The iPad is Risen, and it looks like a Lava Lamp

[rinue]

I don't have an iPhone -- I don't have the money, and I have a low tolerance for mobile devices in general -- but I get the iPhone. It's a little computer you can carry around, very much like the one Penny has in Inspector Gadget. You can call people and look at maps and google things and play games when you are bored. That is a pretty ideal state of affairs, although obviously restricted by battery life, cell phone service, etc. I grok iTunes and Final Cut, too; I may not like them personally -- they may not meet my needs -- but that doesn't mean they aren't ideal for people who are not me.

iPad fever -- I do not get it. It's a screen. You can look at pictures on it, just like on another screen. You can watch videos just like on another screen. It's remarkable because . . . it doesn't have a keyboard, a usb port, or any of the other tools I use when interacting with other screens? And I can carry it around with me, but it's bigger than an iPhone or a netbook? And it costs a ton more?

I come not to bury touch screens, but -- I come to bury touch screens. When I want to write something, I don't finger paint; I pick up a tool, whether it's a pencil or a keyboard. When I cook, I use knives and spoons. I sew with a needle. I get a lot more precision that way. I find touch displays clumsy and frustrating, however sensitive. In some cases, the sensitivity itself is a drawback. It would be one thing if the screen was tactile, if it gave me sensory feedback, but instead I'm having to put my fingers right in the way of the thing I'm trying to look at. This feels a lot like the 3D fad, only even more mystifyingly fad like. Pet Rocks and Hula Hoops were not this expensive.

Comments

[cucumbersarnies.livejournal.com]

God, you're right about the touch pad thing. I've never really thought about it, but they are bloody useless mostly.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Stephen Fry posted a little film of himself taking his new iPad out of the bag.

He takes out:

A very flat box: the iPad case, to protect it.
Another box: the iPad itself.
A box as big as or bigger than the iPad box: a keyboard for typing to it.
A box with a big clunky power adaptor.
A dock (I think this was in the keyboard box).

By the time the power supply appeared, I was snickering. The iPad with its accoutrements is as large as a laptop. It is kind of the anti-Mac Mini: the Mini is all CPU and no screen, half a laptop. This is all screen and no CPU, the other half of the laptop. But both require inconvenient peripherals for real functionality. Neither offers the complete functionality of a laptop (or even a netbook).

[ksmeg.livejournal.com]

I totally agreed about the iPad. It's too big to comfortably carry in your pocket, but too small to do serious computing on. It might be more useful if you could use it as a phone, but you can't, so it duplicates 90% of the utility of an iPhone, and 90% of the utility of laptop, without actually being able to replace either one. So pretty useless, it seems to me.

I think with a bit of tweeking it *could* be useful as a stand alone computer that you would basically be able to take the screen and computing power out with some functionality, while having an all-in-one dock that you would use at home to make it into a fully-functioning computer.

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

Word. Also, I don't know about you, but whenever I am forced to use anything touch-screeny (self-check at the library, for example) I find myself prodding the screen with increased force and impatience. Therefore my iPad would be fucked in about a month from me punching it out of frustration.

[offbeatentrack.livejournal.com]

I like my netbook for something that is small to carry around, but it's not like a phone. It's handy for in the car..or on my desk at work, but I have to agree on the touch pad thing. I don't care if it clicks or not, I like the feeling of keys under my fingers when I type.

[valancy.livejournal.com]

Christopher and I were so confused when it came out our heads hurt for days. We had thought it was going to be a computer with a flip around touchpad screen, which might have actually been useful. This? THIS is what we waited for?