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iPad It's Been A Long Strange Trip

1984 ad had the wrong guy?

bill-gates-mugshot.jpg
 
Had to watch the whole vid. :D He's cute. I had no idea. He looks like Tom Cruise, with less the crazy.
 
Maybe it does, but many things have "heralded" developments in computing without enjoying great success in their own right - they've only proved the concept, rather than fully realising the potential.

Personally, I think the iPad's a tinker-toy; a tinker-toy, I might add, that I'm considering buying... but I don't see men, women and children the World over buying hundreds of millions of them, like iPods. Too expensive, and too niche for current market needs.

Put it this way - when I first saw an iPod circa 2002, I thought, "ooh! That's cool... and really useful!". When I saw Steve demo'ing the iPad in the keynote I thought, "mm. Yeah, okay, it's cool, but... how useful?".
 
dh2005 said:
Put it this way - when I first saw an iPod circa 2002, I thought, "ooh! That's cool... and really useful!". When I saw Steve demo'ing the iPad in the keynote I thought, "mm. Yeah, okay, it's cool, but... how useful?".
Click to expand...

I think it's not quite as useful as it could be, because it's not a stand-alone computer. But with a few software modifications and the addition of a backup method, perhaps through the USB dock connection, it could easily become an affordable, entry-level computer for the masses. In a year or two, an iPad with today's hardware specifications might retail for around $300, which would help make "one laptop a child" a reality in many places. But even as it is -- someone in one of the many threads in this forum (unfortunately I can't recall which one) suggested loading up a few iPads with textbooks and distruibuting them to developing countries. Even that could be tremendously useful for improving education in these countries. I think the iPad doesn't get the "wow" factor as much because it is basically the same technology as the iPhone. But that technology on the iPhone was seriously crippled by the iPhone's smallish screen size. The iPad is an evolutionary product technologicaly, but I think the effect it has on our lives could be revolutionary. We just need the imagination to employ it to its fullest potential.
 
dh2005 said:
Maybe it does, but many things have "heralded" developments in computing without enjoying great success in their own right - they've only proved the concept, rather than fully realising the potential.

Personally, I think the iPad's a tinker-toy; a tinker-toy, I might add, that I'm considering buying... but I don't see men, women and children the World over buying hundreds of millions of them, like iPods. Too expensive, and too niche for current market needs.

Put it this way - when I first saw an iPod circa 2002, I thought, "ooh! That's cool... and really useful!". When I saw Steve demo'ing the iPad in the keynote I thought, "mm. Yeah, okay, it's cool, but... how useful?".
Click to expand...

I don't know. I didn't even think of an iPod back in 2002. I saw tons of mp3's players and was just like the iPod is a joke. I was wrong obviously. I don't know what the future holds for the iPad. But I hope it's great and wonderful things :). 64GB WiFi here I come! ;-)
 
Ahh, I love that speech. That 1983 speech by Steve Jobs inspired my High School graduation Speech, which was a hit. Steve has always been such a showman. Lol

P.S. Watching that, and the Ad and the Macintosh intro, ahh. Can you say chills? haha
 
Night Spring said:
The iPad is an evolutionary product technologicaly, but I think the effect it has on our lives could be revolutionary. We just need the imagination to employ it to its fullest potential.
Click to expand...

Well argued. I see what you're saying, mate. And I see why Apple have developed the iPad, having seen the iPod Touch and the iPhone succeed so phenomenally.

But I don't see it revolutionising lives. Not in this generation, at least. Right now, the iPad's nothing more than a flashy netbook; in certain respects, it does less than a netbook, and it costs more money. It's a luxury item that I'm sure we'll see adorning the tables of many a Starbucks throughout the World in the coming month or two - it's heavy on style, but light on utility.

Further to that, I think talk of distributing iPads to children in developing countries is utterly bizarre. I mean, why not just give them $500's-worth of textbooks? They wouldn't have to plug them in...! Or, if you're determined the take the IT route, give them cheap laptops and load them with eBooks; I mean, what? Are the children of AIDS-stricken sub-Saharan Africa gonna turn their noses up at keyboards and non-touchscreen displays...?!

With all due respect, I think that's nonsense.
 
Gates had it right in the video. The Macintosh completely redefined the PC UI (thanks Xerox!). It took a year or two for Bill to copy it, but the end result is that PC clones still dominate the industry. Why? Open, standardized systems.

The iPad isn't a redefinition of anything. It's a thinner, less capable tablet PC, and a larger (potentially more capable) iPod Touch. It's another closed device from Apple. Sure they'll sell millions. They won't revolutionize how people interact with computers though. We all tap (or click) on icons now. We all need a keyboard now and then, which may be THE BIG REASON keyboardless tablets haven't caught on.

One thing is for sure: It will be an interesting year.
 
dh2005 said:
But I don't see it revolutionising lives. Not in this generation, at least. Right now, the iPad's nothing more than a flashy netbook; in certain respects, it does less than a netbook, and it costs more money. It's a luxury item that I'm sure we'll see adorning the tables of many a Starbucks throughout the World in the coming month or two - it's heavy on style, but light on utility.
Click to expand...

True, for this generation. And Apple being the company they are, they may not be the one to take tablet-style computing devices in the cheap, more utilitalian direction. But now that they've shown the way, perhaps other companies would start producing similar devices at a more affordable cost.

