine these days.

They're bulky. There's a lot of abstraction going on that could be done without. There are many aesthetically nice ones, but I'm referring to usability.

But if what's "wrong" with them is the user interaction (which is the only difference here) then how is it even possible for there to be problems that people don't know about?

In every OS market there exist hundreds of small little applications that exist for no purpose other than to manage small little niggling irritations. Window management issues. File management and browsing. Right now I'm running an app that gives me a different menubar clock, another one that functions as a launcher for all my various things, one for quick keyboard file access, etc. They're all trying to cover up a lot of holes that exist because the desktop abstraction's got a lot of issues with it.

When Apple introduced the iPhone, there was a lot of acclaim from usability experts for the design, which does away with any and all interface ambiguity. No scrollbars. No issues with knowing what button does what. There's no dock that you need to comprehend, no weird metaphors you need to comprehend things.

I know it's fun being an ignorant jackass and conflating my appraise of this thing with my being a jizzing fanboy, but that's not what I said. What I said was: This is handling computing in a very different way than my laptop does, and I really like how it's doing it. I said that about my iPod touch, too, but my iPod is too small to read books on, or watch movies on, or write essays on. The iPad? None of those problems. It has the same gorgeous interface, but it's bigger, and adjusted so that I can use it more seriously.

It's not like this will crumble away everything else overnight. But this is a step forward, and I appreciate that. Ten years from now more things will look like the iPad than will look like Windows or OS X.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


"Can't I just pay one price and carry my connection around with me?"

I could have sworn one of the mobile providers was releasing a 3g-to-WiFi mobile hotspot, which you could share all your mobile devices on.
posted by potch at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I find 10 hours a little hard to believe given iPhone battery life... still, plenty of space in there.

I agree, but there's been some significant advantages in the power draw of new processors. Apple acquired PA Semi and some other chip makers during the last year. PA Semi is an impressive firm and it sounds like they put the entire company entirely on this project. This and Apple's iPhone OS team's experience with working on a mobile, battery only platform make me think there's some significant optimizations on a lot of fronts.

It is even more impressive given that the 3GS runs at 600mhz, there's a good 40% gain in processing power. This is really a significant jump, though I'm guessing if I use this like I use my computer now, with multiple tabs running intensive javascript applications, it will probably feel slow in comparison.
posted by geoff. at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010


SD cards are one of those things that Apple is solidly against

Which is they started installing SD card readers in their laptops...


SD cards in media players and phones and whatever this category of thing is going to wind up being.
posted by Artw at 11:36 AM on January 27, 2010


For a trip through the wires, MeFi discusses this newfangled 'iPod' thing, back in 2001.

As many predicted, of course, it was a gigantic failure.
posted by rokusan at 11:37 AM on January 27, 2010 [33 favorites]


The other Apple iPad.

The problem with searching for "iPad" on apple.com is that there are a lot of mis-spellings of iPod littering the results. Strange, as the A and O keys are not exactly side-by-side on the keyboard.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:37 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not really. eReaders use e-ink paper, which was what eventually turned the tide for avid readers....Netbooks are essentially small, cheap, portable, fully-functioning computers.

I'm responding to the idea that there exists an "uncanny valley" where if a device isn't either small enough to fit in your pocket or as powerful as a full-sized laptop, there isn't a use for it. Both eReaders and Netbooks are refutations of this. e-Ink is nice and it's one compelling feature that gets people into this niche, but there's no rule that says it's the one and only such feature. And as for "small, cheap, portable, fully-functioning computer" ... that's what you're looking at here.
posted by weston at 11:37 AM on January 27, 2010


I can't wait for next year, when Apple introduces a 8'x10' version called the iFloor. Apps would include disco floors and the giant keyboard from Big.

Seriously, I hope they invent that.
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:38 AM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Let's put this in There Will Be Blood terms...the iPad does not drink your milkshake...it just doesn't.
posted by hiteleven at 11:38 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Google can fuck off until their phone has multitouch. Until then it is worthless.

All recent Android phones have multitouch hardware and software support. It's deactivated for phones sold in the US market because, IIRC, Apple holds a patent on the technology and refuses to license it.
posted by teraflop at 11:38 AM on January 27, 2010


Real web page, specs and pretty video online now at www.apple.com/ipad/
posted by rokusan at 11:38 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Why people hate on Apple, in one smug photo.
posted by Artw at 11:39 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


I can see the utility of this, though. Not necessarily as a laptop replacement, but certainly as a media gadget. Read the newspaper in the morning, listen to some music while going over paperwork or e-mail on the subway to work, watch a movie on an airplane - sure! Serious data entry, photo editing, or business applications? No way. However, I could see myself carrying something like this with my work computer on a business trip.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:40 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


SD cards are one of those things that Apple is solidly against, like radios on MP3 players

How hugely against them can they be when macbooks have SD slots and the iPod nano has an FM tuner?

and second buttons on mice that aren't some weird multitouch thing

I've been using my prev-gen "magic" apple mouse as a two-button mouse for years. It's just a setting in OSX to enable it, and the feel is just about indistinguishable from two separate physical buttons.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:40 AM on January 27, 2010


To answer the question above, the answer is 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi), which is more than double the iPhone, so there must be some letterboxing going on in "2x" mode.
posted by rokusan at 11:40 AM on January 27, 2010


Two years from now, when you can't go into a coffee shop without seeing people working on their iPad, and the product itself has transformed dramatically, and every freaking laptop in the world has become an iPad knockoff, and we can't believe we were ever okay with using mouses or little touch pads because the way we interact with the Web using a touchscreen is so much more intuituve and provides so many unexpected and useful options --

Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.


I definitely see the potential here, but it's not Jesus Phone potential. To me, this honestly looks like Apple TV caliber stuff. I can't imagine anyone I know buying one, and I most likely won't buy it, unless someone comes up with some cool audio stuff to do with it (using it to run Ableton would be AWESOME)
posted by empath at 11:40 AM on January 27, 2010


Yeah no USB plugs either. It has apple-made office apps for $9, but you're not going to be able to run any software you want.

Plus, it actually seems like Apple was a little behind Microsoft this time. Balmer introduced the HP slate about two weeks ago, which is an ordinary PC that runs a full OS.
posted by delmoi at 11:41 AM on January 27, 2010


Not being able to connect a USB is an issue, though.

It syncs over USB just like an iPhone or an iPod, according to Engadget's liveblog.
posted by spilon at 11:41 AM on January 27, 2010


. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Can you bother to pay attention for five seconds? It has wifi.


ahem.
posted by niles at 11:41 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.

That's because you're viewing it in landscape mode.
posted by chara at 11:41 AM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.

Most Apple products are very good two years down the line. That's still a long time to fix the initial project. What's your point?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:42 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


delmoi: The fact that the HP Slate runs the full OS is a BAD thing, for the same reason every Windows and Mac tablet is unpopular and unloved. But apparently you've been living in a cave for ten years where people like using touch screens for operating systems that weren't specifically designed for touch screens.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:43 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.

Indeed. Some of this thread reads as LudditeFilter, which is disappointing.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:43 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Two years from now, when you can't go into a coffee shop without seeing people working on their iPad, and the product itself has transformed dramatically, and every freaking laptop in the world has become an iPad knockoff, and we can't believe we were ever okay with using mouses or little touch pads because the way we interact with the Web using a touchscreen is so much more intuituve and provides so many unexpected and useful options --

Well, this thread is going to look awfully short-sited.


The major caveat to this is, even if it's true, what makes the iPad the tablet to own? There's nothing majorly new here...unless you call all the tablets made in the past 10 years iPad "knockoffs" by anachronistic conceit.
posted by hiteleven at 11:43 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Also this is going to be the most amazing universal remote. Ever.
posted by geoff. at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


Plus, it actually seems like Apple was a little behind Microsoft this time. Balmer introduced the HP slate about two weeks ago, which is an ordinary PC that runs a full OS.

Theres been tablet PCs around for ages, like the ones with the styluses and the little fold around keyboards - in general they pretty much suck, and are a good argument for a custom OS.
posted by Artw at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


There's very little that this does that i wouldn't rather do on the iphone or my macbook.

Yeah, me too, I think. Maybe I'll change my mind once I've played with one, but even seeing photos of Steve all curled up in his chair playing with the iPad made me think it would be physically awkward to use. My ipod touch I can hold in one hand; my laptop sits comfortably on my lap, with the screen up there where I can see it.

Still. A $14.99/mo data plan, unlocked device....Hmmm.
posted by rtha at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2010


"iTampon" is already trending on twitter. Oy.
posted by fight or flight at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2010


The major caveat to this is, even if it's true, what makes the iPad the tablet to own? There's nothing majorly new here...unless you call all the tablets made in the past 10 years iPad "knockoffs" by anachronistic conceit.

What makes the iPod the mp3 player to own? Or the iPhone the phone to own? Surely some time within the next 10 years somebody will make an mp3 player that beats out the iPod.

If Microsoft makes an mp3 player...? Boy! Apple would be TOAST!
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


not necessarily as a laptop replacement, but certainly as a media gadget. Read the newspaper in the morning, listen to some music while going over paperwork or e-mail on the subway to work, watch a movie on an airplane - sure!

The thing is, i already do all this with the iphone and that fits in my pocket.
posted by empath at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


what makes the iPad the tablet to own?

The software? Are there really "killer apps" that make a Windows tablet a compelling purchase at this point for most people, compared with an iPad?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010


There's nothing majorly new here...unless you call all the tablets made in the past 10 years iPad "knockoffs" by anachronistic conceit.

iPod managed to make itself the original mp3 player retroactively...
posted by Artw at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Except for the keyboard they just announced, Shmegegge?

not really. does it need one or not? I'm certainly glad they're not making it so you HAVE to type on the touchscreen, but that still doesn't make it "the future of computing." it's still a middle ground device that isn't sufficiently meeting any needs except as a color ereader/web browser, which isn't revolutionary. again, if it meets your needs, go you. but the hype is out of control on this.
posted by shmegegge at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


The price on this thing is reasonable, especially for Apple and double-especially with the cheap no-contract unlimited 3G data plan they somehow got ATT to give up.

That said, it's still a bit expensive for a couch-surfing gadget, which is about all I think I'd want it for, so I'll probably pass on version 1, myself.

I do expect to see some great wall-mount accessories though. It could be nice in a kitchen, for example.
posted by rokusan at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Maybe for $300 with tethering. Otherwise, it's hard for me to justify getting my 2007 MacBook Pro and 4G (yes, 4th gen!) iPod a friend.
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010


The major caveat to this is, even if it's true, what makes the iPad the tablet to own?
It's $499 and the software doesn't blow goats, basically.
posted by bonaldi at 11:45 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


There will be much howling when someone drops one.
posted by Artw at 11:46 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


ahem.

Ah!
posted by rtha at 11:46 AM on January 27, 2010


(using it to run Ableton would be AWESOME)

Seriously. Make it connect to my Mac-based Pro Tools system via bluetooth and allow multiple co-producers in the same room to edit sessions as a group without everyone having to nudge the control-desk guy away from the mouse everytime someone wants to show the group a little idea. I'd buy one then.
posted by The World Famous at 11:46 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


So, it's 132 dpi (dimensions included besel), which implies a 7 3/4 by 5.8 inch screen, or 9.6" diagonal. No mention of SD or USB connectors, and yeah I think it's kinda important that a real computer be able to function as a USB host rather than just a client.

Can you print off of this thing, for example? Store files?

Two years from now, when you can't go into a coffee shop without seeing people working on their iPad

Maybe that's true, but this isn't my Jesus device. It's close, but I want some I can create with, not just consume creations on. Apple, again has made a primo consumer device, but I don't (just) want to be a consumer.
posted by bonehead at 11:46 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The thing is, i already do all this with the iphone and that fits in my pocket.

David Lynch has something to say to you.
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:47 AM on January 27, 2010 [13 favorites]


I can see the utility of this, though. Not necessarily as a laptop replacement, but certainly as a media gadget.

Yeah, as it is now I would use this around the house or someplace with WiFi for media consumption/internet and email use but not as a replacement for my laptop for doing actual remote work. It would just be an alternative to breaking out the laptop.

But anyway, the idea of a ubiquitous data pad is nothing new and this first gen iPad is a step towards that. What would be ideal is to have something that seamlessly folded out from pocket sized to iPad sized with full features in either of its modes. Something like that is probably a good decade away, and will be dependent upon better molecular-level manufacturing processes.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:47 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I still can't figure out who they're marketing this to. Many people (myself included) already have a Macbook and an iPhone. Even if you already own just one of those, I'm not sure why you'd buy the iPad.
posted by blaneyphoto at 11:47 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


As both a user of Apple products and a Kindle(DX) owner, I don't think this poses any threat to the Kindle. What I want in an e-reader is orthogonal to what I want in a multipurpose computer. In an e-reader, I want exceptional battery life, passive screen, and no distractions. What I want in a computing device (notebook, tablet, etc.) is performance, a bright, crisp screen, and access to all kinds of stuff.
posted by potch at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'll wait until it has a built-in user-facing camera (you know it's coming in v2). Video chat on this device would be wonderous.
posted by xthlc at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'll sit and wait for the non-idiot price.

Considering the problems people have been having with the most recent iMacs, I'd wait to make sure it really works.
posted by homunculus at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2010


It also works with any bluetooth keyboard, which is nice, because that keyboard dock looks a little hickish.
posted by rokusan at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2010


All recent Android phones have multitouch hardware and software support. It's deactivated for phones sold in the US market because, IIRC, Apple holds a patent on the technology and refuses to license it.

Palm seemed happy to implement multitouch on the Pre. Microsoft and other companies are using pinch-to-zoom and other multitouch gestures. Anyway, Apple isn't stupid. They applied for multi-touch patents in Europe, South Korea, Canada, and Australia as well as the US, so if it's the patent that's the problem it's a little strange that they would take their chances everywhere but here.
posted by jedicus at 11:49 AM on January 27, 2010


I can't see using it myself to fill the gap between iPhone and laptop, becuase, really, I don't see a gap there.

But, I absolutely see myself buying this for my 70+ year old parents. Intuitive use + big enough to see = WIN
posted by dpx.mfx at 11:49 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


(using it to run Ableton would be AWESOME)

And it's a pretty safe bet that DJ and Band-In-A-Box types of apps are going to be huge on this thing.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:49 AM on January 27, 2010


And as for "small, cheap, portable, fully-functioning computer" ... that's what you're looking at here.

A proper computer runs Emacs. Anything else is just a TV with chrome and tail-fins. </luddite>
posted by enn at 11:49 AM on January 27, 2010 [16 favorites]


I look forwards to buying broken ones on eBay a couple years from now for $10, fixing them, and attaching them to trees in the woods to freak out the hippies at music festivals.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:50 AM on January 27, 2010 [12 favorites]


The problem that I have with this is that it still has the issues that rankle me about the iPhone. Apps have to get approved by Apple before they can be distributed. No multitasking/background processing. No real filesystem access. I don't think the restrictive sandbox approach makes sense on a device like this. On a phone maybe. But if someone tried to sell you a laptop with these kind of restrictions, you would probably tell them to shove it, and this device looks more like a laptop than a phone to me.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 11:50 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


iPad is an awful name.

and why on earth are they sticking with AT&T? do they not realize the profit to be made from putting iphone on verizon (or other carriers)?

this iCrap will only work with AT&T apparently. not that'll i be getting one.
i'll wait for about 7 interations. my iTouch is just fine and serves as a Kindle as well. all for under $200 and no data plan required.

bleh.
posted by sio42 at 11:50 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The software? Are there really "killer apps" that make a Windows tablet a compelling purchase at this point for most people, compared with an iPad?

in truth, I hope the software DOES set it apart. I'm a little skeptical, since I was hoping for a full OS X tablet. on the windows side, I work with a guy who use an old windows tablet for all kinds of networking stuff because he has all of their standard software working on it out of the box. that windows' touchscreen support is shit is his kind of consistent lament, so I feel confident this would have that advantage. But on the other hand, he's perfectly happy using a laptop or netbook for the same shit, so... this particular device may not be a significant plus for him.

I think that's what earns the biggest meh for me. it seems like it's a very restrictive upside, and you may have to accept a pretty steep lack of functionality until they make the full OS version in some too-short amount of time.
posted by shmegegge at 11:50 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Skip the technobabble, just tell me how this will revolutionize porn!!!

A window wiper pops out of a recessed opening at the top, and has an 'intermittent' setting.
posted by fatbird at 11:51 AM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


They've never lied about their iPhone/Macbook battery claims.

I own an iPhone 3GS. Their claims for its battery life are, frankly, overblown. It has never, from day one, gotten the life they claim for it. It's not terrible, but it's not 5 hours of 3G browsing, either. Before you ask, no, I don't keep it in the glove compartment; I follow battery best practices, and I still don't get what they say I should. No mobile device I have used has ever lived up to its battery life claims. Not a single one.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:51 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I can't figure out who would want to watch TV on a computer! You already have a TV... who needs another screen??? And I don't get why people want to buy an Xbox when my PC already plays games just fine! I already have a camera who wants a camera on a phone that would be even worse??

Email on a phone ? Look guys people just don't ever need something that does things something else already does
posted by Rory Marinich at 11:51 AM on January 27, 2010


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
posted by localhuman at 11:51 AM on January 27, 2010 [17 favorites]


not that i really had my heart set on some apple breakthrough product, but i'm pretty underwhelmed by this announcement. the amount of secrecy and speculation is SO disproportionate to the actual product. Fine, it's pretty small and is high capacity..but these are all incremental changes. Apple changes the hubcaps and proclaims that they've reinvented the wheel :P
posted by Damn That Television at 11:52 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


There will be much howling when someone drops one.

Oh, they'll have to come up with a new word for that. "He just went padless"?, for starters.
posted by jsavimbi at 11:52 AM on January 27, 2010


delmoi: "The business model stuff is actually a step backwards moving to a locked down, approved by apple, DRM larded world that previously was only used by game consoles and cellphones. "

This.

The iPad is a cool thing, yes. It's slick, and the interface is exactly as beautiful as I was expecting from Apple. But will I be buying one, so that I may only consume what Apple has approved and create with apps that only Apple has approved? No.
posted by Plutor at 11:52 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


What makes the iPod the mp3 player to own? Or the iPhone the phone to own? Surely some time within the next 10 years somebody will make an mp3 player that beats out the iPod.

Both were light years ahead of similar products in terms to functionality. And, I'm sorry, this just isn't the case here.

Sure, Microsoft software sucks, but it's also the software that most people use to store documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.

What will iPad software be like? I was a little disturbed that so much of the presentation focused on the ability to use existing iPhone apps. Unless there are decent productivity applications available soon, they'll lose that market.
posted by hiteleven at 11:52 AM on January 27, 2010


I can't imagine anyone I know buying one, and I most likely won't buy it, unless someone comes up with some cool audio stuff to do with it (using it to run Ableton would be AWESOME)

See, that is what I wanted. Something that would make audio and video editing easier. A tablet running Snow Leopard with a couple of USB ports would be awesome for manipulating audio and video. But the iPad won't be able to do this for a few reasons. The primary being that there's no direct disc access or any kind of port to import data outside of the standard iPod/iPhone connector. So you're stuck with recording/filming what you need, copying it up to an intermediary device, a laptop most likely, and then, like iPhone apps, using an http connection through local wifi to transfer. And then transferring it back to the laptop for storage.

Which means that I could just upload it to my MacBook Pro with a USB connection and not bother with the iPad.

As it stands, this thing doesn't do anything my iPhone doesn't and my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro do more. So, yeah, don't really see myself buying it.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:53 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


It's cute. It does pretty much what everyone thought it would, plus or minus a couple of things. It will probably sell quite well. I will never buy one until (not unless; I've made my mind up) I hit the lottery, as an iPhone is quite enough portable computer for me, but I would probably enjoy one if I owned one.

I'm again not getting the things that people choose to get worked up over. There is a wide variety of consumer electronics available for purchase as we speak, some of which will almost certainly suit your needs even if this one doesn't. Apple benefits from your attention whether it's positive or negative; if you don't like its products, ignore them. (And on the other side...well, maybe "get a life" is too harsh, but a few of you do need to work on your objectivity.)
posted by Epenthesis at 11:53 AM on January 27, 2010


Google can fuck off until their phone has multitouch. Until then it is worthless.

Yeah, what do they think we want, a portable telephone? Idiots.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:53 AM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


"this iCrap will only work with AT&T apparently. not that'll i be getting one."

I know "metafilter.com" and "slashdot.org" are spelled really similar, but do try to be more careful in the future. Thanks.
posted by potch at 11:53 AM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


The Spittle is strong here.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:54 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


ATTENTION: I AM MORE CYNICAL AND THEREFORE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN YOU.
posted by aramaic at 11:54 AM on January 27, 2010 [19 favorites]


Amazon has changed the text on their front-page Kindle ad to "Easy to Read, Even in Bright Sunlight." Well played, Amazon. Your e-reader shall soon be mine.
posted by moviehawk at 11:54 AM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


So far this seems to be the best option for an eBook reader, plus all the other apps make it kind of neat, but it's just "kind of" neat, not "oh my god" neat the way the iPhone was when it came out.

I'm not sure what else people were expecting. It's a tablet thingy, not a computer. Why do people always throw a nutty when it doesn't have their favorite feature?

Really, it's the Newspad from 2001, which when you think about it is kind of cool. At least something came true.
posted by bondcliff at 11:55 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


There was an iPod with a tuner? I'd missed that. I'm more than a little suprised.
posted by Artw at 11:55 AM on January 27, 2010


I'm not sure what else people were expecting.

Well... pretty much this. Which makes it all the odder than now it's here I'm not that fussed about it.
posted by Artw at 11:56 AM on January 27, 2010


Well, it's impressively cheap. I just paid more than the base model price for my Nexus One. Maybe it'll be desirable when people start writing iPad-only apps for it, but "it's like a giant iPhone" doesn't make me go "whee" at all.

But then again I'm an artist, who's been married to Adobe Illustrator for ten years; I won't be interested in something like this until I can run AI (or some iPad-specific vector art tool that has certain esoteric AI features my whole workflow relies on) on it.
posted by egypturnash at 11:56 AM on January 27, 2010


So I'm feeling this inevitable letdown even though this is a pretty great device. The hype gets me whipped up for no rational reason. My lizard brain is connected to my gadget brain somehow in some sort of evolutionary short circuit.

Anyway, here we are. My very important thoughts.

1. Apple built a processor. This is a pretty big deal. This is really break-out stuff that will be hard to match. That's where 10 hours of battery life comes from. No Intel-based slate PC can compete on the battery life front, even with CULV and other improvements. ARM has come from behind here with a huge win.

2. This is a media consumption device. Apple is the new universal media middleman. An upgrade from the new music middleman. Now it's music, video, books, games. If you wear special glasses during the keynote the projector is really showing words like "CONSUME" and "OBEY" in 5,000 point type. Anyway, this thing is all about horizontal media consumption, preferably where the user pays per item. No support for streaming services, subscription services, whatever. No Netflix, no Pandora, no Rhapsody et al for a very specific strategic reason. media companies love this because it's sexy and because it drives unit sales. None of this subscription bullshit.

3. Cheap 3G. I wager AT&T knows that this thing will be light on bandwidth compared to a 3G data stick. No one is going to run torrents or WebEx meetings or other super-consumers of bandwidth. I don't think AT&T is going to lose money at $30 monthly unlimited.

4. It's not a computer. It's a consumer media device with an attached ecosystem of consumables. You can do computer-like stuff on it. But that's secondary. It's a media device made possible by microprocessors and IPS screens and such.

5. The price is pretty impressive. $499 is a great low end price point.

6. Exact CPU specs? 1 GHz doesn't mean that much. Screen resolution? Is it really just double an ipod? That would mean 480x320 becomes 960x640? That would be pixel quadrupling and not doubling for iPhone apps, but that's hair-splitting. Honestly, the resolution is underwhelming but it's sufficient. Actual RAM separate from device storage? 256 MB runtime RAM is still pretty stinky. Apple buyers are not actually tech spec weenies no none of this stuff is likely to matter much.

7. Keyboard dock? WTF? Let me drop this on you: BLUETOOTH. WTF would I want a wired keyboard for? Give me the basic dock and let me use my wireless bluetooth keyboard. This is old tech. No idea why they wouldn't support this but apparently it's still not on the iPhone/iTouch.

8. Still no multitasking? Alerts are probably unimportant for this device as you won't have it in your pocket. It's really a laptop usage model. But it seems odd that they feel no pressure to innovate in this area.

9. If Reed Hastings had come on stage I would have ordered one already. As is, call me when you get the subscription based services on board.
posted by GuyZero at 11:56 AM on January 27, 2010 [17 favorites]


I was hoping for a camera embedded in the screen, but it looks like there's no camera at all.
posted by stopgap at 11:56 AM on January 27, 2010


A proper computer runs Emacs. Anything else is just a TV with chrome and tail-fins

emacs on iPod touch

(Actually, emacs on a Mac Plus emulated on an iPod touch.)
posted by weston at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


cashman
iScream?

uScream ...

I gave up my home computer awhile ago, but plan to replace it one day.

My first impression of the iPad is, it looks excellent for browsing & watching movies, and ok for social networking (Facebook is not as robust on the iPhone as on a full computer), but I can't figure out if you can download applications and programs that aren't in iTunes.

(I feel like an iIdiot for typing "i" in front of all these brand names.)

Has anyone figured out if this pad can handle programs like Office (or Open Office), Mozilla, photo editing freeware, or MixMeister? If I can't have those, I don't want it.

