Thinking about the iPad


A biased roundup of opinion
iPad thoughts from here and there.

Frasier Speirs - Future Shock
Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism. Those incantations that only we can perform to heal their computers, those oracular proclamations that we make over the future and the blessings we bestow on purchasing choices.

<snip>

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get "real work" done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the "real work".

It's not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organising the party.


Andy Ihnatko - Hands-on with the Apple iPad - it does make sense
It’s the Morning After. I’ve had a good night’s sleep, finally, and have also had the chance to wash the stink of a full day’s worth of coverage off of my battered body as well as the glitter and stardust that Apple sprinkles over the folks who attend its product announcements.

I’ve also been able to read some of the Internet’s first impressions of the iPad.

Let me address one thing straight away: anyone who declares the iPad a “fail” because the browser lacks support of Flash needs to elaborate their position beyond one word of a single syllable. Frankly, I think some people elevate flash-based Web content to the level of a fetish. Which isn’t far off the mark, given the kind of content that its fans stream from various video sites.

It’s true that there’s a lot of Flash content out there. But Flash – see Adobe's reaction to the lack of Flash support on iPad here – is in no way part of the true language of the Internet. It’s Scottish-accented English. Sometimes it makes the language more colorful and entertaining, and sometimes it just renders it into unintelligible mush.


Lifehacker - The Problem with the Apple iPad
So why is it a problem if the iPad is better than its competition, or, more importantly, fills a niche that hasn't been addressed well enough to this point? Yesterday Gizmodo rounded up 8 things that suck about the iPad, focusing primarily on hardware issues like its lack of camera, an ugly bezel, and lack of even a single USB port (sans adapters); we could likewise complain about how the iPad's graphical design seems like a complete afterthought. But much more important, at least from the perspective of a blog that's pretty serious about the free use and control of computers:

The iPad, much like the iPhone, is completely locked down. The user has no control over what she installs on the hardware, short of accepting exactly what Apple has approved for it. From past experience, we know what happens when a completely legitimate application—from a huge company that's actually partnered with Apple—doesn't gel with Apple's business plan. They reject it, and you can't use it. And what recourse does the power user have?

Jailbreaking! And certainly the iPad will see plenty of hacking, but only because Apple requires you to hack the device if you actually want control over it yourself. Apple's gotten into the habit of acting like you're renting hardware. They've become the all-powerful, over-restrictive, ambivalent IT person in the sky, restricting what users can and can't install on their hardware.


stevenf - I need to talk to you about computers
When the iPhone came out, I was immediately in love, but frustrated by the lack of an SDK. When an SDK came out, I was overjoyed, but frustrated by Apple’s process. As some high-profile problems began to pile up, I infamously railed against the whole idea right here on this very blog. I announced I was beginning a boycott of iPhone-based devices until changes were made, and I certainly, certainly was not going to buy any future iPhone-based products. I switched to various other devices that were a bit more friendly to Old Worlders.

It lasted all of a month.

For as frustrated as I was with the restrictions, those exact same restrictions made the New World device a high-performance, high-reliability, absolute workhorse of a machine that got out of my way and just let me get things accomplished.

Nothing is simply black or white.


Jim Stogdill - The iPad is the iPrius: Your Computer Consumerized
It's been a long time since most of us have used our computers to do anything approaching "computing," but the iPad explicitly leaves the baggage behind, leaps the conceptual gulf, and becomes something else entirely. Something consumery, media'ish, and not in the least bit intimidating.

The automobile went through a similar evolution. From eminently hackable to hood essentially sealed shut. When the automobile was new, you HAD to be a mechanic to own one. Later, being a mechanic gave you the option of tinkering and adapting it to your specific interests. In fact, that's how most people up until about 1985 learned to be mechanics. The big changes came with the catalytic converter and electronic ignition (and warranty language to match). Now the automobile has reached the point in its development where you don't even have to know whether it has a motor or an engine to use it, but to tinker at all requires highly specialized skills.

So, in some ways this evolution of the computer to the iPrius seems completely natural. I don't care all that much if the iPad is hermetically sealed, but I wonder uncomfortably if in a few years the MacBook and the PC will be too. Or, more likely, we'll just wake up one day to a world without MacBooks or PC's. As we continue our shift en mass to the mobile device ecosystem and the laptop as we know it goes the way of the desktop, banished to special purpose niches.


I just want to add one thing. If my grandmother were still alive, I'd say wait a few months and get an iPad instead of a computer.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - February 1, 2010 at 02:40 PM  Tag


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Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
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