http://allthingsd.com/20110817/tablets-a-minor-threat-to-pcs-for-now/
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Post-PC era? Not quite
- Thread starter TheSideshow
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Although I find myself using my PC less thanks to my Smartphones/Xoom/iPod, I'd be lost without the thing.
The Personal Computer will always have a role in my computing life.
Although I find myself using my PC less thanks to my Smartphones/Xoom/iPod, I'd be lost without the thing.
The Personal Computer will always have a role in my computing life.
Do we think this forum is a good indication or any tech/computer forum of wha the real world is doing? I agree, there will be a computer in the house or at work, however I see people using the traditional computer less and less as these new devices come along.
I sold my iPad after 9 months of ownership and replaced it with a new netbook. iPads, and similar devices just don't do it for me. To each his own I guess..
I've found that those who think an iPad can replace a real computer didn't need a computer in the first place. Almost anyone doing any valuable work will realise that a real keyboard, decent processing power, and a large monitor (over 13") are indispensable.
Would you call writing up articles for blogs and large news sites valuable? What about editing and/or inputting values into Excel sheets?
Video calling to clients? Showing photos because you're a very successful real estate agent?
What about showing live medical feeds? Making music?
I'm pretty sure all of those are pretty damn important, to some degree, and they can all be done on an iPad.
Your post reeks of ignorance.
Please try doing some serious spreadsheet work on an iPad. You'll get frustrated pretty quickly.
I'd rather do writing for blogs and articles with a physical keyboard - tactical feedback is somewhat comforting when writing.
I have both a MacBook Air (2011) and iPad 2. Guess which one I use for real work? I'll tell you now that it's not the latter.
You can also use the floor as a bed, but its probably better to just have a bed if you want to get real sleep done.
Type out a 2000 row spreadsheet with 40 colums on an iPad, then get back to me about how well it works.
Wouldn't call that valuable work to be honest. Doing the actual paperwork behind selling a house is valuable, talking and waving a device around is fairly simple.
Please point me to any decent music made on an iPad? Not a remade song, something new but oif equal quality to something i could make with real tools on a computer.
There are the key words. Just because they are technically possible does not make it a good tool for doing those things. I could build a house out of lego but that doesn't make it a smart thing to do.
Good lord you guys are quick to harp. Get off your high horses; attacking my post is irrelevant as people are still buying these iPads like hotcakes. If we wanted to just throw wrenches at each other we'd be here all night.
1) There is a physical keyboard attachment for a reason.
2) Simply disputing my points does not make for a logical argument.
You've basically criticized everything that made up your previous post, and then stated that we should stop discussing this (even though we are on a discussion board). Am I missing something here?
Yes. Well... Simply stating what I said didn't nullify my points that I previously made. Nor did it nullify yours.
The first comment made a sweeping statement which was obviously false. I then provided opinions. You then provided opinions.
My comments = your comments
First comment =/= our comments.
I mean yea, it's a loosely designed and pretty stupid thing to "argue" about over the internet, but simply making sweeping statements for anything just doesn't make any sense.
How is easily showing high quality photos of available houses, or playing brief virtual tours, not valuable for realtors? Or if you are a contractor how is easily showing high quality photos of the remolding jobs you've done not valuable? I've seen agents and contractors use iPhones, laptops, and binders with printed photos to show examples to potential clients and I can't think of any more simple or elegant way of doing that than with a tablet like an iPad.
Lethal
It makes sense when reinforced with evidence, as I have done. Also, you'll note that it's from my own personal experience, I never said I was absolutely correct.
You're missing the point of the discussion completely. I mean that showing them is the easy part. Taking the pictures, typing the contracts, calculating figures, these are the valuable parts of the job. If people are serious about buying property they will want to see it in person before buying it anyway.
No, I understand the point of the discussion perfect. I just disagree with your assertion that having a simple way to share high quality images of potential homes with clients is not a valuable service a realtor could provide. Snap the pix, use the card reader to load them onto the iPad and you are good to go. An iPhone's screen is too small, printing the pictures and storing them in binder is slow, costly and cumbersome and a laptop, while less cumbersome than a binder, isn't the best form factor factor for use while walking around an unfurnished home.
Of course if you are serious about buying a certain piece of property you'll go in person but when there are hundreds of homes for sale in a given area that fit your basic criteria (price, size, 'hood, etc.,) and seeing 6-8 places can kill a whole Saturday you'll quickly want a way to narrow down your options.
