
What iPads Did To My Family - mjfern
http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2010/05/what-ipads-did-to-my-family.html
======
VBprogrammer
Please don't take this as being too critical, but I used my bread-maker every
other day for 2 weeks after buying it. I can't remember the last time I got it
out the cupboard.

~~~
watmough
The article makes it sound like much more than a novelty.

I don't have an iPad yet, but I do use my Cuisinart bread-maker twice a week
to make delicious and substantial wholewheat bread for way less than you would
pay at a store.

~~~
kristiandupont
The money and the taste is all well and good, but the real reason I kept using
mine (until I started travelling): the smell. Waking up in a house that smells
like fresh baked bread is just heaven.

~~~
cubicle67
* goes to dig unloved breadmaker from the back of the cupboard _

------
davi
OK, after reading this article, I finally get it. (Or at least have a
reasonable working hypothesis.)

The iPad does to the internet what the iPod did to music.

I don't really need that done to the internet for me, but I can see how
millions of people would really like it.

~~~
ieure
I like your hypothesis.

I bought a 16gb iPad the week after they came out. I didn't really have a need
for it, I just wanted to see if it was interesting. I had a very simliar
experience as the author.

My wife has little but distain for my gadget obsession, but within minutes she
wanted one for herself. Our three-year-old adores it. I put some educational
games and cartoons on it, and she can get to it all on her own. Literally
every person I've shown it to has wanted one.

Love it or hate it, but don't ignore it.

~~~
dmix
_Want_ one is the keyword. I've played with my coworkers iPad quite a bit and
can see how it could fit into my life. But at the same time its not a need -
not in the way I need my smartphone. Its a big shiny toy that I want but only
when its convient.

~~~
marknutter
Most of what we own are wants, let's be clear.

~~~
zackattack
accidentally downvoted

------
allend
\- No Flash, no multitasking, no Camera!

\- Just a big iTouch.

\- 256MB RAM!? Pfft.

\- WTF, not widescreen?!

\- LCD bad for reading.

\- $500?? Overpriced.

\- Can't see why anyone would need one.

\- Fills a need that isn't there.

\- Looks uncomfortable.

\- You have to pay $99 to publish on it.

\- Yeah, if you like to peck and type.

\- It's gonna destroy the culture of content creation.

\- Fine if you don't need to get real work done.

\- Only fanboys will buy one.

\- Give me a netbook so I can program.

\- People who are buying iPads are sheep.

\- It would not sell if it weren't for the marketing.

\- Sure it's selling well now, but what about in 6 months/1 year/2 years …

\- Sure it's selling well now, but no true intelligent scotsman …

\- Just a toy.

\- I can't believe people are buying this without being able to articulate
why.

\- Look, someone says they stopped using it! I was right.

\- No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

28 days and $1,000,000,000 in revenues later, still reasons Apple doesn't give
a flying frack about, and maybe a sign that some of us should reevaluate how
much we know about the buying habits of the non-comic book guys, and that
there might be something there that warrants more than a knee jerk cmdrtaco
response.

~~~
useperl
All of the above are good points that can be exploited by competing products,
i am not sure why you are suggesting that apple should close its eyes on this!

I will never buy a second iPhone, i will look for a good Android based phone,
and using the same logic i will wait for a good iPad like product from HP or
HTC

~~~
flyosity
If people are in the market (or simply want) a tablet-sized computing device,
they're going to have the iPad at the front of their mind. If they play with
one at an Apple Store or at a friend's house and aren't convinced (or are
pissed it doesn't run Flash) then they will fall into Category B which is
where a dozen or more companies will compete.

You basically have the iPad, and everything else, just like for music players
there's the iPod and then everything else. Features on a comparison matrix
don't get consumers excited. The iPad has a LOT of people excited.

------
jacquesm
Wow, a house full of technology and it can be replaced by a single ipad. Makes
you wonder why they never did more with all the stuff they've got, it seems
like they were seriously under-using it before.

Good thing nobody ever had a complicated spread sheet, a document on
letterhead for the office or a small programming job to do!

It's genius how Steve Jobs managed to identify that most people now use their
computers as a media consumption device, I see mine as power tools.

