[OSX-Users] Re: ipad?

[Philip Boulain]

On Thu, 2010-01-28 at 15:25 +0000, Nick Gibbins wrote:
> Neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat. It isn't a laptop  
> replacement, it isn't an iPhone/iPod Touch replacement, it isn't a  
> netbook replacement, and it isn't a replacement for ebook readers  
> (like the Sony PRS505/700 or Kindle) at the size it is.

It's a MacBook Air with the keyboard half chopped off because they
couldn't work out how to make it hinge around flat under the screen like
a proper tablet PC. And a horrifically crippled operating system.

It will be interesting to see if they get backlash for the "only one
program at a time (except for ours, because some applications are more
equal than others)" iPhone OS limitation on a larger device with less of
a "there's no memory/screen-space for that ANYWAY" excuse, but then this
is Apple, and lowering user expectations is one of their specialities.
(Copy and paste? You don't need that. Until we get around to
implementing it, anyway.)

> It may be that my singular lack of imagination is blinding me to to  
> obvious purpose for this device, but I'm finding it hard to think of  
> anything it does that isn't done better by something else.

Act as a shiny new toy to get technology "journalists" and hyperactive
bloggers excited.

Now that the perpetually recurring "Apple tablet" rumour has finally
been defused, they'll have to find something new to hypothesise from
careful analysis of Apple's patent and trademark claims. Perhaps, given
the greater prominence it's gaining as a use for the iProducts, some
kind of games console, with multitouch/accelerometer controllers and
iTunes game store. You heard it here first, unsupported conjecture fans.

> Most of all, I'm disappointed that they've kept with the closed  
> platform/AppStore model. I shouldn't have to resort to jailbreaking to  
> make a computer do what it's capable of.

This is Apple. No user serviceable parts inside.

Also, the central Application Store model transitions nicely into a
Steam-like DRM system, which itself transitions nicely into rental.

-- 
| Philip Boulain   PhD student |  <'')  | People  who think they  know |
| IAM, ECS, Uni of Southampton | ((  |) | everything really annoy tho- |
| http://zepler.net/~lionsphil |  \/|/  | se of us who know we don't-S |