iPad

[TehPnuk]

Really stupid name aside, did any of you, like me, watch the announcement and just go, "Meh"?

I was excited about the iPod, excited about the iPhone, love my iMac .... but the iPad just seems too big, too flashy, and frankly, so noticeable that I couldn't imagine using one in public without worrying some punk was going to try to take it from me.

I love Amazon's reader--it's simple, easy on the eyes, and does what it says it does.

With all the failed pads already ... I just don't see a $500 price point and what amounts to either a too-large smart phone or a too-small laptop being very successful.

I'm likely wrong, but "meh".

[random axe]

It's not something I want, but iDon't like the iPhone, iPod, or Kindle, either.  I haven't seen the Nook in person yet, but it sounds a little closer to something I'd want -- but I still think the tech density and designs are premature.

The iPad (which I agree is a terrible name) is basically just a big iPhone that you can type on, probably not very comfortably.  Whether or not the $500 version is a good buy for a lot of people, I think, will mostly depend on the apps.  Still, it seems to have substantially less overall utility to me than a netbook in the same price range.

I realize I'm not in their target demographic, but I still think there are going to be killer portables in the next few years, and I think they're going to make the iPad look even more underwhelming than the presentation makes it look.  Jobs saying that it's awesome because you have the internet right in your hands is pretty lame marketing, if you ask me.

It's frustrating because there are technologies right on the cusp that will blow this kind of design right the hell out of the water, but they just always seem to be right on the edge of becoming cost-effective.

Just one example of what they could be doing:

There's also a neat trick, along the lines of the virtual keyboard, that I'm amazed none of these touch-screen beasts are making use of.  It's easy and not prohibitively expensive to make one of these so you can put it down on a flat surface, at an angle so you can see the screen more comfortably, and use the flat surface in front of it as the touch-sensitive control surface.  It's not really touch-sensitive, of course, but rather the device just scans the surface and can see your finger, and there's a discreet cursor on the screen.  This gives you more screen real estate for free.

Of course, you can add the virtual keyboard with the same technology.  Hell, I'd put a waterproof flip-over cover of silicone, and if you flip it down in front, it's got the keys printed on it (and slightly textured), and there's your flexible virtual keyboard.  Typing on the screen means not viewing the screen at the same time.  Dumb.  A poor use of technology.

[flipper]

I'm in the dark as usual.  iPad sounds like Apple is now hocking feminine hygiene products.

[mo]

I watched the video on apple.com just to see what all the fuss was about, and nah, I'm not to thrilled, but then I don't care for laptops or phones that wipe your ass or whatever. It's a neat gadget, and I'd take one as a gift and probably find uses for it (I'd throw it in my backpack and use it to preview pictures out in the field), but I wouldn't go out and buy one. I do think it's the shape of things to come though - the future of laptop technology.

[TehPnuk]

The iPhone is a life-saver for me at conventions. I have my email, internet, the work website, everything right there at my fingertips. Their 3G is relatively fast and accessible, and when I'm bored or waiting somewhere, I have a goofy tank game I like to play on my phone.

The iMaxi just seems exactly like that, but it's HUGE, HEAVY, doesn't make phone calls or receive/send texts, and just isn't a convenient device for lugging around a convention space (or any space other than outer space, for that matter).

Just one big, enormous "meh".

[random axe]

Considering how Jobs usually guesses right about how much $$$ people will shell out for his stuff, I'm really surprised he hasn't come out with an expanding-display gadget.  I mean, Apple loves having the whole It's All Similar thing going, but . . . .

Maybe he's waiting until they start to lose significant market share to competitors and then go all game-changer?  One of the Japanese companies will scoop Apple if he waits too long.  They already have cell phones with expanding displays.  That shit was exaggerated for The One, etc, but it already works.  It'll be on portable computers in another few years, tops, either as flexi LCD or epaper.

Also sexy are electrostatic displays that look like LCDs (because they basically are) but with a twist:  You put a piece of paper over the screen (similar to thermal paper, but bigger, more like old fax paper except not so crappy and in sheets, not on a roll), and they can print whatever's on the display onto the paper. 

Don't fall too in love with the touch-screen UIs, though, because they're very primitive and shouldn't last all that long.  It won't be that long before an iPhone-sized device will be capable of tracking very small hand / head / eye movements just by watching you, and they'll be so interpretative that they'll be like an olde time muscle reader or Clever Hans.  (Hey, if a horse can do it . . . . )  You want that third app down, on the left?  The device will be able to reliably figure that out by the way you look at that icon.  You won't even need to really learn how to work with it, because it'll learn to work with your natural tendencies.

The idea that you either have to use your hands or voice -- or that we have to jump all the way to brain control -- is hideously outdated.  Computers will soon be as capable as dogs at interpreting natural human non-verbal communication.  It's a neglected interface -- like sonography and dynamic iconography -- but I think it'll start to crop up soon. 

The funny thing is that these shake-your-iPhone app controls are actually the tip of that iceberg, except ludicrously crude.  My ThinkPad has better (and faster) motion detection built into it in the hard drive protection stuff.  If I turn on the optional display, it can tell me in real time how the laptop is tilted, in small increments.  I could glue the ThinkPad to my dashboard and simulate the amusing attitude displays AWD Toyota wagons used to have.