But if it does, yeah ... I want one.
posted by kanewai at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2010


Apple loads gun, shoots self in foot. The Mac fans applaud and coo at the beauty of the hole. Everyone realizes the hole is ugly and walks by.

Shall we dance again? :)
posted by Damn That Television at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


> Plus, it actually seems like Apple was a little behind Microsoft this time. Balmer introduced the HP slate about two weeks ago, which is an ordinary PC that runs a full OS.

Two weeks ago? Try again.

Of course, Apple was ahead there, too.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2010


using it to run Ableton would be AWESOME

You can already do this with the OSC protocol. Check out iOSC (brief demo).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


3. Cheap 3G. I wager AT&T knows that this thing will be light on bandwidth compared to a 3G data stick. No one is going to run torrents or WebEx meetings or other super-consumers of bandwidth. I don't think AT&T is going to lose money at $30 monthly unlimited.

I don't know about that. They're getting hammered by iPhone data usage, how is this any different? Sure, probably less units (probably) but you can feasibly use a LOT more bandwidth on one of these than an iPhone.
posted by jckll at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


It can only output up to 1024x768 on an external screen. That's kind of crap, frankly.

# UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
# GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)

So it won't work with T-Mobile's 3G network even if it gets unlocked. That's too bad. But at least you should, hopefully, be able to take it abroad, plug in a pre-paid SIM card, and get data access wherever you are.

Regarding SD cards and acting as a USB host:

"iPad Camera Connection Kit
The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card."
posted by jedicus at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Obama's STOU opening line: "Unlike the iPad, I can multitask".
posted by hiteleven at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Sorry, SOTU.
posted by hiteleven at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010


There was an iPod with a tuner? I'd missed that. I'm more than a little suprised.

You can thank the Zune for that.
posted by longdaysjourney at 11:58 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


ok, GuyZero just answered my questions. "Media Consumption Device" pretty much covers it.
posted by kanewai at 11:59 AM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I was hoping for a camera embedded in the screen, but it looks like there's no camera at all.

That's definitely a downside. It would have raised the price considerably, and it may have introduced a forced orientation to the device. Right now, you can pick up and use the device in any orientation.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010


I know it's fun being an ignorant jackass and conflating my appraise of this thing with my being a jizzing fanboy


I've been waiting a month for this announcement. It's like a holiday for my favorite hobby.


Turns out, no conflation necessary.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


What will iPad software be like? I was a little disturbed that so much of the presentation focused on the ability to use existing iPhone apps. Unless there are decent productivity applications available soon, they'll lose that market.

Did you see the demos of iTunes, iPhoto, the calendar, etc.? They didn't just upscale the applications; they added a lot of functionality. Ditto the Brushes app and the NY Times one.

It's not just the bigger screen, it's the addition of a lot of extra horsepower. Developers suddenly have a lot of freedom to make things, and they're building it in the same iPhone context that encourages gorgeous, elegant design.

Both were light years ahead of similar products in terms to functionality. And, I'm sorry, this just isn't the case here.

I think if you compare it to the iPod and the Macbook, you're right: It's kind of taking the best of each, but it's not breakthrough. But now compare it to other products in the $500 multipurpose computational device category and it looks pretty breakthrough.

The reason it won't be surpassed is that its biggest selling points are going to be things like ease of use and gorgeousness. That's what makes people buy things. Other companies have to play catch-up to Apple right now, and they haven't shown they can do a good job even once they spend a lot of time recovering.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


This would be better gift than the iMac I got for my Mum. It's cheap enough to be a gift and I won't need to close down 10 running applications every time I visit. She only ever uses 1 at a time. It looks like it would be simpler to explain.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


It's a cookbook!
posted by doctorschlock at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [12 favorites]


delmoi: " Apple was a little behind Microsoft this time. Balmer introduced the HP slate about two weeks ago, which is an ordinary PC that runs a full OS."

That was only first-gen. Next up: the Microsoft Plank!

The Plank comes with a patented "ooze" mode that lets you transfer files to another Plank user at battery-saving low baud rates.
posted by Joe Beese at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010


No Netflix, no Pandora, no Rhapsody et al for a very specific strategic reason.

Is the Pandora app not going to work on it?

Of course $499 is a lot for something that's going to sit in a corner and play web streamed music at you without being able to do anything else at the same time.
posted by Artw at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Ah, "It also comes with a headphone jack and a built-in microphone." So you will be able to do Skype calls at least, just without video. It is pretty startling that they didn't just go whole hog and throw in a video camera. I wonder if AT&T refused to offer cheap 3G if there was a camera. I imagine their network would fall to pieces (well, even smaller pieces) if video conferencing over the cellular network became common.
posted by jedicus at 12:01 PM on January 27, 2010


The audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is decidedly underwhelmed, Lyons says; early excitement is "draining away." Some in the crowd are just browsing the Web on their own devices, not even paying attention to the Apple presentation.
posted by hiteleven at 12:01 PM on January 27, 2010


Kindle v. iPad: I still think the glareless e-paper wins out. I don't need color books.
posted by leotrotsky at 12:01 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


The iPad: A prediction from 2001.
posted by flatluigi at 12:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


If they could figure out a way to incorporate e-ink into the display in a way that allowed you to use it as a e-book reader (unlit, no power being used except to change pages) and a color, lit, LCD screen capable of video, you'd truly have a killer device. It's the right size and form factor to pull this off, too.

But it doesn't do that. So for the moment, I remain unimpressed.

Then, I haven't switched to an iPhone yet either, so perhaps there is some awesome quality to this that I'm not getting. Either way, I'll wait till gen-3 before I'd even bother considering it.
posted by quin at 12:02 PM on January 27, 2010


7. Keyboard dock? WTF? Let me drop this on you: BLUETOOTH. WTF would I want a wired keyboard for?

Elsewhere people are saying any bluetooth keyboard works. I hope so -- in fact, I hope Apple's smart enough to support every big bluetooth option here -- DUN, FTP/OBEX, A2DP, HID, HFP, the whole shebang. But they've made me a doubter with the history of the iPod Touch.
posted by weston at 12:02 PM on January 27, 2010


Screw the soft keyboard, with the size and and this quality of this touchscreen, I want every app to support handwriting recognition, in-place. There's plenty of CPU available these days and what are Apple programmers good at if not usability improvements? Handwriting recognition's time may have finally come.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I can see it having it's niche, not being filled with the gotta have it urge yet. Think I'll wait for the 2nd generation one to come out. Price point is very nice though.
posted by arcticseal at 12:03 PM on January 27, 2010


Did you see the demos of iTunes, iPhoto, the calendar, etc.? They didn't just upscale the applications; they added a lot of functionality. Ditto the Brushes app and the NY Times one.

It's not just the bigger screen, it's the addition of a lot of extra horsepower. Developers suddenly have a lot of freedom to make things, and they're building it in the same iPhone context that encourages gorgeous, elegant design.


High-end apps will be the key to this thing. They'll have to come out fast. I already have iTunes, and the NYT looks fine on my laptop...I'll need more than that.
posted by hiteleven at 12:03 PM on January 27, 2010


Can't run more than one app at once–does this thing run Vista®?
posted by Mister_A at 12:04 PM on January 27, 2010


[A few comments removed. jckll, you're being a jerk, cut it out.]
posted by cortex at 12:04 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


the NYT looks fine on my laptop

...for now!
posted by Artw at 12:04 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I won't make any success/failure predictions, but man, am I underwhelmed by this. And not even ONE camera, let alone two! Also, there were some pretty strong forecasts that a new version of the iPhone OS would drop... but nothing of the sort.
posted by evilcolonel at 12:04 PM on January 27, 2010


If they could figure out a way to incorporate e-ink into the display in a way that allowed you to use it as a e-book reader (unlit, no power being used except to change pages) and a color, lit, LCD screen capable of video, you'd truly have a killer device.

That's the concept behind Pixel Qi's product, but from people who've had a chance to look at them they're still a bit underwhelming. Maybe next iteration.

The other thing I was expecting was revolutionary multi-touch based handwriting recognition. Apple's got some patent applications based on holding an imaginary pen and writing on the screen with pressed thumb and forefinger. I guess that's a possible software upgrade.
posted by jedicus at 12:05 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Blast from the past

In other news: people still think they know better than Steve.
posted by paanta at 12:05 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


7. Keyboard dock? WTF? Let me drop this on you: BLUETOOTH. WTF would I want a wired keyboard for?

I'd agree with you if it weren't for the fact that the keyboard is also the dock. From Apple's perspective it's a lot smarter to release a single dongly thing that does two things than to release two dongly things.

Also, given the form factor of the iPad, I can't imagine why you'd want a wireless keyboard. Would you rest both of them on the floor? How are you imagining nesting the iPad in a way that you'd be able to see it well as you type? It would have to be at a 90-degree angle, I'd think, at which point just dock it and charge as you do so.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:05 PM on January 27, 2010


I want every app to support handwriting recognition

I think in general the world has taken a look at that, and at styluses, and collectively said No.
posted by Artw at 12:05 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


So many peoples' heads are going to explode. "New Apple thing...but it replaces my Moleskine!"
posted by Legomancer at 12:06 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


Bluetooth DUN, dream on. No tethering, no way. AT&T would die ever deader. FTP meaybe, A2DP is already there I expect. HID would be fun if you could use your Wiimote.
posted by GuyZero at 12:06 PM on January 27, 2010


By 2020, data pad-type devices will replace high end desktop computers, mobile phones, laptops, and be pretty much your "jesus device". They will have insane 3D video, transfer data wirelessly much faster than 100 GbE, stop bullets, work 200 feet underwater, battery life for a month, etc etc etc. Any kind of raving, moaning, apologizing, or groaning here about this device is kind of just like getting stuck in a single frame in a film reel.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:06 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


A thought about the 250MB 3G plan. Since there's no contract, I hope the overage charges are capped at $15 (i.e., to match the $30 of the unlimited plan). Wouldn't surprise me if AT&T screwed people on that, though.
posted by jedicus at 12:08 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm not super-excited about the device itself, but offering no-contract unlocked 3G data is just huge. A potential game-changer, really. If this becomes popular, and other GSM providers start offering contract-free service for it, and IP telephony applications become available, the entire cellular marketplace is going to be disrupted in a big, consumer-positive, way.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:09 PM on January 27, 2010


Scanning through the comments, I see that my prediction is right: Stupidity, AppleKnowsBestism, DRM and high expense.

The only surprising part is that people still flock to Apple. Mindboggling.
posted by DU at 12:10 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


So I can give my wife a Macintosh-simple unit that does everything she wants without paying the Macintosh price
and never have to do tech support again?

Sign me up!
posted by DWRoelands at 12:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Amazon has changed the text on their front-page Kindle ad to "Easy to Read, Even in Bright Sunlight." Well played, Amazon.

They also sell books printed on paper that don't require batteries.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 12:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


Two years from now, when you can't go into a coffee shop without seeing people working on their iPad, and the product itself has transformed dramatically, and every freaking laptop in the world has become an iPad knockoff, and we can't believe we were ever okay with using mouses or little touch pads because the way we interact with the Web using a touchscreen is so much more intuituve and provides so many unexpected and useful options --

Oh please. Apple didn't invent this form factor, just like they didn't invent the portable MP3 player. And like someone linked too, HP and Dell and other windows PC makers have already announced "Slate" PCs a couple weeks ago. They just didn't get the breathless coverage and anticipation that Apple did, because it was Apple.
They're [laptops] bulky. There's a lot of abstraction going on that could be done without. There are many aesthetically nice ones, but I'm referring to usability. -- Rory Marinich
Whatever "Abstraction going on that could be done without" is supposed to mean.
In every OS market there exist hundreds of small little applications that exist for no purpose other than to manage small little niggling irritations ...Right now I'm running an app that gives me a different menubar clock, another one that functions as a launcher for all my various things, one for quick keyboard file access, etc.--Rory Marinich
Well, look that's like saying there's something wrong with most cars because you can get stickers and accessories for them. No one needs an app that changes the menubar clock, and who's to say this device will have a menubar clock you like? There's no reason to think that it will and not only that but it's actually much less likely that you'll be able to change the menubar clock either.

As far as launching apps goes, I don't know what the deal is with Mac users needing special programs to launch apps. It's not that hard or complicated.

The idea that this device will somehow be 'free of annoyances' is absurd.
When Apple introduced the iPhone, there was a lot of acclaim from usability experts for the design, which does away with any and all interface ambiguity. No scrollbars. No issues with knowing what button does what. There's no dock that you need to comprehend, no weird metaphors you need to comprehend things.-- Rory Marinich
See, I don't even get this. Scrollbars? Scrollbars are too complicated for people to figure out? Seriously? This is exactly what I'm talking about when I refer to "UI Nerds". People who are interested in usability as some kind of theoretical ideal when in fact just because some machine doesn't work the way they envision, people can still use their computers.

I mean how lazy do you have to be to be unable to figure out things like scroll bars and "what button does what"? This isn't 1994 when UIs were first being sold. People have got things mostly figured out.
Window management issues. File management and browsing.
Oh great, and this solves the problem by what? Letting you only run one app at a time, and not letting manipulate files at all! Well, except you need to synch it with a regular PC so all the file management issues are still there, just on a different device.

If you want to run one app on your PC and completely ignore your files on a PC you can. No one is stopping you. Taking away options isn't really an improvement.

You're basically arguing that this is a device for people too dumb to use computers, despite the fact that that's a problem that pretty much went away this decade.
I know it's fun being an ignorant jackass and conflating my appraise of this thing with my being a jizzing fanboy, but that's not what I said. -- Rory Marinich
Oh come on. You just said "Computers were shit" without giving any examples. And when you did they were stupid "Scrollbars!" "Customization exists, therefore there must be flaws! I changed my clock because the clock was shit! But I can't change the clock on this thing therefore it must be perfect and I'd never need to change it!"

Come on, it's ridiculous.
delmoi: The fact that the HP Slate runs the full OS is a BAD thing, for the same reason every Windows and Mac tablet is unpopular and unloved. But apparently you've been living in a cave for ten years where people like using touch screens for operating systems that weren't specifically designed for touch screens. -- Rory Marinich


Yeah, it's called the real world. And obviously Microsoft put a lot of work into making Win 7 work on touch screens. But that's kind of beside the point. I like having a computer; I like being able to do whatever I want to with it. Maybe you don't, and I think that moving towards a world where everyone uses locked-down machines that only run approved software and have interfaces designed for morons is a bad direction.
Brother, this is my Super Bowl. Some people love watching teams of people throw a ball around. I love watching a team of industrial designers and software engineers create products and present it to me with the help of one of the world's best advertising agencies. -- Rory Marinich
In other words... a 'Jizzing fanboy'?
posted by delmoi at 12:12 PM on January 27, 2010 [30 favorites]


If I was the kind of person who liked to spend too much money on gadgets (I already do spend too much on gadgets, but I don't like the spending part) I could see owning one of these as a "surf the web in bed, on the couch, etc" tool. Well, as long as it is really is semi zippy and can handle modern browsing. (Even giving the chip designers amazing powers and assuming the 1ghz chip is 2x as fast as an equivalent ARM cpu, that's still going to be noticeably slower than even a cheap laptop.) But I'm pretty addicted to tabbed browsing so it would have to do that, and if it lacks multitasking then having a good rss reader would be impossible. (I do at least half my browsing in Vienna these days.) But I don't really see this taking off like the iPhone did; it's just not portable enough.
posted by aspo at 12:13 PM on January 27, 2010


The only surprising part is that people still flock to Apple. Mindboggling.

I know. Every morning when I wake up and beat back my iPod, which has grown limbs and has attempted to strangle me, and open up my computer, which injects a subtle serum that'd led to the loss of my fingernails, I have a brief thought like, "Maybe there's something bewilderingly bad about these moderately-priced pieces of hardware that somehow I've never noticed," before the ultraviolet screen flashes on and that thought rots along with my cerebellum.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:13 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I think in general the world has taken a look at that, and at styluses, and collectively said No.

Who said anything about styluses? And if the world said "no" to anything, it was to handwriting recognition on devices with unresponsive touchpads, slow processors, immature software and/or a dedicated writing style you had to learn (e.g. Graffiti 1&2). None of those things need apply now. A keyboard that covers half the screen is not optimal, and using both hands to type while sitting (or worse, standing) on a bus is beyond awkward. Writing with one fingertip definitely has its place on a display like this.

Certainly handwriting recognition isn't optimal as the default interface for everybody, but it would be superb if it were available when wanted.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:13 PM on January 27, 2010


I've been a Metafilter lurker for a very long time, and I remember reading that original iPod thread. I thought the same thing then that I do now: "Did these people just see the same thing that I did?"

Admittedly, I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy (it's just like being a little bit pregnant!). However, you can also put me squarely into the "Apple is becoming Microsoft" camp. I'm not thrilled with the app approval process, I don't like the relationships with the big media companies, etc.

With that said, I think this device is a game changer. Personally, it's what I have wanted for five years. When nerding it up outside my office, a laptop is too clunky when surfing/reading. It's two surfaces stuck together at a 90 degree angle.

When I got an iPhone, that was a big improvement. But the hell if my old eyes could read newsfeeds or webpages on that tiny screen. I wanted an iPhone with a bigger display. And today I got one.

It's not a device for creating, despite the iWork and Brushes demos. That's what a computer is for. This is a device for consuming and sharing. I can't wait to walk into a client meeting with this thing and demo web designs.

The other acid test: the four IMs from my friends following the keynote, each one a Certified Mac Hater who have mocked me for years.

Every last one of them said "This is my next computer purchase."
posted by Exploding Gutbuster at 12:14 PM on January 27, 2010 [15 favorites]


Oh yay finally an iTouch for chubby fingers!
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:16 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


No Netflix, no Pandora, no Rhapsody et al for a very specific strategic reason. media companies love this because it's sexy and because it drives unit sales. None of this subscription bullshit.

Pandora and Rhapsody are both available on iPhone. It's weird how much random stuff people come up with to attack Apple.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 12:17 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Count me in as one of the people who are not sure of the market for this device. Apple has pushed the iPod touch and iPhone so much, I don't know a single person between 15-30 who doesn't have one. The major major selling point seems to be the bigger screen, but it also causes it to lose some portability. If faced with the choice of taking my iTouch or this iPad somewhere, it'd be the iTouch every time. (My Android phone keeps me connected to the web just fine, but the iPhone makes this device even less useful.) To me, the tablet doesn't have anything worth carrying it around for, as a replacement for Apple's previous mobile products.

So the target seems to be the older generation, as several posters here have brought up already (e.g., gifts for aging parents). And thus we have something simple, which ends up being boring for the young kids who are constantly coming into spending money of their own. This doesn't substitute anything for me, my friends, or my coworkers.

I'm really unsure of the supposed charm of this thing.
posted by Tequila Mockingbird at 12:17 PM on January 27, 2010


Real web page, specs and pretty video online now at www.apple.com/ipad/

Yeah the video [QT | 07:59] does show very impressive software implementation.
posted by ericb at 12:18 PM on January 27, 2010


This is a revision of the concept of computing.

When I can comfortably play Crysis II on it I will accept it as a revision of the concept of computing.
posted by Justinian at 12:18 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


jedicus: "It is pretty startling that they didn't just go whole hog and throw in a video camera."

I don't think that's startling at all. The first generation model sucks in the early adopters and Apple fans. A year or at most two later, at another Apple keynote they announce the iPad 3.5G, now with camera and iChat, dropping the lower-memory SKUs, dropping pricepoint a touch, etc. The early adopters and Apple fans buy in again, plus additional buy-ins from everyone with milder interest holding off till the hardware refresh works out other issues.
posted by Drastic at 12:19 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm going to buy one.
posted by rlk at 12:19 PM on January 27, 2010


I was disappointed, but then I expected to be.

Once the initial fervor over the mere thought of an Apple Tablet passed, I started wondering where it would fit into my life. I already own an iPhone and an iTouch, and the minute they release an 80GB iPhone, I'll sell the iTouch (fingers crossed). I also own a MacBook Pro, so between it and the iPhone my portable personal computing needs are well looked after. Games? Again, the iPhone looks after me there, as does my DSi.

So where does an iPad fit in? I honestly don't know. If it had run MacOS instead of the iPhone OS, maybe, maybe I would have bought it. I could have done my drawing on it instead of my MacBook. I could have installed Windows 7 for the fun of it. But iPhone OS isn't really going to let me draw on it the way I need to draw. And connectivity wise, it sounds like transferring any drawings I make would be hard.

So after I thought about it a bit, I expected to be disappointed if the iPad dint run MacOS, and lo and behold it doesn't. So its unlikely I'll get one. Unless my usual geek techno-lust kicks in, that is. Otherwise, I think I'll keep my money.
posted by Effigy2000 at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2010


Woah, that bezel around the screen is fugly. If you add both sides, it's like 15-20% of the whole width.
posted by milarepa at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2010


We can't get to that almost-paper-thin electronic media device in one go... this is the next baby step. 20 years from now we'll look back at this thing like one of these.
posted by starman at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2010


Major questions: Can it use USB thumb drives? Can I charge/sync an iPod off it while it's docked? Does it support bluetooth devices? Does it have line-in audio, or an integrated mic, or both?

Basically, can this replace a netbook? Because that is what I would be replacing. It doesn't strike me as a mobile device, but rather the around-the-house jack-of-all-trades mini-computer I use my netbook as right now.
posted by mek at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


It's weird how much random stuff people come up with to attack Apple.

THE IPAD ONLY HAS ONE BUTTON OMG
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is a device for consuming and sharing. I can't wait to walk into a client meeting with this thing and demo web designs.

it's running mobile safari (admittedly, pretty beefed up) on a mobile OS. I'm not sure how ideal a situation that would be for you.
posted by shmegegge at 12:21 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


DRM.

The ePub format does not require DRM. It's not actually clear that there will be DRM on the books sold through the iBookstore. If there is, then boo-hiss. If not, well, that would fit with Apple's general preference against DRM.

The music store is already DRM free, basically. The movie/tv stores are not, but I don't know of any substantial DRM-free alternatives, so it's a little harder to hate Apple for that one.
posted by jedicus at 12:21 PM on January 27, 2010


Metafilter's more advanced user crowd is understandably underwhelmed.

This is is an excellent consumer device and long term it's going to eat everyone's lunch as it replaces laptops for most regular folks.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:21 PM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Oh and I love the idea of reinventing the portable computer with a focus on media consumption instead of media creation (because let's face it, that's what people do with computers these days, especially when not at home) but I just don't believe that the iPad is the right reinvention.
posted by aspo at 12:22 PM on January 27, 2010


Version 2 predictions: 720p display (1280x720), camera (front + back), FM radio
posted by blue_beetle at 12:22 PM on January 27, 2010


Bluetooth DUN, dream on. No tethering, no way. AT&T would die ever deader.

Not DUN for using the device's connectivity. DUN for using the connectivity of other devices.

I don't want to buy a Touch or an iPad in order to connect a laptop to the internet. I want to be able to connect the Touch or iPad to the cellular network via, say, a Nokia 2865. Or any phone on any network.
posted by weston at 12:23 PM on January 27, 2010


This thread sounds suspiciously like what people were saying when the original iPod came out -- that it was derivative, over-priced, and neat/cute/slick but not "a game changer."

I wonder if our powers of prophecy have improved in the last decade. Doubt it, though.

What kills me is the tone of *authority* armchair pundits always have. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying this is TRULY REVOLUTIONARY, but the iPod *did* turn out to be revolutionary and very few people thought so at its debut.

Foresight is not common.
posted by Construction Concern at 12:23 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


offering no-contract unlocked 3G data is just huge. A potential game-changer, really.

This is already the case with the Nexus One.
posted by ekroh at 12:23 PM on January 27, 2010


20 years from now we'll look back at this thing like one of these.

or one of these.
posted by shmegegge at 12:24 PM on January 27, 2010


Great, another device that will show me just how greasy my fat fucking fingers are.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:24 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


Oh please. Apple didn't invent this form factor, just like they didn't invent the portable MP3 player. And like someone linked too, HP and Dell and other windows PC makers have already announced "Slate" PCs a couple weeks ago. They just didn't get the breathless coverage and anticipation that Apple did, because it was Apple.

So we're still on the "Fuck the iPod who gives a shit" mindset? Because I thought we'd given that up just in time for the "Fuck the iPhone who gives a shit." Get with the system, man.

Whatever "Abstraction going on that could be done without" is supposed to mean.

Dude, I've EXPLAINED it. When I want to open up, say, the Internet, I don't just push the Internet button. I put my finger on the trackpad, and move a little icon across the screen. I navigate to the Internet button. Then I put my finger on the mouse and click twice. Or, I can push two keybuttons, type in the name of the application (which isn't "Internet"), and hit the return button, which returns me nowhere and launches something new. Here, I put my finger on the fucking screen and push the fucking button.

As far as launching apps goes, I don't know what the deal is with Mac users needing special programs to launch apps. It's not that hard or complicated.

It's not hard, and I've used it enough to make it uncomplicated, but it takes TIME. If I have a hundred apps, scrolling, looking for the name, takes time. If I have a thousand songs, looking for the right one takes time. Now, we have lots of programs that help abstract music enough that it's not too hard — we have albums to sort by, artists to sort by, so we can find what we want. Nothing like that for applications. Programs exist to provide those abstractions, so I can launch anything I want to in a second or two, but it's not a default part of the system.