~~~
MrFoof
>Good thing nobody ever had a complicated spread sheet, a document on
letterhead for the office or a small programming job to do!

At home? Most people don't.

Every computer I've watched my parents buy over the past 15 years, they buy
Microsoft Office as a reflex response. When I visited for the holidays and
helped migrate them to their iMac, I noticed the number of Word and Excel
documents they had accumulated over this period.

About 40.

Outside of school assignments, what need does a child have for a productivity
suite? Close to zero, and even then, 98% of what they do for writing
assignments can be accomplished by a simple typewriter or standalone
electronic word processor. Programming? Don't get me started...

My sister bought a 15" MacBook Pro over the holidays, and a copy of Office.
She doesn't work on documents, just logs in to Outlook Web Access and maybe
reviews something sent to her. She does the real work, well, at work. Aside
from occasionally loading new photos into iPhoto after one of her 2 yearly
vacations, it's a $1700 web browser and media consumption device.

My non-IT friends? The same. Webmail. Facebook. Funny pictures of cats.

The computer in the traditional sense is becoming a lot more niche. Why? It's
what people want.

It's like the new 2011 Mustangs are hitting dealer lots. I want the V8, a
6-speed, the performance axle and the good brakes. Out of the dozens of Ford
dealers in a 100 mile radius, only ONE dealer has manual transmissions. The
only reason that dealer has them is because it's Bob "Win on Sunday, Sell on
Monday" Tasca -- a car enthusiast, catering to other enthusiasts.

We're computer enthusiasts. The virtues of SSDs are just as foreign as the
virtues of powersliding to someone who's, frankly, just not that interested
and just wants to get something done inexpensively and with a minimum of fuss
that doesn't involve a debugger or heel-toeing.

~~~
jacquesm
Just looking at the stuff I'm running right now and wondering how I'd do
without:

    
    
      - xchat (maybe that does work on the iPad, it could be)
     
      - thunderbird
    
      - varicad
    
      - 20 or so terminal tabs logged in to just about as many servers
    
      - about 20 browser windows, each with multiple tabs
    
      - an ide (currently intellij, I hate it but that's what I'm using)
    

And I'm not even programming right now (haven't touched the ide in a few days,
but it's still running), just staying informed, in touch and doing some
systems maintenance.

Just thinking about having to 'downsize' to a single non-multi tasking machine
without a clearly defined local file store that I can back up to a server
gives me headaches.

edit: I missed open office and okular, different desktop, same box.

It would be like looking at the world through a very small key-hole.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_It would be like looking at the world through a very small key-hole._

Oh, yes. _Heck_ , yes. I've found that to be a big reason why I love my iPad.

Remember all that psychological research on multitasking? The research that
concludes that even the people who claim to enjoy multitasking and have "lots
of practice" at it are less productive and more stressed when trying to do
more than one thing at a time?

Have you ever seen Cory Doctorow's theory of ebooks? The one that holds that
long-form prose on computer screens hasn't worked, _not_ because we're holding
out for better screen quality -- many of us white-collar workers spend eight
or more hours a day reading from our existing screens, after all -- but
because our computers, and our habits when working with them, are so centered
around distraction that we can't make ourselves concentrate when sitting in
front of a computer? You start to read the novel from the browser window, but
then your email beeps. Or, god help you, your mind starts to wander, your
hands hit a key-combo, and _you_ check your email as a sort of spinal reflex.
And then you notice the RSS feed icon blinking, and then Twitter updates, and
then a Skype call comes in, and before you know it you're reading Wikipedia
about some band from the eighties while simultaneously watching a YouTube
video of some kittens. Or (ahem) posting to _Hacker News_.

The iPad is _relentlessly focused_ on one app at any given time. This is
obviously a problem for some tasks -- yes, you can't really program on the
iPad at the moment, or even blog very effectively; that's why iPad owners also
have computers -- but for many other uses it is downright refreshing, even
Zen. You do one thing. Then you do something else.

