Thank you. I'd like to respond as well.
I think, actually, that Exposé would fit perfectly into an iPad. The latest version under Snow Leopard has added very useful features that strike me as being taylor-made for easy touch navigation: Not showing windows as a mosaic but resizing and reordering them then under Exposé as to give them all the same screen real estate, always showing the name of each window and Dock Exposé (Navigating Exposé using Dock icons). I've never been interested in Spaces on my MBP but it does seem useful for an iPad's small screen.
It isn't so much that it would not work at all. It would just have to be changed, and the question is how do I invoke it? Four fingers down? Three fingers left? No matter what I choose I have to exclude that combination from the SDK so that there are no gesture conflicts. Maybe a home button invocation? That is already used, do we maybe say hold it for 5 seconds for Expose? Expose sounds great in theory, but the problem is getting it into a device with no dedicated buttons for it.
In addition, we are working with devices that are limited in terms of hardware. This isn't a 2GB-4GB, 2Ghz+ packing machine. You would quickly have people exceeding the resources and thus diminishing the experience.
I have this issue with my HTC Hero. It is great that I can have twitter, facebook and a bunch of other widgets running, but it kills performance and makes the device crawl. I then have to pull out my Task Killer and kill some stuff to get it running properly.
Opening a device up to running anything the user wants at the same time will quickly kill the experience, and add components like task killers, etc. This must be considered when pondering this issue.
Yes but I also feel that the this simply wasn't done at all regarding iPhone OS on the iPad. It's true: It UI looks just like a big iPod touch.
What should they have done instead? They have a familiar OS that millions of people can pick up and use and seem to enjoy using. Why reinvent that for the sake of reinventing? What could they possible have done differently?
Ugh, True. But if we are still talking about a mythical OS X iPad, Apple could have slipped in an Intel chip to make that work rather than going in their current A4 and iPhone OS route.
They could have. But they want to develop their own silicon for these devices and I understand why. It is for the same reason that Macs have been successful, an intimate relationship between the hardware and software. Developing their own silicon means they get hardware that is made for the software, which translates to better performance even when the Ghz and MBs numbers appear low.
A very visual aid regarding multitasking already exists: The OS X dock. It clearly shows active programs and with some colour-coding, it could show which apps are using more resources than others.
There again, how to we translate this to a tablet? If we are going to have the dock up permanently, we just ate some of our screen real estate. If it will be hidden and appear when I what, put my finger somewhere at the bottom of the screen? Implementation is the problem here.
While resource cues would be useful for some users, most would probably just get frustrated with the device as it began to slow down.
If you give the Mac user a tablet with OS X you are going to have to beef up the specs (which also beefs up the price) or provide draconian restrictions on what can be running at the same time to ensure a decent experience.
It is honestly easier to use iPhone OS and introduce a new way to manage apps than to use what is existing, because people simply expect too much.