See, I don't even get this. Scrollbars? Scrollbars are too complicated for people to figure out? Seriously? This is exactly what I'm talking about when I refer to "UI Nerds". People who are interested in usability as some kind of theoretical ideal when in fact just because some machine doesn't work the way they envision, people can still use their computers.

Are you related to ANYBODY over the age of fifty? YES they find scrollbars hard. My grandfather scrolls a page by dragging the mouse to the scroll bar and clicking it and dragging it, and sometimes he used to forget where it is. He doesn't use a scroll wheel because it's too complicated for him to understand. Here? Finger on screen, flick. Boom, it's done.

Oh great, and this solves the problem by what? Letting you only run one app at a time, and not letting manipulate files at all! Well, except you need to synch it with a regular PC so all the file management issues are still there, just on a different device.

I don't really multitask beyond listening to music, and you can multitask that here. Push notifications works for me. If I used Pandora I'd be pissed, and I wish Apple'd do something about that, but it's not a dealbreaker. As for manipulating files, I have a filebrowser on my iPod. It's got a lot of really neat tricks that make it easy to use. Quick search is the biggest one. But more importantly, it doesn't make all my files into little windows and have me drag them around places. It sorts them by name or by filetype, and I flick along them and find what I want.

You're basically arguing that this is a device for people too dumb to use computers, despite the fact that that's a problem that pretty much went away this decade.

What makes you so proud of your computer intelligence? You've spent a decade and a half learning an arbitrary arcane system that makes you jump through loops to get shit done. Now people are making things that one-year-olds can use without confusion and you're mocking the people that are saying, "Hey, that's really cool!" It's like mocking TiVo users for never learning how to program their VCR. Never mind that the new thing is radically better. We learned the old system! Graah!

Yeah, it's called the real world. And obviously Microsoft put a lot of work into making Win 7 work on touch screens. But that's kind of beside the point. I like having a computer; I like being able to do whatever I want to with it. Maybe you don't, and I think that moving towards a world where everyone uses locked-down machines that only run approved software and have interfaces designed for morons is a bad direction.

Because nobody's going to unlock the iPad, ever, because nobody unlocked the iPhone, and nobody ever developed apps for that unlocked iPhone. Your real world apparently doesn't get the news.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:24 PM on January 27, 2010 [27 favorites]


Show a normal person the shot of the ipad sitting in the keyboard dock and you've sold one.

It looks like people want computers of the future to look.

I think this will be a much bigger deal down the line. Slow start, but once people start to use it, it'll be a blockbuster.

That's not to say it's perfect, but man oh man will it sell.
posted by Lord_Pall at 12:25 PM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


Brandon Blatcher: "This is is an excellent consumer device and long term it's going to eat everyone's lunch as it replaces laptops for most regular folks."

Well, maybe not this particular version of the device - once it becomes more laptop-like, I could see that happening. For now, it's use stops at browsing the web. And let's face it, even regular folks want more than that.
posted by Tequila Mockingbird at 12:25 PM on January 27, 2010


Woah, that bezel around the screen is fugly. If you add both sides, it's like 15-20% of the whole width.

Well, given you have to hold it somewhere, and it could be in any orientation, isn't that much bezel necessary?
posted by rokusan at 12:25 PM on January 27, 2010


Oh and I love the idea of reinventing the portable computer with a focus on media consumption instead of media creation (because let's face it, that's what people do with computers these days, especially when not at home)

I love the idea of reinventing the portable computer, too, but I think you might be off about this. youtube and desktop media in general has exploded in terms of consumer-level media creation for a while, now. It'd be a mistake to think media consumption as sole computer use is the overwhelming trend you're describing.
posted by shmegegge at 12:26 PM on January 27, 2010


Well, instead of focusing on the present, I'd like to look forward to the future, and it's this:

In 10 years, the book publishing industry in the United States will collapse. Completely.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


I'm also going to chip in and say that anybody who doesn't like to watch videos featuring Jonathan Ives talk about how magical life is in that adorable British accent of his probably also doesn't appreciate kittens.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I've been saying for some time that at least half of all computer users don't actually need a full computer that exposes a lot of irrelevant, fragile, cumbersome system details and has the ability to run arbitrary code -- which you then need all manner of security software to fend off. A lot of people just want to run a half dozen apps, store and touch up photos, do email, interact with web and consume medeia. What this thing does is take the irrelevant horseshit out of the personal computer, and if I get my Mom one, my life gets a lot easier. This is the computer for people for when you don't really want a computer. That's me about a third of the time and a lot of people I know all the time.

Or what Brandon Blatcher said.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm starting to think Rory Marinich is an escaped Neal Stephenson character.
posted by adamdschneider at 12:27 PM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


Once it becomes more laptop-like, I could see that happening. For now, it's use stops at browsing the web.

No way. I totally heard some guy who looked just like a fat version of Phil Schiller say that the new iPad-ready version of iWork included not just a sexy word processor but also "a spreadsheet that is fun and cool to use."

(I have a really hard time believing that last part, myself, but whatever waxes your pad, dude.)
posted by rokusan at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010


You early adopters are suckers. I'm going to save myself a bunch of money by waiting until they release the iPad Shuffle!
posted by Jinkeez at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


This is is an excellent consumer device and long term it's going to eat everyone's lunch as it replaces laptops for most regular folks.

The problem is there's no real huge difference between this and other PCs in that form factor, other then the restricted OS. So certainly a lot of people will be using devices "like" this in the future, but that really has nothing to do with Apple. If anything, Amazon has been far more innovative then Apple.
posted by delmoi at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010


Because nobody's going to unlock the iPad, ever, because nobody unlocked the iPhone, and nobody ever developed apps for that unlocked iPhone. Your real world apparently doesn't get the news.

What? Are you being sarcastic, I can't tell...
posted by SweetJesus at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010


Paging Marvel, DC, IDW and Darkhorse. Please report to the iBook store.
posted by butterstick at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


offering no-contract unlocked 3G data is just huge. A potential game-changer, really.

This is already the case with the Nexus One.


The Nexus One is available unlocked at a $350 premium. Every 3G iPad sold will be unlocked.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2010


Artw: There will be much howling when someone drops one.

iPad on the ground!
iPad on the ground!
Lookin' like a fool with your iPad on the ground!
posted by mkultra at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


I've been saying for some time that at least half of all computer users don't actually need a full computer...

I am a pretty hardcore old-school computer user, but even I now spend at least 80% of my "computer time" using nothing but a web browser. A fast, big-screen instant-on web browser would cover almost all of my computer needs.

So I think it's a lot more than half.
posted by rokusan at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


The early adopters and Apple fans buy in again, plus additional buy-ins from everyone with milder interest holding off till the hardware refresh works out other issues.

Or they resell theirs, with Apple's usual high resale value, essentially getting a discount on a newer model.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This might just be the first touch screen device that will accomodate my giant sausage man fingers.
posted by The Straightener at 12:30 PM on January 27, 2010


In 10 years, the book publishing industry in the United States will collapse. Completely.

I doubt it. It might scale down though. There are a lot of types of books that make more sense as e-books but people will still want paper books to read.
posted by delmoi at 12:30 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm going to save myself a bunch of money by waiting until they release the iPad Shuffle!

I kept waiting for a part of the video when someone erased the iPad screen by holding it over their head and shaking.
posted by rokusan at 12:30 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


The problem with searching for "iPad" on apple.com is that there are a lot of mis-spellings of iPod littering the results. Strange, as the A and O keys are not exactly side-by-side on the keyboard.

Obviously, those are the misspellings of the vast army of Dvorak users.
posted by 6550 at 12:30 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


I meant to imply that there are more mundane uses that come before web browsing, working with text documents being one of them. The thing that makes this a "boring" device is that it's half as useful as an actual laptop and you still have to carry your other devices, which this tablet could replace in theory but decidedly did not.
posted by Tequila Mockingbird at 12:31 PM on January 27, 2010


Pandora and Rhapsody are both available on iPhone. It's weird how much random stuff people come up with to attack Apple.

Oh good grief. I meant on the keynote stage and my bad for not explaining myself clearly. Yes, they exist but I think Apple itself does not push subscription services for specific, strategic, economic reasons that benefit both Apple and it's largest media partners.

It's not an attack, it my own amateur analysis. Apple runs their own playbook for products that is different from every other high-tech company. Dell, HP, etc run pretty cookie-cutter operations. It's interesting to see how Apple does things differently and why they can succeed doing it where other companies... I won't say fail, but they don't really succeed either. As other note, tablet PCs are hardly new. But they've remained nice products without a simple-to-use media ecosystem that leverages their unique capabilities.

I really hate the idea that this is all either haters or jizzing fanboys. I've worked in software my whole life (AND KNOW MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE). I studied technology management in school. Some guys get their armchair quarterback on over football or baseball or invading the Balkans. I get my armchair product manager going over this stuff.
posted by GuyZero at 12:31 PM on January 27, 2010


I think it could actually be a quiet success. Not a blow out like the iPhone, but quietly useful.

It fits an intersting niche: browsing and basic apps when you don't want the full on awkward form factor of a laptop; and you don't want to squint at an iPhone screen.

It's almost perfectly priced for that niche, too. $499 is not terribly far off impulse-buy territory. At that price, I'm not expecting a fully functional PC.
posted by generichuman at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


Reasonableness ahead! Beware!

I have an iPod touch, which I love love love. It is probably my favorite computing device ever. It does have its little drawbacks, chief among them that only one app can run at a time. But the fact that it not only fits in my pocket, but snuggles up and lives there like my pocket was designed to hold it? That makes it worth the limited power and app tradeoffs.

This is a nifty idea. A big iPod touch? Neat. I bet it's really nice to use. But the large form-factor would, I think, just tip it past being able to accept that it's not a real computer I can run real software on (yet).

When they come out with one of these running OS X, I will be first in line.
posted by rusty at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is a media consumption device. Apple is the new universal media middleman.

This. Brilliant.

I want a neat and kick ass machine to consume media, no lie; but I'd like to be able to fart around and create things, too. And for $549 with 32 or 64 GB and 3GS. Still, not a bad start.
posted by cavalier at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


People who have seen the tablet say Apple will market it not just as a way to read news, books and other material, but also a way for companies to charge for all that content.

A $499 netbook with built-in content controls? Yay.

On the plus side, I hear it's very skinny.

Ten years from now more things will look like the iPad than will look like Windows or OS X.

Well, the iPad is hardware; Windows and OS X are software. I guess you mean things will look more like the iPhone OS than Windows or MacOS.

I would hope that in 10 years, things look nothing like Windows or Mac at all.

A fast, big-screen instant-on web browser would cover almost all of my computer needs.

Yes. But it also needs to have the ability to store files and transfer them to any device I want.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


niche products, sheesh. I hate typos that become other words that actually work in the erroneous sentence.
posted by GuyZero at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


In other words... a 'Jizzing fanboy'?
posted by delmoi at 3:12 PM on January 27


The problem with everything you wrote is that it is sensible and rational--neither of which have anything to do with the success of apple products. For example, you could have written that it would be absurd to describe the iphone as "free of annoyances" when you couldn't copy and paste text from one email to another. That is a fatal usability flaw.

But apple products are not about doing things. They are about consuming things. The ipad and iphone are as close as you can get to selling a TV but still calling it a computer. It is a content consumption device.

It is also a luxury device. The problem with the HP and Dell slates is not that they have technical problems, it's simply that they look technical. They look like products that would be used by potbellied overworked salarymen in a frumpy suit on a business trip. Apple does not care about this market at all. They care about the youth market and the singles market. 15-34. Beyond that they don't give a shit, because that's when most people in that demo are married and/or have kids, they have to watch their spending, and it is simply impossible to justify spending on apple products.

There was a thread yesterday where I learned that the Droid phone has a 240 dpi display. On a phone. This thing, that's passing as a reader, has barely 150 dpi. Nobody cares that the droid has a substantially better display, or that substantially better displays are available, but apple chose not to use them.

Apple products are the computer industry's answer to Viking stoves or Mont Blanc pens. They are better designed in a way that does not matter. It's simply more conspicuous consumption, luxury branding etc.
posted by Pastabagel at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [38 favorites]


I want every app to support handwriting recognition

I think in general the world has taken a look at that, and at styluses, and collectively said No.


I use the handwriting recognition on my tablet (Lenovo x200) all the time. It's not perfect, and I definitely require the keyboard (which of course it has, convertible) for longer writings.

However what I really want a stylus for is to write equations. I mostly wanted a tablet so I could take notes on pdfs, including equations, sketches of concepts, etc. This way all of my notes are back-up-able and accessible anywhere I am. Two inches thick of paper notes weighs a heck of a lot more than my tablet, and if some doofus steals them (yes, this has happened) I have no way to get them back.

Additionally I can run any application; this lenovo has enough processor power for mathematica to happily do numerical ODEs for me. Yay!

I want to buy a mac tablet, I really do; I only bought a lenovo last summer because there was nothing except the ModBook on the mac side that would let me scribble notes. There still isn't.
posted by nat at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


delmoi: The problem is there's no real huge difference between this and other PCs in that form factor, other then the restricted OS.

I disagree. There's one huge difference: Apple's marketing department.
posted by joedan at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


Major questions: Can it use USB thumb drives? Can I charge/sync an iPod off it while it's docked? Does it support bluetooth devices? Does it have line-in audio, or an integrated mic, or both?

It has no USB port as such. The camera connection kit will let you plug in a USB camera, but I don't know how much the software will prevent that from doing anything put syncing photos and movies from a bona fide camera. Maybe it can at least take photos off of a thumb drive, maybe it can't. If/when it's unlocked it should be able to use that connector to interface with thumb drives, though.

It has Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR but so does the iPhone and all that really supports are mono Bluetooth headsets. We'll see if the iPad at least supports a Bluetooth keyboard. I certainly hope so.

It has an integrated mic. I suspect it supports an iPhone-style headphone/mic combo as well.

Frankly I can't wait to see what the iPhone Dev Team manages to do with this thing. I don't think I would jailbreak my own but I think they should be able to do some pretty cool stuff with it.
posted by jedicus at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


Well, maybe not this particular version of the device - once it becomes more laptop-like, I could see that happening. For now, it's use stops at browsing the web. And let's face it, even regular folks want more than that.

I think Apple just took over the market for tablet computers, set the standard and effectively own it. That market is currently small, but as it grows Apple will continue to own it. It also cements there position as a media company

My real question is how it'll hold up in everyday use. What will it take to crack that screen?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


In 10 years, the book publishing industry in the United States will collapse. Completely.

Ray Kurzweil called - he wants his shtick back.
posted by griphus at 12:32 PM on January 27, 2010


This is a media consumption device. Apple is the new universal media middleman.

Actually, bittorrent is the new universal media middleman.
posted by Pastabagel at 12:34 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Apple products are the computer industry's answer to Viking stoves or Mont Blanc pens.

yep. Except that people are willing to buy Viking pots and Viking food for their Viking stove which is where the real money is.
posted by GuyZero at 12:34 PM on January 27, 2010


The ... iphone [is] as close as you can get to selling a TV but still calling it a computer. It is a content consumption device. ... [It is] better designed in a way that does not matter.

You do not own or use an iPhone, clearly. That would be the only explanation for a comment so laughably ignorant and stuck in the 1980s.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:35 PM on January 27, 2010


Ah, but will it blend?
posted by Effigy2000 at 12:35 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Metroid Baby: "I can't wait for next year, when Apple introduces a 8'x10' version called the iFloor. Apps would include disco floors and the giant keyboard from Big.

Seriously, I hope they invent that.
"

You know, I've actually wanted this for years now, probably since about 1998 -- well not for a cheezy keyboard. But I planned in my fantasy house world to have a giant room filled with huge screen type monitors on every surface, floor/walls/ceilings. And then I would absolutely not drop acid and have a high res version of Milkdrop running to sync with autechre or goa trance or anything. Definitely not for drugs at all. Nope.
posted by symbioid at 12:36 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Google can fuck off until their phone has multitouch. Until then it is worthless.

All recent Android phones have multitouch hardware and software support. It's deactivated for phones sold in the US market because, IIRC, Apple holds a patent on the technology and refuses to license it.

Here is the hack to activate it.
posted by I am the Walrus at 12:36 PM on January 27, 2010


The software? Are there really "killer apps" that make a Windows tablet a compelling purchase at this point for most people, compared with an iPad?

Personally, I just don't see the point of a device without a proper keyboard unless I can stick itin my pocket, but this iPad seems pretty locked down. Would you be able to run eclipse plus an sftp client on it without jumping through silly emulation hoops? That plus at least the Windows tablet would be able play Flash games.
posted by juv3nal at 12:36 PM on January 27, 2010


The world does not ned more content and it certainly does not need more assholes creating content on their train ride to work. Furthermore, 16, 32 and 64 GB? Don't make me laugh, bitterly. I don't mind Apple but this bullshit has to stop.
posted by turgid dahlia at 12:36 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Lovely and tantalizing device, I suppose, but for now I'll just stick with the low-end iPod Touch I'm about to roll over like one of Pavlov's dogs and buy, thanks. As for it being the empyrean summit of everything that Steve Jobs and his minions have ever dreamed up? I don't know.
posted by blucevalo at 12:36 PM on January 27, 2010


According to the new SDK, there is no real OS release. iPhone OS SDK 3.2 claims to only work on the iPad, not the iPhone or iPod touch.

No mention of multitasking in the new OS. Mostly minor improvements. Only thing of note is an element of file sharing, so apps can share their app specific Documents folders with the host computer they sync with.

Very underwhelming on the software side.
posted by butterstick at 12:37 PM on January 27, 2010


All this and no one has mentioned Microsoft's Courier, and though I think it is still a prototype, it seems much more revolutionary than the iPad. I mean, it has TWO touch screens, so that you can read two full pages or something like that. And uh, Nintendo DS emulation.
posted by i8ny3x at 12:37 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I really like the idea of something smaller than a laptop yet larger than a smartphone, but I don't think this is going to do it for me. I'm okay with the simplicity of my iPhone (multitasking, file system access, arbitary third-party code) to an extent, but that's because in the end, it's just a phone. For me, that simplicity is a detriment to an iPad-class device. It won't dampen everyone else's frothing demand, but c'est la vie.

I'm just glad they went with "iPad" instead of something "Slate"-derived, since that's my iMac's machine name and god dammit I called it first.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 12:37 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The problem is there's no real huge difference between this and other PCs in that form factor, other then the restricted OS. So certainly a lot of people will be using devices "like" this in the future, but that really has nothing to do with Apple. If anything, Amazon has been far more innovative then Apple.

ok, so I've been a detractor all thread. let me turn around for a second and take a fake-prescient look at the future in apple's favor.

the ipod, as has been mentioned a million times all thread, wasn't anything amazing either, and future revisions have shown how borked the clickwheel and old ipod interface really were, so it certainly wasn't perfect.

but what too many people forget is that, a little after the ipod was released, they made the itunes store. and that synergy between itunes and the ipod cemented their dominance in the mp3 player market. it wasn't the ipod. it wasn't digital music. it was the pricing model and delivery system of a legal alternative to pirated mp3s on a device that, for all its flaws, worked pretty damn well with the store.

that synergy is what will cause this device to soar, if apple capitalizes on it. I'd say history favors their doing so. So this device might be the future, and it might have everything to do with Apple. But you're also right that this device isn't doing much to revolutionize anything. BUT, and this is speculative, BUT if they make the move they could easily make and sell a service that turns this into your gateway to a DECENT app store, this device could turn out to be a sign of things to come.

the problem, of course, is that nobody wants to live their digital lives using iphone apps instead of the fully functional apps they work on.

so here's what we SHOULD wait on, if we're putting out futurist hats on:

-the new apps made for this device on the new sdk.
-the better iPad in 6 months (LOLapple)
-the integration of full OS style apps into this digital delivery service, even if it's only available on imacs, macbooks, and future ipads that run full OS X.

if they deliver on that in a timely enough fashion, this could be the sign of things to come. of course, apple is theoretically capable of dropping the ball on that one. they've done it before, though it was a long time ago.
posted by shmegegge at 12:37 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


offering no-contract unlocked 3G data is just huge. A potential game-changer, really.

This is already the case with the Nexus One.

The Nexus One is available unlocked at a $350 premium. Every 3G iPad sold will be unlocked.


But the Nexus One unlocked is $530 compared with $630 for iPad with WiFi + 3G, and the N1 has a phone to boot. Or are you saying it's the unlocked 3G data on a netbook platform that is game changing?
posted by ekroh at 12:38 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Pastabagel >> It's simply more conspicuous consumption, luxury branding etc.

I really enjoy conspicuously consuming their products, by myself, from the comfort of my own home.
posted by JohnFredra at 12:38 PM on January 27, 2010


Apple products are the computer industry's answer to Viking stoves or Mont Blanc pens. They are better designed in a way that does not matter. It's simply more conspicuous consumption, luxury branding etc.

I use my computer hours and hours and hours every day. Perhaps functionally you could do everything I do on my Mac on a Windows machine, but it would be less fun and less usable and you'd have to jump through hoops and it wouldn't mesh well. But I think it's worth my money to get something sleeker and more viscerally enjoyable. I also buy clothes that feel good on my body rather than wearing hemp, and I occasionally spend more than three dollars on a meal because I like eating good.

Deciding how nice a phone is based on dots per inch is like deciding how nice a movie is based on how long it is. Just having a lot of something doesn't mean you're using it as well as you could.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:38 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Would you be able to run eclipse plus an sftp client on it without jumping through silly emulation hoops?

I can already run SSH with sftp and emacs on an iPhone, without emulation.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:38 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I can't wait for next year, when Apple introduces a 8'x10' version called the iFloor. Apps would include disco floors and the giant keyboard from Big.

Look carefully at the backdrop behind Steve Jobs. THE FUTURE IS NOW.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:39 PM on January 27, 2010


Actually, bittorrent is the new universal media middleman.

It's not a universal middleman until my parents know how to use it and I can pay people for the things I'm getting.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:39 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I know it's fun being an ignorant jackass and conflating my appraise of this thing with my being a jizzing fanboy,

Man, this product announcement is really bringing out the best in you.

I must say that I'm flabbergasted that your preferred solution to GUI/usability problems is to make things less customizable. I appreciate your enthusiasm (when you aren't being jerky), but you seem to discount that for every app fixing a niggling problem, there's two that make computers easier to use for a subset of people who have specific needs or desires. The iPhone interface does away with that in favor of restricting what people can do, right down to restricting what kind of programs (not OS, actual programs) they're allowed to run. I have no idea how this could be a democratization, or a good thing. It makes for a cool device, it kills a computer as computer.
posted by OmieWise at 12:40 PM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


I predict that practically every DJ set and electronic show I see next year will involve someone an iPad running TouchOSC.
posted by phrontist at 12:41 PM on January 27, 2010


But the Nexus One unlocked is $530 compared with $630 for iPad with WiFi + 3G, and the N1 has a phone to boot.

It's just my intuition that the vast majority of N1 purchasers are going to go for the locked version. I might be wrong; are there any numbers on this yet?

I'm thinking of the Apple product as a market driver, which, frankly, seems more likely for a new Apple product than the N1. Chalk it up to the marketing department, the reality distortion field, whatever.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:41 PM on January 27, 2010


I predict that practically every DJ set and electronic show I see next year will involve someone an iPad running TouchOSC.

Or iOSC.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:42 PM on January 27, 2010


Sorry to be the odd one out here, but:

The iPad will, in fact, change everything about digital entertainment. Again.

I'll link back to this 18 months from now. /snark
posted by andreaazure at 12:42 PM on January 27, 2010


Woah, that bezel around the screen is fugly

My cow-orkers had similar comments. Trouble is that you need to hold the darn thing somewhere and sans bezel you're blocking the screen with your thumb and/or accidentally clicking the screen a lot. Plus they get more stuff inside without having to make the screen bigger which adds a lot of cost. Maybe the whole 10-hour battery life thing is due to nothing more innovative than a HUGE battery.
posted by GuyZero at 12:43 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


This may be great for many things, but a ten-hour battery + color screen = kind of a shit book-reader compared to Kindle. It would be fine for magazines, for those into the brevity thing.

I'm pretty underwhelmed. It's too lacking to be a good replacement for my laptop, and too damn big to take on the train if all I wanna do is watch movies (whatever movies I can watch on it; I'm not clear on the exact limitations). As far as I can tell it's too sophisticated to just be a gadget and not sophisticated enough to be 100% useful the way a laptop would be. Maybe the next version will be something worth getting.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:44 PM on January 27, 2010


Interesting, iWorks, composed of 3 apps, costs $79 bucks for the desktop edition. Yet each app costs $10 for the iPad.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:44 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's just my intuition that the vast majority of N1 purchasers are going to go for the locked version.

There is no locked N1. You can buy it and sign a service contract or not sign a service contract, but either way the device itself is unlocked. Your relationship with T-Mobile is contractual, not a technical limitation.
posted by GuyZero at 12:44 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I want this thing; go ahead and scoff. I was thinking about getting a kindle but waited for this announcement, and I'm glad I did. I read on my iPhone already via the kindle app; I can see taking the ipad to bed like I do the phone now (insert your joke about that here).

I use Google docs for a lot of my word processing needs; I can do that with the ipad (though it will have the ten-buck iWork should I choose that). I can listen to music while I'm writing or reading - the phone does that. The only concern I have is that the book they demoed in iBook was $14 - Kindle books are usually around $10. But it's apparently an open format reader, so I'll have
options.

I'm writing this on my iPhone. I have a feeling that by this time next year I'll be thinking of the phone as the ipad's baby brother.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 12:46 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Google can fuck off until their phone has multitouch. Until then it is worthless.

