Why the Apple tablet will change the world.

Post #320,609 by Another Scott 1/27/10 12:30:59 AM Reply	Why the Apple tablet will change the world. http://angrybear.blo...-will-change.html Maybe. I think an 8x10 is a little too big to take everywhere, but we'll see. Cheers, Scott.
Post #320,615 by crazy 1/27/10 8:14:47 AM Reply	Imagine this interface A bunch of people are in a meeting on a table. Their tablets are down, in front of them. Each tablet "knows" where the other is in the room. As people place their tablet on the table, they get a log in / group accept sequence. All of their tablets are part of a single virtual desktop, and this desktop is ok with spinning windows are at an angle. Each person gets their own private area, a launch bar, but it is easy to share as needed. Each may have a series of personal windows, but occasionally you want you show something to everyone else in a comfy fashion. So you flick the window of interest, either in a single direction of the table to a single person, or you broadcast to all tablets on the table. They catch it with their fingers tips, size and place it. Or or it falls to the default position on the person's screen.
Post #320,619 by boxley 1/27/10 8:49:36 AM Reply	as a replacement to the legal pad sure, I can see that as a method to slurp the contents of the opposing attorneys tablet, I can see that too :-) If we torture the data long enough, it will confess. (Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1991)
Post #320,632 by Another Scott 1/27/10 2:07:32 PM Reply	iPad it is. Sounds interesting. http://bits.blogs.ny...-announcement/?hp And now weÂre going to dive into the specifications. Half an inch thin. Weighs 1.5 pounds. 9.7-inch IPS display Â super high quality, great angle of views, Mr. Jobs says. Full capacitive multi-touch screen, same as the iPhone Â Âsuper responsive, super precise,Â he says. The iPad is powered by AppleÂs own custom silicon, he says Â a 1 GHz A4 chip,, 16 GB of memory, 32 or 64 Gigabytes of storage. ThereÂs Wi-Fi, 802.11n, and the latest Bluetooth. (Apparently no 3G wireless, notes my colleague John Markoff.) Accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone. I haven't seen a price mentioned yet. No camera either, apparently, so they can add that in a later version. Cheers, Scott.
Post #320,635 by drook 1/27/10 2:13:28 PM Reply	Cynic There's no camera, because no one wants ~~video~~ photos on a ~~Nano~~ iPad. -- Drew
Post #320,641 by Another Scott 1/27/10 2:44:26 PM Reply	:-) Pioneers get to live without features and pay more.
Post #320,640 by Another Scott 1/27/10 2:43:28 PM Reply	Prices. Available in 60 Days Update \| 2:25 p.m. bstone6 (2:20:08 PM): The first iPads will ship in 60 days, with 3G models taking another month. Price Ranges From $499 to $829 Update \| 2:20 p.m. And now: price. ÂWhen we set out to develop the iPad, we not only had specific technical goals and user interface goals, but an aggressive price goal, because we want to put this in the hands of a lot of people,Â Mr. Jobs says. Mr. Jobs says Apple has met its cost goals: The iPadÂs pricing starts at $499. (Which means, at the very least, there is little reason to buy the much more limited Amazon Kindle DX.) For $499, you get you 16 GB of storage, with WiFi built-in. For $599, you get 32 GB of storage. For $699, you get 64 GB of storage. The 3G models cost an extra $130 each. So all told, there are six models of the new iPad. The most eexpensive 64 GB model, with 3G, costs $829 plus the monthly charge. Not cheap, but not too bad. $700 for an ultralight laptop with decent storage. Cheers, Scott. (Who hopes this will put pressure on the price of the 13" MBP, but doubts that it will...)
