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The iPad’s Dirty Secret

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Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#21

Post by g0atbutt »

raganwald wrote: post #18

I remember that the iPod's dirty secret was that you had to pay big money for a battery replacement since it wasn't user serviceable. Other dirty secrets for popular consumer products include things like child labour being used to build sneakers or unsafe factory/dormitory combinations that kill hundreds of people when the factories catch fire. I get the sense that the phrase "dirty secret" is being watered down in t…

It was meant as a rebuttal to Steve Jobs proclaiming the iPad offers "the best browsing experience you've ever had" which is simply not true.

While it's true that other "dirty secrets" (some of which you listed) are more important, it doesn't change the fact that is one of Apple's dirty secrets.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#23

Post by raimondious »

I don't see how this UI decision — a screen of pages vs. a row of tabs – could be related to a hardware limitation. All other things remaining the same, why couldn't the switcher look like tabs instead of pages?

Page caching is the real issue, but I think this could also be addressed by software if Apple decided to.

Of all the things that could be considered deal breakers for the iPad, this is among the least of them.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#24

Post by pedalpete »

enjo wrote: post #12

On a side note: The author makes the assertion that anyone can be tossed an iPad and figure out the interface on their own... I challenge that assertion. I've taken a few relatives through the process of getting iPhones up and running, and I would claim that the interface is more difficult than the standard desktop metaphor. At some point an article floated through here suggesting that the iPhone interface isn't simp…

Donald Norman (founder of Human Interface Group at Apple) once said [paraphrasing] 'give people something beautiful, and they'll assume it is simple'.

I can't find the original quote, but he said it again on Canada's BNN a few weeks ago.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#25

Post by thought_alarm »

ihodes wrote: post #5

Is this because the iPhone OS doesn't use paging? It seems like this could be handled from the software side of things: the HD is solid state, and though sacrificing a second of time to switch to a web page that's been cached in the HD isn't Apple-gorgeous it's certainly faster and nicer to see than a blank white page and a twirling loading symbol.

Safari, like any modern web browser, simply uses a lot of memory. Remember that mobile Safari is (almost) always running in the background and on 128 MB devices it is always consuming most of the available RAM despite how aggressively it tries to flush things from RAM.

Caching to disk alone isn't enough. All web browsers cache to disk, but most non-trivial web sites will still hit the network as they are rendered by the browser, even if the content is cached. And if the network is slow you'll be waiting a while for that "cached" page to appear. Safari would need some kind of off-line browsing mode, like what I think Firefox has.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#26

Post by jacquesm »

g0atbutt wrote: post #4
jodrellblank wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not poorly handled memory management, it's good handling. Poorly handled would be to give you an out of memory error, or make the other pages disappear completely as if you'd never opened them at all.

I would have to disagree. My Droid also has 256 mb of memory, and I can have more pages open at once without it having to flush pages. This is still true with Pandora running in the background. Overall I'm a fan of the iPad, it just falls short in this area.

What is the screen resolution of the droid? What is the screen resolution of the ipad? If there is a big difference then it may be because the software keeps bitmaps of rendered screens laying around for a quick switch.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#27

Post by binspace »

Apple should come up with a gesture to switch between tabs.

IMO, one of the big achievements of Fingerworks keyboard was it's vast array of gestures. Apple drastically watered down the gesture support in it's various products. Perhaps to make it simple for grandma?

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#28

Post by thought_alarm »

g0atbutt wrote: post #21
raganwald wrote: post #18

I remember that the iPod's dirty secret was that you had to pay big money for a battery replacement since it wasn't user serviceable. Other dirty secrets for popular consumer products include things like child labour being used to build sneakers or unsafe factory/dormitory combinations that kill hundreds of people when the factories catch fire. I get the sense that the phrase "dirty secret" is being watered down in t…

It was meant as a rebuttal to Steve Jobs proclaiming the iPad offers "the best browsing experience you've ever had" which is simply not true. While it's true that other "dirty secrets" (some of which you listed) are more important, it doesn't change the fact that is one of Apple's dirty secrets.

It's only a "dirty secret" if you're prone to believing in conspiracy theories.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#29

Post by jsz0 »

Breaking old habits is hard but sometimes worth it. Is opening a bunch of background tabs a really efficient way of doing things? On a PC it works if you have a high enough resolution to display all the open tabs and enough RAM/CPU to quickly switch between them. On mobile devices it pays to focus on more efficient ways of doing things because you're dealing with limited resolution, potentially slower 3G networks, limited CPU/RAM/battery, etc. That being said there are browsers on the App Store that support tabs.

Re: The iPad’s Dirty Secret

#30

Post by binspace »

jsz0 wrote: post #29

Breaking old habits is hard but sometimes worth it. Is opening a bunch of background tabs a really efficient way of doing things? On a PC it works if you have a high enough resolution to display all the open tabs and enough RAM/CPU to quickly switch between them. On mobile devices it pays to focus on more efficient ways of doing things because you're dealing with limited resolution, potentially slower 3G networks, li…

I remember how annoying opening multiple web pages were before tabs. I don't want to be constrained.

Being able to open tabs is better than not. If the hardware/network does not support that very well, that is an issue with the hardware/network.

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