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If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

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Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#201

Post by mikecarlucci »

I think that Steve Jobs himself has already set the groundwork for breaking the ties with (a local computer copy of) iTunes down the road.

Jobs talked about Cars and Trucks. The desktop, and many laptop computers, are trucks. They can do the heavy lifting, converting, number crunching, graphics processing etc. Tablets and smartphones are cars. Calling them "automatic transmission" cars is probably even better. The learning curve is low, the uses are "limited" compared to the trucks but most people don't need a truck for their everyday lives.

The MacBook Air is on the threshold. It's a device that looks like a truck and has the inners of a "sportscar" with a truck-style processor, but the interface of the truck. It's manual transmission but not useful for all truck jobs.

If Apple could ensure that everyone had a data plan maybe they would cut out iTunes. Of course, they still make a nice profit on all those Macs...

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#202

Post by rbarooah »

trotsky wrote: post #187
rbarooah wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't weighting for volume appropriate? Sure, fewer than 54% of sites may support HTML5 video. But who cares if those sites aren't where most of the videos are? You're trying to claim that your handpicked list of sites which deliberately avoids sites that have publicly stated support for the iPad is a better methodology? Who's looking to score one for the home team now? I'd take this seriously if you found any 3r…

Weighting for volume isn't appropriate because if I started up html5videosofmybackyard.com and placed 5 second clips in 10 bitrates each of the last 3 years of my backyard 24/7 the web wouldn't have magically become 25% less dependent on flash overnight. I get it though. You really, really like your iPad. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you really, really like your MacBook Pro as well. It's cool, th…

Your argument actually shows that weighting by volume is a necessity if you're trying to represent people's experiences - which are driven by the likelihood that each given video they want to watch will play - not by the abstract number of videos in each format.

Some of your criticisms are valid - they're just minor and missing the point.

We're never going to move past the PC if we have to drag along all the legacy. Most of that legacy exists to solve incidental issues and complexity than offering end users with real capabilities. Far from not being what I wanted to hear, the things you list are all in that category.

You'll always be able to score points by saying 'but my PC does XYZ'. But the world in which we endlesskly drag along everything from the PC-era however crummy or hard to use isn't one I'd want to advocate for however much of an Apple hater I was.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#203

Post by lreeves »

ryanwatkins wrote: post #139
jsz0 wrote: post #84

We're in a transitional period. The vast majority of people who have iPads do have a PC of some kind also. For now it's the most practical way of doing backups, updates, and syncing large amounts of content. I do think Apple will move in the direction of not requiring a PC for these things but it's non-trival. How do you sync 16-64GB of data over 3G? Do you push 300MB+ updates to someone with a 150MB/month data cap?…

Its not trivial to divorce these "post PC" devices, but its just increasingly lame to require it, and several others have overcome the hurdle. Android has. WebOS has. I get OTA updates to my WebOS device, and it backs itself up over the air nightly. I just updated to 2.1 and all my apps just magically came back, and it had all my email/im/linkedin/facebook account settings too - I just had to re-enter my passwords to…

Just an FYI, there's several apps for IOS that can grab poscasts from the device itself with no need for an iTunes connection. I used Podcaster and it works pretty well.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#204

Post by JadeNB »

jamroom wrote: post #128
bane wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot - can only resize a window from one corner, and that corner may be off the screen in certain cases so that you can't move the window to a position where the corner is even visible (this just bit me this week) - still doesn't understand how to fullscreen programs (windows maximize function is the single best OS function I've seen that allows a user to focus on just ONE thing). I think this is fixed in the u…

I've been hit by your first point as well (not often, but often enough since I switch between resolutions frequently), and if you press the maximize button it will often (not always though) "raise" the lower portion up above the dock enough so you can resize. Not the most intuitive, but it works. I agree with #2 as well - that's one thing Windows does just right, and I'm glad to see that could be coming in Lion.

> I've been hit by your first point as well (not often, but often enough since I switch between resolutions frequently), and if you press the maximize button it will often (not always though) "raise" the lower portion up above the dock enough so you can resize. Not the most intuitive, but it works.

I'm not arguing with you here, just adding a data point about how unintuitive it is.