Post #320,644 by folkert 1/27/10 3:25:25 PM 1/27/10 3:27:05 PM Reply	the $699 one... Is equivalent to what I got with my Dell Mini9. (I paid a total of almost $650) Except for the Multi-tasking. And the in-ability to use a usb device. (IE my CDMA Verizon Dongle) The keyboard dock is perfect. 10 hours of use... plus 1 month standby... I think ARM vs Intel is already won. Intel is headed down, unless they can seriously improve power usage. Content is king and its a war between Apple and Google. Microsoft is on the wrong boat heading the wrong direction and taking yahoo and many other companies with it... in to the depths of the sea with a sinking ship. As my boss said... "not like Balmer is going to inspire a following." Edited by folkert Jan. 27, 2010, 03:27:05 PM EST Expand All History
Post #320,647 by Another Scott 1/27/10 3:42:57 PM 1/27/10 5:20:20 PM Reply	That must be some Mini! :-) [edit:] If I'm reading the NYT story right, it has 16 GB of RAM and 64 GB of "storage". If the PC makers and Microsoft weren't so brain-dead about protecting their margins on laptops and PCs, they would have made a Mini with that much RAM long ago, rather than forcing them to be limited to 2GB. If companies don't eventually kill off their profitable products, their competitors will. Yeah, multitasking is going to be an issue, I think. I gotta figure that the software and hardware are capable, or soon will be. Steve thinks ahead... Dunno whether Palm will make one last gasp and try to get WebOS on a similar tablet soon, but that might be an opening. They tried once with the Foleo, but couldn't build a critical mass - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo (and it didn't run WebOS). It's probably too late unless they find some magic niche that Steve didn't. Interesting times. Cheers, Scott. Edited by Another Scott Jan. 27, 2010, 05:20:20 PM EST Expand All History
Post #320,652 by SpiceWare 1/27/10 4:44:45 PM Reply	Re: That must be some Mini! :-) That's probably 16-64 GB of storage. Like the iPhone, the tech specs page doesn't mention how much system RAM. I'm sure that'll be revealed by somebody in the near future. http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ Glad to see the iPad Camera Connection Kit at the bottom of the page - with that I can easily see having a desktop Mac for the home and an iPad for when traveling.
Post #320,655 by Another Scott 1/27/10 5:17:53 PM Reply	Good point. I was wondering why it would have so much RAM if it were a SuperSized iPod Touch. Sorry, Greg. Cheers, Scott.
Post #320,728 by pwhysall 1/29/10 1:48:53 AM Reply	Re: That must be some Mini! :-) This is a computer for people who neither know nor care about computers. Multitasking, lack of Flash, removable batteries, etc, are all non-issue for these people. They want to do these things on their computers just about as much as they want to upgrade their fridges or washing machines. Remember "Aunt Tillie", who the fool Raymond used to blather on about? Well, her computer just turned up. If you can make a list of things that the iPad doesn't do, and you understand the words in that list, then you're not in the target market. I cannot conceive of a circumstance where I'd use an iPad where I wouldn't be happier with an actual laptop. But then the thing isn't aimed at me. It's been really funny, this past couple of days, watching the geek community running round, getting itself in a lather over the limitations of a product that's just about as aimed at them as Windows XP Starter Edition.
Post #320,734 by static 1/29/10 8:52:41 AM Reply	I don't think that's entirely fair. First of all, it's the part of the geek community with a) too much money and b) less clue than they think they have (well, probably) who Apple are targetting in this first release. And then, in the broader sense, Apple is targetting everyone, many merely by extension. Quite a few commentators in recent years have noticed Apple's predilection with the App Store and its gated software community. Some have even noticed how OS X-land doesn't have that. Yet. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #320,648 by drook 1/27/10 4:01:43 PM Reply	Wonder how sturdy the keyboard dock is It looks nice, but it doesn't look lap-stable. Especially not if it only works in portrait mode. With most of my work living on a server somewhere else, all I need is a terminal with SSH, and a good browser. This would look real nice in my living room. -- Drew
Post #320,653 by SpiceWare 1/27/10 4:45:37 PM Reply	thought so too it does support a bluetooth keyboard
Post #320,662 by static 1/27/10 6:15:31 PM Reply	Not to be a party-pooper... But I think I'll put my money on Google. If nothing else, Android trying to nip at Apple's heels will help both companies. I got to share my HTC Hero around the other night and watch some friends find the games. Completely intuitive - just as much as with the iPhone. And remember it's running Android 1.5 + HTC Sense. Newer stuff is icing, really. I like that it can play Ogg Vorbis - so I've resurrected my .ogg archive and put my MD player on holiday. Next: moving all my passwords from my Newton... OTOH, there have been attempts to put Android on a bigger screen, with mixed results. Maybe this is that Google really need to achieve for Android 3.0. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #320,658 by Bman 1/27/10 5:49:37 PM Reply	Yes, I will be getting one "Pictures are better then words because some words are big and hard to understand" Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
Post #320,663 by folkert 1/27/10 7:31:53 PM Reply	NOOOO. You are kidding. How is that Kool-Aid going for you Bill?
