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The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

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Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#51

Post by jacquesm »

jstevens85 wrote: post #41
dbz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? What the fuck was it supposed to be really good at doing? Running the iphone OS?

Yep, exactly. A lot of tech nerds don't understand just how unnecessarily complex computers are today. Watch a 60 year old try and use a PC for the first time and you'll realise how non-intuitive the modern desktop OS is today. The iPhone OS moves away from antiquated input devices (mice and keyboards with cursor keys and function buttons) and towards a touch interface that is simple and intuitive. The other benefit…

Watch anybody use any piece of advanced technology for the first time and realize how non-intuitive technology really is.

But after a little bit of practice just about anybody can use a PC, or a Mac (or a linux box) for that matter.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#52

Post by jacquesm »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #24
martythemaniak wrote: post #4

You can't convince fanboys that lack of features will eventually lead to pain for the users.

You also can't convince nerds that excessive degrees of freedom are a serious usability problem. After all, doing six things at once while remembering the state of a bunch of invisible stateful objects -- tabs, background apps, file hierarchies -- is the nerd core skill. Meanwhile, I would note that Apple has apparently sold about 35 million iPod Touches: http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/28/ipod-touch-now-outselling..…

But they exhibit at least two features the ipad lacks:

    - sub $300 pricing

    - fit in pockets

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#53

Post by jacquesm »

jstevens85 wrote: post #33
chrischen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are many casual games in the App Store, including many tower defence games (my favourite is Star Defence, but there are plenty of good free ones, if 99c is too dear). This is only going to increase with Flash CS5. Why make people pay when there's FREE games out there online if only flash were supported. Flash support means opening up to a whole world of preexisting games, rich internet applications, and porn…

The argument against using Flash is that it's not suitable for a low-powered, long battery-life hand held device. My guess is that Jobs is worried that if Flash were enabled, the average consumer would notice a much shorter battery life. The consumer won't understand that Flash is to blame, and will end up blaming the iPad instead. >Why make people pay when there's FREE games out there online if only flash were suppo…

The application you have just started uses 'flash' content, this will adversely affect your battery life.

Click or

edit: way to go downmodder, getting modded down for presenting a possible solution to an issue is a new low for HN.

Congratulations. Now if you'd be so kind as to explain why you thought that was not a viable solution?

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#54

Post by GHFigs »

jstevens85 wrote: post #36
dbz wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for starters, any inconvenience sucks. Glad I got that out of the way =] His example of having (AT LEAST) 8 tabs open is not the same as eight windows. Searching through all of them can be quite the inconvenience. I, for example, currently have 14 tabs open, and six applications running. I do not want to search through all of those to get to what should be "another tab." I understand what he's talking about...

Well, I don't think we've seen yet how the iPad will manage browser windows. Perhaps when you click on windows, it will be be able to display all of the open windows at the same time in a grid view.

There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next. -- http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#55

Post by chrischen »

dbz wrote: post #31
chrischen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure Steve wasn't an idiot. He definitely designed this product for a specific type of user and it's probably really good at doing that. I just don't know what that is. But I'm certain he didn't slap on a bunch of random features that didn't go well together.

I've seen plenty of smart people make dumb decisions. It's about time he made a dumb one. Kind of like the phrase "We're due for another volcano eruption," I'm not trying to say it's about time we see him as an idiot

If a smart person makes a dumb decision it was probably an impulsive one. If Steve Jobs is smart, the chances of him making a decision on something this big, this monumental would be unlikely. Plus, look at his track record. Even less likely now.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#56

Post by jstevens85 »

jacquesm wrote: post #53
jstevens85 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument against using Flash is that it's not suitable for a low-powered, long battery-life hand held device. My guess is that Jobs is worried that if Flash were enabled, the average consumer would notice a much shorter battery life. The consumer won't understand that Flash is to blame, and will end up blaming the iPad instead. >Why make people pay when there's FREE games out there online if only flash were suppo…

The application you have just started uses 'flash' content, this will adversely affect your battery life. Click or edit: way to go downmodder, getting modded down for presenting a possible solution to an issue is a new low for HN. Congratulations. Now if you'd be so kind as to explain why you thought that was not a viable solution?

