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The Next Six Months

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Re: The Next Six Months

#221

Post by gregpilling »

candeira wrote: post #163
gregpilling wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have noticed that a surprising number of personal acquaintances that have no computer skills, have iPads. The iPad lets them surf the net, read books, email and run some games. They don't have to think about how to use it, it has great battery life, it does the basics that they want and it is fun. One good friend of mine (former business partner) who is almost -intentionally- computer illiterate goes everywhere wit…

How does he manage without a Mac to use as a "dock" for the iPad? Sincere question, I am a linux user and have only seen an iPad a couple of times, but I understand you need to dock it via iTunes in order to do certain stuff with it.

His wife has a Mac and she is much more computer literate. She does anything that is required. He can't even use iTunes (Hi Rick!)

Re: The Next Six Months

#222

Post by [deleted] »

mjfern wrote: post #105
kenjackson wrote: post #19

Microsoft AND Intel being effectively missing from the tablet race is staggering. And there are a few reasons why its staggering: 1) Both have known it was coming, maybe longer than anyone else. But got the core requirements all wrong. 2) No one really seems to care. 3) Related to (2), there is no belief that they have anything up their sleeve. 4) Their existing ecosystem, probably a billion units strong, doesn't see…

> While Intel and MS will make money hand over first for years to come, it does appear to be the end of the consumer market for these two companies. Their focus will be business class computers, workstations, and servers. If it were just the end of the consumer market, then Intel and MS should be concerned, but at least they could take comfort in the fact that they still dominate the enterprise space. The issue is th…

[deleted]

Re: The Next Six Months

#223

Post by pohl »

nooneelse wrote: post #218
zachallaun wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're likely right in that tablets aren't about to kill PCs, but suggesting that tablets remain a simple "trendy gadget" seems a bit silly, especially considering Apple's Q1 reports [1]. Perhaps the iPad isn't to your taste, but it was to 7 million others. (And some 16 million overall.) One could argue that Apple does, in fact, have the largest consumer base of early adopters and trend followers of any company, but…

If you are going to go calling tablets of any kind "main-stream", then I'm afraid you are devaluing that term to the point that it is meaningless. TVs are mainstream. Cars are mainstream. Computers overall are mainstream, though it is still easy to find homes in which "the computer" is put somewhere "out of the way" and gets maybe an hour of interaction a month. Tablets are not mainstream.

I think you're confusing "mainstream" with "ubiquitous".

Re: The Next Six Months

#224

Post by bigfudge »

ghshephard wrote: post #189
thomas11 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Kindle 3 turns PDF pages about as fast as I could turn a page in a book or a stapled article printout. Not lightning fast, but good enough for me.

I have a k1, k2, k3 and iPad. In fact, I brought the k2 and k3 and iPad on a vacation with me to Kauai. Don't try and read complex PDFs on a kindle. I have several dozen downloaded onto my iPad (dropbox+goodreader make this trivial) - the kindle is not the right tool for flipping through PDFs. I have logged about 40 hours reading on the kindles in five days - (mostly on the beach, a little at coffeeshops) - but linea…

What's the consensus on the best PDF reader for iPad? Is goodreader 'it'?

Re: The Next Six Months

#225

Post by evgen »

bigfudge wrote: post #224
ghshephard wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a k1, k2, k3 and iPad. In fact, I brought the k2 and k3 and iPad on a vacation with me to Kauai. Don't try and read complex PDFs on a kindle. I have several dozen downloaded onto my iPad (dropbox+goodreader make this trivial) - the kindle is not the right tool for flipping through PDFs. I have logged about 40 hours reading on the kindles in five days - (mostly on the beach, a little at coffeeshops) - but linea…

What's the consensus on the best PDF reader for iPad? Is goodreader 'it'?

Yes, it is really all you need. Recent updates have enabled annotation and other nice features and it was one of the first apps to jump on the dropbox bandwagon so it is easy to keep papers in sync on the device and across platforms.

Re: The Next Six Months

#226

Post by nooneelse »

pohl wrote: post #223
nooneelse wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are going to go calling tablets of any kind "main-stream", then I'm afraid you are devaluing that term to the point that it is meaningless. TVs are mainstream. Cars are mainstream. Computers overall are mainstream, though it is still easy to find homes in which "the computer" is put somewhere "out of the way" and gets maybe an hour of interaction a month. Tablets are not mainstream.

I think you're confusing "mainstream" with "ubiquitous".

No, I'm really not. That would be one extreme, sure. However reducing the meaning of the term "mainstream" by saying it applies to things as rare as tablets are today is to go to the other extreme.

Re: The Next Six Months

#227

Post by YuriNiyazov »

sofuture wrote: post #120
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious what kind of tech stuff you do spend money on. Not into apple, and yet not a gamer, which is one of the few holdouts

Are you serious? You think the choice is between Apple or gamer? Hi my name is Tux.... I don't make Steve Jobs rich(er) and I'm the greatest developer operating system ever made.

Yes, I am aware of Tux. I said "spend money on".

Re: The Next Six Months

#228

Post by podperson »

whatusername wrote: post #124
podperson wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem wasn't Microsoft entering the market too early so much as never really rethinking their approach to a platform. Their idea for PDAs/phones was a tiny version of desktop windows (compare that to Apple's Newton, with all its flaws). Their idea for tablets was a pen based version of desktop windows. Microsoft has NEVER really originated a UI paradigm or OS, they just copied/bought/stole stuff from ot…

Aside from Xerox, what large company has originated a UI paradigm or OS? Apple bought the multi-touch stuff, MS licenses Kinect, etc, etc. Nintondo maybe with the Wii?

Xerox didn't "invent" the GUI any more than Apple did. (Xerox got its ideas from Englebart et al.) Apple's desktop UI was "original" insofar as anything is. Windows (and for that matter NeXT) pointedly was not. Similarly Newton had a complete and "original" UI. Then there's iOS.

Apple's track record here is pretty darn good.

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