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The Chair

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Re: The Chair

#151

Post by orangecat »

rbarooah wrote: post #67
orangecat wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for now an average user would be silly to buy a Xoom and only have blown up phone apps "Blown up phone apps" are much better on Android than the pixel doubling that the iPad does for iPhone apps. Android apps aren't hardcoded for a specific resolution, so most of them work well on tablets even without being specifically designed to.

But that's irrelevant because people aren't using pixel doubled apps on the iPad. They are using specially designed apps. Are you seriously claiming that apps developed for android phones are as good as the dedicated iPad apps?

Are you seriously claiming that apps developed for android phones are as good as the dedicated iPad apps?

In many cases, yes. Especially fullscreen games; Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja and several others look as if they were designed specifically for my Nook Color, even though they weren't.

Re: The Chair

#152

Post by joebadmo »

tumult wrote: post #2

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America,…

As an Android user, I agree with you.

Is anyone else concerned about the way Apple is changing the way we think about computers, more as appliances than what we think of as computers now?

Maybe that's actually the more natural state, and the last few decades have been the anomaly. Makes me a bit sad, though, and concerned about the future.

Re: The Chair

#153

Post by blinkingled »

rbarooah wrote: post #139
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're seriously trying to claim that blown up android phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly, are competition to the dedicated iPad designs? I believe the parent is trying to claim that blown up android phone apps on Xoom are no worse than blown up iPhone apps were when the iPad first came out.

Which is irrelevant because when the iPad came out there are more than 3,000 dedicated apps, many of them from household brands, and there was no competition. I'm not saying the Android tablets aren't competitive with how the iPad was at launch . I'm asking why a regular consumer would choose an unproven tablet with a tiny number of apps over a proven tablet with 65,000 apps today .

Well because Apps aren't everything and not everyone needs the Sketchbook app for example.

Re: The Chair

#154

Post by phil »

blub wrote: post #101
phil wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> defines the category and the expectations of the users It's stunning how long that has been true. The modern desktop OS is patterned after the Macintosh, modern laptops all use the form factor introduced by the Powerbook 100s, and now all the best phones are made to look like an iPhone.

First of all, the modern desktop OS is patterned after the work of Xerox PARC. Second of all, that form factor was used before Apple introduced the Powerbook. Last but not least, best phone doesn't equal slab of touch-sensitive glass that drops calls when you hold it wrong. Touch screens in general aren't a great fit when it comes to phone use. If we're talking phones, models like the Nokia E52 beat the pants off of…

Can you find an example of a pre-PowerBook laptop that has a form factor with these traits?

  * Clamshell with hinge at the back of the case, not in the middle.
  * Keyboard at the back of the case.
  * Blank area in front of the keyboard to rest your wrists.
  * Pointing device centered in this blank area, with mouse buttons below pointer.
There were earlier laptops with some of those elements, but I'm pretty sure the PowerBook was the first to bring them all together.

Re: The Chair

#155

Post by barrkel »

rbarooah wrote: post #134
barrkel wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Ipad apps are usually gratuitously more expensive and if you buy them, you won't be able to use the app on your iPhone and iPod too. For most apps I stick with the standard version. Mind you, I only use my iPad rarely, usually for distraction on plane journeys; not recharged more than once a month.

So you're saying that people who buy iPads buy mostly iPhone apps to run pixel doubled in order to save money?

No, I'm saying that I personally have bought relatively few apps that are specific to the iPad, and where there was a choice between an iPad and an iPhone app, the difference was not often compelling enough to get me to both pay extra and forego access to the same app on other devices. The killer app category for the iPad in my experience is distractions and games, and they don't lose much being scaled up.

Re: The Chair

#156

Post by jodrellblank »

blinkingled wrote: post #20
tumult wrote: post #2

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America,…

Xoom can be bought online at Verizon or Moto websites. That nitpick aside it isn't anywhere near as bad as you are making it out to be. I am typing this post on one. The browser is far better. The OS is far more usable than the iPad, the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I haven't connected it to a PC yet - have my…

the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty.

I worked out a way to do this with my iPad. And you know what made me say "wow"?

The way a triple head 1920x1280(ish) 24" desktop was so usable on a 10" 1024x768 iPad because I could zoom out.

You're not going to get desktop resolution on a tablet any time soon, and not properly without it being the same size. A few hundred pixels here or there is not much of an advantage really, good software is the advantage. It Feels good. iOS has it. Has Android? Has webOS? Has Windows phone 7?