If you are hiring a landscaper would you rather look at images of their work in a few minutes or spend hours driving driving around the county looking at their work in person? What about a kitchen remodel? New closest? Tearing up carpet and putting in a hardwood floor? How many phone calls would you want to make to the contractor's previous clients to ask when is a good time to invade their home to check out the work that was done?
If you think convincing someone to go into a 30yr debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) is easy then you are a supremely gifted salesmen. Typing the contracts? They are standard state and federal forms. If some sort of custom form is required that will most likely be drawn up by a lawyer. Calculating figures? Exact numbers are typically done by the mortgage brokers and banks.
Oh, and all of this is coming from someone who doesn't even see a reason to own an iPad personally.
Getting more back to the point of the thread I think the "post-pc" buzz word has been improperly interpreted. I don't think it means that no one will have a PC. I think it means that the computer market place is by and large saturated (which it is) and that the next major growth area for personal tech is going to be in satellite devices like smart phones and tablets (which it totally agree with). Even when Jobs presented the iPad he specifically said it was a satellite, not a stand alone, device. Now this can certainly change in the same way that laptops used to be only secondary computers and have since grown into primary computers for many (most?) applications as technology has become less expensive and more powerful. I think as time moves on people will have a single 'base station' computer and then 'hang' multiple satellite devices off of it. This could be almost a return to mainframe style computing and dummy terminals put on a personal level and using the Cloud as a wireless tether to keep everything in sync.
Lethal
Looks like FrozenTomato has made another account. 
Anyway, I did try, I really did try to write the majority of my next book on the iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. It was still horribly frustrating. The lack of mouse made document navigation next to impossible. It might just be me, but I feel there is still something to be said for the good old keyboard and mouse way of doing things.
I'm unwilling to end the PC era in my house.
Anyway, I did try, I really did try to write the majority of my next book on the iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. It was still horribly frustrating. The lack of mouse made document navigation next to impossible. It might just be me, but I feel there is still something to be said for the good old keyboard and mouse way of doing things.
I'm unwilling to end the PC era in my house.
I take it you are a real estate agent? You are not going to convince me that walking around a house showing things to people is hard work, so I'm not going to waste time discussing that. It is a matter of opinion, you may feel that it is but I don't.
As for the whole post-pc thing, it seems we are using different definitions. I take it to mean people use them as their entire workstation and not own a laptop or a desktop computer, and from this point of view I say that the iPad is not a good enough tool to do any real work. Again, 'real work' is my own opinion of work, and I doubt you are going to say anything that will change that. Even incorporating document editing into 'real work' the iPad is still not as good, the screen is too small and text/data entry is not ideal.
That said, I do agree that people will rely on laptops and such less, just not enough to call it a post-pc era, people will always need a computer for more demanding task. I hate using an iPad over my multi display setup, and I feel many other people will feel the same.
I think it's safe to just agree to disagree here as we both seem fairly confident in our theories.
Nah these guys aren't FrozenTomato alts, they actually argue with reason and have things to backup what they say. FrozenTomato just posts article after article until no one can be bothered reading them to refute his terrible points.Looks like FrozenTomato has made another account.
Anyway, I did try, I really did try to write the majority of my next book on the iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard. It was still horribly frustrating. The lack of mouse made document navigation next to impossible. It might just be me, but I feel there is still something to be said for the good old keyboard and mouse way of doing things.
I'm unwilling to end the PC era in my house.
Nope, not a real estate agent. Not even in sales as I don't have a nack for it and I'm not much of a people person. But as a customer that has spent countless hours driving around looking at houses, apartments, condos, town homes, etc. multiple times in the past 10 years I recognize how an agent could use something like an iPad to make the less exasperating for clients. Imagine car shopping but you could only look at one car per lot. Would you rather drive around looking at cars one at a time or have the car salesman pull up pictures and info of other cars they are selling so you would only drive to see the ones you thought you would like?
And I pretty much agree. But I'm not limiting the term "real work" to just mean "real work that's typically done by a desktop or laptop computer". For example, iPads are getting work on TV/film productions as camera slates and teleprompters. That's professionals using them to get real work done and it's not work that's traditionally been done by a laptop or desktop. I think there will always be a need for desktops and laptops for some people (myself included) but I'm sure there are a lot of people that bought laptops because they needed a mobile solution and their only options were a smartphone (too small) or a laptop (overkill). Now there is something in between. Ultimately I think these devices will be light weight extensions of our personal computers (be it a desktop or latptop) for the foreseeable future. But by 2021, who knows...
Lethal