~~~
jacquesm
> Or (ahem) posting to Hacker News.

Guilty as charged. You have me almost convinced that I should cut down my
screen real estate to something a bit more modest and a maximum of one open
window at a time.

Maybe I should try that for a week and see how it works and do a write-up.

~~~
X-Istence
Since you are cutting down, could I get that extra screen real estate?

When I am programming I have one terminal window open for subversion, the IDE
I am programming in, and the web browser for documentation.

When all three are on different screens life is awesome, if I have to move my
mouse to switch between windows it becomes a burden and annoying. Having even
one extra screen is an absolute must as a programmer. I don't think I could
live with just a single screen.

Now on a day to day browsing machine, sure, one screen, like the iPad is
perfect. Hell, I tend to sit on the couch with my iPhone browsing the web
while watching TV.

------
ghshephard
My iPad is still getting about 3-4 hours use a day - and it still, 30 days
later, is pretty popular at parties, restaurants, etc... I'll check back in a
couple months. New Apps (PopSci, Time, Penultimate, Sketch, Alice, etc...)
keep my interest, mostly. Though Videos, Field Runners, PvZ, Safari, Kindle,
WSJ, Mirror's Edge, Marvel, GoodReader, and Email are in pretty much constant
rotation.

It's unclear to me if I'll still be as addicted in six months, but the form
factor certainly is appealing.

One thing nobody talk about the battery life - It's _not_ 10 hours. It's 10
Hours of _use_. Used on and off, I'll go close to three days before needing to
plugin. That's very nice.

------
barrkel
About 10 days after getting my iPad, it's hardly been turned on in the past
few days. I think the ergonomics of it suck - it's heavy, and it gives me a
crick in the neck when I use it.

YMMV.

~~~
krschultz
This is one thing I really don't get about the iPad. I learned a bit of
ergonomics in college, and the iPad doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

If you are sitting on your couch with your feet up dicking around on the
internet (apparently the iPad primary use case), and you want to look at the
screen at the proper viewing angle, either it needs to be tilted up by you
holding it at an angle with your wrist (ergonomic no-no) or you need to tilt
your head down (ergonomic no-no).

Considering that you probably want to use your hands to tap on it, that means
it is likely resting in your lap and your head is tilted down putting strain
on your neck.

Color me sensitive (broke my neck rock climbing about a year ago and still get
some pains) but that doesn't sound fun over a long period of time.

I really think the amazing thing about the iPad is the screen no the form
factor. Give me a macbook pro with a multi-touch screen and dual boot Mac OS X
and iPad OS. Tell me you wouldn't prefer that. When you want multitouch, you
have it, when you want a keyboard, you have it. When you want to sit back and
watch a movie you have a built in stand .

~~~
jaaron
What about the ergonomics of a book or magazine? Aren't those effectively the
same as an iPad?

