OT - iPad in the news today ...

[Swingman]

[Robatoy]

That's some pretty funny shit right there.

[Swingman]

Nailed it! ... of all the folks here I figured you would "get it" first! :)

[Robatoy]

There's one going around which is also funny: "Sure the iPad is lightweight and slim, but can you swim with it?"

[Leon]

But does it prevent "estrogen puddles" ? :~)

[Morris Dovey]

[Mark & Juanita]

Kind of like the Kindle, eh?

Some other things not so cool:

1) No flash support 2) Only allows you to run a single application at a time

More like an iPhone on steroids than a real computer.

From the name to the features, this doesn't seem like one of Apple's best thought-out ideas. Come on, *nobody* in marketing thought through the implications of naming this the "iPad"?

[Steve]

Flash is the largest cause of freezes in web browsing. Now, If we're also going to kick about Apple's DRM controlling/limiting access to the known world, it's worth noting that Flash is proprietary to Adobe.

Plus, Flash just generally sucks, even when used in other Abobe products.

of yet, iPod on steroids is a fair summation of the first (and as yet not on the market) generation iPad. It's not intended as a computer; it's an information appliance that fits between two market segments -- the smart phone and the laptop. And Apple has lined up 5 major publishers, and has brought a ray of hope to magazine and newspaper publishers.

spite of all that, I doubt I'll be buying an iPad. I know I won't be buying a Kindle. I prefer my books on real real paper, not on aetheric vapours.

But let's see how it shakes out.

BTW, Sun Microsystems (remember them?) is history.

[LDosser]

IT'S TWO, ***TWO*** APPLIANCES IN ONE!!

And, if you order before midnight we'll send you absolutely free this $19.95 HF knockoff of a SawStop!! Yes, That's Right!! Just pay the low S&H of $2495.00.

[Swingman]

to get flash onto the iPad, but the megalomaniac Jobs will have none of it.

personally think the iPad, or more to the point, its future iterations, may have a better shot at overall acceptance as an e-book reader, among its many other capabilities, than the Kindle or Nook in the long run.

I've been into e-book reader technology since the early 90's and am continually amazed at the re-inventing of the wheel of the likes of Amazon, B&N, and Sony, and their failure to take the past "lessons learned" of Nuvo Media, Franklin and GemStar into account in their current business models.

In my opinion, the iTunes store, with its content delivery, will make the difference with the iPad, despite the DRM concerns.

I have two albums myself for sale on iTunes, and a number in which I was involved in the production, and have been more than happy with their returns with Apple's "DRM free" performance on Itunes.

It should also lend itself to future use in schools, with textbook content a likely possibility, and with a much better chance of adherence to the ADA than the current crop of devices.

I also like the fact that the iPad is NOT e-ink technology. The LED screen means I can view it at night, in bed, without a separate night light, and that it will turn itself off after a period of non use. It is also more eco friendly ... IME, it's the little 'convenience of use' issues like that can make the difference between success and failure with this type of technology.

Basically, it appears to me that the iPad could well be the first step on the path to making this type of techology, and it benefits, ubiquitous.

Jobs, unlike other players in the game, seems to always build upon past successes ... it is this "standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before" that seperate his particular vision from the pack, like him or not.

[Dave Balderstone]

Dvorak aside, Flash is an abomination. H.264 and/or HTML 5 will hopefully push it into the pit it deserves to live in.

[Swingman]

Yabbut, it's the dumb ass kiddie web designers using the wrong tool for the job and trying to build the entire farking website with flash that give it much of its bad name, although I agree that it, and Silverlight, are pretty much toast for the far future.

[Puckdropper]

Steve wrote in news:4b63ec3c$0$5105 $ [e-mail]:

*snip*

*snip*

Have you had a chance to read a book on a Kindle? It's not worth buying yet, but the reading experience is quite good. (I want the DX model that can display PDFs. Electronic manuals on a portable device would help quite a bit when the computer's far away.)