Further to that, I think talk of distributing iPads to children in developing countries is utterly bizarre. I mean, why not just give them $500's-worth of textbooks? They wouldn't have to plug them in...! Or, if you're determined the take the IT route, give them cheap laptops and load them with eBooks; I mean, what? Are the children of AIDS-stricken sub-Saharan Africa gonna turn their noses up at keyboards and non-touchscreen displays...?!
Click to expand...

Keeping electronic devices powered is, in fact, an issue, and for some situations printed books are of course more appropriate. But a small-form computer, whether iPad or netbooks, can contain 1000s of ebooks, while the equivalent amount of physical books would be hard to transport and house. I'm not suggesting NOT giving netbooks to children in developing countries -- obviously any computing device is better than none. I just believe that the iPad's form-factor is much better than a netboook for extensive reading -- it's like giving each iPad could be the same as giving an entire library of books. And really, an iPad (or netbook) doesn't have to do anything else to improve a child's life.

And even in our lives, I believe the iPad and other tablet devices like it will change the way we interact with technology. Before the internet, when we wanted to look up something, we had to walk to the local library. Now we have wikipedia. I know I don't usually think of this change as revolutionary, because the change happened kind of gradually. But if someone jumped ahead in time from the late '80s to now, they would be truly amazed at the ease of access to the tremendous amount of information on the internet. The iPad feels to me like a device that could change our lives to the same degree the development of the internet did. Sure, we had mobile computing devices before, but they were too small (smartphones & iPod touch), or awkward to carry with limited battery life (notebooks/netbooks). The iPad is the first device I've seen that feels truly mobile and yet large enough to actually be useful. I realize some people are not yet convinced on the "useful" aspect, and as I said before, the current generation of iPad is limited by not being a stand-alone device, but I think looking back, history will agree with Jobs' alleged statemnt that the iPad is the most important thing he's ever done. We can bookmark this thread and revisit in 10 years to see if I was right. ;)


Addendum:
4DThinker said:
We all need a keyboard now and then, which may be THE BIG REASON keyboardless tablets haven't caught on.
Click to expand...

And I think Steve Jobs agrees with you, hence the keyboard dock and bluetooth keyboard compatibility.
 
Back in the mid-1980's I took a class in online data searching. At that time there was no Google, no WWW, no graphic interface, no Windows. Instead, we used "dumb terminals" and telephone receivers to access information. we had a subscription service called "Dialog," which encompassed several major databases and the searcher was able to access the particular database he or she needed. The National Library of Medicine also had its own database, MEDLARS, which was available to hospitals and libraries through subscription as well.

Librarians were the original searchers. People came to the library (corporate, medical, public) and librarians would "run a search" on whatever topic they needed information on. There were financial databases, health databases, databases which indexed journals and periodicals, etc. All of this was done by first dialing up the number of the service one was using, then typing in various commands and search strings to get the desired information.

A friend had a "luggable" (laptop) that she was not using so she lent it to me for the period that I was taking the course. I still remember, all these years later, the first evening I used the thing. I carefully set it on our kitchen table, took the phone receiver from our wall phone, the cord just reaching, and positioned it into the acoustic coupler. I dialed the number for the Dialog service, typed in the various commands and in a moment, just stared as the list of databases came up, ready for me to choose. I said wonderingly to my husband, "I've got the whole world on our kitchen table!"

What a difference in 2010! Now I've got the whole world in my house or in the car or out in a park, wherever I choose to go...... the world lives in my pocket, as my iPhone is ready to do my bidding. Amazing.
 
Tell me about it

In 1976 I took a computer programming class and we used paper cards with punch holes to program the computer!

33 years later
 
Man what a difference having $35,000,000,000 in cash does to their keynote stages.
 
4DThinker said:
They won't revolutionize how people interact with computers though. We all tap (or click) on icons now. We all need a keyboard now and then, which may be THE BIG REASON keyboardless tablets haven't caught on.
Click to expand...

Keyboard-less tablets have not caught on for the following reasons...

1) MS tablet PC's have terrible interfaces. The tablet PC interface panel (TIP) is the perfect example of why a touch or pen interface to desktop apps is stupid. The only saving grace of tablets has always been that OneNote is fantastic. This is why almost all tablet devices include a free copy of OneNote (of Office + OneNote). Without OneNote, tablets are pretty much worthless.

2) Tablet devices have traditionally been MUCH more expensive than regular PC's. The last UMPC I bought about 2 years ago was just a hair under $2k. This while Eee PC's were clocking in at under $500. Prior to that, my gateway tablet PC was $2200 when I could have gotten a regular PC for $1200.

3) Battery life on Windows based tablets has been total rubbish. I have purchased 5 tablet PCs total (both UMPC's and convertibles). None of the devices every had more than 2h of battery life out of the box and only one of them was able to get more than 3h of run time with a $250 extended life battery that doubled the weight of the unit (to 5.5 lbs!!). UMPCs, which I think were an outstanding form factor, barely could get 1.5h of run time on battery, less if you were actually using the thing for anything significant.

Tablet PC sales have always been consistent, but never growing, because the devices and interfaces lead a lot of people to give up the platform. I was a strong tablet PC supporter until I started beta testing Win 7 and found that MS had no interest in making real improvements in the tablet interface. In fact everything that is wrong with Tablet PC's is still wrong with them in Win 7. The courier is the first attempt by MS that I have seen to actually re-think tablet computing. However, I don't think the courier will ever see the light of day. Much like the interfaces MS demoed for UMPCs/Origami devices (which was outstanding too) that never made it to market.
 
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