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The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

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Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#281

Post by jimbokun »

scarface74 wrote: post #132
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because it's a consumption device, despite the heroic efforts of some people to prove otherwise. If I want to reply to an email I'll walk upstairs to my real computer rather than attempt to do it on our iPad. As Joey Hess said[1] "If it doesn't have a keyboard, I feel that my thoughts are being forced out through a straw." [1] https://usesthis.com/interviews/joey.hess/

If that were the case, do you think Microsoft and Adobe spent money on development of Office and Photoshop foolishly? The iPad Pros are credited with stopping the slide of iPad revenues - along with all of the accessories.

Not sure about Office, but iPad with Pencil seems popular with creative professionals, so for Adobe not to support it would open up opportunities to other software companies to Innovator's Dilemma them.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#282

Post by [deleted] »

pcurve wrote: post #274
dangus wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, Apple is the only one who has this market figured out. Ever see anyone at a coffee shop using a Surface Pro in tablet mode? I haven’t. That’s because the second you sit down to complete tasks for more than a minute or two you’ll want a keyboard at least if not a mouse, too. In my view that eliminates productivity as a legitimate use for a tablet. There’s no way I’d prefer touching my screen to the ki…

Yeah tablet serves generally different market, but it can also meets needs of existing laptop users who just want more portable media consumption device, whether around bedroom, bathroom, or on a plane on business trip where you're likely to have locked-down work-issued PC.

[deleted]

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#283

Post by eyesee »

amelius wrote: post #239
jwr wrote: post #20

This is a very good take on the subject. I love the iPad, I use it all the time. It's an unbelievably good piece of hardware with a number of really good software applications. It is a surprisingly good thinking and note-taking tool, it's the best tool (period) for reading datasheets (or any large PDF documents), it is a great music workstation if you connect a MIDI keyboard and/or an external USB audio interface. Bu…

> it's the best tool (period) for reading datasheets (or any large PDF documents) Sounds intriguing. How would I go about copying the PDFs that are currently on my Linux PC onto it, though?

The included "Files" app in iOS/iPadOS 13 can mount SMB shares.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#284

Post by scarface74 »

oarsinsync wrote: post #271
scarface74 wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Microsoft keep developing a product for 7 years if there were no interest?

The Zune was launched in 2006 and discontinued in 2012. Why did that product last 6 years? I’m not saying Office for iPad is pointless (I use it regularly, so quite the opposite!), but I do think it’s foolish to think an organisation the size of Microsoft’s doesn’t necessarily do things for obvious reasons. Individual incentives do not always lend themselves to data driven objectives.

Apple created the iPod in nine months by cobbling together third party components. The Zune wasn’t exactly a billion dollar investment.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#285

Post by slantyyz »

ryandrake wrote: post #267
slantyyz wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kinda jealous of your experience. My dad (early 80s) struggles with tech in general, including the iPad and iPhone. Many in his peer group use touchscreen devices with fewer issues. This is what I noticed from trying to teach him how to use the interfaces: 1 - He refuses to mentally process what the icons represent and ignores the text label below them. I thought switching them to Chinese would help, but he'd str…

The "Address Book" vs. "Contacts" one is a good example. The one that hits some of the non-techies I know is "Drive". More than a handful of people I know still confuse it with Maps. They are going to drive to the next town over, and want directions, so obviously they look for Google Drive . I'd guess 99% of the population associates the word "Drive" with cars and driving, and 1% associates it with "internal storage"…

While I get that designers hate skeuomorphism, I tend to think there are still significant benefits to it with seniors.

With my dad in particular, if the icons were literally photos (as opposed to "graphically designed" icons) of real world objects he was familiar with, I think it would help... a little.

He doesn't seem to process abstractions very well. For example, a shadowed head in a contacts icon has absolutely zero meaning for him.

Even with non-touchscreen UI's, such as a media player, my dad doesn't quite grasp the concept of a highlighted item no matter how many times I try to explain it to him. It gets even more confusing for him if the highlight changes color in different parts of the UI.