Re: The Chair

#157

Post by brianpan »

kalleboo wrote: post #97
mcav wrote: post #11

This is why I hope Steve Jobs continues to drive Apple for years to come. He presses forward relentlessly, driving the user experience forward, even when the competition can't come close. No one else has been able to match the original iPad's size, cost, and specs; the iPad 2 makes the other tablets seem so bulky, so utilitarian, even though they haven't shipped yet. Any other company would milk the original iPad for…

How is the iPad 2 not just milking the original iPad? It has no revolutionary changes, it's just faster, thinner, and has the cameras the iPad was rumored to have from the beginning. I think most companies have the muscle to put out a slight revision on a first product after a year.

I agree there are no huge surprises, but I think you are underestimating the difficulty of redesigning the form factor in under a year.

Even just changing processors, radio chips, adding gyro, camera in the exact same mechanical form factor is a non-trivial change. This is a completely different housing that needs to be integrated and tested. To the user, it's the "same size" device- a flat device with a glass screen, but make no mistake, this is a re-engineered device less than a year from the previous. (Yes, parallel development, etc. but still.)

Not revolutionary, but far from "milking the original".

Re: The Chair

#158

Post by tesseract »

pnathan wrote: post #143
bad_user wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately for companies moving beyond the PC, the genie is out of the bottle already. Phones have been historically locked down by carriers. Taking a look at the alternatives from just 5 years ago, the iPhone looks pretty damn open. And there is a reason for that, and why consumers didn't care. Consumers are used to phones being locked, but consumers are also used to doing whatever they want with the computers th…

With the people I've dealt with who aren't in the tech scene, modifying a computer is black magic. Openness is... not desired. What they want is a consumer appliance. Like a TV. Didn't quite use to be that way. Computer users seemed to be at least a little geek, and wouldn't totally flip at installing a video card. At least in my experience. So I say, screw the closed systems, I'll keep my PCs and read source code, I…

It's not just about users being able to install video cards or whatever. You as a developer are going to have a harder time inventing the next email or WWW or Google or Netflix or Twitter, if your potential users are all using closed platforms rather than open ones.

Re: The Chair

#159

Post by jodrellblank »

jerf wrote: post #10
tumult wrote: post #2

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America,…

Serious competition with the iPhone took time to emerge, but it did. It's a temporary advantage, not a permanent one, as are all such advantages. Just as in the iPhone arena, Apple won't stand still but eventually it will not be able to singlehandedly defeat everybody on all fronts. But while they lead, they will rake in the bucks, and more power to them. I don't want them to be the only viable company out there and…

Serious competition with the iPhone took time to emerge, but it did. It's a temporary advantage, not a permanent one

I'm not convinced that's true.

The more integrated the iOS platform gets, the more effort it takes another company to get from scratch to competitor.

The more effort it takes, the more money and people it needs, and the bigger the potential competitor has to be to try it.

And what are bigger companies worse at? Pivoting, innovating, making well integrated polished products that mass market consumers thrill over.

Is it possible that the further we get from "any company putting current off-the-shelf technology into a package", the less likely we are to ever see "serious competition"?

Maybe Apple is a freak one-off. Maybe Apple will put a retina screen in the iPad 3, enable wireless sync and full airplay so it doesn't need a storage space bump, and that's it. No revolutionary changes left in that niche, "Post PC" finished, no other companies in any position to do anything but copycat and Apple spends a few years polishing the software integration in their ecosystem, SJ leaves, Apple stagnates. The next decade of "computing" started, dead-ended and finished and it's iPad clones and Windows 8 notebooks until 2020.

Re: The Chair

#160

Post by blinkingled »

jodrellblank wrote: post #156
blinkingled wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xoom can be bought online at Verizon or Moto websites. That nitpick aside it isn't anywhere near as bad as you are making it out to be. I am typing this post on one. The browser is far better. The OS is far more usable than the iPad, the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I haven't connected it to a PC yet - have my…

the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I worked out a way to do this with my iPad. And you know what made me say "wow"? The way a triple head 1920x1280(ish) 24" desktop was so usable on a 10" 1024x768 iPad because I could zoom out . You're not going to get desktop resolution on a tablet any time soon, and not properl…

I don't know what software you use for RDP on iPad but I use Wyse Pocketcloud Pro and it is available for ipad too.

Honeycomb does have the good feel although it is different obviously from iOS feel.

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