...welcome our new tech overlords

[shen]

Two days ago I was reading the geek reaction to the new iPad. "Not enough RAM! I want a file system! Real multitasking is a must! Honeycomb is better!"

I went to get some stuff for my wife, we were planning a party. Went to Target.

Watched a nice 30 something mother driver her cart around Target, 4 year old in the cart. Kid was watching ToyStory on an iPad in the shopping cart. Mom says "Honey what else was on the list?"

Four year old kid pauses the movie, task switches to notepad, turns the iPad around to mom so she can read it. She says thanks, he goes back to the movie.

A freaking four year old.

Geeks do not get it. These things have already won. Apple has totally revolutionized the way people use tech, right there. Done. These others tablet makers, most of whom haven't even shipped a product yet, they are screwed.

Game over man. Game over.

 

[coolbreeze]

Yeah, technology is more advanced then it was when you (and I) were young.

Point? Not sure, but it's all neat.

 

[Piggie]

Just wait till that kids grows up with Attention deficit disorder because his brain is not being stimulated ever few seconds by an electronic device & mother/parents felt it was easy to just shut him up and let him play with an iPad than to actually spend real quality time with him doing real world things.

Seriously, we have no ideas the damage being done to very young children's brains by being constantly stimulated by such devices as they brains are developing.

 

[blipmusic]

Just wait till that kids grows up with Attention deficit disorder because his brain is not being stimulated ever few seconds by an electronic device

While I kind of agree that there (already) is a problem with "micro-stress", that's besides the point of the OP. I could say the same about putting your child in front of the tv as a way of "parenting".

The point is rather, that tech nowadays, let us interface much more naturally, with less effort. The iPad happens to be a successful example of that and I agree with the OP.

I don't think you are suggesting that we should go back to having a handful of computers per country with punch card interfaces to alleviate the problem you described? We are still responsible for our actions - Apple can't be blamed for that.

I for one would love to get unchained from my desk, having the iPad as my only device/computer.

I don't like/play Angry Birds and the direction entertainment is taking with quick fixes, in case you're wondering.

 

[BergerFan]

Two days ago I was reading the geek reaction to the new iPad. "Not enough RAM! I want a file system! Real multitasking is a must! Honeycomb is better!"

I went to get some stuff for my wife, we were planning a party. Went to Target.

Watched a nice 30 something mother driver her cart around Target, 4 year old in the cart. Kid was watching ToyStory on an iPad in the shopping cart. Mom says "Honey what else was on the list?"

Four year old kid pauses the movie, task switches to notepad, turns the iPad around to mom so she can read it. She says thanks, he goes back to the movie.

A freaking four year old.

Geeks do not get it. These things have already won. Apple has totally revolutionized the way people use tech, right there. Done. These others tablet makers, most of whom haven't even shipped a product yet, they are screwed.

Game over man. Game over.

Agreed. That's the 'magical' bit that lots of people don't get.
Anyone can throw awesome hardware together. To have that, whilst having feature-laden software is also good, but to hide the majority of it, so that the user is blissfully unaware of it, takes some doing.

I'm trying not to sound like a blind fanboy here(and failing for the most part ), but Scott Forstall (kind of) summed it up in Apple's iPhone 4 video, when he said:
"The iPhone is fun. It's easy to use... Behind it, is intense technology."

 

[kdarling]

Four year old kid pauses the movie, task switches to notepad, turns the iPad around to mom so she can read it. She says thanks, he goes back to the movie.

A freaking four year old.

My favorite story from an Android forum the other day:

A young man was demonstrating his Nook Color with Honeycomb to someone else at a store. A little gray-haired 60 year old grandmother asks, can I see your Nook? He starts a simple explanation, but she takes it and says, "ah I see you're running Launcher Pro. I rooted my Nook the other day and am overclocked to 1.1GHz."

Young man is stunned

 

[asleep]

Put

the bong

down.

 

[shen]

Just wait till that kids grows up with Attention deficit disorder because his brain is not being stimulated ever few seconds by an electronic device & mother/parents felt it was easy to just shut him up and let him play with an iPad than to actually spend real quality time with him doing real world things.

