71–80 of 113 posts
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An ergonomic mouse.
Hah, that'll be the day! Instead, I'd love to see Apple release a bluetooth keyboard that includes a multitouch trackpad for use with Mac Minis, Mac Pros, iPads, and other devices that support multitouch.
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I have a Kindle and an iPad. The iPad isn't a reader. iPad doesn't work worth a damn in the sun (the finger smudges show up, and the screen washes out), and even in the dark it's just not as nice as reading from paper or kindle. I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels, but there's little to no overlap with the Kindle.
> I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels What are those ? edit: why would a genuine question out of curiosity be modded down? I'm really weirded out by that. The ipad is a reasonably new form factor and new form factors bring new use cases, and I'd like to know what those are.
- read my RSS feeds and Bloomberg News with my coffee and breakfast, just like I read the newspaper. I never did this with a laptop (too large, too vulnerable) and it's nice to start the day with all my news in one spot. (I also make my scrabble moves during breakfast now.)
- taking notes while in meetings / at a conference. Again, I never liked using laptops for notes because they create a physical barrier between me and the other people in the room. I didn't love paper because I didn't get a digital copy of it, unless I used my logitech pen and special paper, and it was annoying to write with and had mediocre battery life.
- auxiliary information. I now use it in lieu of printing recipes, and I use it constantly while watching sports (there's a great F1 timing and scoring app, and I love having some basic live sports data available while watching sports.)
- 'just in case' laptop. I've taken to bringing it with me in situations where I don't think I need a laptop, but where I could conceivably need better electronic communication / internet / etc than is provided by a blackberry / iphone / etc.
- 'keep the kid occupied' pad. my daughter has some quasi-educational games installed on it, and I have a few videos on it for her. Good for emergency entertainment.
Things it sucks at:
- being a full laptop. It's too small. I haven't tried using a keyboard with it, but I'm also not tempted to do so.
What's interesting is that they have only sold 1.5M books, or 1.5 books per device. Amazon Kindle should be safe.
In my anecdotal experience, the selection is very limited in the iBooks store. I found much wider selection using Kindle, and the Kindle app is pretty nice. The only drawback to using the Kindle app is that it uses Safari to do all of your purchasing, but you're still able to purchase a book in Safari and download it immediately in the Kindle App. Books that cost $9.99 in the iBooks store were $5.99-7.99 on Kindle.
For now, I'm a happy Kindle customer, since all of my library transferred over to my iPad, but if Apple does manage to increase the selection and lower the prices, I might consider shopping there.
What's interesting is that they have only sold 1.5M books, or 1.5 books per device. Amazon Kindle should be safe.
It's worth noting that those are books DOWNLOADED, not sold. In addition to all the freely available titles in the Book store, everyone who downloads iBooks is also prompted to download a free Winnie the Pooh title. I expect virtually nobody selects "No" for this. I would be very interested to know how many titles that have actually sold. I expect it's a fraction of 1.5 million.
It is to early to estimate how much the iPad will be used for reading based on the number of downloads. Too short a period of time to gather meaningful data.
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I have a Kindle and an iPad. The iPad isn't a reader. iPad doesn't work worth a damn in the sun (the finger smudges show up, and the screen washes out), and even in the dark it's just not as nice as reading from paper or kindle. I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels, but there's little to no overlap with the Kindle.
> I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels What are those ? edit: why would a genuine question out of curiosity be modded down? I'm really weirded out by that. The ipad is a reasonably new form factor and new form factors bring new use cases, and I'd like to know what those are.
Cost: $1,999 Euros.
For that price I can buy 4 iPads and hook them up through Wifi to control any MIDI devices or DAW.
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> I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels What are those ? edit: why would a genuine question out of curiosity be modded down? I'm really weirded out by that. The ipad is a reasonably new form factor and new form factors bring new use cases, and I'd like to know what those are.
In my opinion, the ipad excels when you're reading anything more complex than a linear novel. I used to own a DX, & I'm sure you can find posts of me praising it... until I got an ipad. The DX is just barely big enough to read arxiv pdfs, so I'm sure the kindle2 is much too small. More importantly, e-ink refresh rate is so slow it's a pain just switching books, or even flipping around a reference book. Then the kindl…
I go nuts when reading light text on a dark background on one of these (yes, I'm that old ;)), it's like looking straight in to a mirror.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my opinion, the ipad excels when you're reading anything more complex than a linear novel. I used to own a DX, & I'm sure you can find posts of me praising it... until I got an ipad. The DX is just barely big enough to read arxiv pdfs, so I'm sure the kindle2 is much too small. More importantly, e-ink refresh rate is so slow it's a pain just switching books, or even flipping around a reference book. Then the kindl…
What is it with those glossy screens these days ? It's almost like we're going back to the pre-matted glass CRTs. I go nuts when reading light text on a dark background on one of these (yes, I'm that old ;)), it's like looking straight in to a mirror.
The Bloomberg app is light text on a black background and it's very easy on the eyes.
What's interesting is that they have only sold 1.5M books, or 1.5 books per device. Amazon Kindle should be safe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've found a bunch of use cases where the iPad excels What are those ? edit: why would a genuine question out of curiosity be modded down? I'm really weirded out by that. The ipad is a reasonably new form factor and new form factors bring new use cases, and I'd like to know what those are.
Use case where the iPad truly excels: Multi-touch control surface for digital music creation. A Lemur multi-touch control surface from JazzMutant - http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_overview.php Cost: $1,999 Euros. For that price I can buy 4 iPads and hook them up through Wifi to control any MIDI devices or DAW.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my opinion, the ipad excels when you're reading anything more complex than a linear novel. I used to own a DX, & I'm sure you can find posts of me praising it... until I got an ipad. The DX is just barely big enough to read arxiv pdfs, so I'm sure the kindle2 is much too small. More importantly, e-ink refresh rate is so slow it's a pain just switching books, or even flipping around a reference book. Then the kindl…
What is it with those glossy screens these days ? It's almost like we're going back to the pre-matted glass CRTs. I go nuts when reading light text on a dark background on one of these (yes, I'm that old ;)), it's like looking straight in to a mirror.