I certainly agree that you can do this—but, to my mind, you're then re-sizing the window in its maximised state; and, if you click again to ‘un-maximise’ it, then it'll be right back to the inaccessible position that it had before. I don't know if this is any sort of serious objection, in the sense that it can actually cause trouble, but it nags at my mind when I use it: “You don't really want that window maximised! Go back to its rest state!” I therefore usually wind up with the solution of “Find a big enough monitor and re-size there.”

(By the way, I love Mac OS, but definitely hate this behaviour.)

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#205

Post by JadeNB »

slyn wrote: post #165
l0nwlf wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Command-C / Command-V is copy-paste. Also I do use TotalFinder as a finder replacement. :)

Command+x is cut, same as ctrl+x on windows. Might be application specific as I only tried in Chrome and Textedit but I'm fairly certain it is OS wide.

> Command+x is cut, same as ctrl+x on windows. Might be application specific as I only tried in Chrome and Textedit but I'm fairly certain it is OS wide.

As mdaniel (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2294066) mentions, it bizarrely does not work in one very specific, and presumably intentional, place—the Finder.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#206

Post by JadeNB »

anonymoushn wrote: post #157
DaveMebs wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's version of iTunes on Windows is so much worse than the Mac version, that I can only assume it is intentional. For example, only one user may run iTunes at one time on a PC while multiple users can run it on a Mac. It also shits all over your registry. As a long time Mac iTunes user, I've been pretty frustrated with the Windows version, which I started using 6 months ago. The counter point, however, would be m…

I don't mind if iTunes sucks on Windows, because Windows has foobar2000. What really bothers me is that there are no worthwhile alternatives to iTunes for OSX.

Songbird (http://www.getsongbird.com)?

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#207

Post by snoozer »

The question strikes me as a link-baiting deliberate obtuseness. If we're in a post-industrial age, why do we still have factories? If my Mac is a "personal" computer, why can other people have accounts on it?

"Post" means "after". It usually connotes some sense of replacement, but does not necessarily imply wholesale obsoleting of the thing that came before it.

I think "post-PC" is a calculated marketing term, but to criticize it based on the most absurd possible interpretation is, well, absurd.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#208

Post by bballant »

bane wrote: post #113
eitland wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone. I've been using Mac OS X for two years and can't belive why the company that came up with iPad and iPhone still - have global menus (who really wants that with todays screen resolutions and two monitors?) - needs the worlds best trackpads because their laptop keyboards have misplaced ctrl and their default keybindings are so inconsistent that users would be lost without a good pointing device. - fo…

You forgot - can only resize a window from one corner, and that corner may be off the screen in certain cases so that you can't move the window to a position where the corner is even visible (this just bit me this week) - still doesn't understand how to fullscreen programs (windows maximize function is the single best OS function I've seen that allows a user to focus on just ONE thing). I think this is fixed in the u…

i would prefer to always use Linux, but my company gives all the engineers Macs, so that's what I now use. I miss Linux deeply, but maintaining two dev environments, not to mention context switching wrt key commands, drove me to the brink.

On the positive side, OSX is still unix. MacVim rules. OSX fixes some of the Linux issues that drove me mad (like power mgmt & plugging in an external monitor). And I've gotten around the screen resize issue mentioned here w/ a little 3rd party app called sizeup... Not ideal, but a workable solution that keeps me productive on the platform.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#209

Post by code_duck »

rbarooah wrote: post #110
code_duck wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android phones will have monitor outs, though, not just the tablets. How about the iPhone or iPod Touch?

They already do.

Wow, what? I have an iPod Touch and how did I not know this! I'm always so out of touch. Please ignore the possible pun here.

Re: If iPads are “post-pc devices” why must I sync with iTunes before I can use one?

#210

Post by code_duck »

rbarooah wrote: post #104
code_duck wrote: post #60

Do iPads actually let you manage your music without using iTunes on a desktop? I know my iPod doesn't. You can add music to it directly by purchasing in the iTunes store, but not delete music. I can't see any clear reason why, but this restriction must do something for Apple.

No - iPad's don't let you manage your music collection. I assume the no-delete is to reduce the risk of people accidentally deleting things they've just paid for, given that that's the only way to get things on to the device. Interestingly, you can delete videos.

You can re-download things you've paid for, can't you? Or hmm.. they limit the times? Given that I have 800 GB of space I have of which 10% is in use, I've never deleted any purchased music, so I don't know from personal experience.
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