Post #320,680 by Bman 1/28/10 1:55:40 AM Reply	Re: NOOOO. You are kidding. KOOL - AID Cherry Please "Pictures are better then words because some words are big and hard to understand" Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
Post #320,664 by SpiceWare 1/27/10 7:36:41 PM Reply	15 minute interview with John Gruber http://podcast.cbc.c...27_gruberipad.mp3
Post #320,676 by folkert 1/27/10 11:09:07 PM Reply	I'm wondering... Will a Bostonian be able to pronounce the difference between iPod and iPad?
Post #320,678 by Another Scott 1/27/10 11:16:15 PM Reply	:-)
Post #320,689 by drook 1/28/10 10:15:34 AM Reply	Or ChicAAAAAgo -- Drew
Post #320,704 by SpiceWare 1/28/10 2:58:02 PM Reply	Stephen Fry pipes in He went to his first Apple product release and wrote about it in his blog There are many issues you could have with the iPad. No multitasking, still no Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: ÂHold your judgment until youÂve spent five minutes with itÂ. ... The moment you experience it in your hands you know this is class. This is a different order of experience. The speed, the responsiveness, the smooth glide of it, the richness and detail of the display, the heft in your hand, the rightness of the actions and gestures that you employ, untutored and instinctively, itÂs not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop Â it is a whole new kind of device. And it will change so much. http://www.stephenfr...01/28/ipad-about/
Post #320,709 by drook 1/28/10 4:29:44 PM Reply	Everyone keeps saying "No Flash" But it's got a YouTube app. Doesn't YouTube use flash for its movies? Does Apple have a back-door that lets their app grab the raw movie files? -- Drew
Post #320,712 by SpiceWare 1/28/10 5:29:36 PM Reply	YouTube switched to H.264 a while back The flash player plays it back on their web site while the H.264 file is played back directly by Apple TV and the YouTube App. http://newteevee.com...-thanks-to-apple/ The ClickToFlash flash-blocker for Safari has an option to play back the H.264 video via QuickTime instead of via Flash player. http://rentzsch.github.com/clicktoflash/ I had been using that option, but recently YouTube opened an HTML5 beta option and I've been using it instead. It plays back the H.264 video via the new <video> tag. I think Chrome and Safari are the only browsers that support it (Firefox does support the <video> tag, but only for ogg files) http://www.youtube.com/html5 https://developer.mo..._video_in_FireFox Gruber also has a rather insightful blog entry about why Flash won't be on the iPhone or iPad - the gist of which is that Flash is the #1 cause of crashes in OS X (per the crash reports submitted to Apple), but it's not something that Apple can do anything about. http://daringfirebal...apple_adobe_flash
Post #320,713 by Another Scott 1/28/10 6:28:36 PM Reply	Thanks for the pointers. Few things have given me as much trouble on Linux as Flash. Adobe has shown that it can write good code in the past, but much of their stuff has gotten incredibly bloated. Why on earth should a PDF viewer be as huge, slow, and fragile as Acrobat Reader 8 (a 217 MB tree on WinXP here)? That old saw has seemingly been updated to: "The Internet treats Adobe as damage and routes around it." I'm glad it's progressing reasonably well. Cheers, Scott.
Post #320,721 by SpiceWare 1/28/10 11:10:45 PM Reply	Looks like Vimeo is switching as well http://gizmodo.com/5...-kill-flash-video Vimeo's new HTML5 system is just like YouTube's, in both execution and technical details, in that it'll only work with a few browsersÂSafari and Chrome, for nowÂand that it's compatible with most, but not all, of the company's video libraries.
