Results tagged “ipad”

Shawn Blanc says his iPad is now is laptop. Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac agrees and even wrote his latest book all on an iPad.

To be clear, Blanc used to be a print designer and now writes full-time on his own site. I understand how it's possible to be a writer and use just an iPad for work.

For me, I'm a web designer and rely heavily on my laptop to be productive. When I travel, it's with 3 devices - my iPhone, my iPad and my MacBook Pro. While I am more senior at this point in my career and don't find myself doing as much heavy lifting in Photoshop and Illustrator, I still need to use them.

I would love to reach a point where I just need to carry my iPad, but I still work on the farm and I need a truck (see also here).

I love headlines like these.

Makes me laugh.

FishbowlNY: Magazines Look Terrible on The New iPad

Over the past several days, complaints about how bad magazines look on the iPad have been rolling in. The reason, according to Mashable, is that the older magazine apps simply weren't built to handle the new iPad's high resolution "retina display," so everything looks blurry.

How about publishers stop making their magazines a big, fucking stack of PNGs and start to use actual text. The kind of text you can select and copy and paste. And look up in in-app dictionaries.

People are complaining about how much bandwidth their new Retina display iPads are using. While it's true the new iPad requires higher resolution graphics, developers also have to find ways to make their applications as efficient as possible.

Update: Steve Wright from Future Publishing emailed me to let me know his company does not make iPad magazines from stacks of big-ass images. Seems their magazine Tap! does things the right way.

Reuters: Dell sees room to challenge Apple in tablets

Asked whether he envied Apple's ability to produce such coveted objects, Felice [Dell's chief commercial officer] said: "We come at the market in a different way ... We are predominantly a company that has a great eye on the commercial customer who also wants to be a consumer."

What the does that even mean?

If I were Dell I wouldtake the money they were going to use to produce an iPad competitor, and instead give the money back to Dell shareholders.

Couldn't resist.

From Ars Technica:

As part of iFixit's ritualistic dismemberment of the third-generation iPad, the team discovered that, like its predecessor, the device is not only made up almost entirely of its battery: it's also difficult to repair and to recycle. Though Apple's engineering and design teams have created a thin and seamless device, their reliance on glue and difficult-to-separate components belies Apple's goal of creating "green" products.

Apple is the big dog now. This can be hard for people to understand who have used Apple products for more than 5 years. I know it is for me. They walk the straight line of a paradox as both David and Goliath in my brain.

But now that they are #1, they're going to be under the microscope. Every move they make will continue to be scrutinized, be it greenness of their products, or the conditions of the factories where their products are built.

It's easy to point fingers at all their competitors and how much less they might doing to to be green or observe workers' rights, but it's more important to focus on holding Apple accountable for their decisions.

If they've shown us anything in the last 10+ years, it's that they can achieve anything they set out to do. especially in the face of naysayers.

Farhad Manjoo on the unbeatable iPad:

Imagine you run a large technology company not named Apple. Let's say you're Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, Meg Whitman, Larry Page, or Intel's Paul Otellini. How are you feeling today, a day after Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad? Are you discounting the device as just an incremental improvement, the same shiny tablet with a better screen and faster cellular access? Or is it possible you had trouble sleeping last night? Did you toss and turn, worrying that Apple's new device represents a potential knockout punch, a move that will cement its place as the undisputed leader of the biggest, most disruptive new tech market since the advent of the Web browser? Maybe your last few hours have been even worse than that. Perhaps you're now paralyzed with confusion, fearful that you might be completely boxed in by the iPad--that there seems no good way to beat it.

I love Apple, but it seems likely my weariness from writing only about Apple might continue for a while.

Hinoki Wooden iPhone and iPad accessories (via The Verge)

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Madison teachers will soon be handing out Apples to students.

The School District for the first time plans to buy more than 600 iPads for use in the majority of schools this spring. Another 800 iPads are expected to be in classrooms by next fall, all paid for with money from a state settlement with Microsoft.

Microsoft better get over those Windows 8 tablet hurdles.

