iPad - what do you think?

[Kypris]

Originally Posted by Bonkaescafé

Well, a bit facetious (The last one).

I deserved it, I loathe getting that one wrong.

[Traveler2010]

I'm not going to get one of those. They're unnecessary.

[origamitea]

I basically feel like this about it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ant-why-idunno

[hrillo666]

No multitasking. Who does one thing at a time on a computer these days?

Cocoa Touch will be the new Cocoa and Apple will trim the fluff out of their computer UI.

[Zoot]

Originally Posted by origamitea

I basically feel like this about it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ant-why-idunno

Love it!! I'm not sure which is my favorite line out the article... this one:

[...]it's the spork of the electronic consumer goods world.

or this one:

Not everything needs a 15-megapixel lens stuck on the back, like a little glass anus.

[Bonkaescafé]

Originally Posted by hrillo666

No multitasking. Who does one thing at a time on a computer these days?

I've been wondering about this. Apart from background printing and receiving e-mails while doing something else, does anyone actually do two things at the same time? I mean, we may have two applications open, but we are not using them both at the same time. I think I'm right in saying that, under the the early version of Windows (3.1?) there was no multitasking, just task switching. When a program went to the background, it hibernated, but people called it multitasking because they had more than one program open. So, to be honest, I can't really see it causing too many problems.

[Pojken]

Multitasking isn't about doing two things at once, but being able to switch in between tasks. Anyone who says they can do two tasks at once and have both at effective levels is either lying or has brain damage that allows for such thing.

But, if we're talking about two applications... Umm, I like Skype in the background while I fiddle around with games and whatnot. I like using the Internet while I work on photoediting. I like to facebook in between the times I'm writing up some boring project. Switching is NOT the same as restarting.

With the UI that the iPod has for instance, I have to wait for it to log in and then Skype. Bejeweled takes a while to load as well. Beyond that, I'm bound to the call and can't check the Internet about something we're talking about. What's also annoying is that when I restart Safari, it sometimes has to reload the page I was on, making it a pain to even really want to browse.

So, yeah, they should be able to multitask especially with this so-called Internet pad. They're just fucking around with consumers for some reason.

Tien

[hrillo666]

Exactly, running multiple apps simultaneously.

The iPhone pedometer app is for instance completely useless since you can't run it in the background continuously.

[Bonkaescafé]

Originally Posted by Pojken

They're just fucking around with consumers for some reason.

My guess is they're trying to extend battery life by not having two applications burning processor cycles.

[hrillo666]

Originally Posted by Bonkaescafé

My guess is they're trying to extend battery life by not having two applications burning processor cycles.

They wanted to trim a lot of cr@p from Cocoa. A single tasking OS is like a hello world app in terms of level of difficulty to design, you eliminate all the hard stuff (ask MS about DOS). And yes, saving on processor performance was probably key as they had the cheapest low-end hardware possible on the first iPhone, maybe the iPad is the same.

The nasty thing with apple is that they take some pieces of feces and make a brilliant product out of it. A product that, in the case of the iPhone at least 3G is vastly superior to anything else on the market, damn them. Apple haters like myself have a hard time when they do that.

Other people go about it the wrong way and try to do great things on a technical level but the final product is unusable. Hopefully though the iPad will not find a niche in the market and fail.

[Bonkaescafé]

Originally Posted by hrillo666

... Apple haters like myself...

Now there's honesty.

[Feste]

Originally Posted by Bonkaescafé

Now there's honesty.

Hardly. I only hear that phrase from people that are just lying to themselves.

[marcus]

Originally Posted by Bonkaescafé

I disagree. Though the new netbook processors may redress the balance but, to date, I have yet to see a truly acceptable performance from a netbook displaying full screen video. I did see an iPad doing it on the keynote video.

My Netbook (nothing fancy: Asus eeePC 1000) plays fullscreen video just fine. The iPad hardly sounds like a powerhouse in terms of processing performance, so I don't know why you assume it'll be any better... However, it wouldn't suprise me in the least if Apple forces you to convert your video to a very limited set of codec and resolutions to make sure it doesn't have a chance to fail.

Originally Posted by Bonkaescafé

I've been wondering about this. Apart from background printing and receiving e-mails while doing something else, does anyone actually do two things at the same time? I mean, we may have two applications open, but we are not using them both at the same time. I think I'm right in saying that, under the the early version of Windows (3.1?) there was no multitasking, just task switching. When a program went to the background, it hibernated, but people called it multitasking because they had more than one program open. So, to be honest, I can't really see it causing too many problems.

Windows 3.1 (like earlier Mac OS version) had cooperative multitasking, which meant that processes had to voluntarily give up the CPU for a context switch to occur. As anyone with programming experience will know, that just doesn't work well, which is why all modern OS's use preemptive multitasking, where the OS schedules when each process gets to run.

Originally Posted by hrillo666

The iPhone pedometer app is for instance completely useless since you can't run it in the background continuously.

Right... And also a good example of something that should be perfectly reasonble to run in the background without bogging down the CPU.

I'm pretty sure that the iPhone and iPad are fully capable of multitasking, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to play music while you perform other tasks, or fetch email while you're on the phone and so on. Apple is just locking it down, because these devices don't have enough horsepower to do too many things at the same time, and they'd rather you only get to do one thing than accuse their products of being slow (which of course they are, compared to a proper computer... but that's a limitation of the form factor).

Like Feste said, they also don't want people to buy the iPad INSTEAD OF an iPhone and a Mac, so they are probably afraid of making the iPad too good. Microsoft has learned that the hard way: Netbooks are cutting into the profits of MS, because MS is heavily discounting Windows for Netbooks (to push Linux out of the market), but when people buy netbooks instead of laptops, MS missing out on the OEM license price difference.

[Bonkaescafé]

Seems like it's not only Apple that are unhappy with the idea of background processes sapping battery charge:

Source: PC Mag.

"Apps that run arbitrarily in the background create an end user experience where battery life and responsiveness of the system becomes … inconsistent," ... "We focused on getting a set of experiences right where we didn't have to support [multitasking,] but we will over time."

... Charlie Kindel, head of Microsoft Windows Phone developer strategy.

So they will over time... Like when battery and processor technology advances and make it technically feasible?

[johnr]

One commentator on the Daily Telegraph, UK, said his Nokia 900 is superior to an i Pad.
Consumer Reports,USA said do not buy one yet,wait- a-while.

[meowza]

We have one at work now. It was exciting for about...5 minutes. It works well for the interwebs and videos, otherwise it's entirely up to the developers out there to give people a reason to get one, unfortunately nearly all the media content is still US-centric...If the iPod can become the iPhone, no doubt the iPad will eventually become a more worthwhile and functional device. The most interesting thing about it right now is the price.

My in-laws will probably get one simply because the things they do on a computer don't necessitate buying a 12,000kr machine.

[hrillo666]

Originally Posted by meowza

We have one at work now. It was exciting for about...5 minutes. It works well for the interwebs and videos, otherwise it's entirely up to the developers out there to give people a reason to get one,

My boss had a similar reaction.

For seasoned iPhone app developers such as the Evil division of my company, it is still a major change of approach to make apps for the iPad since the UX has to be completely different to handle the increased screen real-estate in a meaningful way. They have quite a number of things a-brewing, though.

[Addie]

Hmm.. it's my own decision.. I dont see colour .. I see the inside of a person..
So if I would fall in love with a black girl or arabic girl.. I would go for it..
My mom doesnt care.. she just wants me to be happy and wants me to take care of the girl