~~~
dagw
A magazine is a lot lighter than the iPad, so that makes a huge difference.
Also you don't have to continuously touch the pages of a magazine while using
it, which is another significant difference. Finally a magazine is bendy
meaning you can change it's size and shape if and when the need arises.

~~~
halostatue
Magazines may be lighter, but I'm fairly sure that the hardcover I'm reading
right now (David Weber's _A Mighty Fortress_ ) is about as heavy as an iPad.

------
kyro
You know, as much crap as Apple gets, they really have revolutionized the way
people use technology. My mom, who a month could do nothing more than open FF
on her computer, has been asking me for weeks when the 3G iPad is coming out.
I have never seen her so excited to buy any sort of product. And that's why
I'm not quick to judge Apple when it comes to their strict policies. They've
shown time and time again that they know what they're doing, and they reach
out to new, previously non-techy people with every product, inciting within
those people a desire to use technology. This all might sound cultish, sure, I
love my Apple products, but they hands down have the best computing products
on the market for every day people. And I think it's their desire to control
and perfect every level of the user experience that has gotten them to that
point.

------
thought_alarm
After playing with Safari for a couple of weeks, I've recently started flexing
the iPad Photos and Music software and it has been a revelation. My post-80s
history with Apple starts with the iPod in 2004, and the iPad Music app is
_really_ fucking good. I want to mount this thing in my car, in my kitchen, in
my living room. The music software puts the iPhone/iPod touch to shame. Too
bad it doesn't fit in my pocket.

And Photos, it's so much fun to play with the "Places" map, I immediately went
in to iPhoto and started tagging the rest of my photos. I don't think I will
ever use my laptop to browse or show off my photo library again. I can pull up
the Places map, hand it off to whoever what to see my photos, and let them go
nuts. It's a supremely compelling experience.

I bought an iPad because I wanted to see how a pure touch interface could
change traditional human-computer interaction; I haven't been disappointed.

And the iPad App Store isn't even available in my country yet. The
iPhone/iPad-only WWDC sold out in 8 days, and I can't wait to see what
developers come up with over the next year. It should be a hell of a toboggan
ride.

------
jaaron
It's a good thing the iPad does have excellent battery life because in our
family, it's being used almost all day long. The other night I completely lost
my wife and daughter for hours as they played Plants vs Zombies together way
past bedtime. My five year old has already requested one for her birthday.

~~~
emehrkay
My son, 8, loves to have me watch him play plants vs zombies. (I'm way better,
btw. My technique, which seems like the only logical one, is to buy tons of
sun producing items in the beginning and fend off the zombies with the free or
cheap shooters. At the end of levels I have an excess of 1000 sun points)

~~~
whatusername
2 Onions at the end of the outer (and middle lane). With spikes to the right
of them if there are vehicles. Sunflowers behind those. Then you're down to 2
lanes to defend - and heaps of sun. That covers about 90% of the levels.

~~~
marknutter
You just blew my mind. I'm trying to make it 40 rounds on the unlimited waves
level and I think you may have just given me the strategy I need..

~~~
whatusername
I've only got it on the iPhone - so I can't play unlimited. I'm not sure how
it would go.

It still has a couple of weaknesses - 2 onions will deal with any walking
zombie + pole vaulters. It wont stop: * vehicles -- use a row of spikes *
gargantuar -- cob cannons, etc. * Miner Zombies -- These are a pain. * pogo
zombies -- I haven't got a great strategy for them.. - cob cannons, cat-tails,
etc. (Or just put a pea-shooter (maybe the reverse one) to deal with these and
the miners. * Flying zombies - the blower plant or the cat-tails. The risk is
that it can fall behind your onions - and then eat through all of your
sunflowers.

Basically - it works awesome for almost every level.. But probably not for
unlimited.

------
kimfuh
I lent mine to a 13-year old kid from a small provincial town in the
Philippines and, within an hour, it was like he'd been using one his whole
life. And I couldn't steal it away from my 62-year old father while waiting
for a flight. And I do remember both of them smiling. This thing is absolutely
amazing.

------
crad
Annecdotally, I have similar findings. The iPad has replaced 90% of my laptop
use at home and the office. The laptop only comes out when I need to do Real
Work™, things that require multiple ssh sessions, browser windows, chat,
email, etc, all at the same time.

For email, web browsing and those blasted causal games, it's glued to my
fingers.

~~~
kenjackson
Surprisingly, this seems to be an indication that MS could easily make a good
Win7 tablet. They only need to get a good finger-friendly email client, web
browser, and IM client.

The argument thta people make is that once you go into some apps then the
mouse/keyboard nature is exposed, but it appears that most people never dive
into those apps. And in those cases, if the Windows tablet had an easy way to
use a keyboard (convertible & detachable) then it would have the best of both
worlds.

The only thing Windows doesn't have today is the app ecosystem, and I suspect
we'll see that with Windows Phone 7 (and since all the apps are managed, the
port will be easy, if not binary compatible).

