IPad screenshots make this thing seem less like a giant iPhone
engadget.com
engadget.com
I had to disable shake-to-shuffle, because the poor little thing would lag for 5 or 10 seconds, and seemed to condense accelerometer input during that time, making it think it had been shaken when it had actually just been sitting in my pocket.
I'm switching to Android next month hopefully, but that has little to do with hardware quality.
For education / gaming / medicine / industrial / etc etc the apps we see for this format are going to be incredible.
I wonder how long Apple will be able to sustain the advantage though. In a year or so when Android tablets are available, I'd predict that any new medicine or industry projects would be more inclined to use an open-source tablet.
If I were building, say, an e-ticket redemption system for events, and I decided to use off-the-shelf hardware, I would much prefer to build it on Android than iPhone or iPad simply because I would have more control of the devices and not be stuck with a single hardware supplier.
Really? What % of those industries have done that with operating systems and other past decisions?
The Android tablets have advantages, that are only indirectly caused by open source. Having a lot more control over the software, hardware and not to be beholden to a single supplier is invaluable in industrial use.
On the other hand apple will at least answer the phone when your developer rings them.
Is that a typo ("have handled" -> "haven't handled")? Because reports of actual hands-on use I've read have been glowing.
First example I found from google:
The iPad is something to be held and experienced,
because so many of its advantages are tactile:
how it feels in the hand, of course, but also how
the software responds. (Where our opinions differ,
we break them out.)
As in I've heard multiple times the iPad is just a big iPad touch, when in fact, it's quite a bit more.
Can this thing be autoclaved?
I don't think Steve Jobs is thinking about that one. Android might be better off.
Sorry, I accidentally downvoted you while trying to upvote on my G1. Kind of ironic given the discussion.
The fact that the blank canvas got bigger on the web allowed to much better interface patterns, or maybe it was just a question of maturity.
But I guess the most interesting discussion is not the visual part but the utilization scenarios of the Ipad. I'm not sold on it as a mobile device, but how many people use a laptop as a mobile device? Mobile phones are the first truly mobile devices. I'm just starting to notice Iphone owners on the middle of a crowd trying to text somebody, you have to hold it closer to the horizontal plane to have better accuracy making it less natural.
I'm not sold on the Ipad as a mobile device, in the mobile phones sense, but I also don't think its success depends on it.
Users are asking for easy to use, fun devices. Not root.
It's astonishing how many people working in the software industry look at something their customers are clamoring for, say to themselves "I don't want that!" and, because of that, ignore it.
I used to think that this industry was worse off for being largely run by business/marketing people instead of techies, but the older I get, the less strongly I think that.
The point of business is to make things for your customers.
When you make things for yourself, that's a hobby.
Yes, obviously, when you're your own customer and thus your work is also your hobby, that's a wonderful thing: for you and for your work.
So here's a hint for techies: quit taking so much pride in how superior your taste is and how much smarter you are than your customers. That just means it's harder for you to "get into their head" and build what they want in a way they'll want it.
Just works? As in I can get my email to sync more often than 4 times an hour without jailbreaking it?
Just works? As in I can install the grooveshark iPhone app without jailbreaking it?
Just works? As in I can listen to pandora and browse the internet without jailbreaking it?
Just works? As in I can stop the screen from rotation while I'm trying to use the thing in bed without jailbreaking it?
Just works? As in I can use my google voice app without having to resort to the workaround the google coded up?
Just works? As in I can use any song or sound stored on the filesystem as a ringtone, alarm, or alert?
The iPhone might "just work" if you're looking for something that is slightly worse than a netbook for updating your twitter status, but as far as seeing the iPad be anything more than paying $600 for the privilege of then paying to run apps from the iTunes store, well, I don't see it.
Maybe this will change when I get my hands around an iPad, but I very highly doubt it.
Although perhaps I'm just a tad bitter about how absolutely dreadfully horrible the iPhone is at just about everything I've tried to do on it. (Okay, that's a lie, my niece really enjoyed playing with the guitar chord app I downloaded)
Among other things, if you have an Exchange server or an IMAP server that supports IDLE, you get push e-mail automatically, which for me solves that problem in its entirety.
Things like background apps can be done, but the practicality of allowing background apps without draining the battery far too fast is an issue that (to date) they haven't solved effectively. Perhaps in the next generation of apps.
Finally, the rotation - I agree with you wholeheartedly. Rotation inhibitor is the biggest reason why I jailbreak. I hope this will be solved in a future OS release, but who knows.