They're also just scratching the surface of GPS and other positional apps.  The stuff out there now is just the beginning.

[TehPnuk]

It's 2010, dammit. I either want a fucking flying car or I want us to make contact with something.

I'll take either, really.

[flipper]

Gesture controls are already here, just not in iWhatever.  And yes the accelerometers in laptops are much better than those in the iPhones.  But as we move down to the 32 nm node and even 28nm as some SOC developers are using now, all of this will explode.

[PVC Barbie]

You can get a netbook for a hell of a lot cheaper OR a MacBook for about $100 more than the price of the top end model - plus the MacBook does way, way more.

This thing is a pig. It doesn't do shit other than iPod Touch and iPhone tricks, has no "killer app" to make it necessary, comes with a pissant amount of memory, is way the fuck overpriced and just ..... smells like a fucking tax write-off to me. 

[random axe]

I don't think it's a tax write-off, but Apple might just be trying to establish that they're out in front on this trend.  On the other hand . . . Newton.

I either want a fucking flying car or I want us to make contact with something.

Flying cars won't be terribly workable until awhile after electric cars, I'm afraid.  And the FAA still won't let you have one if they ever get popular.  But for a long time they'll be too expensive for most people, anyway.

I don't think we're allowed to make contact with other civilizations.  I still think we're being specifically prevented from seeing them.  It seems, to me, the least complicated / most likely explanation.

Gesture controls are already here

Yeah, but I mean unconscious gestures.  Instinctive interfaces.  You want it, you form the overt intent, and it's there.  IBM screwed around with this a bit back when they were doing virtual displays on tiny head-up screens that hung out in front of one eye, but naturally they seem to have dropped the ball as usual.  In their defense, that was back when a 'wearable computer' was heavy enough that you had to split it into pieces to make it halfway comfortable to lug around.

I forgot to expansive reflective displays.  Those were shown in The One, too, although not quite realistically.  They're circular displays that unfold laterally, with semi-reflective surfaces, like an expensive movie screen.  A display is painted on them from a tiny projector, and the image is reflected to the viewer.  The display is big (7" diameter circle, say), light, and folding, but robust because it contains no hardware.  Don't warp it, though, or you'll have to replace it . . . although that's still much less of a headache than sitting on your Kindle.

[PVC Barbie]

Oh god no. I don't want a computer to read and then act on unconscious gestures. Holy shit, that would end badly. We're talking Not Enough Police On The Force In Both Cities badly. Ooooo no.

[pdrake]

i said this to someone else . . . v1.2

we'll see.

[Psidefect]

Sure the hardware is underwhelming and pricey, but that will inevitably improve with later versions.

For me the biggest problems seem to be no multitasking, DRM everywhere and App Store exclusivity.

Those aren't technical issues, they're are business decisions. Not as likely to improve with later versions.

Apple's becoming the new M$. Closed platforms are NOT the future!

[random axe]

Apple being a closed platform is like a holy mission to Jobs.  It certainly won't change until someone else is at the helm.  I do think a killer app could be developed for this kind of hardware -- I'm sure there've been a lot of catchy apps for the iPhone that just don't really work because the screen is too small.  It's just a question of if the right app(s) can come out before the hardware design becomes obsolete, I think.

I don't want a computer to read and then act on unconscious gestures. Holy shit, that would end badly.

  It wouldn't respond to ALL unconscious gestures.  It would just read your intent based on instinctual movements within a very specific range.  Basically, when you go to move the mouse to select something, say, it would already be perfectly possible for the computer to guess what you're upto before you actually move the mouse enough for you to notice.  In a normal WIMP interface, there's too many possibilities for the system to predict what you're actually going to do, but in a fingersmear GUI like the iPhone uses it wouldn't be so hard.

But it's continuous feedback that makes it work.  If the cursor starts to go the wrong way, you'd react, naturally, and so on.  If you remember Tom Cruise using the computer during the part of Minority Report that I saw, he's waving his hands around, etc, but realistically that system could have understood what he wanted to do just from his eye and head movements.  It would take you an hour, tops, to get used to using such a system, if it were set up properly.  Not so dissimilar to a good voice recognition system.

No system should only use that kind of interface -- I mean, it would be stupid to not use other kinds of input as well -- and no system should just happily do whatever the hell you might possibly have a passing fancy to do.  I mean, the first time you got mad at it, it'd reformat itself.  That would be dumb, I agree.  But when you angrily whip the mouse across the desk or bang it a few times with your fist, even Windows doesn't erase its hard drive.

[stormneedle]

Did they have to use the same GUI again? Did I mention that I have serious problems with the interface on the iPod Touch? As in, without kinetic feedback, I haven't a clue what I just did? The iPod is bad enough - only a click to tell me that I've moved the focus doesn't do me much good, and I hate the clicking being turned on.

My wife loves it though. For her, it's nearly intuitive. It makes me remember Apple was originally geared more towards artists and I'm not one. This leads to resentment, resentment leads to anger... Well, Yoda had some thoughts on that subject.