Via The Loop

Wow, how quickly did this go on my Christmas list?

The first digital object dedicated to the automobile, Road Inc. comes with 50 iconic models to unveil. Having dominated racetracks, revolutionized industry, reinvented luxury or simply gained huge popular recognition, they are the landmarks of Road Inc.!

Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Fortune.com on how many Kindle Fire tablets are being returned based on Amazon reviews:

There were 3,678 write-ups in all, nearly half of them (47%) glowing five-star reviews that basically said the same thing (Typical headline: "Outstanding value at $199").

What interested us, however, were the 491 (13.3%) one-star reviews. They are relevant because the number of Kindle Fires being returned to the store is likely to be an undisclosed material factor in Amazon's results this quarter

Amazon got the media ecosystem aspect right with the Fire, but as I mentioned in my brief review, everything else was a big letdown for me. But I'm also someone used to the smooth, well-thought out user interface found on iOS.

Which leads me to speculate if many of the negative reviews of the Fire are from iPad owners who have higher expectations than from people who are buying their first tablets.

"It is simply a tool."
—David Hockney

Marco Arment tried out the Kindle Fire and loves it:

I expected the Kindle Fire to be a compelling iPad alternative, but I can't call it delightful, fun, or pleasant to use. Quite the opposite, actually: using the Fire is frustrating and unpleasant, and it feels like work.

For most people, every other computer in their life feels like work, and they don't need another one.

It's not an iPad competitor or alternative. It's not the same kind of device at all. And, whatever it is, it's a bad version of it.

That's probably all you need to know about the Kindle Fire. Below is a detailed account of the issues I ran into, but I won't take offense if you're burnt out on long Kindle Fire reviews and stop here.

One of my coworkers happened to bring his new Fire in to the office yesterday and I got to do a little test drive and I came to a similar conclusion as Marco. The device is just meh. It's ok. It does the job. There's nothing delightful about the device. Aside from smooth scrolling on the content 'carousel' on the main screen, everything else on the device is choppy.

The Kindle Fire is mediocre in every aspect, from user experience to motion and transitions.

As with the HP Touchpad, I was hoping for a real contender to the iPad. But like the Touchpad, the execution is poor.

via PSFK

Bill Gates wants to get rural Vietnam online:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided the donation, alongside $3.64 million worth of Microsoft software, towards a $50.6 million government initiative that is expected to provide basic computer skills and the benefits of the Internet to 760,000 people in the Southeast Asian country.

The project will see 12,070 Internet-ready computers set up at 1,900 public libraries (65 percent of the country's total) in 40 of Vietnam's most disadvantaged provinces. The price of access to the computers, which will be available for local Vietnamese to use until 2016, is varied with some free to use and others reportedly set to charge 50 percent less than typical local Internet cafe rates.

Donating software is nice, but you need hardware too. And the best form factor is the tablet, and since Microsoft still doesn't have a Windows 8 tablet on the market, I say he buy and donate some Android tablets and some iPads.

After watching the video of Gates Jory posted last week, I'm sure he totally be down with the idea.

I mean, he says it himself in the video, that tablets and technology is "no longer his area of expertise".

Do what's right, Bill.

A human would answer that question when asked. Tablets are a Windows phenomenon? Who knew?

The iPad has nothing on this:

As I've been listening to people from Microsoft in the news over the last couple months I've noticed a recurring theme - they like playing games with semantics. Sometimes I think they get cutesy but sometimes I think what they say aligns with their business philosophy.

The first time I noticed this was when Steve Jobs described us as being in the 'post-PC era' at the D8 Conference in 2010:

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that's what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn't care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars.

PCs are going to be like trucks. They're still going to be around, they're still going to have a lot of value, but they're going to be used by one out of X people.

I think that we're embarked on that. Is [the next step] the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years from now? Who knows? But I think we're headed in that direction.

