

The iPad is strangely antisocial - roachsocal
http://www.sgmitch.com/blog/2010/01/apple-ipad-an-antisocial-device/

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pohl
Most punditry that I read on the web suffers from the same flaw: the author is
so into their own decision-making calculus that they do not consider that
others have different ways of thinking. This author is no exception. She looks
at the icons on her iPhone, sees that she has loaded it with social apps, and
assumes not just that other people are no different from her, but also that
the device itself (a smartphone) is "inherently social".

Speak for yourself, social butterfly. My iPhone is my device to use as I wish,
and if I'm an individual who loves solitude, then the way I use the device
will reflect that.

~~~
TrevorJ
Marketing a product is about knowing your audience. You have to make certain
assumptions.

For the vast majority of computer users out there, the ability to have email,
chat, or other "social" interactions pushed to them is taken for granted. I
think she has a very very good point.

Of course the author is writing from their own viewpoint, and I think her
observation is fairly valid.

------
there
_It’s possible the iPad will allow apps to have push notifications with
audible alerts_

that got me wondering about the hardware differences between the ipad and
iphone.

has anyone looked at the sdk yet that can verify whether the ipad os works the
same with respect to push notifications? does the ipad have the hardware to
vibrate? when you push the power button on it does it just shut off the
display like an iphone or go completely to sleep like a laptop? if it's
completely sleeping, does it wake up on a timer to display notifications like
calendar alerts? but then how can it handle incoming push notifications from
applications if the wireless radios are off? with a month-long standby time i
have to imagine it's a pretty deep sleep and can't keep the wireless/3g radio
on that entire time. my kindle can only survive about a week with the 3g radio
on while not doing anything.

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philwelch
You're supposed to sit on the couch and share it with another person, showing
them your vacation photos or cute kitty videos on YouTube or a movie or
something. That's a lot more "social" than abstracting human contact behind
text messages and webcams.

~~~
flogic
That only works if the other person is withing sharing range. It sucks for
talking to people in other town/states/countries.

~~~
philwelch
See, the problem is the idea that "social" technologies necessarily mean
telecommunications. There are a lot of technologies for talking to people who
live far away from you, what's missing is technologies for socializing with
people in person. In this sense, maybe having an IPS screen with 178 degrees
of viewing angle fulfills more unmet social needs than just another IM client
or VOIP app or videoconferencing technology.

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anigbrowl
Good insights in this article, though Apple might argue that they see a social
dimension in a pad that can be held on one's lap and shared between people who
are physically present (it's unclear if the display is easily viewable off-
axis, but I've heard no complaints about it).

I agree with electromagnetic that the lack of a webcam is a mistake. Perhaps a
later version will allow for multitasking so you can chit-chat via skype or
Goggle Voice while surfing or using apps, but it's a shortcoming in the first
version. Of course, I expect that part of the reason for the 2 month delay
between announcement and availability is to gather feedback of the kind we're
discussing here.

~~~
Timothee
The marketing material from Apple specifically says that the screen is good
even from the sides. Of course, it would have to be seen in real life, but at
least they're conscious that it could be an issue.

For the lack of camera, I find that puzzling. Because it's an obvious thing to
put there and Apple has been putting iSights everywhere for many years now.
So, I'm curious to know why they didn't put one "on purpose".

