Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're addicted to the CLI why the MBP? A MBA would serve you just as well, and be lighter.
Probably because until recently, only the MBP was retina - and that's a big advantage (to me).
I agree.
Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
121–130 of 201 posts
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#122"PCs took a full three decades to reach market saturation, whereas tablets may have already topped off at the four-year mark."
True, but this is probably due in part to the price differential—early computers were 2x to 10x the price of early tablets, so it's not surprising that tablets reached saturation faster. I do agree with the general gist of the article, as my aging iPad 2 (which I will probably replace with the next iPad Air) can attest to.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Have you ever seen a child use a tablet? Or your mother? Seriously. It's actually kind of amazing. I got my mum one a couple of years ago and she's hooked. She literally doesn't leave the house without it if she's going anywhere that involves some manner of waiting. Touch input is something far more intuitive to someone in her generation (so it seems with my meager sample size of one) than mouse/menu-driven input.…
It's not only the touch input, but the simplified model of how apps work in general. "One app running at the time and filling the whole screen." That matches the mental model of the most people. Traditional multitasking window GUI can be really confusing for people who have not grown with it,
I agree. I think that even for people who have some exposure to multitasking GUIs, a simplified UI can alleviate much of the mental overhead if they have a very specific goal in mind. In my mum's case, she has quite a lot of previous experience with computers, so her tablet is mostly for reading, looking up things of interest, watching videos or movies, etc. But as a consequence, her computer is relegated mostly to content creation.
I think that's a fantastic use case for tablets, too. Older users (60+) can benefit tremendously from their relatively small form factor and simplified UI; it's just a shame that they're largely neglected and under-served when you examine most of the advertising...
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Touch input is something far more intuitive to someone in her generation (so it seems with my meager sample size of one) than mouse/menu-driven input I would imagine most people find touch input more intuitive than mouse input, if only for the reason that it accomplishes the same thing but better (at least on an intuitive level). A mouse is like a pair of chopsticks. Sure, after a while, you can coordinate it pretty…
With enough of a screen, text editing is not bad either. I didn't realize how terribly I wanted a touch screen for work until I worked with excel on a touch screen with a keyboard. It was unbelievably fast. With my left hand I could poke cells, the equation and scream around doing that. Meanwhile, my right hand was typing letters and numbers. It was like the first time I heard the Beatles. I was laughing to myself wh…
Interesting. I'd never considered spreadsheet use, but that sounds like an area worth exploring for touch-based interaction. For some things, reaching out and "grabbing" (for lack of a better term) seems to be a more natural gesture than trying to isolate whether the UI expects left click, right click, or some permutation of drag + clicking.
I wonder now how much cross over will eventually occur between keyboard + touch interaction. One for input, one for manipulation. In essence, that merges the best of both worlds.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly how I use my tablet too. I use my computer all day writing code, so when its time to relax with some Netflix, or an ebook I grab my tablet instead. Its perfect for laying on the couch or in bed. A phone definitely works in that case as well, but the tiny screen isn't as nice for reading and watching video. Not to mention by the end of the day my phone is usually mostly dead and its time to put it on t…
The difference in screen size between tablets and phones is much less apparent now than it was 2 or 3 years ago.
Now we've got "phablets," which are bad at being phones (awkward and clumsy to carry around, and almost impossible to operate with one hand) and bad at being tablets (small screen for a tablet, inherently greater limitations on battery life)... >Yay?
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#126As soon as flexible screens become a thing, your phone and your tablet become the same device; you just unfold it when you want a big screen.
In light of this, the size argument being made in this article is not really meaningful in the medium-to-long term, unless these kinds of flexible screens never happen. (But they are being actively worked on, so.)
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#127No, I think it is just beginning. I bought an iPad in 2011 and didn't even really know why, mostly because I felt I should know what's going on with this new class of device. I ended up using it all the time, and still do (though I bought a new one). The phone is too small to use comfortably for more than a short while.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#128As soon as flexible screens become a thing, your phone and your tablet become the same device; you just unfold it when you want a big screen. In light of this, the size argument being made in this article is not really meaningful in the medium-to-long term, unless these kinds of flexible screens never happen. (But they are being actively worked on, so.)
I think this is spot on. I am not sure how long it will take but there will be a big revolution in screens, like the CRT to LCD one, in the next 20 years and it will be around flexible and expandable displays. Possibly what we know consider to be a screen will be totally changed.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#129Although I own three tablets, my love affair with the tablet as it exists today never really took off the same way it did for so many consumers. The primary reason is that I do not believe that tablets should be first-class computing devices. Tablets, and in my opinion, the entirety of what we today call "mobile," should be subservient to a general computing model of personal omnipresent applications [1]. Put more co…
A few weeks back I saw here on HN a very enterprise-y looking service (from Amazon, if I recall correctly) that allowed employees to access company applications (think pre-configured versions of Word etc.) from whatever device they had available. It was like the next-generation VPN, which sounds like what you're getting at.
Sadly, I can't seem to find the link now.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#130Although I own three tablets, my love affair with the tablet as it exists today never really took off the same way it did for so many consumers. The primary reason is that I do not believe that tablets should be first-class computing devices. Tablets, and in my opinion, the entirety of what we today call "mobile," should be subservient to a general computing model of personal omnipresent applications [1]. Put more co…
A few weeks back I saw here on HN a very enterprise-y looking service (from Amazon, if I recall correctly) that allowed employees to access company applications (think pre-configured versions of Word etc.) from whatever device they had available. It was like the next-generation VPN, which sounds like what you're getting at. Sadly, I can't seem to find the link now.
Probably Workspaces: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/