My HTC Hero has multitouch, plus background processing/multitasking.

It's processor is pretty weak, though.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm sorry, Omie. I know you're offended by the word "jizzing."

I must say that I'm flabbergasted that your preferred solution to GUI/usability problems is to make things less customizable. I appreciate your enthusiasm (when you aren't being jerky), but you seem to discount that for every app fixing a niggling problem, there's two that make computers easier to use for a subset of people who have specific needs or desires. The iPhone interface does away with that in favor of restricting what people can do, right down to restricting what kind of programs (not OS, actual programs) they're allowed to run. I have no idea how this could be a democratization, or a good thing. It makes for a cool device, it kills a computer as computer.

I don't like customizing things. I like getting things that work out of the box without my ever having to think about them. I like that I didn't have to paint my car a nice color to make it look nice. I like that I don't have to mutilate my clothes to make them fit. And I'm willing to pay people money to do a better job at that stuff than I'd be able to do myself. It's kind of like the rule of thumb at barber shops: The more you pay, the less you have to ask for, because they know better than you do.

What you're missing about the iPad is that the only thing developers can't control is the user interface of the pad itself. Everything else, all the apps, are completely in the control of the developer. And I'm fine with that, because the pad's design is brilliant. It's very usable, lets me see apps easily, and once I hit them, I'm in the hands of the developers.

Have you seen how many Twitter clients are on the iPhone right now? That's a great example of how there's a lot of variety in how you can do one single thing. Don't like how Tweetie's built? Use Twitteriffic. And iPhone apps have been of consistently finer quality than their desktop equivalents. Excepting what they CAN'T do because they don't have enough horsepower/screen space, they do a lot of things very beautifully.

If it turns out the "twenty apps a page" design doesn't work for me, or I somehow get irritated with it, then I'll jailbreak the iPad and customize it, because that's STILL an option available to me, regardless of how often the "Apple's locking you in!" line is parroted. There's a reason most people don't jailbreak iPhones, and it's not because it's hard or illegal but rather because surprisingly most people don't need the extra things jailbreaking gets them. The ones that do, can.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh, come on, Commodities! You're supposed to be an extension of myself that makes me forget the stultifying alienation of late-capitalism! This doesn't make me forget about the conditions of my oppression at all! DO YOUR JOB, JOBS!
posted by ford and the prefects at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


You know, it's a bit weird that even the top-end model has 16GB less hard drive space than my several-years-old iPod.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:48 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


The software restrictions seem like a bit of a killer to me. As a BIG target platform for linux distros to aim at... give it a year or two and I'll find a cheap secondhand one that does whatever I tell it. That would be cool.

When Stevie J specified the ability to change the background picture? It somehow made me think of the landlord saying "you may come and go as you please", with that subtext of "because I'm OK with it".

On a broader note, there is a reasonably standard size-range for humans: can anyone speak knowledgeably on whether the iPad is small enough to be usable without gorilla arm syndrome?
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 12:48 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Heard about it at dinner (am 9 hours ahead of the US West Coast). Immediately thought "iPad Thai".

It looks yummy?
posted by fraula at 12:49 PM on January 27, 2010


even the top-end model has 16GB less hard drive space than my several-years-old iPod

Flash memory != hard drive
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:49 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


wow
posted by kuatto at 12:49 PM on January 27, 2010


Nobody cares that the droid has a substantially better display, or that substantially better displays are available, but apple chose not to use them.

The Droid's 240dpi display is much smaller than this one. Would you care to point out where the affordable high dpi 7-10" IPS displays are? There aren't any. The closest is probably the Sony VAIO P-series display, which is 8" and 1600x768 for 221dpi. I'm not sure how much the display alone costs, but the VAIO P starts at $850. Its other specs are broadly comparable to the iPad, minus the touchscreen and long battery life (3.5 hours on the Sony).

Could Apple maybe have squeezed a 720p screen in there? Probably. Could they have squeezed a >200dpi screen in? Not a chance at that price point. Not even close.
posted by jedicus at 12:50 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


One of these, hung up on the front of a kitchen cabinet, would be great. It would show me the recipe I am cooking, and maybe also zoomable pictures and a video. It might play music for me, too. And I bet there's an app for writing my shopping list when I realize I just finished the vanilla.

Sounds cool to me. *shrug*

Also, the open epub format is nice: I'm sick of proprietary file formats.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:51 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I want this thing; go ahead and scoff.

I'm not scoffing. I wouldn't say I want it right now, definitely wouldn't say I NEED it, but I can see possibly changing my mind down the line, once I see some apps for it.
posted by empath at 12:51 PM on January 27, 2010


You know, it's a bit weird that even the top-end model has 16GB less hard drive space than my several-years-old iPod.

Solid-state storage still can't quite compete on price with magnetic-spinning-disc media. But solid-state storage consumes less power and is generally more reliable. My guess is Apple knows in great detail how much storage people actually use and they build what people will use. Again, Apple buyers generally aren't looking at the numbers on the spec sheet beyond choosing a model and a price point, although Apple products compete very well on numbers in general.

The comparison to high end stoves is apt - the spec sheet for a Viking stove is very competitive but that's not really why people buy them.
posted by GuyZero at 12:51 PM on January 27, 2010


No SD slot. No USB. Basically no way to share or otherwise move data on or off this thing without syncing through Apple's channels. This is Steve Jobs' master plan: the centralized control of all your creative digital content through iTunes, iPhoto, App Store, etc.
No Thanks. Someone will make a similar device that's actually useful.
posted by rocket88 at 12:51 PM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


Flash memory != hard drive

And a GB isn't a GB. Still, what up with that?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:52 PM on January 27, 2010


The scary thing in terms of how ridiculously successful this thing will be is that I can see my dear old Mum and Dad going for it. I can see my Mum loading it with photos and video of their first grandkid to pass around to anyone within reach, I can see my Dad subscribing to his newspapers and having them ready and waiting when he wakes up in the morning, my Mum downloading books instead of sending off for them from Amazon. I can see them browsing and emailing from their armchairs with Radio 4 streaming or watching an old movie in bed. And if and when it allows video calling it's all over. This is not going to be just an 18-34 year old's product.
posted by theCroft at 12:52 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I predict that practically every DJ set and electronic show I see next year will involve someone an iPad running TouchOSC.

This is what I'm thinking of it for. I'd really love to be able to run ableton natively on it. I hate taking my laptop to gigs.
posted by empath at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010


Could they have squeezed a >200dpi screen in? Not a chance at that price point. Not even close.

Jedicus, I wouldn't bother wasting your time. Some people are just looking for any excuse to criticize Apple and users of its products, without really knowing anything about the technology they are talking about.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010


a ten-hour battery + color screen = kind of a shit book-reader compared to Kindle.

I think the 10-hour duration applied to full-on video use. Reading a book on the iPad has got to be the epitome of a CPU at rest. So, whatever iPad OS CPU + screen display = power draw, which might be half that or less than for video. 20 hours or better? We'll see in two months.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010


Could they have squeezed a >200dpi screen in? Not a chance at that price point. Not even close.

yes, even Apple is bound by current technology capabilities. Sad but true.
posted by GuyZero at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm not seeing the utility of this for myself at all. I'm always going to be carrying my phone (a Droid) which I can read the web just fine on and I'd rather not have to carry anything larger. If I was going to carry anything larger, I'd need to have bag with me and if I have a bag, I might as well carry a laptop. It just seems to be a product in a pretty narrow market to me: too big to carry but too small to do serious work on.
posted by octothorpe at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


But apple products are not about doing things. They are about consuming things. The ipad and iphone are as close as you can get to selling a TV but still calling it a computer. It is a content consumption device.
posted by Pastabagel at 12:32 PM on January 27


Between this and "John Stewart [sic] is the Rush Limbaugh of the left," you've had a pretty big day making wacky equivalencies. I don't really care whether or not you like Apple products, but switching from a Blackberry to an iPhone tripled my productivity when I'm out of the office. I keep my contacts and appointments on there, take photographs with notes, measurements, and sketches, then find the fastest way to another appointment, all in literally seconds. It's my notebook and pen, my camera, my rolodex, my map, my measuring tape and level, and so intuitive I don't even have to think about how to make it all work seamlessly.

I would think that a libertarian would be gung-ho about increasing one's edge in competitive markets, but frankly I think you're more concerned with the contrarian schtick.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 12:53 PM on January 27, 2010 [13 favorites]


I'm surprised no one has mentioned games. It's clearly going to be a factor with the large screen, up to 30fps graphics, accelerometer, multitouch controls and wifi (iPad to iPad communication).

Personally, I've been waiting for a better eBook reader than the Kindle, and I'll have to look at what 132dpi does for text.

As with the iPod/iPhone, it's not the device that's revolutionary, it how you use it. Without the iTunes store the iPod would be an also ran. Without the app store, the iPhone would be just another phone. If the iBookstore is decent and the device is comfortable to use, the iPad will be successful.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:54 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is is an excellent consumer device and long term it's going to eat everyone's lunch as it replaces laptops for most regular folks.

And it's going to make a market in places where laptops never worked. Children take up technology easily but, unlike a computer, teachers can use this easily. A simple, locked-down interface plus the media consumption model used for selling textbooks, educational videos and exercises, homework and quiz/test apps, and probably even entire lesson plans, makes it look to me like this is targeted at schools.

The iPod was cool, the iPhone was cool, this isn't (I mean look at the reaction here). The iPad is useful. I think Steve Jobs is trying something he's tried before, locking up the educational market.
posted by peeedro at 12:54 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Apple makes sexy looking consumer devices and software, but not professional devices. A professional tablet device would have pen input for example. I buy consumer devices like my iPod shuffle for activities like listening to music, but I'll never watch enough television or movies to justify a consumer oriented tablet device.

I'm quite enamored of the Nokia N900, both pen or keyboard input, excellent skype & sip integration, excellent browsing, including flash, and terminal, ssh, etc. are installed natively, although the standard smartphone features like rotation and maps are still kinda raw.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:55 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I was all ready to shell out for this thing, but, seriously, again with this inability to multitask?

So I can't open Pandora, listen to some music, bop on over to Brushes and do some drawing? With this mighty 1 Ghz ARM processor? What the fuck is up with that? OK, it's *slightly* acceptable on a phone, but still pretty unacceptable. On a tablet that I'm going to shell out nearly a thousand dollars for? What the fuck, Steve.

There always has to be something.
posted by kbanas at 12:55 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


"The iPad: A prediction from 2001."

The iPad: A prediction from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
posted by malevolent at 12:56 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm surprised no one has mentioned games. It's clearly going to be a factor with the large screen, up to 30fps graphics, accelerometer, multitouch controls and wifi (iPad to iPad communication).

I think it will be a decent game platform and a lot of publishers will develop for it, but games are very much a brand exercise these days. Nintendo execs will shovel some cash out of their Scrooge McDuck-like gold coin vaults to go buy a few iPads to play with but I doubt they'll lose any sleep.
posted by GuyZero at 12:57 PM on January 27, 2010


No USB

"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."

posted by mpbx at 12:57 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


If I had kids, I'd forbid locked down devices like the iPhone, iPad, etc.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:57 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


What you're missing about the iPad is that the only thing developers can't control is the user interface of the pad itself.

Well that and the small matter of getting approval from Apple.
posted by reformedjerk at 12:58 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Basically no way to share or otherwise move data on or off this thing without syncing through Apple's channels.

Except, you know, the Internet. There are lots of iPhone/iPod Touch apps that sync in ways other than iTunes. There's a DropBox app, for example, and various document editing apps. There's an SSH app. There's are VNC/Remote Desktop type apps as well.

You can get your data off the device with software that treats the iPhone/iPod as a USB drive. There are 3rd party media library managers for Linux, so you can at least put music and video onto the iPhone/iPod. Not sure about arbitrary files.

And that's all without jailbreaking, which of course opens up the whole world.
posted by jedicus at 12:59 PM on January 27, 2010


"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."

I think the discussion may be around the iPad supporting USB host as opposed to USB device/slave.
posted by GuyZero at 12:59 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Awesome, this means more content in ePub format!
(I don't really want to read it on one of those things though.)
posted by dickasso at 1:00 PM on January 27, 2010


Gotcha. It was hard to tell.
posted by mpbx at 1:00 PM on January 27, 2010


So, whatever iPad OS CPU + screen display = power draw, which might be half that or less than for video. 20 hours or better?

Yeah, I'm just not so sure you could actually look at it comfortably all that long even if the battery does last. Reading off a Kindle is a much more pleasant experience than reading off a computer screen. Even with a bookstore, though, I'm guessing most people who buy this are more interested in audio and video.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:00 PM on January 27, 2010


Personally, I've been waiting for a better eBook reader than the Kindle, and I'll have to look at what 132dpi does for text.

I couldn't tell from the Jobs talk, and the Apple site doesn't say, and I don't know enough about anything to know if it's even possible, but is there a way for lauching the iBooks app to switch the screen to passive display? Because the bright screen would probably keep me away from using the iPad as an ereader.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:01 PM on January 27, 2010


Well that and the small matter of getting approval from Apple.

Apple's approval process has been getting faster and faster. Now it's a three-day wait, and their turnaround for false rejections is similar.

There are two other methods for getting apps to run on this thing. The first is you release a web app. You can design a web app so that if you save it to your home screen it downloads itself and runs natively; I have several native applications that I downloaded online. The other is you jailbreak, and release your application like you would if it was an ordinary Mac app. People do that, and they make money off it.
posted by Rory Marinich at 1:01 PM on January 27, 2010


The hilarious part is seeing the hypothetical cases of people trying to type on it. Sit it on a table? Great, but now the display is pointed straight up and not really visible. Most people don't touch type (especially without real keys). Sit it on your lap? Ok, and let's take bets on how long it'll be before the cracked screens start showing up when it slides off your lap and onto the floor. And of course you can use the docking station, which makes sense because everyone who uses mobile devices loves to carry around a bunch of extra crap with them to use their mobile device.

Next up we have the scheme where only Apple-blessed (and taxed) apps will make it on this device without any unlocking chicanery. Good times, because we know how much devs loooooove the app store approval process.
posted by mullingitover at 1:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."

They obviously mean there's no USB port on the device, sheesh.
posted by longdaysjourney at 1:03 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I'm surprised no one has mentioned games. It's clearly going to be a factor with the large screen, up to 30fps graphics, accelerometer, multitouch controls and wifi (iPad to iPad communication).

the games thing is going to be touchy. touch screen controls are a HUGE problem, game-wise, and it remains to be seen what devs will be able to do in terms of requiring a keyboard and mouse to play their games. for 3d, this thing ain't shit. for actual gamers, 30fps is below minimum (though it needn't be.) and requiring devices that other computers would naturally have may prove to be a weird thing for a developer to have to say before you buy the game. if games have to support touch screen only controls, then expect this to not really take over the games market, because although the iphone has plenty of games, people are losing their jones for it. the touch screen is just not a great interface for gaming.
posted by shmegegge at 1:04 PM on January 27, 2010


I notice Penguin is one of the publishers already onboard. I was an Engish major in college, and I would have loved moving one iPad instead of thirty linear feet of Penguin Classics every year. Plus, I wouldn't have been tempted into selling the paperbacks for beer money, so now I could finally read all those books I bought as an undergrad.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:04 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I couldn't tell from the Jobs talk, and the Apple site doesn't say, and I don't know enough about anything to know if it's even possible, but is there a way for lauching the iBooks app to switch the screen to passive display? Because the bright screen would probably keep me away from using the iPad as an ereader.

On the iPhone you can turn off the automatic screen brightness adjustment and manually control the brightness. The dimmest setting is pretty dim. I imagine you could at least do that with the iPad. Probably a bit of a pain to fiddle with except for long reading sessions. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple gave the iBooks app the option to set a reduced brightness level or toned it down automatically.
posted by jedicus at 1:04 PM on January 27, 2010


> But apple products are not about doing things. They are about consuming things.

If you want to use a computer, get a PC. If you you want to get work done, get a Mac

--Ancient Proverb of the Ancients
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:04 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


If I had kids, I'd forbid locked down devices like the iPhone, iPad, etc.

What if you were the IT director of a school system?
posted by peeedro at 1:05 PM on January 27, 2010


the touch screen is just not a great interface for gaming.

And Flash is a shit-bad platform for game devs. Technical superiority and market acceptance have little to no relation to each other. People are buying iPhone games and developers are starting to figure out better UIs for them.
posted by GuyZero at 1:06 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Perhaps functionally you could do everything I do on my Mac on a Windows machine, but it would be less fun and less usable and you'd have to jump through hoops and it wouldn't mesh well. But I think it's worth my money to get something sleeker and more viscerally enjoyable.

I wondered when you would trot out the "I just enjoy the finer things in life" "argument". This makes you and everyone else who uses it look like a smug jackass. Newsflash: those of who choose not to use Apple products (well, for the most part for some of us) also like things to work well, and also like to get good products for our money, and guess what? For the most part, we get what we want.
posted by adamdschneider at 1:07 PM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


California is requiring that textbook publishers offer ebooks by 2020 -- how awesome would this be for students?

Could someone write an app that's a booklet of worksheets, and kids could hand them back in? Open-book tests would be pretty great: you've got the whole Internet to hand. Can anyone comment on authoring tools for the content (EPUB or otherwise) that the iPad will display?

And last, I wonder if the AppleCare for it will be sawed-off like it is for the iPod (compared to, say, a MacBook Pro)?
posted by wenestvedt at 1:08 PM on January 27, 2010


Paging Marvel, DC, IDW and Darkhorse. Please report to the iBook store.

Better yet, create an app that for a small monthly subscription fee will let me browse your entire back catalog. I've seen the CDs and DVDs you halfheartedly sold for for awhile that contained entire runs of comic titles. Do that again. I'd pay 5 bucks a month for unlimited access to anything Marvel or DC published over ten years ago. Let me load ten, fifteen, twenty issues at a time on my iPad. I'll read'em on the train and re-sync for another batch of issues when I get home.

You can save your newer stuff for the iBookstore. I just want to browse the Silver and Bronze ages without doing it in black and white or paying out the nose for deluxe editions.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:08 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


the large form-factor would, I think, just tip it past being able to accept that it's not a real computer I can run real software on (yet).

Doesn't anyone here carry a handbag? I think this is going to go nuts with the handbag-carrying crowd. I've actually held off the iPhone and iPod touch because they were too small, and what I'm really looking for is an ebook reader/calendar/organizing/gadgety shiny thing I can just stick in, yeah, my handbag. The real impact of this thing is it might finally clue non-bag carriers into how useful it is to have a smallish receptacle for general life-stuff on them.

Heh, it really takes that weird gendered ewww-girls!! thing the Droid has going on to the next level. Not only does it only does it mount a frontal assault on the Beige Tower, the only thing it really fits in is a freakin' HANDBAG. Watch for the Droid ad, coming soon!

As a content creator I think this is hugely exciting. It could really take multimedia out of 'sitting at desk' mode into ubiquity. I want to start making stuff for it right now.

Dang, though, on the multitasking. I have music on all the time, and so do a lot of people.
posted by Erasmouse at 1:09 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


iPad compatible pants
posted by sparkletone at 1:10 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Technical superiority and market acceptance have little to no relation to each other. People are buying iPhone games and developers are starting to figure out better UIs for them.

I suspect we'll see a drop off in games sales, though. I work in the games industry (not a developer or publisher) and everyone I work with is sick to death of iphone games. the only thing I'll buy myself is a decent turn based strategy game, because touch screen controls are too wonky for anything that requires timing. (civ revolutions and uniwar, however, are fantastic, being turn based.) if we're talking about this thing moving into the market of console or pc gamers, it's just not going to happen. if we're talking about it opening a whole new casual gamer market, again there'll be people buying and developing casual games, but it's not going to be a revolution. gaming on this is clearly not even secondary among its purposes.
posted by shmegegge at 1:10 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Judging by the amount of hate in this thread, it's going to sell billions.
posted by unSane at 1:10 PM on January 27, 2010 [15 favorites]


Fashion Prediction: Safari Jackets with 10-inch pockets are going to be MASSIVE for fall.

Oh and OH GOD YEAH on the comics.
posted by Erasmouse at 1:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, there's an enormous difference between being a USB device that plugs into a (real) computer, a client or slave, and a device that can have clients plugged into it, a host or master. Apple could have done this either way, but their choice to make the iPad a client means that this device is a lot less useful than it could have been.

For instance, I can't take a memory stick with some mp3s on it and transfer them to or from the iPad without another computer. I have to go through another computer as an intermediary. So, big deal right? But that means I can't use the iPad as my only computer, none of my other USB devices will talk to it. I can't, for example, take the card out of my camera and then save and look at the pictures on the iPad.

There appears to be a work-around bodge for cameras, so Apple is aware that this is something consumers want, but that's just a single special case.
posted by bonehead at 1:11 PM on January 27, 2010


gaming on this is clearly not even secondary among its purposes.

They had two game developers on the keynote stage and they didn't have the CEO of Netflix or Pandora so I'll politely disagree. The inital reaction may fade over time and there may not be a sustained market for games but I think Apple has built a lot of game-specific stuff into the device and is aggressively wooing game developers.
posted by GuyZero at 1:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


But, most importantly: will it blend?
posted by wcfields at 1:12 PM on January 27, 2010


I wondered when you would trot out the "I just enjoy the finer things in life" "argument". This makes you and everyone else who uses it look like a smug jackass.

So when I say that I like certain movies or certain books, that makes me a jackass also?

Look, I'm fine with you not liking Apple products. We can agree to disagree. But when people make the jump from "I'm not a fan" to "I can't imagine who would be retarded enough to like this", I get bristled.

When you jump in an Apple thread to be a dick you get people telling you you're stupid and that you don't appreciate the product. Are you really that surprised by people responding to asshattery?
posted by Rory Marinich at 1:12 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I love READING books on my Kindle.

I'm going to love PUBLISHING books for the iPad.

(mostly because the kinds of books I write, on crafty topics, really could use a full color screen...and color printing is a bear, price-wise, when you're an indie).
posted by bitter-girl.com at 1:13 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Actually, bittorrent is the new universal media middleman.

No, absolutely not. Somebody's mom isn't using torrent, it does not have a payment mechanism, and it has no forum posts going "omg seed??!!!??"
posted by cavalier at 1:14 PM on January 27, 2010


They had two game developers on the keynote stage and they didn't have the CEO of Netflix or Pandora so I'll politely disagree.

come on, they've had devs on stage at macworld plenty of times before. they've made "this is the year for mac gaming" statements before, too. it's still not true, and the ipad doesn't give me a whole lot of reason to think it's any different this time. will it play WOW? that's still the biggest game on the mac platform. bejeweled does not a gaming revolution make.
posted by shmegegge at 1:15 PM on January 27, 2010


Dang, though, on the multitasking. I have music on all the time, and so do a lot of people.

I have a Droid phone. I've had it play podcasts while doing turn-by-turn GPS navigation and then taken a phone call in the middle of that (with the car dock). I'll let you have one guess why Apple still has not implemented this functionality in the iPhone OS.

OK, that was just rhetorical bullshit. When I do that it eats my entire battery in about an hour. It's all about battery life. The primary case of crappy battery life on Android is badly behaved apps running in the background. You know how you hate all those goddamn update notifiers running in your Windows taskbar? Yeah, Android has 'em. You get the bad with the good on that front.
posted by GuyZero at 1:15 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


Apple's approval process has been getting faster and faster. Now it's a three-day wait, and their turnaround for false rejections is similar.

There are two other methods for getting apps to run on this thing. The first is you release a web app. You can design a web app so that if you save it to your home screen it downloads itself and runs natively; I have several native applications that I downloaded online. The other is you jailbreak, and release your application like you would if it was an ordinary Mac app. People do that, and they make money off it.


It's not about how fast the approval process is. Apple's rejection of Google Voice apps is a prime example of how having a locked down device is a bad thing. Jailbreaking is not an ideal solution either. Believe it or not, not everyone is keen on downloading and installing cracks to their OS from the internet.

Rory, I realize you like Apple products; I do too--I'm very happy with my iPhone. I also agree with you that devices like the iPad, if not the iPad itself, will revolutionize the way we interact with computers and digital content. But for me, this is precisely why we have to scrutinize Apple more than other companies. I don't want a digital future where everything I use or consume has to be approved by a single company. Mindlessly defending every criticism about Apple is not helpful in the long run. In fact, being a "jizzying fanboy" of any corporate entity, no matter how shiny its products, is counterproductive.
posted by reformedjerk at 1:15 PM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


shmegegge, I will agree 100% that Apple can't simply make a real market for iPad games appear purely through force of will. It may never appear as a market. But I think they will try very, very hard to make it happen.
posted by GuyZero at 1:16 PM on January 27, 2010


The other is you jailbreak

You keep mentioning this, mostly after you mention how we should all be happy to have how we use our computers determined by the company that makes them. I'm not sure the two are compatible. Either there's something wrong with your model, and devices need to be jailbroken, or there isn't, and they don't. I really don't think your argument, as presented, supports having it both ways.

For the record, I use and really love mac computers. And I think mac gadgets are usually cool and slick. I just think this is the latter, and not the former. I was really hoping for the former.
posted by OmieWise at 1:18 PM on January 27, 2010


I was all ready to shell out for this thing, but, seriously, again with this inability to multitask?

I'm a little confused by this as well. However, they didn't say one word about the next major release of the iPhone OS today, and people at the event say it's running 3.2 (the next minor version).