The next day at the conference, Ballmer responded:

I think people are going to be using PCs in a greater and greater numbers for many years to come. I think PCs are going to continue to shift in form factor. PCs will look different next year, the year after, the year after that... I think the PC as we know it will continue to morph form factor... Windows machines are not going to be 'trucks.' They will continue to be the mass popularizer of a variety of things that people want to do with information... I think there's a fundamental difference between small-enough-to-be-in-your-pocket and not-small-enough-to-be-in-your-pocket. There will be some distinct differences in usage patterns between those two devices.

So here we have Ballmer getting all philosophical. What is a PC? What is PC-ness? If we were to remap Jobs' truck analogy for Ballmer, Ballmer would have probably said everything is a truck. Scooters? They're just trucks without the flatbed and only 2 tires. Sedans? Sedans are trucks that are lower to the ground and have a trunk instead of a flatbed.

Fast-forward to Microsoft's BUILD Conference that happened last week and we can see that Microsoft's leadership is truly aiming for a PC experience everywhere with Windows 8. If you want to work within the Metro UI, go for it, but if you need that nasty, overly-complicated experience of the 'traditional' Windows, you can always jump back to it.

According to Steven Sinofsky, you never have to compromise:

Why not just start over from scratch? Why not just remove all of the desktop features and only ship the Metro experience? Why not "convert" everything to Metro? The arguments for a "clean slate" are well known, both for and against. We chose to take the approach of building a design without compromise. A design that truly affords you the best of the two worlds we see today. Our perspective rests on the foundation of the open PC architecture that has proven flexible and adaptable over many significant changes in hardware capabilities and software paradigms. This is the flexibility that has served as a cornerstone through transitions in user interface, connectivity, programming models, and hardware capabilities (to name a few).

And this leads me to the other big area I see Microsoft getting creative with semantics - their use of the word compromise.

A compromise is something created to appease people with opposing views on a topic. Each side has given up certain demands in order to come to an agreement. In my mind, when you compromise each side usually end up with something less than ideal.

John Gruber wrote a great post in response to this 'compromise' a few weeks ago:

Like I wrote yesterday, Microsoft and Apple are going in two very different directions, especially when you compare iOS to Windows 8. Apple has embraced compromise. The compromises in iOS are, for many people in many contexts, what makes the iPad better than a Mac. The compromises enforce simplicity and obviousness in design, and at a technical level they lead to iOS's excellent battery life.

Now I don't disagree with Gruber's core argument, again I disagree on the use of 'compromise'. If Apple's goal is to create the best tablet experience in the world, compromises can't be made, because compromising implies negotiating down from some ideal vision. If desktop-level applications aren't needed or appropriate for a tablet, then not supporting them is not compromising.

Giving a motorcycle two wheels instead of four doesn't mean you're compromising. What you're doing is giving a motorcycle the thing that makes it great.

Microsoft wants to have it's cake and eat it too by creating the Metro UI while holding on to the Windows (desktop) legacy UI. It's appeasing both sides of Windows. It's like driving a truck around with with a scooter attached to the side like an escape pod. Microsoft is compromising.

I think the big reason for this all-in-one approach to Windows 8 lies both in Microsoft's dependance on the Windows/Office franchise for the bulk of their revenue as well as their late entrance into the tablet race. It's too late to capitalize on the newness of the tablet market (they're 2 years late already) and they're afraid to put all their chips in on a Metro-only mobile UI. What they do have is the largest install base for PCs so they're backpedaling into the tablet market by way of the desktop PC.

Notice during the demos at the BUILD conference, how it's been a macro focus at the Metro UI on all devices, rather than a micro focus at just one form factor, the tablet. I think Microsoft feels that a Windows tablet can't stand strong on it's own, because, by extension, Windows Phone has not been able to stand strong on it's own.

Apple can do the iPad without their desktop business because it has an ecosystem grown from the iPhone. Conversely, as Windows Phone hasn't really taken off, their biggest ecosystem is on the desktop. So we end up in fun game of semantics where "everything is PC" and you can have "Windows everywhere" and compromising on your operating system becomes not compomising.

But let's be clear - not everything is PC, just as not every motorcycle is an automobile.