It would be nice if voice ui's were more advanced, but he speaks a dialect of Chinese that's much less common than Mandarin or Cantonese, so there's another issue.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#286

Post by JackFr »

jeromegv wrote: post #166
have_faith wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a big part of the mediocre sales is related to the use-cases that most iPad users have which seems to mostly be watching videos, browsing the internet, reading etc. Any 2 or 3 generation old iPad will do this fine with very little reason to upgrade. It doesn't have anything near comparable to the upgrade path that a lot of phone users who seem very eager to upgrade to a better camera/battery/etc.

The iPad is a 20 BILLION dollar a year business. Let's not get crazy on "mediocre" sales, this is one of the most popular product line of all companies combined. Did not get as high as some people were expecting but this is far from mediocre. Source: https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/01/fun-with-charts-a-decade-...

> Let's not get crazy on "mediocre" sales

If I've got a product whose sales were falling 5 out of the past 6 years, and whose current sales are 30%+ down from a peak of 6 years ago, I'm pretty worried about it.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#287

Post by jaywalk »

audunw wrote: post #99
alopex_plenus wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so the captain tells us to switch off all electronic devices and then proceeds to navigate the plane via iPad?

While it's good to avoid EM interference from electronic devices, I think the real reason they want you to switch of these devices is to make sure you're not totally distracted during take-off or landing, and that you're not using headphones, so you'll be aware in case of accidents/emergencies.

Nah, they haven't asked passengers to turn off devices in years. They just want them placed on airplane mode so they're not connecting to cellular networks. Bluetooth and WiFi are just fine.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#288

Post by rhodysurf »

cactus2093 wrote: post #126

Good points in the article. I also find the model names weirdly confusing, how did the iPad become the smaller, less powerful variant when the Air still exists? They did this with MacBooks too, though I think the tiny one may be discontinued now. And why is the iPad peripheral system such a mess? The released the pencil 2 which is a significant usability improvement and had every indication of replacing the pencil 1,…

The USB host support irks me. I have an iPad Pro with USB C and I really want to be able to connect to things like arduinos and other mcus but there is no way to write drivers unless you pay for MFI and develop some hardware that is authenticated. Its really disheartening.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#289

Post by rhodysurf »

akg_67 wrote: post #96
acqq wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The worst thing is that the forced over-simplification of the UI features did not make it easier to use for beginners. I believe Gruber argues completely the opposite: that the recent changes to add features like split screen make it more confusing (e.g. the example of his mother getting stuck in the split screen and calling him). He continues in the very article we comment here (emphasis mine): "if I could go back…

+1 I still haven’t figured out how to get split screen reliably and every time. But I don’t find a need for split screen either. A few times, I tried I had to google how to get split screen then I gave up. Also, sometime I automagically get split screen and can’t figure out how to get rid of it. Usually land up just closing apps in split screen and restarting apps.

I code in one terminal app and look at documentation on the second. I watch videos in the full screen and browse twitter using the slide in option. I love the multitasking tbh

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#290

Post by dangus »

pcurve wrote: post #274
dangus wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, Apple is the only one who has this market figured out. Ever see anyone at a coffee shop using a Surface Pro in tablet mode? I haven’t. That’s because the second you sit down to complete tasks for more than a minute or two you’ll want a keyboard at least if not a mouse, too. In my view that eliminates productivity as a legitimate use for a tablet. There’s no way I’d prefer touching my screen to the ki…

Yeah tablet serves generally different market, but it can also meets needs of existing laptop users who just want more portable media consumption device, whether around bedroom, bathroom, or on a plane on business trip where you're likely to have locked-down work-issued PC.

You’re absolutely right. This leads into the four markets that I think the tablet can sell to:

1. For kids or secondary throw-around devices (like for travel).

2. Digital Art and pen-based content creation.

3. People who won’t otherwise use their phone (in my view, not many).

4. Point of sale, retail, mobile enterprise computing.

The key here is understanding that it’s not like everyone threw out their personal computers when the tablet and phone was invented. They just aren’t replaced as often as phones.

That’s where I don’t think tablets compete well against someone’s existing laptop. If Apple let the iPad run full macOS software without the App Store that still wouldn’t convince me to buy one, even if that would be a welcome change.

So, I guess that’s my overall point here: tablets have to compete with proper computers and I don’t think they’ve succeeded. The Surface Pro turns into a proper computer and it’s telling that most people use it as a laptop, not a keyboard-less tablet.

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