Perhaps in a few months, they'll announce iPhone OS 4, which will bring multitasking and help fill in some of the gaps on this thing.
posted by sparkletone at 1:18 PM on January 27, 2010


It's not about how fast the approval process is. Apple's rejection of Google Voice apps is a prime example of how having a locked down device is a bad thing. Jailbreaking is not an ideal solution either. Believe it or not, not everyone is keen on downloading and installing cracks to their OS from the internet.

Google released a Voice application just yesterday for the iPhone that works perfectly.

I'm critical of how Apple's handled the App Store, but they're getting better, and I disagree with the idea that they shouldn't be going down that road. I like the idea of App Stores very much.
posted by Rory Marinich at 1:18 PM on January 27, 2010


It's possible the fugly bezel is a the result of a second choice for the screen. I bet, over the coming months, that we'll find out that Apple really wanted to go with a 10", probably AMOLED screen, like the Droid. Of course, this would totally have killed, but a) would have driven the price up quite a bit and b) weren't available anyway. Thus, at a fairly late stage, the fugly bezel to fit a 9' screen where a 10' one was originally planned.

So, I predict that the iPad 2 will have a 10" AMOLED (or similar) in about a year when Samsung gets those fabs on-line and that it will be totally killer.
posted by bonehead at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is is an excellent consumer device and long term it's going to eat everyone's lunch as it replaces laptops for most regular folks.

Perhaps the most important feature of this product is price.

Looking forward to budget-conscious times this looks like a product that is cheap and does what most people want: a) web/email; b) media consumption; c) play the odd game; d) write the odd document.

As said upthread, it would be great for my parents and, looking at how my wife uses a computer in practical terms, would be a good fit there too.

So you get a cheap, practical device with the Apple cachet. That might be a winning blend.
posted by mazola at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2010


But I think they will try very, very hard to make it happen.

you know, I hope so. I don't think it can happy without a full OS, but I'd love to see it happen on OS X. the only thing I use my pc for is to play pc games, and to stream to my xbox. I'd happily trade it in for apple tv (or a mac app for xbox and ps3 streaming) and a mac steam account if apple made it happen. provided, of course, I could afford a desktop mac which I currently cannot. but if affordable quality gaming happened on a mac platform, I'd be all for it. I just can't help but feel like touch screen gaming ain't the way it'll happen. again, I'd like to see what options devs have for requiring a keyboard and mouse to game on this thing.
posted by shmegegge at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2010


For me to be interested in this, it needs to be a standalone home pc, not a $500 accessory to my home pc that I have to sync to.
posted by jefbla at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


So you get a cheap, practical device with the Apple cachet. That might be a winning blend.

It will be. If these things ship by early May you'll see hordes of people plunking down income tax refunds on them.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:22 PM on January 27, 2010


Two demographics are gonna love this thing: baby boomers and students.

You'll love it too once all your iTunes and iPhoto content is in Apple's cloud and you don't need a real computer to sync it with.
posted by danblaker at 1:22 PM on January 27, 2010


"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
(etc.)


So, just like an iPhone or iPod you will NOT be able to plug a USB drive into it to transfer files, nor will you be able to use a standard USB cable. Everything will be done via a computer, and everything loaded ONTO it will be done via iTunes.

I have (and love!) an iPhone, and I thinkat this pricepoint, the iPad is going to be the Avatar to the iPhone's titanic, but the USB thing is a bummer.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:25 PM on January 27, 2010


I think I'd rather have a JooJoo.
posted by Duug at 1:25 PM on January 27, 2010


and everything loaded ONTO it will be done via iTunes or the internet. Sorry.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:26 PM on January 27, 2010


For me to be interested in this, it needs to be a standalone home pc, not a $500 accessory to my home pc that I have to sync to.

Can't you use it as a home PC? You can buy all the media/apps directly from it. What's there to sync?
posted by Rory Marinich at 1:27 PM on January 27, 2010


Google released a Voice application just yesterday for the iPhone that works perfectly.

Come on, this is a webapp. You and I both know that I was talking about a native app. The fact that Google can't make a native app doesn't bother you even a tiny bit? I'm glad you so fervently believe that Apple will always produce the best service for every niche you need, because the moment they don't, you'll have to settle for second best.
posted by reformedjerk at 1:28 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Google released a Voice application just yesterday for the iPhone that works perfectly.

I wouldn't say it works perfectly. It's a good solution for Google Voice-related SMS and maybe also for voice mail. However, for calling out using GV, it's not a substitute for a real app.

It's just a web app that helps automate the process of using your actual phone to dial Google Voice and then connect you through to the number you're actually calling. It still relies on your regular cell connectivity.

With a real app, running over wifi, you wouldn't need the cell service at all. Since I don't cell reception in my apartment, Skype's quite handy for this. A Google Voice web app isn't.
posted by sparkletone at 1:29 PM on January 27, 2010


or a mac app for xbox and ps3 streaming

These exist, by the way. (I use Connect360. I forget what the PS3 equivalent is.)
posted by sparkletone at 1:31 PM on January 27, 2010


Can't you use it as a home PC? You can buy all the media/apps directly from it. What's there to sync?

The 500 GB of media I have on my NAS at home, a decade and a half of documents, photos, movies and comic books. Can I access that, mount that as a drive, on the iPad? It doesn't look like it. If this is a media front end, it only works with the media Apple wants it to, not the media I already have.

Sorry, the music industry turned me off this by switching from LPs to cassettes to CDs to MP3/AAC. I really don't want to shell out thousands of dollars to rebuy my media again, for what feels like the hundredth time.
posted by bonehead at 1:31 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Can't you use it as a home PC? You can buy all the media/apps directly from it. What's there to sync?

anything you generate without it, including digital pics not taken with an iphone and music not bought off of itunes. including any media at all that isn't purchased through apple. including any work documents you worked on on another machine, unless you used google docs.

come on, man. it's possible to get it all on there, but it's actually more complicated in these cases, not less.
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Can't you use it as a home PC? You can buy all the media/apps directly from it. What's there to sync?

Dude! You can like this thing while still recognizing that it has some limitations. Would you really buy a primary PC to which you had so little access? Would you really buy one that you couldn't plug even a thumbdrive into? Would you really buy one with 32Gig space that can't plug into an external hard drive? Would you really buy one where you could not both listen to music and backup your files (at the same time)?

If so, then it's clear why you think this is perfect, but it's also clear that you have much different computing needs than most people who actually use computers. Even as "cloudspace," or whatever you want to call it, gets more abundant, I mostly see people with more and more personal hard drive space.
posted by OmieWise at 1:32 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


These exist, by the way.

yeah, I just meant that I'd use the existing ones. I just couldn't remember their names.
posted by shmegegge at 1:32 PM on January 27, 2010


"I've worked in software my whole life (AND KNOW MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE)."

Heh.

I'M USING SCIENCE!
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:33 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Look, I'm fine with you not liking Apple products. We can agree to disagree. But when people make the jump from "I'm not a fan" to "I can't imagine who would be retarded enough to like this", I get bristled.

Sexy tablet-sized hardware, a task-oriented touchscreen-supporting OS, and iTunes support aren't limited to the iPad, you know. So when the only things Apple's product has going for it are the crippling of its hardware and the limiting of its users to a homogenous software and content ecosystem, "retarded" is (though a bit strong) pretty close to the mark as far as I can see.

It'll probably sell well, but it won't change computing like some folks are claiming.
posted by xbonesgt at 1:35 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think the killer here is battery and price point. The potential negative is whether people can actually sit on the couch and type on a tablet.

Also, I think it's a bit crap that the non-3G version doesn't have GPS. If I end up buying one of these (and, sigh, I will) I may get the 3G version just for that, but never sign on for the wireless service.
posted by condour75 at 1:35 PM on January 27, 2010


In 10 years, the book publishing industry in the United States will collapse. Completely.

nah, you just won't have your post war structural advantage, so you'll get to be like everybody else.
posted by Artw at 1:35 PM on January 27, 2010


"retarded" is (though a bit strong) pretty close to the mark as far as I can see.

ok, I've been trying to avoid this discussion in this thread, but just to get it out of the way - "retarded" is more than a bit strong and needs to be avoided in every instance, no matter how ridiculous someone's position is.
posted by shmegegge at 1:36 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


It'll probably sell well, but it won't change computing like some folks are claiming.

It's easy to confuse large market share and conspicuous usage with an actual fundamental change.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:36 PM on January 27, 2010


Whatever "Abstraction going on that could be done without" is supposed to mean.
Dude, I've EXPLAINED it. When I want to open up, say, the Internet, I don't just push the Internet button. I put my finger on the trackpad, and move a little icon across the screen. I navigate to the Internet button. Then I put my finger on the mouse and click twice. Or, I can push two keybuttons, type in the name of the application (which isn't "Internet"), and hit the return button, which returns me nowhere and launches something new. Here, I put my finger on the fucking screen and push the fucking button.
So your problem is that you don't know what the word "Abstraction" means?

Also seriously? How hard it do any of the things you mentioned? How brain damaged to you have to be not to be able to click a button to launch a browser? OMG TWO WHOLE CLICKS TO START THE BROWSER? Seriously? Who has a problem with that? Obviously you didn't have a problem with it. I refuse to believe that there are many users who are two lazy to click twice to get the browser. And the fact that there are extra options? Just don't use them.

Having a lack of options doesn't actually make things any easier to use. What happens when you have too many apps on the screen to pick through them? On an iphone, you can only install 148 apps or something, because that's how many icons fit on the screen. If a computer is going to allow you do a lot of different things, then it's going to require more expressive interfaces.

Removing options lets you get away with less expressive (and therefore simpler) interfaces, but the interfaces on computers aren't hard to use using scrollbars. Having to click more then once, etc. These are not real problems that exist in the real world.

And yes I know people over fifty, and they understand how to fucking scroll.

What makes you so proud of your computer intelligence? You've spent a decade and a half learning an arbitrary arcane system that makes you jump through loops to get shit done.

Again with this weird obsession a few people have with having interfaces that they could use if they were computer illiterate, even though they're not. Trying to make computers that can be used by computer illiterates is like trying to write books for people who can't read. Picture books. You're never going to be able to learn as much from a picture book as you can from a text book, and you're never going to be able to do as much with these bullshit dumbed down devices as you on a real computer.

And your counterargument is "Only elitists need to know anything! Picture books are revolutionizing everything!"
I don't like customizing things. I like getting things that work out of the box without my ever having to think about them.

But see, this is moronic. You changed you're clock on your desktop and claimed it was an 'annoyance' that you had to patch. But on this device you're not going to be able to do that. You seem to think this means that the clock will be perfect right out of the box. But that's absurd.

Anyway, like I said. Customization has always been optional. And frankly I have no idea why anyone thinks using a PC is difficult for doing simple things like surfing the web. Anything you can do on a PC you can do on this device.
"The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod."
Uh, right, but the iPad does not have a USB port on the device. It uses a wide, custom connector. Look at the pictures.
posted by delmoi at 1:38 PM on January 27, 2010 [8 favorites]


thoughts, mefites?
8 things that suck about the ipad.
posted by shmegegge at 1:39 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's not a computer. It's a giant iTouch. Can it wirelessly network to my existing computers? Can I stream video off of my media center with it? Can I plug a USB keyboard into it to type fast on the go, or at least a bluetooth peripheral? How about a USB webcam to Skype with? Can I pull files off it onto a thumbdrive to pass to someone else?

No, no, no, no, and no? Wake me up next year when there are knockoffs that actually function.
posted by mek at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]



Google released a Voice application just yesterday for the iPhone that works perfectly.


That headline is a lie. It's not a voice application, but a Google Voice enabled website. It has no access to your iPhone contacts which renders it pretty useless.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's easy to confuse large market share and conspicuous usage with an actual fundamental change.

But isn’t market share and visibility a part of fundamental change? Would you say that the ipod’s sales power didn’t actually change anything in the mp3 player market? Or maybe market share is a means to change, rather than change itself.
posted by Think_Long at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2010


I bet, over the coming months, that we'll find out that Apple really wanted to go with a 10", probably AMOLED screen, like the Droid

Totally pedantic, but: The N1 has a AMOLED screen. The droid is a "normal" backlit screen. Interestingly, AMOLED screen power consumption is apparently proportional to the number of lit pixels so for white-on-black ebook display it might give a measurable boost to battery life. Too bad people like black-on-white so much.
posted by GuyZero at 1:42 PM on January 27, 2010


bonehead at 1:31 PM

...for what feels like the hundredth time.

Yeah, no kidding. Let me add that this is just the first generation of iPad. I would think by the fourth or fifth generation they will have figured out a way to let users access older files on older applications. But, then again, they hope that you desire to buy something new will also feed you need to start over again. And by the time you do they will have some new device that everyone needs to have.
Frankly, I'm still using filing cabinets for a good number of files. Is it worth it for me to scan them into a computer? Only as a backup archive.
posted by Rashomon at 1:43 PM on January 27, 2010


shmegegge: "thoughts, mefites?
8 things that suck about the ipad.
"

Very well put. There are a lot of people who won't be bothered by these things, but for the tech savvy these are all big blows. It really is just a bigger iTouch, after the obligatory Apple hype.
posted by Tequila Mockingbird at 1:44 PM on January 27, 2010


Calling this a replacement for a netbook is like calling a Vespa a replacement for a Honda Civic.

As others have said, it's pretty, it's probably fun to use, but geez, when all is said and done, it's a bigger, clumsier iPod Touch.

"Ooo, you have an iPad! Let me show you this great video I saw on Youtube!"
"Umm...hey, let's watch it on my Macbook instead."
posted by Dipsomaniac at 1:45 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Also, I think it's a bit crap that the non-3G version doesn't have GPS. If I end up buying one of these (and, sigh, I will) I may get the 3G version just for that, but never sign on for the wireless service.

I think it's a case where they a) expect you to get all map data OTA so you need a 3G connection to get maps anyway and b) the GPS comes "free" on the GSM chipset and they'd have to add an extra part to support GPS as a standalone function.

On some Android phones I have heard people say that if they boot up outside of cellular coverage they can't even get a satellite lock and see lat/long. the "A" in AGPS is less option than you'd think.
posted by GuyZero at 1:46 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


potch: "In an e-reader, I want exceptional battery life, passive screen, and no distractions. "

I want all that, plus the ability to easily borrow books from the library. If the iPad plays nice with KCLS, it will be verrry tempting.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:46 PM on January 27, 2010


The fact that Google can't make a native app

Uh... what you say?

Google can, has, and will continue to develop "native" apps.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:46 PM on January 27, 2010


he means they can't make a native google voice app because apple has rejected it.
posted by shmegegge at 1:47 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


The 500 GB of media I have on my NAS at home, a decade and a half of documents, photos, movies and comic books. Can I access that, mount that as a drive, on the iPad? It doesn't look like it. If this is a media front end, it only works with the media Apple wants it to, not the media I already have.

Yes. There are several apps for accessing files that are on NAS. AirShare, ezShare, etc.

So, no, it works with all the media you want, basically. There are apps for opening all kinds of data, as well. I'm not sure what format your stuff is in, but between apps and transcoding I think you should be able to get most of it onto the iPad.
posted by jedicus at 1:47 PM on January 27, 2010


This Is Kotaku's First Post Written On An iPad
posted by Artw at 1:48 PM on January 27, 2010


Totally pedantic, but: The N1 has a AMOLED screen. The droid is a "normal" backlit screen.

Sorry, my bad. Still, I do think Apple was preppin a 10" screen and had to cut it down to save costs. I'm certain they wanted a device as sexy as an iPhone but just couldn't quite get it to work with either the current prices for parts or with the power demands of a bigger OLED screen. You're absolutely right that larger power consumption may have been the key factor.
posted by bonehead at 1:48 PM on January 27, 2010


I really love Macs (as well as my iPhone), but I'm not interested in this product at all. Although, too be fair, I guess I'm not in the target market. I actually do stuff with my computer (web development, video editing), so I use my work machine to fill the casual web surfing role as well.
posted by brundlefly at 1:48 PM on January 27, 2010


The fact that Google can't make a native app

Uh... what you say?


I think he meant that Google isn't de-facto allowed to distribute a native iPhone Google Voice app. Google can make any app they damn well please.
posted by GuyZero at 1:49 PM on January 27, 2010


In 10 years, the book publishing industry in the United States will collapse. Completely.

nah, you just won't have your post war structural advantage, so you'll get to be like everybody else.


Heh... somehow I;d read that as the economy of the United States collapsing completely...
posted by Artw at 1:49 PM on January 27, 2010


So the target seems to be the older generation, as several posters here have brought up already

Now I'm getting a horrible image of those naff digital picture frame things...
posted by Artw at 1:50 PM on January 27, 2010


The iPad is a non-naff digital picture frame thing. un-naff. anaff. Whatever.
posted by GuyZero at 1:51 PM on January 27, 2010


By the way, people who think that Apple isn't going to be forced to FairPlay the shit out of the books they sell, then I think you underestimate how terrified the publishing industry is of eBooks.
posted by sparkletone at 1:51 PM on January 27, 2010


Look I'm not saying this device is good or anything but I'm probably gonna want one really bad in a few months.
posted by Nattie at 1:51 PM on January 27, 2010


There are several apps for accessing files that are on NAS. AirShare, ezShare, etc.

Really? I can access the files on the NAS transparently from the device? It looks to me like these are was of copying files from the NAS to the device from another computer. Not really what I'm looking for here. I'd like something that could, in one step, stream directyl from a NAS, either as a share mount or via Snapstream or the like. If Boxee, for example, ran on this device, it would be 90% of what I'd want it for.
posted by bonehead at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2010


I think the people who use computers to make things are perhaps not the target audience in the long term (yeah, yeah, the early adopter geeks'll line up for 'em, but don't they always). The guys who run websites and blogs and write code and create gorgeous CGI would probably hate this thing, and they'd be right to do so- it isn't made to do any of that stuff.

It's made for the people who visit the websites and blogs and use the applications and watch the gorgeous CGI. It looks as though it would make a damned fine electronic charting system for healthcare professionals (at five hundred bucks, it's cheaper than some of the pens out there).

I wouldn't say it's going to change the world overnight, but I do think it's going to be one of the first steps in the direction of once again separating those who use from those who make (computer-wise, anyway).
posted by Pragmatica at 1:53 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


Google can, has, and will continue to develop "native" apps.

On the iPhone?

After Apple famously sat on their Google Voice app, neither approving nor rejecting it and never explaining why?

You think Google's going to waste more time and money developing native iPhone apps after that? I'd be surprised if they did more than bug fixes to Google Earth and whatever else is still in the app store.

(IIRC, Maps on the iPhone is actually developed by Apple, not Google.)
posted by sparkletone at 1:53 PM on January 27, 2010


Apple's rejection of Google Voice apps is a prime example of how having a locked down device is a bad thing.

Not enough people care and I'm not convinced they should with the current stare of the App market.

Seriously, most people can get a ton fun games and apps on the iPhone for under 5 bucks. They're not going to miss your special snowflake app and you're not going to do much to convince them that they should. Let it go.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:53 PM on January 27, 2010


Is this thread a record for 500 comments within a few hours?
posted by Burhanistan at 1:54 PM on January 27, 2010


Not only does it only does it mount a frontal assault on the Beige Tower, the only thing it really fits in is a freakin' HANDBAG

If the huge aftermarket for previous iStuff is any indication, this new device will fit beautifully in the funky groin pouch of my iPants.

but, until I swallow that pungent hipster pill, consider my beige tower fully assaulted - frontally.
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:54 PM on January 27, 2010


Hey Brandon, you know who else made the trains run on time?
posted by GuyZero at 1:54 PM on January 27, 2010


This is not big enough to be a coffee table.

It's hardly big enough to be a side table.

WTF APPLE !?!?
posted by mazola at 1:55 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Is this thread a record for 500 comments within a few hours?

This was always going to be an automatic Violet Blue/Sarah Palin.

How many deleted threads did we get in first anyway?
posted by Artw at 1:55 PM on January 27, 2010


How many deleted threads did we get in first anyway?

Apparently only one.
posted by GuyZero at 1:56 PM on January 27, 2010


It looks as though it would make a damned fine electronic charting system for healthcare professionals (at five hundred bucks, it's cheaper than some of the pens out there).

This is one of the markets that actually make sense for tablets, hospitals have been using them for years.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:56 PM on January 27, 2010


8 things that suck about the ipad."

Very well put.


For the power user tech crowd sure, but most regular folks won't give a damn.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:57 PM on January 27, 2010


This device makes me want to buy a desktop again - I haven't owned one since 2003.

Maybe the small iMac. I have a small apartment, but I'm pretty sure I could fit that comfortably.

I hate shlepping a laptop and I've been doing a lot less of it since I got an iPhone, but I think this thing would let me basically *never* have to carry a laptop around.

They call 4-pound laptops that you also need to carry an adaptor cord for ultra-portable. Yeah right. I've been coveting the Sony netbooks just because of their weight. 1.5 pounds. 1.5 pounds. 1.5 pounds! But the screens are too small and I can't bear the thought of spending so much money on a computer and having it not be a mac.

Maybe the people who think that 4 pounds is light have cars and only carry the laptop between the parking lot and the office/coffee shop, or from the driveway to home. But living in a city where I walk and take public transit all the time, an extra 4+ pounds on my shoulders is a lot.

Yeah - iMac, iPhone, iPad. That could work.

That said, I think I'll wait to see how this gets improved and updated over the next year. That will also give me time to start saving for two new devices. Eek.
posted by Salamandrous at 1:57 PM on January 27, 2010


If you want to use a computer, get a PC. If you you want to get work done, get a Mac

...unless you want to use Spreadsheets, but that makes you a despicable office drone.
posted by Artw at 1:57 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I can see them browsing and emailing from their armchairs with Radio 4 streaming

Good luck doing that without multitasking.
posted by kmz at 1:57 PM on January 27, 2010


Can it wirelessly network to my existing computers?

Yes, in both directions.

Can I stream video off of my media center with it?

Yes.

Can I plug a USB keyboard into it to type fast on the go, or at least a bluetooth peripheral?

Yes, at least via the keyboard dock. Whether other USB or Bluetooth keyboards can be made to work with it remains to be seen.

How about a USB webcam to Skype with?

No.

Can I pull files off it onto a thumbdrive to pass to someone else?

It remains to be seen exactly what can be done with the Camera Connection Kit's USB port, but probably not.
posted by jedicus at 1:57 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Hey Brandon, you know who else made the trains run on time?

There's an app for that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:58 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


How many deleted threads did we get in first anyway?

Apparently only one.


Wow. I would have guessed at least 4 threads on this today.

Maybe we'll get spin-off afterthreads.
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on January 27, 2010


Nick Carr: "Jobs doesn’t just want to produce glamorous gizmos. He wants to be the impresario of all media."

Random Analyst: "This is how Apple will dominate the sales of all future forms of digital media."
posted by GuyZero at 1:59 PM on January 27, 2010


Rory Marinich: “I use my computer hours and hours and hours every day. Perhaps functionally you could do everything I do on my Mac on a Windows machine, but it would be less fun and less usable and you'd have to jump through hoops and it wouldn't mesh well. But I think it's worth my money to get something sleeker and more viscerally enjoyable. I also buy clothes that feel good on my body rather than wearing hemp, and I occasionally spend more than three dollars on a meal because I like eating good.”

Consumer is annoyed that he's being called a consumer. 'Yes, I enjoy consuming,' he says huffily. 'Don't you consume also? And why is my choice of brand X in my consumption any worse than your choice of brand Y?'

It's neat how you assumed that Pastabagel is automatically on the side of Microsoft if he's putting down Apple. We Americans love binary simplifications, don't we? We do the same thing with politics. It saves us from having to make an actual choice, or from doing something about it.

Look: no matter which Steve you buy from, that Steve will not be interested in the quality or usability of software or devices. He will be interested in selling products. That has nothing to do with quality or usability of products, and more often than not it's directly opposed to quality or usability. That's obvious on the Microsoft side, but on the Apple side people have been ignoring it for years because we're massive geeks – and I sympathize, but: I could complain endlessly about the silly crap that Apple has been indulging in for decades, and I have plenty of points on that, but I'll satisfy myself with noting that you agreed above that OS X has plenty of cruft. There's a reason for that: it's cruft that Apple geeks love. They are used to it, in the same way that silly business people who'll be using MS Office until the day they die are used to it. Neither group is going to be the source for innovation.

Now, more than ever before, it would be nice if there were an OS developed by non-profits and by people who care about software for everybody, an OS whose solid and stable development wasn't driven by a profit margin but by the care and dedication of millions of developers. It would be nice if that OS had a pretty user-friendly interface option for those who, like Rory, just want something that works out of the box, and don't want to have to figure everything out. It would be nice if that OS worked on almost any architecture imaginable. And most of all it would be nice if that OS actually encouraged people to dig into their computers, to learn what's really going on behind the scenes, rather than, like Microsoft and especially Apple, encouraging people to see computers as magical toys that just do stuff for them without requiring any further thought whatsoever and without ever revealing their secrets.

If only there were an OS like that. Oh well, I guess I'll have to decide between Apple and Microsoft.

My money is on the kernel being ported to this iPad thing in two weeks, tops.
posted by koeselitz at 2:00 PM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


Brandon Blatcher: "8 things that suck about the ipad."

Very well put.


For the power user tech crowd sure, but most regular folks won't give a damn.
"

Wasn't that exactly what the remaining portion of my post said?
posted by Tequila Mockingbird at 2:00 PM on January 27, 2010


Re USB: package includes "Dock connector to USB cable". So, USB, yes, I think. Tech specs here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
posted by willF at 2:01 PM on January 27, 2010


Can I stream video off of my media center with it?