Your mention of multitasking while using Skype or Google Voice made me realize
that it is in fact important. All the time while I'm on a video call on Skype,
I go online to check out a website or find a link that I want to share. In
that use-case that'd be pretty limiting…

~~~
pohl
Pandora, Last.fm, etc. are other good examples where at least one process in
the background would be nice.

------
nfnaaron
"By leaving out two features ..."

If you introduce a product with distinct features X, Y and Z, then you'll sell
that product to everyone interested in it and who require X, Y and Z.

If you introduce product V1 with only X, you'll get the X people, and most of
Y and Z people will sit it out.

But then you introduce an upgrade, V2 that includes X _and_ Y. Now you'll sell
to some of the Y people. But also, some of the X people will buy it again, to
have the full experience of X and Y.

Then introduce V3 with X, Y and Z. New customers, and a percentage of repeat
customers who have now bought the product two and three times.

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roc
Your don't trade in your phone to buy an iPad.

i.e. devices aren't social, their use is. And their use doesn't preclude the
use of other devices. Ergo not every device needs to be useful for everything.

e.g. the iPod functionality of the iPad is technically terrible. Does Apple
expect you'll carry that thing around to listen to music? But therein lies the
rub: you don't. You have an iPod for that.

 _My guess_ is that the camera feature in the iPad SDK has more to do with a
bluetooth interaction between mobile OS X devices than future iPad hardware
plans.

------
zephyrfalcon
So I wonder. All these people who claim that the iPad cannot do this, cannot
do that. What do they base these claims on, considering they most likely
haven't been able to use one yet (other than the very few people who got to
use a prototype or demonstration model)?

My old Palm Pilot is "modal", but you can still happily switch between apps,
do something else, come back and pick up where you left off. It would make
perfect sense for the iPad to have a similar system at least, so you could
e.g. download a picture from your browser, edit it in another app, then use it
in a presentation using KeyNote, all without breaking stride.

It would also make sense to have some sort of notification bar or other system
telling you that you have mail, tweets, facebook comments, IM messages,
whatever.

(Granted, playing music might be a different story, as that would make for a
heavier load on the processor as a background process.)

Did Apple make explicit statements about this? Did they state that this
definitely isn't possible? Or are we just guessing?

(In case there is actual proof of this, please post a link or so. The articles
I've read so far have done nothing to back up their claims.)

------
roachsocal
I’ve always felt the same way about iTunes. Listening to music, sometimes, is
a very social thing. I often find myself tweeting the song I’m listening to,
or the lyrics I just heard. iTunes supports none of this.

The iPod (line) – same thing. This is where Zune has done some innovating. In
realizing that music is social, they’ve created features that let you
temporarily share songs and see what others are listening to.

There’s no technical reasons why Apple would need to leave these features out.
Traditionally Apple hasn't fully grasped the power of the open web, much less
social.

But things are starting to change. Their acquisition of Lala is a huge deal. I
can’t remember them ever acquiring a website — and a VERY social website on
top of that. I’m ready for Apple to take these to the next level by injecting
social into their products. They should start with the iPod audio player
interfaces (iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad). Let us Tweet, Facebook, Copy a Link,
Share With A Friend.

~~~
joubert
iChat and Skype both can change your status to be the current iTunes music.
You could write an app that plugs into this API and Tweet.

~~~
roachsocal
Yes but Apple hasn't.

~~~
joubert
I prefer the Genius features.

However, what you want may come down the pipeline in the future:
<http://mashable.com/2009/09/09/itunes-twitter-facebook/>

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electromagnetic
The lack of a camera was a seriously incompetent move by apple, especially
considering that they've placed one in the Nano, which has none of the
potentials for use like the iPad.

I'm sorry, but this is 2010, I've rarely seen a cell phone without a camera
since 2000. Apple has even pioneered placing them in devices that have no need
as a gimmick. So someone at Apple HQ was having serious brain farts when they
decided to let the iPad go to production without even a single camera in it.

The iPad _requires_ a self-portrait camera for video chat and the ever popular
self-pic, but it also needs a camera for taking pictures and recording the
environ.

~~~
there
holding that giant ipad up with two hands to take a picture of something seems
kind of awkward. an iphone or ipod nano can easily be steadied in one hand to
take a picture.

~~~
benatkin
I was going to say that it would only be a little awkward, but then I
remembered once again that I'm not representative of their target market. It's
certainly an issue.

------
elblanco
I'm also surprised at the complete lack of connectivity between an iPad and an
iPhone/iPod/iPod Touch. It would seem to me to be a very "minority report"
type of situation, with a larger device for regular use, and a simple set of
gestures to swipe some data over to your iPhone for on the run portability.