Slightly OT: PDF is usually disappointing, it can be done well but rarely is. Most companies scan and release documents as PDF. (That's why I call it Printing Document Format)

Puckdropper

[Mark & Juanita]

While that may be true, the fact that a significant portion of web content is distributed via flash (i.e, YouTube, Viddler, various news videos), not supporting flash is somewhat debilitating to those using this device for web browsing.

... and how Oracle will control both the opensource database and Java are going to be quite interesting. Larry Ellison is not known for open-ness

[Leon]

I watched with interest the Kindle however IMHO when compared to the Nook if comes in second. The Nook also allows PDF but also allows you to upgrade memory with off the shelf products and you can also replace the battery yourself when the time comes. I see little desire for the current Sony. The I-Pad seems to be more bang for your buck in so much that it appears to be a better back lit color reader plus internet access and e-mail access along with all the apps that can be added. Still a netbook computer can do all of that too, for a lot less.

[Swingman]

I'm not impressed with the Kindle in the least. The Nook, because it is more format options, would get the edge at the moment, but that notwithstanding, neither of these johnny-come-lately's "get it", IMO.

In 1998 I purchased four, for our company's two tech personnel, as well as myself and partner, of Nuvo Media's "Rocket eBook" to store and read html tech documents, including all Internet RFC's, and DNS/BIND documents ... it worked out very well for the next seven years and we were still using them when we shut company down in 2005.

(I also used mine onstage a time or two for chord charts ...worked out great on a dimly lit stage ... and to this day I read on it nightly, in bed, getting all my content for the last ten years from Project Gutenberg)

Ideally, these thing should be like razors ... the device itself should be free, and you buy the content.

They should all be non-proprietary as to format, allowing pdf, html, and, _above all_, *user created* content to be used.

This will happen ... the problem now is freeing the archaic thought process/business model of the "publishers" of the world.

That's why I think Apple's iTunes model, which showed music publishers that another way of doing business was not going to put them out of business, may play a pivotal role in the acceptance of these devices.

[Dave Balderstone]

Hmm. I can spend several hundreds of dollars to buy a device that allows me to read an electronic text file I essentially RENT for a $10 fee and can have removed from said device at any time with no recourse, or I can buy a BOOK for $10, read it, loan it to friends, and ultimately resell it for a couple of bucks or donate it to a charitable organization's book sale.

Hmm. I think I know where I'm going to end up going with this...

The Kindle and Nook have no attraction for me whatsoever, and my reaction to the iPad is "meh." It doesn't seem to be more than a giant iPod, and I've already got a couple of those, and I can put them in my shirt pocket.

[Robert Haar]

This is a good thing. Flash should die and be replaced by HTML 5.

Not completely true. On the iPhone, built in apps do multi-task, just not third party ones.

It doesn't seem targeted at that. It is described as a new class of device, not a smart phone and not a laptop.

Now it may be that this new class doesn't meet your needs. I'm not convinced that I want one myself. But recognize that Apple is pitching this as something different.

[Phisherman]

I dont think the pdf format is going away, it is the standard document format. I have serious doubts the iPad will make it, Apple set the price too high (again).

[Lee Michaels]

I recently had to order some items by phone because the website kept freezing. Infact I could only research the items on an old site that ran glacially slow. When discussing this problem with the lady on the phone she said tha the problem had started six weeks ago and their "webguy" couldn't figure out the problem. They were worried because of all the complaints and decreased sales.

I asked her if they had any design work done on their website recently. And, of course, the "image overhaul" got done just before the problems started. And these geniuses did not make the connection. Duhhhh......

I mentioned that I got some error messages concerning Flash. I told her a couple Flash horror stories. She had never heard of Flash before. I also told her that many designers were in love with Flash and were pissing people off all over the place. And not to expect them to be honest about it. She was frantically writing notes and was going to take it to her boss. The boss was getting upset that the web people were not solving the problem.

A classic example of an artsy fartsy designer screwing it up for everybody. Hopefully they will take this"web designer" out and shoot him. The world will be a better place for all of us.