Yes.


tversity is not an ipad or iphone app.
posted by shmegegge at 2:01 PM on January 27, 2010


shmegegge: that's pretty close to my own criticisms -

1) No Flash. If this thing had Flash, I would put my laptop away in a quiet corner and never use it again. 99% of my laptop usage involves the web or iTunes, serious gaming and game development are done at my desktop.

2) No user-facing camera. Both my grandmother and mother would buy one of these if it only had Skype video conferencing. For them and a huge segment of the market, computers are about small amounts of word-processing, email with their friends, and Facebook/Skype for politely stalking their children/grandchildren.

3) No 720P screen. C'mon, you can do 1024x768 but not 1280x720 for native resolution HD video?

4) Connectivity. USB host, HDMI out, and SD card adapter would be worth an extra .15" thickness and I'm sure they could've pulled that off.

That said, this is a pretty good v1, especially the data plan and battery life. I won't be first in line on launch day, but I'll get the 32GB w/ 3G model sometime this summer.

Oh, and guys: the App Store submission process just *isn't* that bad, and if you're planning on doing a multiplayer game for iPhoneOS you're saved so, so very much aggravation on the clientside hacks front. Given the relative ubiquity of Xbox Live and App Store it's very difficult to build a case for entering that special hell where open platforms and competitive multiplayer games intersect.
posted by Ryvar at 2:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


No spec on the RAM but the display is apparently 1024x768, better than I expected.

Also, how long until hipsters also develop oleophobia?
posted by GuyZero at 2:02 PM on January 27, 2010


sorry: a business case.
posted by Ryvar at 2:03 PM on January 27, 2010


Not enough people care and I'm not convinced they should with the current stare of the App market.

Seriously, most people can get a ton fun games and apps on the iPhone for under 5 bucks. They're not going to miss your special snowflake app and you're not going to do much to convince them that they should. Let it go.


Wait, is this a defense of Apple's business practices? I don't get it. Apple rejects a perfectly good app from a competitor, but because they have a ton of games for under five bucks I should just "let it go"? If MS refused to let you run Firefox, you'd be up in arms. But because this is Apple, it's okay? How does this make sense? Am I missing your argument?
posted by reformedjerk at 2:03 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


"Jobs doesn’t just want to produce glamorous gizmos. He wants to be the impresario of all media."

which is an excellent, if mildly scary, point. the saving grace is that, so far, itunes is not really the best destination for tv and movies. my hope is that this does not make itunes the best destination for it, honestly, because that's getting into troublesome territory, what with the one company to rule them all implications.
posted by shmegegge at 2:04 PM on January 27, 2010


Apple is not revolutionary. This new and crazy idea won't work. It's too expensive, in a few years every product will have these features and be much cheaper.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 2:04 PM on January 27, 2010


Now, more than ever before, it would be nice if there were an OS developed by non-profits and by people who care about software for everybody, an OS whose solid and stable development wasn't driven by a profit margin but by the care and dedication of millions of developers.

Well, yeah that would be nice, I guess... not super fussed.

It would be nice if that OS had a pretty user-friendly interface option for those who, like Rory, just want something that works out of the box, and don't want to have to figure everything out.

That's some good stuff!

It would be nice if that OS worked on almost any architecture imaginable.

yay!

And most of all it would be nice if that OS actually encouraged people to dig into their computers, to learn what's really going on behind the scenes, rather than, like Microsoft and especially Apple, encouraging people to see computers as magical toys that just do stuff for them without requiring any further thought whatsoever and without ever revealing their secrets.

...and we're back to "could give a shit" for most people, including myself most of the time these days.

That said, my apparently useless netbook running Ubuntu is a very fine thing.
posted by Artw at 2:05 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh and, successful platform or not, can I say that the ebook screenshots make me froth. Why make your margins so busy by putting in fake spine curve on the left and page ends on the right. I mean really. It's a computer. I know it's a computer. Everyone using it knows it is a computer. Make the page less damn busy already.

Argh.
posted by aspo at 2:06 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I WANTED A ROBUST DESIGN AND THEY GAVE ME MAGICAL!


!
posted by mazola at 2:07 PM on January 27, 2010


tversity is not an ipad or iphone app.

TVersity streams the media from your computer to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad using a web interface in Safari. Here's an example of using it.
posted by jedicus at 2:08 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]



There's a company that makes a stylus that's compatible with Apple-style capacitive touchscreens, but there's no pressure sensitivity. At least not built into the iPad's screen. Possibly someone could make a powered Bluetooth stylus that transmitted pressure information to a drawing app.


See, THEN it would my Everyday PADD, if I can idly sketch something, tab out to read Metafilter, and talk to someone WHILE I'M DOING IT *with* a pressure sensitive stylus - AND it fits in my kit bag - well then I'm pretty gonna much marry it.
posted by The Whelk at 2:10 PM on January 27, 2010


Re USB: package includes "Dock connector to USB cable". So, USB, yes, I think.

For the umpteenth time, no. That is not a USB host capability, that just lets it plug in to a USB host to sync. A netbook replacement should be able to host USB peripherals, this iPad does not. In fact, it is incompatible with almost every single peripheral on the market... talk about a game-changer.
posted by mek at 2:10 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


TVersity streams the media from your computer to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad using a web interface in Safari. Here's an example of using it .

Ah, looking back I see I misread the original comment. I thought he wanted to stream media off the ipad to his media center and thence his tv. my bad. It seems like streaming video from a more robust box to an ipad while in bed could be interesting. logistics of leg positioning and propping the ipad aside, could be comfy and awesome.
posted by shmegegge at 2:12 PM on January 27, 2010


I really do wonder if that whole shitting on netbooks thing was the biggest strategic error. I know it instantly ticked me off.
posted by Artw at 2:12 PM on January 27, 2010


they said the same thing about the switch and "i'm a pc" ads. turns out, attack tactics work well in apple's aesthetic.
posted by shmegegge at 2:13 PM on January 27, 2010


Analysts use to complain about Apple not having clones. You could argue that the software on the Iphone and iPad are clones of Mac OS X. I think Apple has figured out that their lunch can be eaten, they're products beaten, history has shown that. So now they're determined to beat their own products, rather than have someone else do it.

The iPad isn't a replacement for the iPhone, which is, you know, a phone (and has a camera). But as a replacement for cheap, consumer laptops and/or consumer media devices (hmmm, should it replace Apple TV?), the iPad could really own the market.

No camera isn't an issue. Most people really don't want to do video conferencing and it's too bulky to do point and shoot.

No multitasking does suck, no question. That needs to be addressed, would be great is there was a way to toggle it multi-tasking off an on, the user could choose where to use it or not.

I don't have an iPhone, despite being sorely tempted, because it just didn't have quite the right mix of features, no copy and paste, no camera, and small space (32gig). It to version 3.0 of the software and the 3GS to make me to have to try really hard not to buy one. It'll be very interesting to see where the iPad is in two years, after a revision or two of software and hardware.

For now, I can't wait to try one out. I suspect once regular folks test drive one, they'll fall it love with it, especially if they're used to dealing with iTunes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:14 PM on January 27, 2010


Well, I was pretty happy to see that they've finally upgraded the Mini to respectable stats.
posted by Jawn at 2:15 PM on January 27, 2010


IPAD ALLOWS IPADDINGTON BEAR TO CONNECT TO THE WORLD
posted by The Devil Tesla at 2:16 PM on January 27, 2010


Yeah, quality of the testdrive experience is definately going to be more of a determining factor for success than the presentation.
posted by Artw at 2:17 PM on January 27, 2010


Wait, is this a defense of Apple's business practices? I don't get it. Apple rejects a perfectly good app from a competitor, but because they have a ton of games for under five bucks I should just "let it go"? If MS refused to let you run Firefox, you'd be up in arms. But because this is Apple, it's okay? How does this make sense? Am I missing your argument?

I'm saying your argument doesn't matter to most people, because they can get so much good stuff on the App store for cheap prices.

I'm not thrilled about other browsers not being allowed on the iPhone, no question, I just don't think it's big enough issue to care about. I'm have made the conscious decision not be bothered by it because my iTouch is so fucking cool anyway.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:20 PM on January 27, 2010


Brandon Blatcher - TBH I'd consider buying this before buying an iPhone a very weird use of resources. The phone has a much more concrete reason for existing.
posted by Artw at 2:20 PM on January 27, 2010


TVersity is better than nothing, but it's obviously inferior to having a device that supports networking. TVersity has to transcode on the fly during playback which means the server CPU runs at 100% and basically can't do anything else without causing major stuttering. Your server also needs a good video card if you want to get half-decent quality out of it. It's not practical.
posted by mek at 2:20 PM on January 27, 2010


I really do wonder if that whole shitting on netbooks thing was the biggest strategic error. I know it instantly ticked me off.

I kind of interpreted it as "All you people are using netbooks for is surfing the internet anyway, so why not do it in style and sync to all this iTunes awesomesauce while you're at it?"

Most people using netbooks aren't really power users - if your idea of the Internet is Hulu and YouTube and there are an increasing number of people for whom this is true, then the iPad is a good netbook substitute.
posted by GuyZero at 2:20 PM on January 27, 2010


If your idea of the internet is Hulu then the iPad is the worst possible netbook substitute.
posted by aspo at 2:22 PM on January 27, 2010 [6 favorites]


The Internet was disenchanted that day, my friends.
posted by Danf at 2:22 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh, wait, there is that, yes. So go buy it all on iTunes instead!
posted by GuyZero at 2:22 PM on January 27, 2010


Rory Marinich: “I like the idea of App Stores very much.”

Good god, why? (If you don't mind me asking.) What could possibly be attractive about the concept of App Stores? If anything, to my mind the sudden proliferation of app stores is direct proof that tech businesspeople have no idea what works. Centralizing all access to any and all applications within a single corporate control so that they can be stringently monetized? On devices that have internet capabilities (read: all new devices forthcoming) it's only a matter of time before somebody intelligent designs a free alternative. I don't use an iPhone, but if I did I can imagine I'd be able to find a few of those in a matter of seconds. And if availability of other software doesn't drive traffic away from an App Store, the annoyance developers feel at having to be pushed through the hole in the wall that is acceptance by a single money-driven corporate entity will. App Stores seem extraordinarily short-sighted to me, and I can't believe that, two years from now, anybody will be pushing them nearly as hard.

You know what idea is actually really awesome? Repositories. But of course Apple and MS hate that idea, because repositories are predicated on the idea that developers actually want to distribute their software, cleanly and securely, to as many people as possible.
posted by koeselitz at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2010


I can already run SSH with sftp and emacs on an iPhone, without emulation.

Make fun of me if you like, but my emacs-fu is weak enough that I don't know how to get it do the things that I regularly do with eclipse. Which is, again, a totally acceptable compromise for something I can cram in my pocket, but not so much for something the size of the iPad.
posted by juv3nal at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2010


yep. Except that people are willing to buy Viking pots and Viking food for their Viking stove which is where the real money is.
posted by GuyZero at 3:34 PM on January 27


You must not be aware that Viking offers cooking classes at it's stores. And both are are very popular. You really should read the book "Trading Up."

I use my computer hours and hours and hours every day. Perhaps functionally you could do everything I do on my Mac on a Windows machine, but it would be less fun and less usable and you'd have to jump through hoops and it wouldn't mesh well.

This is an assumption you make based on your own prejudice but you state it as fact. I use Windows for hours and hours a day as well. And I can guarantee you that switching to a Mac would be a frustrating experience for me.

Jedicus, I wouldn't bother wasting your time. Some people are just looking for any excuse to criticize Apple and users of its products, without really knowing anything about the technology they are talking about.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:53 PM on January 27


And that's where you're wrong. I know a great deal about Apple's core technology: marketing.

There is nothing anyone has said here about Apple's products that could not also be said about the products of other upscale product makers in any industry. BMW, Viking, SubZero, Mont Blanc, Victoria Secret, Moleskine, etc.

All sell "professional grade" products to people who's identity is in part based on the product. Not all the products, mind you, just one. A Viking stove buyer wants to think of themselves as a great cook. Whether they are is completely irrelevant. A great cook is just as good a cook on a Kenmore. But the product reinforces their identity, regardless of whether anyone else is there to see it. For a similar reason, a Viking owner might be content in a honda and with the cheapest laptop at Best Buy.

The ipod/iphone/ipad very much caters to the consumer who believes they are tech saavy, creative, cutting edge, etc. It doesn't matter whether this is actually true, and buying the product certainly doesn't make it true. But this is how these people feel. There are countless market research studies to demonstrate this. These consumers don't blink for a second when someone tries to sell them a product that is primarily used to consume text and image-based media (they advertise it as a reader!) by telling them it has a "screaming" 1 Ghz processor. Because the product appeals to them emotionally, they don't ask the question "Why do I need such a powerful processor to do such mundane things?"

So forget all the arguments about hardware, software, design, etc. Instead, I'll just ask you a question I could ask anyone who purchases the other products I listed.

Knowing that other products on the market have similar features at the same or lower price point, what about you makes you want a product like this? What do you feel when you buy it? What do you imagine yourself doing with it? Who do you imagine seeing you with it? Where do you imagine yourself using it (not where will you use it, where do you imagine, or fantasize, yourself using it)? What does that place look like, the decor, the lighting etc.

You'd be amazed how if you ask consumers of a particular luxury grade product these questions, you will get similar answers.
posted by Pastabagel at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Best period-related iPad jokes
posted by rottytooth at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm gonna make the prediction now: before Apple can release the next rev, there will be better-spec'd Android hardware. The N1 already has a 1ghz proc, and at the moment I'd take Notion Ink's upcoming Android tablet in a heartbeat (especially with that sexy Pixel Qi display, *swoon*).
posted by mullingitover at 2:27 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


mek: "A netbook replacement should be able to host USB peripherals, this iPad does not."

What you want is called "USB On-The-Go". Apparently it's hard to get certified, as while I haven't gotten a straight answer on why my N900 doesn't have OTG (even though the N800 does), but the emails I've seen from Nokia engineers appear to blame the overly onerous certification testing process.

I gather Apple is very pleased with their existing iPod dock connector's popularity.
posted by pwnguin at 2:27 PM on January 27, 2010


The Hulu folks are probably crapping all over themselves to get HTML5 implemented. Apple is hoping to deal a serious blows to Flash and they just may pull it off.
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2010


Some more details have emerged from the SDK.

"File Sharing. A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC. This is presumably how files such as iWork documents will be transferred to and from the iPad. iPad applications will be able to access this shared directory."

This is a departure from the iPhone/iPod Touch. And it means that syncing arbitrary files just got much, much easier.
posted by jedicus at 2:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


TBH I'd consider buying this before buying an iPhone a very weird use of resources. The phone has a much more concrete reason for existing.

Another reason I haven't bought an iPhone is that my contract isn't up for renewal 'till Feb 7th. FU early renewal fees.

You can get a decent, if not the latest and greatest, iPhone for $100 bucks. I wonder how it pairs with the iPad, how well the two work together to become something more. Most people just need to surf the web, listen to music, type a few documents, do a spread sheet etc. If they need something more, there's probably an App for that or will be once iPad designed apps start coming out.

I wonder how a Photoshop (or Photoshop type) app would do on the iPad. I'm guessing that it would satisfy most of the photo processing needs regular people have.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:30 PM on January 27, 2010



Knowing that other products on the market have similar features at the same or lower price point, what about you makes you want a product like this?


Link me to this product?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 2:31 PM on January 27, 2010


...if that OS actually encouraged forced people to dig into their computers...

And I say that as someone who was running linux on my Vaio ten years ago, and still uses it occasionally today, although I have to admit to being a Mac fanboy since the Intel MBPs came out.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:34 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm also kind of wondering what kind of hellish world of syncing problems i'm going to be letting myself in for should I get one of these and continue to run my iPhone and it off of the same machine.
posted by Artw at 2:34 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Hulu folks are probably crapping all over themselves to get HTML5 implemented. Apple is hoping to deal a serious blows to Flash and they just may pull it off.

It remains to be seen whether Firefox's lack of support for H.264 in HTML5 video kills HTML5 video or whether it kills Firefox.

Probably neither but yeah, once there's consistent HTML5 video support, Flash gets hit hard and a lot of people will be watching TV on their iPads.
posted by GuyZero at 2:35 PM on January 27, 2010


It's neat how you assumed that Pastabagel is automatically on the side of Microsoft if he's putting down Apple. We Americans love binary simplifications, don't we? We do the same thing with politics. It saves us from having to make an actual choice, or from doing something about it.

And to this point, though I use a Windows PC, I'm not on Microsoft's side. It's just very difficult to be a consumer of Apple's products when I can get a perfectly good PC that does everything I need, as fast as I need it done, for 25-30% of the price of an apple product.
posted by Pastabagel at 2:35 PM on January 27, 2010


Best period-related iPad jokes

"I'm a Mac."

"I'm a PC."

"I'm Prince Charles."
posted by Sys Rq at 2:36 PM on January 27, 2010


... It's just very difficult to be a consumer of Apple's products when I can get a perfectly good PC that does everything I need, as fast as I need it done, for 25-30% of the price of an apple product.

TERRORIST!
posted by mazola at 2:37 PM on January 27, 2010


You'd be amazed how if you ask consumers of a particular luxury grade product these questions, you will get similar answers.

Congratulations on reinventing branding.
posted by GuyZero at 2:37 PM on January 27, 2010


Everything's amazing and nobody's happy.
posted by kimota at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2010


Okay, I'm lazy and ignorant, but how is this better than an eee PC?
posted by dilettante at 2:41 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Take two; not sure how that extra character got in there.
posted by kimota at 2:42 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The ipod/iphone/ipad very much caters to the consumer who believes they are tech saavy, creative, cutting edge, etc. It doesn't matter whether this is actually true ... These consumers don't blink for a second when someone tries to sell them a product ... by telling them it has a "screaming" 1 Ghz processor.

You think clock-ticks per second is an accurate measure of chip performance across processor technologies, huh? Guess it's not just Apple consumers who have been deluded about their tech savvy.
posted by jock@law at 2:42 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Right then. Great thread, chaps. See you in June when we have a picture of how well this new shiny thing is doing in the markets.


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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments








posted by Burhanistan at 2:43 PM on January 27, 2010 [14 favorites]


I'm a huge fan of the iPod Touch, enough so that when I managed to kill my first one (the 32GB 1st gen), waiting a month and a half for the new one to come out was agony. I was pretty excited to see what the iPad (yeah, horrible name) would do. And I'll just stick with my Touch, thanks. The screen just doesn't do it for me. The amount of real estate eaten up by the bezel, combined with how much space is wasted when viewing widescreen video kills one of the main selling points for me, that it would be a great device for watching movies on the go. The lack of any kind of USB/SD/video out only increases that. Sure, it's their strategy, that everything must come from Apple, and for them and their shareholders, it must be pretty keen, but as a consumer, it just sucks. Again, I say this as a person who is incredibly happy with their iPod. The thing is, I had hoped it would be more than just a giant iPod. Or, failing that, at least as good as one, and it doesn't seem like it.

And yeah, CBR files. The one thing I've found (comic zeal) is a pain in the ass to use, needs iPod Explorer to work, and iPod explorer crashes all the time. Any different ideas?
posted by Ghidorah at 2:43 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Damn, forgot the timestamp! All is lost!
posted by Burhanistan at 2:43 PM on January 27, 2010


The 500 GB of media I have on my NAS at home, a decade and a half of documents, photos, movies and comic books. Can I access that, mount that as a drive, on the iPad? It doesn't look like it. If this is a media front end, it only works with the media Apple wants it to, not the media I already have.

What kind of crappy NAS do you have that doesn't - by definition - offer network access to your data? You either need to learn what NAS stands for, or ask for a refund for your NAS.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:44 PM on January 27, 2010


According to the SDK later versions of the iPhone OS will support Universal apps: an iPhone/iPod Touch app bundled with an iPad version. So developers will be able to sell a single version and people won't have to rebuy their apps for the iPad once iPad versions come out. That's nice.

And yeah, CBR files. The one thing I've found (comic zeal) is a pain in the ass to use, needs iPod Explorer to work, and iPod explorer crashes all the time. Any different ideas?

Well, getting the files onto the iPad will be very easy because "A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC. iPad applications will be able to access this shared directory." No more iPod Explorer or similar programs. With a much larger screen to work with I'm sure there will be a much better CBR reader app written as well.
posted by jedicus at 2:45 PM on January 27, 2010


Guys, you CAN multitask with music on the iPhone/iPod touch; you can listen to your own mp3s while you're doing other stuff. Sure, it's not Pandora, but I like my taste in music better than Pandora's (and I'm an mp3 hoarder so I have plenty of variety). Sadly, 16 gb (the one I can probably afford) will be nowhere near enough space for music, but I don't see needing this device to listen to my whole music library. What I do see is me, sitting on the couch, watching House, browsing the web (WTF is "Brucellosis"?), maybe reading a book on the device. Or taking it in my purse (you nailed it, Erasmouse!) to lunch with me; reading, browsing. Using it to open a spreadsheet and check something in a meeting, or take notes. Watching a movie on a long flight.

I hate to say it, but I think I am THE consumer Jobs had in mind when he made this thing. I wonder how long he's been watching me...
posted by TochterAusElysium at 2:45 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


What kind of crappy NAS do you have that doesn't - by definition - offer network access to your data? You either need to learn what NAS stands for, or ask for a refund for your NAS.

I'm guessing he's complaining that the iPad won't mount SAMBA shares and/or that the iPhone OS doesn't mount remote drives with a filesystem exposed through stock apps.
posted by GuyZero at 2:46 PM on January 27, 2010


jedicus: File Sharing. A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC.

That's backwards though, the iPad shouldn't be a server device, it should be a master. I should be able to use the iPad to view and manipulate media and documents on a file share somewhere, my own NAS, the cloud, whatever. This is a device to be controlled by an external master, not a device to be in control with.

Like, for example, why can't you plug an iPhone or iPod into this device? The simple answer is that it is the same class of device in Apple's view, it isn't a computer. This really isn't a netbook replacement, it's an iPod replacement/upgrade.
posted by bonehead at 2:47 PM on January 27, 2010


At least it doesn't cost $7,500...
posted by Taft at 2:48 PM on January 27, 2010


Pastabagel: "And I can guarantee you that switching to a Mac would be a frustrating experience for me."

I can honestly say that after doing CAD, 3D modeling, multimedia production and web application programming on PCs for about 18 years, switching to OSX was 99 44/100% painless. My only frustration with my Mac has been the software updates that force me to restart it every once in a while, a couple of keyboard related glitches and the deterioration of my screen coating due to heavy use/travel.

Back in the DOS/Win3.1/WinNT/Win2K/XP days I'd have that many issues in any given day.

It's not *all* hype.

I may or may not buy the iPad, but I'm never going back to Windows, at least for my foreseeable future.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:49 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


And that's where you're wrong. I know a great deal about Apple's core technology: marketing.

If you think the only reason people buy and use Apple products is because of marketing, you don't know nearly as much as you think, but keep being smug about being ignorant.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:49 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Burhanistan : This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments

Bastard! This actually got me for a second. Well done.
posted by quin at 2:49 PM on January 27, 2010


This Apple touchscreen tablet has a built in camera.

Happy now?
posted by mazola at 2:51 PM on January 27, 2010


What kind of crappy NAS do you have that doesn't - by definition - offer network access to your data? You either need to learn what NAS stands for, or ask for a refund for your NAS.

I have one that can mount nfs and SMB shares, like every other one on the market. It can do UPnP/ DLNA so some TVs can talk to it. I don't see how the iPad can yet though. Forgive me, I don't have an iPod to test this with.
posted by bonehead at 2:51 PM on January 27, 2010


For years, the Mac community railed against the perceived closed nature of Microsoft. Now, many are rallying behind an Apple with a vision more closed than Redmond’s.

-Peter Kirn at Create Digital Music about the iPad.
posted by eyeballkid at 2:53 PM on January 27, 2010 [5 favorites]


MS hate don't need no logic or consistency.
posted by Artw at 2:54 PM on January 27, 2010


MS hate don't need no logic or consistency.
posted by mazola at 2:55 PM on January 27, 2010


Just to go back to this...

Only on Metafilter would 5 of the first 50 comments be related to the device's ability to display comics...

I can assure you that today people involved with comics are talking about very little else. If you can get over whether or not people are going to pay $500-$900 for a device on which to read comics this thing could very well be the ideal platform for them and save the industry from going down the shitter... Of course, the same thing was said of the iPhone (see self link previously), but in the end the form factor probably wasn't a good enough match - you have to seriously mess with comics to get them to work on the tiny screen. This thing you just drop it in and it's there, more or less.
posted by Artw at 2:55 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


That's backwards though, the iPad shouldn't be a server device, it should be a master. I should be able to use the iPad to view and manipulate media and documents on a file share somewhere, my own NAS, the cloud, whatever.

Twice in this thread I've linked apps for viewing and manipulating media and documents located on file shares and NAS. Perhaps not yours, for some reason, but definitely for a lot of people's. For accessing docs in the cloud there's Apple's own iDisk app, a DropBox app, and probably others.