Post #320,716 by static 1/28/10 8:25:28 PM Reply	HTML 5 video and H.264. This is shaping up to be a big big issue. There are reasons for H.264 (it's the professional standard) and there are reasons against H.264 (it requires royalty payments). Firefox/Mozilla have said they can't support H.264 because of the latter and they don't want to devolve it to the OS. Meanwhile, Apple and Google have shown their hand, so it will be interesting to see which way Microsoft jumps. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #320,719 by folkert 1/28/10 10:50:37 PM Reply	Re: which way Microsoft jumps ... The wrong way. With both feet. Into quicksand and no "willing" lifeguard on duty.
Post #320,722 by static 1/28/10 11:15:34 PM Reply	... so you think they'll ignore the <video> tag? :-) That would be monumentally stupid. Which means that's probably what they'll do. Except I know the IE guys would try to fight against that... I actually meant whether they go for H.264 support, Ogg Theora or devolve it to the OS. I think when push comes to shove, they'll support the video tag by devolving codec support to the OS, which means they'll try to promote WMV. And they're already too late to try that... That would be the second fail. Could MS be so stupid? Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #320,726 by drook 1/29/10 1:36:42 AM Reply	Video playback should be done by the OS IMO Why should every app have its own code for playing video? The way it should work (and it may already) is whenever the browser sees a media file, it should check for a plugin that handles it, next see if it's built into the browser, next see if the OS handles it, then fail. Sort of like CSS: check the most specific first before bubbling up to the more generic. Then if someone has a new codec -- either a whole new format or a better way of handling an old one -- plug it in to the browser. Eventually that code (or something like it) makes it into the browser. Then into the OS. I guess the tricky part is when video cards arrive that support it in hardware before support has trickled down to the OS, which is where Apple says, "Your app doesn't get to access the hardware." -- Drew
Post #320,729 by pwhysall 1/29/10 1:50:03 AM Reply	For the reasons you mention... ...this may be a very, very bad decision on the Mozilla Foundation's part.
Post #320,733 by static 1/29/10 8:43:53 AM Reply	I wonder if they're trying to rope MPEG-LA into the fray. After all, the Mozilla Foundation could say that they want to support H.264 because that's what everyone is asking for, but the licencing rules make it difficult... I bet MPEG-LA probably don't want to be part of that discussion. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #320,727 by pwhysall 1/29/10 1:37:15 AM Reply	Re: Everyone keeps saying "No Flash" No Flash is a feature, not a bug.
Post #320,916 by SpiceWare 2/2/10 3:57:46 PM Reply	it's for the masses http://northtemple.c...-grandmas-and-gam Grandma My mother-in-law walked in the door the day of the keynote and the first thing out of her mouth was ÂDid you see that new Apple iPad? That looks like it would work for me. Would that work for me?Â I was utterly flabbergasted. She NEVER talks about computers or technology. She tolerates them at best. ... Technophobe A good friend of mine is an attorney and reluctantly uses technology for his work. ... on our recommendation, he decided to take the Blackberry back and give the iPhone a try. I had never once seen him exhibit any excitement over technology but the next time I saw him, he could barely contain his enthusiasm for his new phone. Fast forward to last Wednesday evening. I told him about the new iPad and his eyes grew wide. He blurted out ÂWait, are you talking about an iPhone but with a bigger screen? A regular sized computer THIS easy to use? $15 a month for internet anywhere? When can I buy one?Â ... Luddite I have a good friend and neighbor who works remodeling houses and who reluctantly agreed to have me design a website for his company after being pressured by his family. I donÂt know anyone else who hates computers more. ... He stopped by my house the day of the keynote to talk about his new website and when he walked in I happened to have some iPad photos open on my laptop. He asked me what they were about and I casually described the new Apple ÂtabletÂ that had just been released. I didnÂt spend a lot of time on it considering his historical lack of interest in computers. ... Three days later, he called me and the following exchange ensued. ÂDude, I think I want to get one of those Apple tablets for my business.Â

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