Hacker News Reader

3) I purchased an EEE PC thinking it would be great, I could use it everywhere, and for anything. Turns out, it's sitting in a drawer because I have no use for a limited PC that's too small and hard to type on to do anything of value. You CANNOT tell me that typing on the iPad will be better. Typing on my iPhone is already the worst typing experience imaginable. I used to email all the time from my blackberry, now I don't even bother.

This is where we differ---the whole reason to get excited about the iPad is because it promises to make typing (and mouse wiggling, one of the most unnatural things to do ever!) a whole lot less relevant. That's something to be excited about, IMO.

I've actually been strongly considering buying one, even though a week ago I was pretty unimpressed. Some things you're right about, some things you are misinformed:

1. This bugs me too. If I do get one, I'll get a book stand or something for $5 at Target. I don't really see myself watching much stuff on it, since you can't plug it into a TV, and I hardly ever travel. My use case is centered around a couch. (Edit: you can plug it into a TV, I was misinformed as well.)

2. I just learned today that you can connect a keyboard to it with Bluetooth. This is huge for me, and turns it from "useless toy" to "something I might actually use". Whether I'd use it instead of my Macbook is what I'm debating.

3. I also have an unused Eee, but for me the problem was screen size and battery life and the fact that it won't sleep/resume quickly. The iPad supposedly fixes all these.

4. Yeah, pretty much. I dunno if I'd want an Android one, since I've heard bad things about Android performance/usability, but I'd love a way to load stuff on there without using the app store.

5. The glass screen on the iPhone is far more durable than the plastic screens on everything else. I'd imagine it's the same stuff.

I don't really see myself watching much stuff on it, since you can't plug it into a TV

For what it's worth, you can. Apple sells composite and component video adaptors for the iPad.

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MB128LL/B

Hmm, that's another thing in its favor, I guess. I could take it to my girlfriend's house, plug it into her TV, and watch things streamed from Netflix.

1) How can you be so sure without ever having tried it? It's not just a PC without a keyboard - it's a whole new carefully tuned experience. The closest parallel right now is an iPhone, of course, but this is much, much larger. I've been developing for it since the SDK became available and believe me, the size alone has extremely significant ramifications on design once you unlearn the "old ways" of thinking about application usability.

2) The iPad comes at this from the other angle: Why should I have to sit down at a desk or carefully balance a 5lb. machine on my lap just to check the weather and update my friends on Twitter?

3) It remains to be seen if the iPad will suffer the same fate. I personally doubt it will, but we can't know that yet. As for typing, most reviews I've read agree that portrait mode kind of sucks but they were all pleasantly surprised by landscape typing. I don't think Apple has ever claimed that touchscreen typing would be as fast or as nice as a real keyboard (indeed they even sell a physical keyboard iPad dock). This relates to #2 in that the iPad asks the question: How much typing should you really need to do for common computing tasks?

4) The controlled experience is what makes this all work, IMO. Without it, you'd have a mess. (See: all other software markets.) Apple still approves a lot of crap apps on the App Store that don't seem to "get it," but at least they can't kill all the rest of my apps or ruin the overall experience. A lot of people seem to feel there's some kind of tyrannical evil purpose behind the App Store wall, but I think it's why the App Store has been such a success in the first place. (As annoying as it can be at times...)

5) Keep it away from kids?! Are you crazy? This form factor is, in all likelihood, the future. My 16mo son may grow up never owning a clunky desktop or laptop. My shiny MacBook Pro will feel like a dinosaur to him someday, I'm sure. Could it get broken? Sure. Could a laptop? You bet! What's the difference? Kids will be kids - buy insurance. :)

The controlled experience is what makes this all work, IMO. Without it, you'd have a mess.

The option to install non-market apps has yet to turn Android devices into cesspools of malware. Having the app store be the default source is fine. Forcibly prohibiting other sources is purely to make sure Apple gets a cut of everything and can prevent any threats to their business model from materializing. Good for them, bad for everyone else. As I've said before, if Microsoft had that kind of power 20 years ago the web wouldn't exist today.

Agreed. Not to say there aren't a lot of crap apps in the Android Market, but the same situation seems to exist in the Apple App store as well (iFart anyone?).

True, but the fragmentation and lack of a vetting authority has turned it into a morass of poorly-tested, ill-supported apps that rely on assumptions made by their authors based on what few handsets they had available to test (if more than one).

I don't like the way Apple's treated the app store in some cases, but the fact is that the apps that do make it through the gauntlet are better tested and more robust because of it.

if Microsoft had that kind of power 20 years ago the web wouldn't exist today

I'd love to say "prove it," but of course that is impossible. :)

It is wise to be skeptical of Apple (or any company), but don't let that blind you to the innovation that's happening right under your nose.

Wasn't Microsoft's official strategy at some point (1993?) to replace the Internet with MSN/Blackbird? (This sounds silly now, but AOL and Prodigy were trying the same thing at the time.) If MS could have blocked Netscape from running on Windows they might have never developed IE (or let it wither as a second-class citizen).

I'm not sure if there's one for the iphone but Swype is pretty excellent for typing on a small touch screen interface. Using it now actually. So good I can even type out emails to clients on the go without taking too much time or typing like a 12 yo.

You're welcome, and I agree with all your points :) That being said, the iPad will probably be a hit. Given how it's being pushed by the old media that hope to be saved by the iPad. Look at how the NYT is hyping the device.