This just makes it easier to drag and drop arbitrary files on to the iPad, which means it will be easier for apps to sync with desktops. It means that people will actually become less dependent on Apple for their media and documents rather than more so. To the extent Apple becomes the primary distributor of music, movies, TV shows, and books it'll be because they offer an easy to use integrated experience, not because they lock people in to their devices and lock other people's data out.
posted by jedicus at 2:55 PM on January 27, 2010


Now, I love you BP, but why do you react to even the slightest criticism of any Apple product as if it were some sort of personal attack on you?
posted by Dumsnill at 2:57 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Marvel Comics Cautious About iPad's Potential
posted by Artw at 2:57 PM on January 27, 2010


The ipod/iphone/ipad very much caters to the consumer who believes they are tech saavy, creative, cutting edge, etc

While that may be true for you -- and I'll even give you that it may be true for all the Apple people you know -- as someone who feels very catered to by Apple, it is certainly not true for me. (Well, I do consider myself creative and cutting edge but not because I own a product that's owned by 75 million other people in the world.) It sometimes seems like to me that the only people who have truly bought the Apple hype at face value are those who known by those most vocally arguing against it.

And there in lies the thing I don't understand about these points and this conversational thread. Apple may own the tech media community, it seems, based on the response to days like today -- but 98% of the people who will buy this product had NO IDEA what today was Apple-wise, unless they happened to hear it on the news, and they won't know about it until they stumble across it, not because they will search it out.

Steve Jobs did not alienate his customer base by dogging on netbooks today. Because his true customer base doesn't really care.

It's not changing the game or whatever because of what it is or how its doing; if it does anything big at all, it's because of who is paying attention.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:58 PM on January 27, 2010


These consumers don't blink for a second when someone tries to sell them a product that is primarily used to consume text and image-based media (they advertise it as a reader!) by telling them it has a "screaming" 1 Ghz processor.

In the presentation, this proclamation was followed by a demo of a first person shooter and a racing game, both very fast action and fullscreen.

And even without fancy 3D stuff, the speed of the iPod/iPhone UI has always been a big strength. Turns on fast, runs apps fast, near-instant access to anything on the device. A fast/efficient processor and underlying hardware is critical to that experience.
posted by rokusan at 2:58 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm also kind of wondering what kind of hellish world of syncing problems i'm going to be letting myself in for should I get one of these and continue to run my iPhone and it off of the same machine.

actually, this just sparked a few questions I hadn't thought of:

-when I plug my iphone into a computer it hasn't synced with before (for instance, when I just got a new pc) it erases all my iphone apps -if I'm syncing them - rather than putting them on the new pc, so that I'm forced to redownload my apps. thankfully, this does not cost anything, but it's a pain. will this happen with the ipad, or will they change their drm a bit so that an app on your iphone will sync to both painlessly?
-if you don't have a computer to do your syncing with, and hope to use this as your primary computer, can you sync your iphone to it?
-will music you downloaded through itunes directly to the iphone now be available to you without paying extra for it if you wish to download it directly to the ipad? or will you have to sync to another computer? if you don't have a computer, will you simply have to pay again for the music?
-the keyboard: does it only dock in portrait mode? no landscape?
-mice: does it support them? at first glance, it seems no.
-the keyboard dock again: it seems that, if there's no mouse support, you'll have to touch the ipad to do non-keyboard stuff, and on that dock it looks like you'd be in persistent danger of knocking the thing over.
-will using the keyboard on your lap be as awkward as it looks?
-looks like the expected verizon iphone announcement was wishful thinking. oh well. I had hoped.
posted by shmegegge at 2:58 PM on January 27, 2010



And. . . it makes perfect paninis! Every time!
posted by Herodios at 3:01 PM on January 27, 2010


Steve Jobs did not alienate his customer base by dogging on netbooks today. Because his true customer base doesn't really care.

Well, that would kind of make the audience who cheered for the dogging of netbooks not his true customer base either.
posted by Artw at 3:01 PM on January 27, 2010


I have a couple of netbooks. I love them, but compared to an Apple MacBook or iPhone (or presumably an iPad), I also know they're really pieces of junk. But that's fine, since I consider them disposable anyway.

Because, while they're not great to type on for hours at a time, and their screens are small, and so on... they're also really, really, really cheap. If I drop it or sit on it or kick it or run over it with the car someday, no big deal. $225 and I'll get another one.

I think this iPad is interesting, and I'll think about one for couch-surfing or breakfast reading, maybe... but a $499 MacBook with a 9" screen would have made me happier today.
posted by rokusan at 3:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


Dumsnill: "Now, I love you BP, but why do you react to even the slightest criticism of any Apple product as if it were some sort of personal attack on you?"

To keep in practice?

I keed, I keed. BP is one of my favorite MeFites.

Anyway, FWIW, Mrs. B. - who I wouldn't described as any kind of gadget-head, although she was an early iPhone adopter - just called me to report her state of Instant Overwhelming Covetousness for this doohickey. So it will probably sell fine.

For me, if it won't even play my MP3s while I surf the Internet, boy, was this a lot of hype for nothing.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:02 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Once upon a time, I thought Apple fanboys were idiots. I mean, seriously, it's a computer. Who fucking cares? I just want to get my work done.

Then I decided to risk purchasing a Mac, because I figured out that if I didn't like it, the fanboys would pay near full-retail price for a used laptop. Awesome!

Well, I'm an Apple fanboy now. It's just that much less frustrating.

I've had to use Windows a few times, because of client needs. Each and every time, my gods, it astounds me. Windows is such a lousy, shitty, good goddamned clumsy OS. I am embarrassed I once thought it was okay. It was and is not. Piece of shitty shit, is what it is.

The iPad? Meh. I'll wait a couple years.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:03 PM on January 27, 2010 [11 favorites]


Because his true customer base doesn't really care.

Ah yes, the "No True Apple Customer" fallacy.
posted by GuyZero at 3:04 PM on January 27, 2010


but a $499 MacBook with a 9" screen would have made me happier today.

Didn't you hear Steve? No one wants that! No one!
posted by Artw at 3:04 PM on January 27, 2010


And. . . it makes perfect paninis! Every time!

I hate it so much when people put an "s" on the end of an already-plural word.
posted by The World Famous at 3:04 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]




For me, if it won't even play my MP3s while I surf the Internet, boy, was this a lot of hype for nothing.


It will play MP3s while you surf just fine, it just won't do streaming.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:05 PM on January 27, 2010


I have one that can mount nfs and SMB shares, like every other one on the market. It can do UPnP/ DLNA so some TVs can talk to it. I don't see how the iPad can yet though. Forgive me, I don't have an iPod to test this with.

I'm fairly sure OpenNAS supports FTP access and there's an FTP client for the iPhone / iPod Touch, which would imply access from an iPad.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:05 PM on January 27, 2010


Twice in this thread I've linked apps for viewing and manipulating media and documents located on file shares and NAS.

Yeah, but those are fixups to compensate for capabilities that should, in my view, be built in. Apple clearly wants the users to go through their interfaces, not to be able to use their own storage. The problem with that is that there's no interface offered by the OS to provide the service. That means that third-party apps really can't take advantage of a particular capability offered by some non-Apple company. Building a Boxee-like app, or a comic book browsing app is going to be next to impossible on this device for that reason.

The iPad has a movie viewing app and I'm certain that a comic book app will be along shortly, but they're predicated on a model of proprietary local or cloud storage mechanisms. The iPad is a client: I have to either copy the file to the device or use Apple's cloud services to access them. I'd prefer to use a different model, to have the OS act as a media browser from my existing network store. Te easiest way to do this is to mount a share in a way that's been an industry standard now for a couple of decades. There are other was to do this, of course, but it should be baked into the OS. Third-party fixups aren't adequate because they don't provide a stable software ecosystem.
posted by bonehead at 3:07 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


BP, we know the iPhone is Turning complete. Most of the arguments come down to obviousness or support in the stock apps of whatever someone's pet activity is.
posted by GuyZero at 3:08 PM on January 27, 2010


What could possibly be attractive about the concept of App Stores? If anything, to my mind the sudden proliferation of app stores is direct proof that tech businesspeople have no idea what works. Centralizing all access to any and all applications within a single corporate control so that they can be stringently monetized?

Uh, yeah, "centralizing all access to any and all applications within a single corporate control so that they can be stringently monetized" is exactly what works about the iPhone app store. Customers want one place to go, developers want a huge audience who won't pirate their product. I'm kind of shocked at the number of people here who seem to have no clue how a real mass market for technology is going to work in the future.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 3:08 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Jeez, TURING. I know how to spell, I do not know how to type.
posted by GuyZero at 3:08 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


-if you don't have a computer to do your syncing with, and hope to use this as your primary computer, can you sync your iphone to it?

It would be nice but it seems pretty unlikely. But how common is this use case anyway, the person who owns an iPhone but no regular computer?

-will music you downloaded through itunes directly to the iphone now be available to you without paying extra for it if you wish to download it directly to the ipad? or will you have to sync to another computer? if you don't have a computer, will you simply have to pay again for the music?

The simplest method will be syncing through a computer. No doubt apps will emerge that allow an iPad and an iPhone to transfer files between each other, though.

Some people think that Apple's acquisition of LaLa is part of a move to eventually putting people's music in the cloud allowing access via the internet to anything you've ever bought on the iTunes store. We'll see.

-the keyboard: does it only dock in portrait mode? no landscape?

Only portrait but there will either be hacks or 3rd party docks that offer both. It's just a matter of an extension cable from the dock to the iPad.

-mice: does it support them? at first glance, it seems no.

It's hard to see how a mouse would even integrate with the UI. You'd lose multitouch, for example.

-the keyboard dock again: it seems that, if there's no mouse support, you'll have to touch the ipad to do non-keyboard stuff, and on that dock it looks like you'd be in persistent danger of knocking the thing over.

Yeah, that's a good point.

-will using the keyboard on your lap be as awkward as it looks?

Probably. I'm realllly hoping for an OS update that adds handwriting recognition with an 'imaginary pen' gesture. Maybe the case with integrated prop will make using it on a lap easier.
posted by jedicus at 3:09 PM on January 27, 2010


For me, if it won't even play my MP3s while I surf the Internet, boy, was this a lot of hype for nothing.

Why on earth do you think it won't do that? Even the original iPhone did that.
posted by rokusan at 3:09 PM on January 27, 2010


Seriously blaze, that's the way you'd use a NAS? That's not a fix, that's a hack.
posted by aspo at 3:09 PM on January 27, 2010


furiousxgeorge: "It will play MP3s while you surf just fine, it just won't do streaming."

Oh, OK. Streaming is for suckers in my book. Now I just have to wait until the price comes down 75%.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:09 PM on January 27, 2010


Interesting, but five hundred bucks is far too much. Still, if Apple succeeds in making tablets popular I'll get some cheap no name competitor's product a couple of years from now.
posted by Kevin Street at 3:10 PM on January 27, 2010


"-will using the keyboard on your lap be as awkward as it looks?"

And, does it get hot? Will it burn my nutsack?
posted by jefbla at 3:10 PM on January 27, 2010


I would buy this in a SECOND if iTunes treated video files the same way it treats audio files.

Imagine a scenario where you could insert a DVD and rip it straight to iTunes to have in your library. Where you could buy content from the iTunes store (I think it's MP4? Correct me if I'm wrong), but you could also drag and drop XviD and DivX .avis straight into the library and not have to convert them--the same way iTunes sells AACs, but also plays nice with MP3s.

I doubt I'm the norm in my computer use habits for watching video content--downloading TV shows via bittorrent and usenet--and I accept that. But I can't imagine I'm the only person who spent $20 on Mad Men: Season 1 on DVD, for example, and would love to use iTunes to organize and watch the episodes without using a third-party application to jump through a lot of encoding hoops or paying an additional $35 to download the show from the iTunes store. If iTunes made getting video on your computer from a DVD as easy as getting music on your computer from a CD, the iPad would absolutely be the iPod for movies. And for people like me, who have GBs (or TBs) of .avi video files, it would be a must-have.
posted by cosmic osmo at 3:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


If MS refused to let you run Firefox, you'd be up in arms. But because this is Apple, it's okay?

The big difference for me is that I don't think Apple is going to use their Safari monopoly on Cocoa Touch devices in order to dictate the general direction of the web as a platform and lock you into only using their technology across a whole range of devices.
posted by weston at 3:11 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


That's not a fix, that's a hack.

No more so than any other approach.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:13 PM on January 27, 2010


And, does it get hot? Will it burn my nutsack?

Whilst simultaneously microwaving it!
posted by Artw at 3:13 PM on January 27, 2010


The netbook attack ticked me off too. I bought one on a whim not expecting it to be so helpful, but it's the best tech purchase I've made in ages... no glitz and glam, just great portability and utility. How much I like it caught me off-guard. The iPad, on the other hand, seems like nothing but glitz and glam. How is it better in any way, other than gee-whiz-itude, than a netbook? One single way? I don't see it. 3G where no wireless exists (on the train, for me) is something, but not worth the monthly fee. Still, I expect these slates to become the standard and replace netbooks (seeing as so many grandmas hate scrollbars, apparently), and that bugs me, because netbooks were a perfect and subtle step toward utilitarianism.
posted by painquale at 3:13 PM on January 27, 2010


But I can't imagine I'm the only person who spent $20 on Mad Men: Season 1 on DVD, for example, and would love to use iTunes to organize and watch the episodes without using a third-party application to jump through a lot of encoding hoops

Steve Jobs told me to tell you that you're absolutely doing it wrong and that you should have bought it on iTunes in the first place.
posted by GuyZero at 3:14 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


I really don't want this product but feel compelled to buy one anyway because, with each sale, Steve Ballmer dies a little.
posted by mazola at 3:15 PM on January 27, 2010


Heh... There's even tons of snark on this site. I'm still surprised at how many people are so disappointed with this device that they think it's a failure. What was everyone expecting? Apple delivered pretty much what I thought they would. I can't wait to get one -- much better than a netbook for what I want.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 3:15 PM on January 27, 2010


But how common is this use case anyway, the person who owns an iPhone but no regular computer?

I'd imagine increasingly common as time goes on, but for now not very. I'm mostly asking because enough people have made the "this is a computer" argument that I'm trying to imagine that scenario.
posted by shmegegge at 3:15 PM on January 27, 2010


I don't think Apple is going to use their Safari monopoly on Cocoa Touch devices in order to dictate the general direction of the web as a platform and lock you into only using their technology across a whole range of devices.
posted by shmegegge at 3:16 PM on January 27, 2010


Artw: “...and we're back to "could give a shit" for most people, including myself most of the time these days.”

bashos_frog: “...if that OS actually encouraged forced people to dig into their computers... And I say that as someone who was running linux on my Vaio ten years ago, and still uses it occasionally today, although I have to admit to being a Mac fanboy since the Intel MBPs came out.”

Yeah, I know I sounded a little Stallmanish about that, but I think a larger point that the fanboys often miss (sorry b_f) is that Steve Jobs' relentless pursuit of the absolutely intuitive interface which requires absolutely no thought or tech knowledge on the part of the user is a pipe dream. Apple products are always touted as being 'more user-friendly,' 'more intuitive,' 'more sensible' in their UIs, but at the point everything else is at I really don't think that's true; they're at the point of giving away user capability for the sake of a perceived user immediacy that may or may not be there.

What I'm thinking of is this: about a year ago, a very close friend of mine told me she wanted a new computer. She said she was ready for something different, something very usable, and that she'd be using it a lot for various media. She also loves her iPod. So, being an equitable guy, I recommended a Macbook – they're extremely aesthetically pleasing, I said, and, though I haven't used a Mac extensively for about a decade, their UI is supposed to be extremely intuitive. So she bought one, and I helped her set it up and everything, installing a few good programs and getting everything running, et cetera. And I found myself constantly struggling with all kinds of little quirks that I didn't remember being there. She'd call me every day or two with a little problem – for example, she'd plug in her camera and offload some photos using iPhoto; where the hell did those picture files go? If she wants to use one as an attachment to an email, where the hell is she supposed to find it?

Steve Jobs doesn't want her to have to think about piddly little things like 'files.' 'Files,' says Steve, 'are an arcane remnant of the desktop metaphor! Think about your pictures, and envision them flying through space!' I knew, I just knew, that Steve didn't want her hunting through the filesystem to find that folder – he wanted her to touch it, think about emailing it, and have it magically appear in her email. Practically, this probably meant that the single most obvious thing would've done it; it probably involved clicking on the picture itself and dragging it to her email or something. As it was, people may say I'm an idiot, but talking her through it over the phone, we couldn't figure out any possible way to find that file or to do some magical click-and-drag thing.

Upshot: because Steve wants us to forget all about filesystems and focus on media directly or something, the average user has no idea how to do a lot of stuff on a Mac. Software is designed not around power and flexibility but around intuition and a desire to remove the need to think about anything while you're doing it. People who are used to the interface swear that it's the best imaginable, but you'll notice that the hordes of knee-jerk Windows users, the ones that keep buying Office upgrades, haven't suddenly picked up Macs and discovered how easy to use they are.

I don't think it's possible to make a computer that is both usefully powerful and intuitive enough that a moron can use it. And Apple's pursuit thereof makes their devices less powerful.
posted by koeselitz at 3:17 PM on January 27, 2010 [15 favorites]


That's like, your opinion, man.
posted by mazola at 3:20 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


You're the biggest enemy Linux has, you know that right?
posted by Artw at 3:20 PM on January 27, 2010


$29/mo unlimited data with no contract sounds awfully nice.

Yes, but now I have to pay for a data plan on my phone, my home internet access, and now another monthly fee for this?
posted by mattholomew at 3:21 PM on January 27, 2010


I saw the videos. I read the tech specs. I pictured myself lazying on the couch on a rainy sunday afternoon with a cup of tea and that thing, and I very much liked the picture.

I like my gizmos however to let me perform three functions.
- To absorbe things: watching videos, reading, listening to content.
- To do things: using software, process content.
- To make things: create content.

This pad gets full marks on the first point, and a "eh" on the second.

It runs a proprietary system on proprietary hardware, has DRM in it. These one can choose to overlook. I can even see how one can easily discount the absence of multitasking (come on, not even a popup for new mail?) or flash. 'Shiny and easy to use' is not a tradeoff I can personally abide but, you know, whatever. It's not a computer, it's not intended to be, it's a personal... thingy. Should be understood as such, and all of the above is subjective.

What is objective, though, is that this new category of devices is another nail in the coffin of the Internet as we know it (and like it). All welcome the splinternet (hardware restrictions apply at the entrance).
posted by _dario at 3:23 PM on January 27, 2010


jefbla: "And, does it get hot? Will it burn my nutsack?"

$20. Same as in town.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:23 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


five fresh fish: “Well, I'm an Apple fanboy now. It's just that much less frustrating. I've had to use Windows a few times, because of client needs. Each and every time, my gods, it astounds me. Windows is such a lousy, shitty, good goddamned clumsy OS. I am embarrassed I once thought it was okay. It was and is not. Piece of shitty shit, is what it is.”

I'm a big fat geek, but I have a really, really hard time navigating OS X. Every time an Apple person tells me that OS X makes absolute and perfect sense, I wonder what in god's name they're talking about. It seems like there's plenty of weird cruft and strange stuff in there – what's with the weird installation procedure? Yeah, I know it's intuitive for anybody who's done it once or twice, but if you haven't it makes no sense at all. You just know Steve sat there in a meeting and said: "what we need... is to make it possible to install something... JUST BY CLICKING AND DRAGGING IT." So they designed a ridiculous framework around that single goal.

As it is, it's just weirdly anti-technical to me.
posted by koeselitz at 3:24 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


/invests in tin-foil underpants.
posted by Artw at 3:24 PM on January 27, 2010


Amazed that they had the balls to show a screenshot with the 'missing plugin' icon for Flash. Also loved the Engadget folks busting a nut over the demo of a New York Times article with embedded video! Kind of like a web page from 5 years ago...
posted by mattholomew at 3:27 PM on January 27, 2010


TBH I'd consider buying this before buying an iPhone a very weird use of resources. The phone has a much more concrete reason for existing.

I'd buy this way before I buy an iPhone.

While I'm no longer tied to a contract, I'm happy with T-Mobile, and my phone, a Nokia N95, has all the features I need in a cell phone. In fact, it has a better camera than the iPhone - a 5 MP with Carl Zeiss optics and a built in lens cover. It takes beautiful photos for a phone, and I take photos with it nearly every day. Plus, it has a dongle for a wrist strap, which, as someone with spasticity, is a feature that's sorely needed. If I had an iPhone, I probably would have accidentally sailed it into a tree (or wall, passing semi, etc.) by now. So, I already have my perfect dream phone.

However, I don't have my perfect dream netbook. Maybe this could be it.
posted by spinifex23 at 3:27 PM on January 27, 2010


Artw: “You're the biggest enemy Linux has, you know that right?”

Maybe. But in the end she just ended up selling the Macbook in frustration and getting a cheaper laptop with more power, and now she's running Ubuntu. And she says it makes a hell of a lot more sense than OS X ever did.
posted by koeselitz at 3:28 PM on January 27, 2010


Ok, I haven't read this thread yet but I thought I'd just let y'all know there are already six hundred plus comments. Just sayin'.
posted by zardoz at 3:28 PM on January 27, 2010



I hate it so much when people put an "s" on the end of an already-plural word.

Take it up with Garry Trudeau.
posted by Herodios at 3:28 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm a big fat geek, but I have a really, really hard time navigating OS X.

Just use the shell. It defaults to Bash.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


I do not think it too many.
posted by Artw at 3:29 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Imagine a scenario where you could insert a DVD and rip it straight to iTunes to have in your library.

Yeah, unfortunately that would be illegal, so it's never going to happen. However, a lot of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs now include an iTunes-compatible digital copy that comes over as a video file. If you have a Mac you should look into Handbrake, though, which is nearly as good as what you describe.

And for people like me, who have GBs (or TBs) of .avi video files, it would be a must-have.

Set up a transcode batch job and convert those .avis to a modern container format. AVI is pretty terrible. 'It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display.'
posted by jedicus at 3:30 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I mean, just to follow up on the NAS issue, it's an edge case for 99% of the customers for this product. So of course using abc.app for access via protocol xyz will be a hack, by definition. But it will work, so who cares what it gets called?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:32 PM on January 27, 2010


No more so than any other approach.

See, a real OS allows me to remote mount a drive, and as far as applications are concerned the remote drive is exactly like a (slow) local drive. Saying FTP is a replacement for that (especially FTP on a system that locks down interapp file sharing pretty heavily) is ridiculous. Doubly so when your FTP client is some third party application on an OS that doesn't even support multitasking.
posted by aspo at 3:33 PM on January 27, 2010


"what we need... is to make it possible to install something... JUST BY CLICKING AND DRAGGING IT." So they designed a ridiculous framework around that single goal.

As it is, it's just weirdly anti-technical to me.


This is so spectacularly wrong headed that I don't even know where to start. For fucks sake, have you never had to go into regedit to get a program to uninstall properly?

The first time I saw the install/uninstall process in OSX i was like, HOLY SHIT WHY DOESN'T WINDOWS WORK THIS WAY
posted by empath at 3:34 PM on January 27, 2010 [10 favorites]


Apple seems so locked into the crusty old idea that devices like this should be tethered to a specific computer and synced regularly. That arrangement made sense in the '90s with the Palm Pilot but is pretty silly now that handheld devices are powerful computers themselves. My Android phone is pretty much a stand-alone computer and while I've connected it to my laptop a couple of times in the last three months, it's not necessary. And I can connect my phone to any computer and move music and files both off and on. I dislike how Apple products are designed to work in such a closed loop, only interacting with iTunes and iPhoto on a single computer.
posted by octothorpe at 3:36 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Imagine a scenario where you could insert a DVD and rip it straight to iTunes to have in your library.
Yeah, unfortunately that would be illegal, so it's never going to happen.


Where is it illegal to rip a copy of your own DVD?
posted by rokusan at 3:37 PM on January 27, 2010


Empath: until 5 years later you realize just how much cruft all those apps you "uninstalled" kept around. I love app bundles, but they aren't as magic Apple would have you believe.
posted by aspo at 3:38 PM on January 27, 2010


Where is it illegal to rip a copy of your own DVD?

It's illegal to circumvent anti-copying measures under the DMCA. The law is specifically written to disallow format shifting.
posted by GuyZero at 3:38 PM on January 27, 2010


Doubly so when your FTP client is some third party application on an OS that doesn't even support multitasking.

See, that's being contrary for the sheer sake of being contrary. Do you think Microsoft's FTP client built into Windows is nearly as functional as third-party options that people pursue? I have lots of legitimate reasons to criticize Windows on a functional level, but FTP isn't one of them. It's silly to single out this "omission" on the iPhone when a perfectly servicable set of third-party alternatives exist.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:39 PM on January 27, 2010


Please, someone, make "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" application. Though it'd be easier with GPS and all that, we're still getting closer. Far closer than I thought we'd see in my lifetime.

Well done multitouch UIs will likely surprise many of us. They're "neat" on the iPhone, often very useful. But with two full hands? This is going to be good stuff.

I really want to see a GPS and a really nice quality camera in the device. If for no other reason than to see a legion of geeks holding up legal pad sized slates trying to frame a photograph.
posted by DigDoug at 3:39 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


HOLY SHIT WHY DOESN'T WINDOWS WORK THIS WAY

Because when then invented the registry they though OLE would be the end-all and be-all of software componentization.
posted by GuyZero at 3:40 PM on January 27, 2010


Potential iPad competitors: the more basic, input-limited JooJoo, formerly Crunchpad ($499 pre-order, shipping in "8 to 10 weeks"), and the more laptop-like Lenovo IdeaPad U1 (scheduled to be available June 1, with an estimated retail price of $999), which will run Windows 7 Home Premium with Lenovo's Skylight UI.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:42 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


The first time I saw the install/uninstall process in OSX i was like, HOLY SHIT WHY DOESN'T WINDOWS WORK THIS WAY

To be fair, drag & drop installation is great. Drag & drop uninstallation, however, tends to leave crap in your Library and Application Support directories. Depending on the app that can be a substantial amount of clutter.