Seriously, we have no ideas the damage being done to very young children's brains by being constantly stimulated by such devices as they brains are developing.

Read your comment again. Now your sig file.

Try to understand, I am not laughing with you, but at you...

Would you say the same if she brought her kid to the store with some books? What is the difference? Do you think kids aren't constantly stimulated by the whole world? Give me a break!

ADD is not caused by stimulation, or lack of it, but by imbalances in brain chemistry. What that kid is getting (if he is raised correctly, which I don't know) is kept quiet and busy while mom needs quiet and busy. Nothing in that story says they didn't go home and practice french flash cards before doing math and piano. Nothing in it says they didn't go home and park him in front of another movie either.

The problem is, there is a difference between getting rid of the kid and having something for them to do when needed. And since she could have easily written her shopping list on paper and ignored him, but clearly has instead shown him how to switch tasks so he can be involved, she is most likely a very involved parent. In fact in the 5-6 times I passed them in the aisle he was, each time, talking to her about the show, pointing things on it out, etc etc. And she was talking with him about it.

In short, rather than a loud crying kid begging for candy and screaming at checkout from boredom, this mother was attentive and had something to entertain her kid AND still had him involved. She most likely deserves an award for her parenting.

Also, you missed the point.

 

[rdowns]

Just wait till that kids grows up with Attention deficit disorder because his brain is not being stimulated ever few seconds by an electronic device & mother/parents felt it was easy to just shut him up and let him play with an iPad than to actually spend real quality time with him doing real world things.

Seriously, we have no ideas the damage being done to very young children's brains by being constantly stimulated by such devices as they brains are developing.

Yeah, because we haven't had decades of kids growing up in front of a TV.

 

[anjinha]

OP, that is very cute.

 

[mcdj]

I have gone to Best Buy, no less than 10 times in the past year, and every single time I go, I pick up a tablet, by Samsung, or whomever, and try to put it through its paces. But I can NEVER get the thing to do ANYTHING I want it to. The OS is utterly unintuitve. I don't get Android and probably never will.

By comparison, I have never once glanced at an iPad manual and can practically operate it with my eyes closed.

 

[bluemonkeyguy]

Just wait till that kids grows up with Attention deficit disorder because his brain is not being stimulated ever few seconds by an electronic device & mother/parents felt it was easy to just shut him up and let him play with an iPad than to actually spend real quality time with him doing real world things.

Seriously, we have no ideas the damage being done to very young children's brains by being constantly stimulated by such devices as they brains are developing.

Shen is totally right, you missed the point. But if in some weird biological way you were right, we would have kids like that one teenager son in the movie "Children of Men" were the kid wouldn't focus away from his hologram game thingy.

 

[ravenas]

Four year old kid pauses the movie, task switches to notepad, turns the iPad around to mom so she can read it. She says thanks, he goes back to the movie.

A freaking four year old.

Geeks do not get it. These things have already won. Apple has totally revolutionized the way people use tech, right there. Done. These others tablet makers, most of whom haven't even shipped a product yet, they are screwed.

Game over man. Game over.

Yeah, the iPad was the first successful tablet to really put all the pieces together for consumers: portable, instant on, easy to use and fun. It's the computer Steve Jobs always wanted to make.

But I wouldn't count out Android tablets so quickly. Xoom and Honeycomb pack a pretty mean punch.

It is fun to see how easily people are taking to the tablets. Kids especially go nuts for it. It brings computing to a population who doesn't want to be chained to a keyboard and a mouse.

 

[fertilized-egg]

...
But I wouldn't count out Android tablets so quickly. Xoom and Honeycomb pack a pretty mean punch.

I personally much prefer the webOS and even the limited showing I've seen from the PlayBook over Honeycomb's UI which just seems trying too hard to be futuristic.

Plus the PlayBook and the HP tablet, from what we've gathered so far, will have faster processors than the Xoom and other Android Honeycombs' Tegra 2. In a few months' time the top Android tablets will be using the slowest chip among the latest dual core bunch, pretty weird when you think about it.