And when you're making concessions on the mobile side and desktop side when developing your next operating system, you're comprimising. You're not not compromising.

AppleInsider: Acer suffers first-ever quarterly loss, predicts iPad 'fever' will recede

Acer Chairman J.T. Wang chalked up his company's poor second-quarter performance as a "correction period," according to Reuters. His company has seen numerous struggles since the launch of Apple's iPad, which has cut into the sales of low-cost, low-power netbooks.

Wang reportedly added that he expects the "fever" for tablets to recede, and for consumers to regain interest in traditional style notebooks. Though he did not mention the iPad by name, Apple's touchscreen device has dominated the tablet market since it first went on sale in 2010.

Keep telling yourself that.

Reminds me of that Newsweek article from 1995 declaring the Internet a passing fad too.

NYTimes: Sell Big or Die Fast

These days, big technology companies -- particularly those in the hypercompetitive smartphone and tablet industries -- are starting to resemble Hollywood film studios. Every release needs to be a blockbuster, and the only measure of success is the opening-weekend gross. There is little to no room for the sleeper indie hit that builds good word of mouth to become a solid performer over time.

This is unfortunate. As I've mentioned before, HP's TouchPad has had a lot of potential and could very well have been one of those 'sleeper' hits. A cult favorite, if you will.

As I mentioned in my mini-review, there's a lot to like with TouchPad, even though it's not on par with the iPad. But all the bugs and missed details are clearly fixable.

Remember all the shit the iPhone was missing in the early days? Multi-tasking, video recording, front-facing camera, MMS, third party app development, GPS. Remember how they took baby steps each month of each year for the last 4 years releasing updates to address all the bugs and deficiencies?

As John Gruber said, once leadership changed at HP, the TouchPad had no chance of surviving.

I'm not going to write an enormous review of the TouchPad, A good handful of reviews have been written already, covering all the bases. What I do want to do is briefly give give a short list of observations.

Please take into account this is coming from someone who's owned multiple iPhones for 3 years and an iPad for about 9 months:

No magnifying glass when tap-holding on input/text fields
You don't appreciate something until it's gone. While I probably only use this feature a fraction of the time I spend on my iPad, not having it, or something like it on the TouchPad feels like a major tool in my tool belt is missing. It makes editing URLs, email or notes extremely difficult.

(below is a screen grab from my iPhone)

No temporary scroll-location bar when scrolling
On iOS, when you flick to scroll page, a temporary scrollbar appears on the right side of the screen, letting you know how far down the page you are. On the TouchPad I've found no scroll bar in any of the core applications (Internet, Mail, Messages, Photos, Calendar). It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but it's another detail missing.

UPDATE: I discovered the Instapaper app, Paper Maché, does have an iOS-like scroll bar. I'm willing to bet it's creator, Ryan Watkins, knows a thing or two about iOS.

No jumping to the top of a page by tapping the time/status bar
I've come to rely on this a lot on iOS, and like the magnifying glass, it's something I didn't realize was so important until I found it missing on the TouchPad.

Overrides fonts on websites and emails with webOS system font (Avenir)
This is obviously a gripe from a designer and won't bother the average user, but holy shit this pisses me off. Why should I even bother with my style sheets if webOS is going Avenir-ize all content?

Can't render my unicode 'exhaust' puff (it's fucking UNICODE)
While I'm on designer gripes, why can't webOS render Unicode characters? Visiting Alan Wood's great Unicode resource site shows the TouchPad has some serious holes in it's character rendering.

Overall choppy feeling to the OS, as if it's underpowered
Lastly, the whole operating system has a choppiness to it. Web pages don't scroll nearly as smoothly as they do on an iPad (hell, even a first generation iPhone). I also find myself waiting for things to load, even simple things like a new email message window.

I was really planning on liking the TouchPad. They've done some nice work but the nice work is overshadowed by all the details they missed. They've clearly copied many of the conventions Apple introduced, but I wonder why they didn't adopt all of them, like the tap-the-header gesture to return to the top of a page, or the magnifying glass?