Where is it illegal to rip a copy of your own DVD?

If the DVD is encrypted, it's illegal in the United States without a license from the DVD CCA, who are pretty unlikely to license Apple to allow iTunes to rip DVDs. Whether that's right or just or whatever is a whole 'nother question, but there it is.

I really want to see a GPS and a really nice quality camera in the device.

The 3G versions will have a GPS chip. True about the camera, though.
posted by jedicus at 3:42 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is so spectacularly wrong headed that I don't even know where to start. For fucks sake, have you never had to go into regedit to get a program to uninstall properly?

jesus christ, let's harken back ye olde days of 1996, why don't we? I haven't had to do that in 10 years. and even if there's an outlier case for doing it today, the outliers for mac software are equally weird (see, uninstalling every last bit of an adobe suite, etc...)

the fact is that apple decided a new user would have an easier time if they saw a folder that had an arrow between two icons, because theoretically everybody should be able to just follow a graphic and drag one icon onto another.

but the real deal is that the people such idiot-proof iconography is designed for don't then know that their programs are all in an "Applications" folder they have to get to by opening a picture of their hard drive and looking on the left side for said folder shortcut. further, they have no idea they can drag the icon for their app onto the dock to make launching the app easier.

and as a power user, my first experience trying to install anything on OS X (it was firefox on a work computer, shame on me for loafing) ended up with me calling a mac friend in what is still one of the most ridiculous discussions I've ever had. the idea that the graphics in a folder were actual representations of the folder was not something that I could intuit, because I was a pc guy at the time. so I couldn't figure out that I was supposed to actually drag the thing on the left side of the arrow onto the thing on the right side of the arrow. I thought those were just helpful pictures. So I kept dragging the INSTALLER app onto the applications folder, which I navigated to seperately in finder. So every time I went to launch firefox, I was just launching the installer. it drove me fucking nuts.

so no. it's wrongheaded to do it that way. it's unintuitive to every single type of user who could encounter it for the first time. and further, it assumes too much on the part of the user to do it correctly, which I like to think is part of why Apple created a proper installer for Final Cut, since you don't fuck around with editing software.
posted by shmegegge at 3:42 PM on January 27, 2010 [3 favorites]


I mean, the original objection is that the client doesn't exists, and when it is pointed out it does, it gets called a hack. When it is noted that it doesn't matter what it is called, complaints about multitasking are made. It's like people keep searching for any and all reasons to be contrary for its own sake.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:43 PM on January 27, 2010


Yeah, I know it's intuitive for anybody who's done it once or twice, but if you haven't it makes no sense at all. You just know Steve sat there in a meeting and said: "what we need... is to make it possible to install something... JUST BY CLICKING AND DRAGGING IT."

This doesn't make sense to me after your big spiel on how the filesystem metaphor is great. To install most things on OS X, you unzip something and then drag the Application file to your Applications folder. In some cases they make it real easy by just having an alias to the folder in the disk image you unzipped.

Most of the time, you're moving files/folders around. That's it.
posted by weston at 3:44 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


mr_roboto: “Just use the shell. It defaults to Bash.”

Yeah, I know. The terminal is the only way I can do anything on the damned things. Thank god for that. But clearly Jobs would like to get rid of it - I don't see any terminal on the iPhone, and I doubt there will be one on this iPad.

Besides, 'just use the terminal' isn't exactly a great stock solution to GUI problems. Maybe I'm wrong.
posted by koeselitz at 3:44 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


For all the trash El Jobso talked about netbooks, they're pretty damn capable. I have friends who use netbooks to run AfterEffects and full-blown Maya. Good luck getting them running on the iPad...


rokusan: "Where is it illegal to rip a copy of your own DVD?"

Uh, the United States?
posted by mullingitover at 3:45 PM on January 27, 2010


"Set up a transcode batch job and convert those .avis to a modern container format. AVI is pretty terrible. 'It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display.'"

*raises eybrows in surprise*

Sorry for the derail, but wha? AVI works just fine for watching stuff. There's better containers out there, but any good player will handle AVIs along with the new formats. Transcoding stuff for no reason is a waste of effort.
posted by Kevin Street at 3:45 PM on January 27, 2010


The first time I saw the install/uninstall process in OSX i was like, HOLY SHIT WHY DOESN'T WINDOWS WORK THIS WAY

Yeah. This is a situation where "anti-technical" is great, fucking awesome in fact. I gave in to the lures of a Macintosh when they switched to Intel and I knew I could run multiple OSes (you can pry FLStudio from my cold dead hands). The first time I installed an application was a goddamned revelation.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:45 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Seriously? Star Trek invented the PADD in the 60s! And it looked pretty much like the iPad by the 24th Century!
posted by crossoverman at 3:45 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


They care about the youth market and the singles market. 15-34. Beyond that they don't give a shit, because that's when most people in that demo are married and/or have kids, they have to watch their spending, and it is simply impossible to justify spending on apple products.

Hmm, pretty sure you are dead wrong in the details here. The youth market as far as Apple is concerned is ages 3-18 You chose to start their market at 15 for some reason. So that makes the second half of your statement faulty because parents are the demographic that are buying the device.

In this latest comment:
So forget all the arguments about hardware, software, design, etc. Instead, I'll just ask you a question I could ask anyone who purchases the other products I listed.


So why should I be forgetting about all of those other things exactly? Oh right, because Apple is only about marketing and those other things are irrelevant.

Well, no actually. Those other pieces are not irrelevant, they actually have value. Do I think Apple's marketing is manipulative and favors style over substance? Yep. Pretty much defines marketing actually.

Apple products such as the iphone can actually follow through on some of their claims. All of them? No. But more than many people choose to give them credit for.

The design and UI is one area where this happens. To this day I have not seen any other device that integrates hardware, software and ui better than seen in this video made by Edward Tufte nearly two years ago. There is nothing particularly "upscale" about this. It does something that nothing else does. That's not marketing.
posted by jeremias at 3:47 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm just frustrated at your refusal to admit that some people have usage cases that are reasonable (maybe not common, but reasonable) and that the current iPhone OS makes really fucking hard to do cleanly. I like Apple (although I'm beginning to get frustrated at some of their business practices, like 80 dollar power cords that like to self destruct). I like Apple products. But I don't think everything they touch turns to magic fairy dust.

Oh, and if the OS had built in FTP it probably would support a file system abstraction on top of that. On my mac I can mount an ftp server and can then open those files in another application. Yes it's slow, but for something like streaming IT JUST WORKS.
posted by aspo at 3:47 PM on January 27, 2010


empath: “This is so spectacularly wrong headed that I don't even know where to start. For fucks sake, have you never had to go into regedit to get a program to uninstall properly? The first time I saw the install/uninstall process in OSX i was like, HOLY SHIT WHY DOESN'T WINDOWS WORK THIS WAY”

Have you ever used a package manager to install and uninstall something? Synaptic, for example? Awesome. And much more sensible and powerful.
posted by koeselitz at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]



I'm just frustrated at your refusal to admit that some people have usage cases that are reasonable (maybe not common, but reasonable) and that the current iPhone OS makes really fucking hard to do cleanly.


I think everyone can understand and accept that, just not the implication that some weird geek demand not being fully met will mean the product is doomed to failure.

. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:51 PM on January 27, 2010


Have you ever used a package manager to install and uninstall something? Synaptic, for example? Awesome. And much more sensible and powerful.

Yeah, pretty neat, on the other hand for me it might as well be as much voodoo as any other installer. I really have no interest in knowing the fine details of what it is doing, and it pretty much supports that.
posted by Artw at 3:54 PM on January 27, 2010


. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Not everything is an iPod. Some things are segways... time will tell.
posted by Artw at 3:55 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm just frustrated at your refusal to admit that some people have usage cases that are reasonable

I don't think I ever said anything of the kind. I'm simply pointing out that a solution exists and it is hardly a "hack", no more so than using any other protocol to access a particular service.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:57 PM on January 27, 2010


This looks like a fun way to browse the web and watch movies.

But I'm never buying it. The notion of Apple being the gate-keeper and middleman for all software installed on this computer makes me retch. I sure hope this isn't where computing is headed.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:01 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Blazecock, imagine streaming was something you could do on your mac, but not on a windows box. Someone mentions that they love their mac because it lets them stream all their songs and videos from their NAS to all their machines. If some windows person said "well, you could always FTP in, download the songs, and then just play them locally" you'd be jumping down their throat. Admit it. FTP is a hack. It's not user friendly and it's several extra (and slow) steps. And on an OS like the iPhone those steps are even more complicated. That sucks dude. I'm not saying that the iPad is going to be a failure because it doesn't support NAS streaming out of the box, but I do think you are being a bit too fanboyish and need to actually listen to what you are saying.
posted by aspo at 4:03 PM on January 27, 2010


I sure hope this isn't where computing is headed.

I'm pretty sure that "computing" will remain separate from the sales and marketing of media products for quite some time.
posted by GuyZero at 4:03 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


eyeballkid: “Yeah. This is a situation where "anti-technical" is great, fucking awesome in fact. I gave in to the lures of a Macintosh when they switched to Intel and I knew I could run multiple OSes (you can pry FLStudio from my cold dead hands). The first time I installed an application was a goddamned revelation.”

Why? Because it's... what, simple? Just because it's not the crufty and obnoxious Microsoft 'Wizard' system (ugh)?

The worst thing about it, in my mind, is that it obscures an insane amount of stuff. Every modern OS has to have some sort of registry – a simple coordinator of various applications and what they with other applications, and with smaller, reusable programs that get used over and over. So when something goes wrong (and, heresy though it may be, things actually do sometimes go wrong with Macs) users have absolutely no idea what went wrong or why – moreover they generally don't even realize there was anything there to go wrong in the first place.

And even before anything goes wrong, this extreme drive toward simplification actually works against most users, I think, because it's actually not intuitive to them, at least in their (often more advanced) notion of how things work. My friend was spent far too long trying to figure out what button to push to install something, and when she saw that you did it by dragging a program into a folder, it made no sense to her – she knew that installing something is fundamentally different from moving a file, so why in god's name would it look the same? Suddenly you click this thing and drag it and you're making the computer do all sorts of complex stuff: resolving software conflicts, making sure certain necessary utilities are in place, etc.

Yeah, I know this makes sense to people who have been using Apple for years, but to new users, it's really, really weird. Some people have the experience that their first time using a Mac is revelatory, because it just makes so much sense to them. I'm sure it does, and I cast no aspersions on them, but I don't think that's the common experience with the OS. I think in general it isn't that intuitive.
posted by koeselitz at 4:03 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


GuyZero: “I'm pretty sure that "computing" will remain separate from the sales and marketing of media products for quite some time.”

This, a thousand times over, with a touchscreen and wireless and a 1GHz processor. Absolutely.
posted by koeselitz at 4:05 PM on January 27, 2010


I think in general it isn't that intuitive.

In other news, Americans find it hard to drive around England.

If you've only ever used one OS then all your expectations are relative to that. Your real problem isn't the Mac, it's that you never had to untar source and figure out how the fuck to run the autoconf script.
posted by GuyZero at 4:06 PM on January 27, 2010


eyeballkid: "Wake me when there's a tablet that runs OS X and isn't just a big iPod Touch."

There's been hackintosh tablets for a while now. The Lenovo x61 and x200 are good at this sort of thing, but a bunch of models work. You can even buy them pre-rolled.

As for Apple Touch XL? I think I'd rather have an Archos 7 Android. More pocketable at 7", front-webcam for showing off my nose hairs to video callers, executes Flash, and runs my favourite comic book readers.
posted by meehawl at 4:07 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm not saying that the iPad is going to be a failure because it doesn't support NAS streaming out of the box

I'm not saying your new edge case is ridiculous, really, but I do think you are being contrary for contrariness-sake and need to actually listen to what you are saying.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:07 PM on January 27, 2010


Why? Because it's... what, simple? Just because it's not the crufty and obnoxious Microsoft 'Wizard' system (ugh)?

Sorry. Couldn't get past that line. My brain slipped into a loop. So it sucks because it's not crufty and obnoxious?

They're two different visual analogies for the same process. One involves pressing "NEXT >" fifteen times and the other doesn't.

Also, not all Mac applications instantly install when you drag them to the Applications folder. There are application installs that involve user input for install locations and features, much like your (um, beloved? I can't tell) Windows Wizard system.

Yeah, I know this makes sense to people who have been using Apple for years, but to new users, it's really, really weird.

To a user new to any OS, everything is weird. I know, I've both taught them and supported them.

Also, none of those newbie people have the chops to eradicate an app from the Windows registry or Mac or Linux config files.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:12 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


So I just switched from PC gaming to console gaming. This is a true non-intuitive nightmare. I have no idea how I'm supposed to install games on my new console, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAKES NO SENSE I'M USED TO HAVING AN INSTALLER!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 4:13 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


GuyZero: “If you've only ever used one OS then all your expectations are relative to that. Your real problem isn't the Mac, it's that you never had to untar source and figure out how the fuck to run the autoconf script.”

Exactly. I have no problem with Macs, and they're just a company like any other trying to make money in the hardware and software industries - often they work more toward quality than others. I just think that when Apple techies gush about how OS X is "just so intuitive" and "makes so much sense" it's as much nonsense as when Microsoft talks about how much their software is helpful and useful to business people.

My whole point is that, in almost every OS, we've reached a place where things are more than likely only "more usable" to any particular person because that's what they're used to. Power is a more important consideration, in the end – what you can do with the software, how much it allows you to manipulate the capabilities of the hardware, etc.
posted by koeselitz at 4:21 PM on January 27, 2010


So I just switched from PC gaming to console gaming. This is a true non-intuitive nightmare. I have no idea how I'm supposed to install games on my new console, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAKES NO SENSE I'M USED TO HAVING AN INSTALLER!

I take it back about the App Store being the best App Store like thing, Steam is clearly the best App Store like thing!
posted by Artw at 4:22 PM on January 27, 2010


So I just switched from PC gaming to console gaming. This is a true non-intuitive nightmare. I have no idea how I'm supposed to install games on my new console, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAKES NO SENSE I'M USED TO HAVING AN INSTALLER!

On the PS3, the game will inform you that you need to install. For example, if you'd like to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you'll then sit and wait for the first chapter to install.

On the XBox360 you will either have the choice to install in-game (Forza 3 does this) or from the game's properties in the dashboard you can select "Install to My Hard Disc" from the menu. This second option helps alleviate the long ass load times in Mass Effect 2.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:24 PM on January 27, 2010


The problem of NAS access isn't just that it's a "hack" to use your pejorative, it's that because it's a hack, other apps won't be developed that depend on it. If it isn't a standard part of the os, no one is going to write an app which depends on the service. I don't really want (just) NAS acess, I want programs witch use NAS access to do interesting stuff. Who is going to write an app which depends on a commercial third-party? It could happen, but it's going to be tiny, if it happens at all.

So, Boxee doesn't come to the iPad. VLC doesn't come to the iPad. CDisplay doesn't come to the iPad.

I'm certain Apple will sell a gazillion of these, but they'll also be training all of their users to the Apple preferred model of use. All music and video through iTunes, all books through iBook. Sorry, no comic books either until Apple approves. Heaven help you if you have media from other sources, like Amazon or that you made yourself.

This isn't so much a particular technical issue as it is a philosophical one. Apple has consumers not users. You eat with Apple, you don't do. To their credit, Apple has been consistent with their design: no USB hosting, no SD, no file system access, no satellite devices, no way to use a non-Apple cloud. It's simple, elegant.

I'm certain that they'll sell piles. I'm sure that it will be pleasant to use. I do lust after the form factor. But I can't swallow the core concept that everything I do really has to be mediated by Apple, and that I have to accept their terms and conditions on everything I want to do. I further despair that because Apple is such a market leader, that this will be the model, the excuse for other manufacturers (Amazon especially) to behave equally badly.
posted by bonehead at 4:26 PM on January 27, 2010 [4 favorites]


My friend was spent far too long trying to figure out what button to push to install something, and when she saw that you did it by dragging a program into a folder, it made no sense to her – she knew that installing something is fundamentally different from moving a file, so why in god's name would it look the same?

When you buy something and bring it home and put in the cupboard, you are moving it. Why should a computer application be any different, after all, you're putting it on your computer, so why shouldn't you move it from one spot to another?

I find it interesting that you're arguing that Apple's general method for installing apps is wrong and simplifies the process to unhealthy degree, leaving users ignorant, yet on Windows all you have to do is click a button and the system installs the app, puts in the Start menu and then gives a little box saying "Hey, new app installed!" so that the user doesn't even have to know where the app is.

On the Mac you have to drag that sucker to your computer, then figure out where you put it, double click on so it'll show up in Recent Items menu and then make an alias or drag it to the dock to be able to find it.

These wars are weird man, stop drinking the kool aid.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:27 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


On the PS3, the game will inform ... On the XBox360 you will either have the choice to install in-game ...

I think he meant it as a joke, but that only means he hasn't used a console this generation. Even the Wii needs to do system updates for certain games.
posted by Gary at 4:29 PM on January 27, 2010


Ah, the glory days of the Commodore 64... pop in the tape, wait 5 minutes, job done!
posted by Artw at 4:30 PM on January 27, 2010 [2 favorites]


I think he meant it as a joke

As did I.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:30 PM on January 27, 2010


The problem of NAS access isn't just that it's a "hack" to use your pejorative

Another problem is that it isn't even my pejorative.

That aside, NAS makers can download the SDK and get cracking on a better client, to help differentiate and improve the usability of their product. Just like any other developer.

As an analogy, perfectly serviceable digital camera support is a built-in, but that doesn't stop the Nikons and Canons from writing and distributing their own custom software.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:30 PM on January 27, 2010


eyeballkid: “This is a situation where "anti-technical" is great, fucking awesome in fact. I gave in to the lures of a Macintosh when they switched to Intel and I knew I could run multiple OSes (you can pry FLStudio from my cold dead hands). The first time I installed an application was a goddamned revelation.”

me: “Why? Because it's... what, simple? Just because it's not the crufty and obnoxious Microsoft 'Wizard' system (ugh)?”

eyeballkid: “Sorry. Couldn't get past that line. My brain slipped into a loop. So it sucks because it's not crufty and obnoxious?”

Yeah, go back and reread the thread and find the places where I said (a) that I think installation on OS X 'sucks,' (b) that I think MS is better than Apple.

They're both businesses. Businesses aren't around to make things usable, or intuitive, or beautiful, or good. They're around to make money. In general, OS X makes as much sense to people who have never used it as MS Windows does. That's fine – intuitiveness is not the most important judge of operating systems – but it means you can't go around telling everybody that OS X is just so much better.
posted by koeselitz at 4:32 PM on January 27, 2010


Have you ever used a package manager to install and uninstall something? Synaptic, for example? Awesome. And much more sensible and powerful.

OS X has a package manager/installer of sorts, and more developers could use it to move <Application>.app into the Applications folder. I think the reason they don't isn't that Steve declared from on high that people should drag and drop through their folder hierarchy, it's that most developers look at this and think "this is overkill for moving around a simple file bundle." Understandably, I might add, if apparently not always accurately.

On most other unix systems (and sometimes on OS X), unless the strategy is place everything relevant in a single folder and add that to the path, you're going to have to install things by installer if not package manager because of the number of places things explode to. And the variety of libraries.

I will say that I think Synaptic/apt does a pretty good job at a hard task, and I don't give out that kind of praise casually. Most of my previous experience with package managers prior to Ubuntu ranged from annoying but tolerable... to watching in mute horror as it stomped things it shouldn't, installed things that bore no reasonable relation to anything I'd asked for (X/Window/Desktop related stuff when I ask for Apache? Seriously?), and then just failed when it found itself in some kind of unexpected state, leaving me to clean up manually. But my Ubuntu systems seem to just more or less work, so even though I suspect they're installing/updating lots of things I don't need, apt and friends get a thumbs up from me.

I just think that when Apple techies gush about how OS X is "just so intuitive" and "makes so much sense" it's as much nonsense

As someone who's pretty familiar with Linux and Windows as well as OS X, I'd disagree, though I can understand why you'd take issue with the phrasing you're invoking. My experience isn't that everything on OS X is intuitive, but I'd say it's accurate to claim that when I'm trying to figure out something I don't already know how to do, as a rule I tend to have to invest less time in figuring it out on OS X (and as a larger rule, I just have to spend less time doing system administration). There are enough exceptions, though, that it's not hard for me to imagine that someone might come to another conclusion, particularly if their focus has been more exclusive to Windows or Linux and their investment therein deeper.
posted by weston at 4:33 PM on January 27, 2010


[Blazecock, Artw, can it.]
posted by cortex at 4:34 PM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Anyone who thinks the drag-and-drop installation process is intuitive does not have any over-50 relatives running all of their applications from mounted DMGs.
posted by cosmic osmo at 4:38 PM on January 27, 2010 [7 favorites]


Man, I keep forgetting to mention - no i5 Macbook Pros? Wah wah wah.
posted by GuyZero at 4:41 PM on January 27, 2010


Brandon Blatcher: “I find it interesting that you're arguing that Apple's general method for installing apps is wrong and simplifies the process to unhealthy degree, leaving users ignorant, yet on Windows all you have to do is click a button and the system installs the app, puts in the Start menu and then gives a little box saying "Hey, new app installed!" so that the user doesn't even have to know where the app is.”

Oh, I agree. It's weird in certain ways on both system. Apple isn't wrong – it's just a user interface, and user interfaces just are what they are. I probably didn't make this nearly as clear as I should have above: I don't think they're just useless piles of junk, and there are things in OS X that are really awesome. There are certainly less obnoxious piles of cruft than there are in MS Windows.

I was just pointing out a few little things like that because people often get into this whole evangelistic fervor about how much more intuitive and usable and sensible etc OS X is, and I think that's silly; I don't see how it's any better than any other OS, once you're used to it. And I don't have any real problem with it. The real judge is what you're able to do after a few days of really getting into it.

The only thing that bugs me is this notion that OS X is just so magically better than everything else in the whole damned world. And sometimes, looking at the iPhone, I get the impression that the silly dude who happens to be Apple's CEO really likes fostering that notion. That's fine - he's there to sell products. But in the end, it's just an operating system – sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse, but what matters is what a mildly experienced user is able to do with it.
posted by koeselitz at 4:41 PM on January 27, 2010


I'm certain Apple will sell a gazillion of these, but they'll also be training all of their users to the Apple preferred model of use. All music and video through iTunes, all books through iBook. Sorry, no comic books either until Apple approves. Heaven help you if you have media from other sources, like Amazon or that you made yourself.

Well, first, music from Amazon works just fine on i devices, as they're just mp3s. Video not so much but I don't know that there are many portable devices that support Amazon video.

Second, there are other media managers besides iTunes that work with i devices, so you don't have to use iTunes at all.

Third, iBooks uses ePub, which is a free, open format. There's no reason to think that iTunes (or another media manager) won't happily sync ePub files you got from elsewhere. Apple does not care about locking you in to their formats or their files. The iTunes store does barely more than break even. Apple is interested in selling hardware. Part of that strategy is offering an easy to use, integrated media distribution system. But if you don't use it they don't care; whatever gets you to buy the device.

Fourth, it looks like the iPad is going to make it much easier for non-Apple programs to sync arbitrary files with your computer. The result is going to be more programs aimed at viewing, editing, and creating all kinds of files. There aren't a lot of good comics viewing programs on the iPhone and iPod Touch because frankly the screen is way too small for the application. There's no particular reason to think that this will be the case with the iPad.
posted by jedicus at 4:43 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Anyone who thinks the drag-and-drop installation process is intuitive does not have any over-50 relatives running all of their applications from mounted DMGs.

Add university professors to that list. I'm not sure what the solution is.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:45 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the .cbr thing has a lot of people jumping up and down. If I sprung for one myself comics reading would be a big part of the draw.
posted by Artw at 4:48 PM on January 27, 2010


You just know Steve sat there in a meeting and said: "what we need... is to make it possible to install something... JUST BY CLICKING AND DRAGGING IT." So they designed a ridiculous framework around that single goal.

Drag-and-drop the app onto your hard drive is a ridiculous framework? OSX application guidelines say that you should be able to install an app by dropping it into a directory on your hard drive (Applications by convention), and if the app needs to do any install-time configuration it can do that when it first starts up. There's no elaborate framework needed to make apps install this way and it's not hiding any complicated magic. Well, apart from the fact that apps consisting of multiple files essentially act like a directory. But how is that ridiculous, compared with every app slobbering over mystery meat locations on your hard drive in its own particular way, and every one of them needing a unique installation/uninstallation package?
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:48 PM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


My whole point is that, in almost every OS, we've reached a place where things are more than likely only "more usable" to any particular person because that's what they're used to. Power is a more important consideration, in the end – what you can do with the software, how much it allows you to manipulate the capabilities of the hardware, etc.

So this is interesting but are you including the iPhone/iPad os in this statement? Because I think the world of ui scenarios is diverging rapidly. This new device has the power of a system from 2002 (1Ghz) and is harnessing this power not toward content creation but consumption (whether that is a good thing is really a separate discussion