------
zach
In the very near future the "TV time" of many families like this will be all
of them sitting around watching separate movies or shows on individual iPads
or similar devices. The shared family dinner has already fallen victim to
modern ways. Now the traditional TV-watching paradigm of the past sixty years
is going by the wayside.

~~~
NEPatriot
Not necessarily. They can always IM each other during dinner.

------
thmz
"She was smiling."

It sounds almost if she became happy again. Scary stuff.

------
dlevine
This reinforces what I've been telling people for the last month or so - the
iPad is disruptive to the PC. Maybe it isn't as good as a PC in a lot of
situations, but it provides sufficient functionality and speed that people
will choose it for its ease of use and portability. And, in a few generations,
you will be able to do anything you can on all but the highest-end PCs.

Sure, most people will still use PCs at work, but at home, you will just whip
out your tablet.

------
JarekS
I'm wondering on only one thing at the moment. How long does it take for
people to realize that most of their productivity/business software can be
used on iPad as well.

I can imagine people traveling (sales people?) with iPads 3G checking their
inventories in real-time, doing their forecast reporting, sending emails,
reacting to on-line customer enquires...

Do you think this is something that will happen or my imagination just plays
tricks on me? :)

------
emehrkay
I played with iphone os 4 today at work, and once multitasking hits the ipad,
it's really going to be lights out of how much time is spent on a
"traditional" computer.

------
nopal
Has anyone set a grandparent up with an iPad?

I'd love to buy one for my grandma. She has a Dell right now, and she uses it
only for e-mail. She seems to constantly be running into problems with Outlook
Express (marking items as junk, blocking senders, etc.).

I'd like to find her a device that's friendly and easy to use.

The iPad seems like that device. The only thing it can't do is print photos in
e-mail messages (easily). I'm not sure if that's a deal breaker, and I think
the usability trade off might be worth it. She could always go back to the
Dell for printing.

If anyone's set up a novice with an iPad, I'd love to hear about your (and
their) experience. I'm especially curious about whether you set it up as a
stand-alone device or if you showed the user how to sync with PC.

------
Maascamp
"There's an old saying: To a small boy with a hammer, everything looks like a
nail. As programmers, we call into the same trap all too often. We learn about
some new technology or solution, and we immediately begin seeing places to
apply it."

I got that quote from the post on patterns in Python, but believe it applies
equally well here.

------
naqeeb
It might be a good idea to have a follow up for this article in 6 months to
see if the results can be sustained...What iPads Did To My Family After 6
Months.

------
varjag
What a happy iFamily

------
sandaru1
How come iPad is popular among facebook users when [farm]ville apps don't
work?

------
aresant
Spot on. Ipads around my home and office seem to mutiply like rabbits. Most
people can't articulate why they need one but the little things like
competently clearing your email from bed or sitting through 7 hrs of airport
travel hell and still have 50% battery are exceptional.

~~~
daten
I understand why it's fun to play with a new (limited) device. I have an ipod
touch. But I worry when people rush to buy $500 devices without being able to
articulate why they need it. It sounds like good marketing and impulse
shopping. I'm very curious to see how this plays out in the long run.

~~~
glhaynes
It's hard for me to worry too much when the vast majority of such people love
and rave about the product after they've had it for a while.

------
Godhelpworld
IT shows perfectly why technology does not brings intelligence. You can give
them the best hardware and still they wont become next Google or Facebook
founders or use it in any other productive endevour! Seriously most of the
human race does not deserves the power of computing!

They wont lolcats on "magical devices!" long live America! What a waste!

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Wow, judge much?

Throughout time, people have used technology to incrementally make their lives
better. Not everybody has the skills, goal, or even desire to found the next
Facebook or Google. The people who make the most money in the technology space
recognize this about their customers and don't look down on them about it.

And, just because you are ragging on intelligence, it is "want"...

~~~
Godhelpworld
Until now! They are now competing with cheap labor/intelligence from India and
China. And Later worse with machine intelligence!

Frankly the inly "skill" that you could rely on 20-40 later is programming and
creativity.

~~~
memoryfault
you are the first true troll I have seen on HN

~~~
jcl
You see more if you turn on "showdead" in your profile.

------
seiha
Replace all the taps in the article to faps and it becomes funnier.