By removing Flash altogether, Apple is encouraging web developers to upgrade to new web technologies (HTML 5). If the iPhone/iPad had the option of using Flash, then web developers wouldn't have an incentive to produce non-Flash content. I'm guessing that had the iPhone come with Flash at launch, Youtube would never have implemented MP4 and HTML 5 video tags.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#57

Post by Lazlo_Nibble »

jeffcoat wrote: post #48
jsz0 wrote: post #40

I don't understand why this individual is so angry. If it doesn't meet your needs don't buy it. What's the problem? I always feel like people who write this type of stuff just have a really bad attitude because they get so upset over something so unimportant. It's like they're just trying to find things to be upset about.

No one complains about something that they have no interest at all in -- it's not a rant about how IBM's newest z/OS mainframe has poor support for browsing websites that use Flash. Much more frustrating is something that looks like it could be just exactly perfect for you, but is for some reason fatally flawed, or just out of reach.

z/OS doesn't ship with Flash because Adobe's runtime burns MIPs like nobody's business. Data Center Operations does NOT like having to bring additional capacity online because the Southeastern Division discovered Farmville in the middle of year-end batch.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#58

Post by jacquesm »

jstevens85 wrote: post #56
jacquesm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The application you have just started uses 'flash' content, this will adversely affect your battery life. Click or edit: way to go downmodder, getting modded down for presenting a possible solution to an issue is a new low for HN. Congratulations. Now if you'd be so kind as to explain why you thought that was not a viable solution?

By removing Flash altogether, Apple is encouraging web developers to upgrade to new web technologies (HTML 5). If the iPhone/iPad had the option of using Flash, then web developers wouldn't have an incentive to produce non-Flash content. I'm guessing that had the iPhone come with Flash at launch, Youtube would never have implemented MP4 and HTML 5 video tags.

Ggp mentioned battery life explicitly, that's why I addressed that.

I'm probably one of the largest flash haters on the planet, it took me all of 7 years to convert our video to flash, because I simply can't stand it that for basic functionality like that we need a plug-in.

That said, that particular plug in is now so widespread that even people that can't stand it also can't really get around it.

HTML5 is not here yet, flash is here today. So, for live content, where downloading and converting is not possible this move by apple limits their users uses of the web.

The best way imo would be to show side-by-side the same functionality, have a period of cross-over, dual implementation and to deprecate flash.

To simply not support it is not going to convince any developers to make HTML5 content, it's simply going to frustrate a lot of end users.

I just got an angry email from some guy ranting at me that since I won't support the iphone he will no longer be frequenting my site. I sympathize, my budget is limited, both in time as well as in funds so he'll have to go his way.

I don't like it when choices are forced, choices ought to be free. HTML5 video capable deployment still sucks, flash is, as annoying as it is, at this moment in time the only viable way of getting good coverage on the majority of platforms.

Battery life decisions should be up to the user, not up to the manufacturer. If you need or want to see that video and there is no very good technical reason why you can't (and shortening battery life is not a good enough reason, if that were a prime decision factor the display in the iPad would have been a more economical model) then you should simply be able to.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#59

Post by mechanical_fish »

jacquesm wrote: post #52
mechanical_fish wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also can't convince nerds that excessive degrees of freedom are a serious usability problem. After all, doing six things at once while remembering the state of a bunch of invisible stateful objects -- tabs, background apps, file hierarchies -- is the nerd core skill. Meanwhile, I would note that Apple has apparently sold about 35 million iPod Touches: http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/28/ipod-touch-now-outselling..…

But they exhibit at least two features the ipad lacks: - sub $300 pricing - fit in pockets

Pricing is a question of time. The iPod Touch launched at $300 and $400 price points. Now it starts at $199.

You're right about the pocket factor: The iPad is a gamble, of course, which is what makes it interesting. It's hard to know, without trying, how many people will trade the inconvenience of a larger device for much more screen real estate, higher performance, and optional 3G networking. All we know is that there's a market for netbooks, a market for Kindles, and a market for iPod Touches, which seems to suggest that the potential market for the iPad -- which is both like and not like each of these things -- is worth sampling.

Re: The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It

#60

Post by jacquesm »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #59
jacquesm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they exhibit at least two features the ipad lacks: - sub $300 pricing - fit in pockets

Pricing is a question of time. The iPod Touch launched at $300 and $400 price points. Now it starts at $199. You're right about the pocket factor: The iPad is a gamble, of course, which is what makes it interesting. It's hard to know, without trying, how many people will trade the inconvenience of a larger device for much more screen real estate, higher performance, and optional 3G networking. All we know is that the…

The problem I see with that is if you're going to lug something that size around a macbook air is 3 times as expensive, but a run-of-the-mill netbook is more powerful and a lot cheaper.
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