
My Apple Tablet (iSlate) Use Case: Baby Following - epi0Bauqu
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/01/my-apple-tablet-islate-use-case-baby-following.html
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Poiesis
Somewhat like the author does, I use my iPhone for this. It's actually
surprised me how often this comes in handy. Unlike the author, while I
wouldn't mind more screen space and easier typing, for the "with kids"
situations I'm in I generally need a hand free. So a larger device is right
out.

I suppose if I spent more time just hanging out at home that'd be more useful,
but I'm usually _doing_ something either at home or out (with the kids).

~~~
joezydeco
The moment I pull an iPhone out in front of my kids, it's ripped from my hands
by an 18-month-old and that becomes the primary toy for the next 30 minutes.
She can unlock it, scramble my home pages, and leave it full of drool and
sugar-based crust in a matter of seconds.

If this guy thinks a fancy $1000 tablet is going to be that much more usable
around kids, he's in for a rude awakening. If Eli already wants to climb all
over his laptop, why wouldn't a tablet suffer the same fate?

~~~
jhancock
When my son was 2, he could unlock and enter the passcode to his mom's iPhone.
About that time, we had a TV crew at our house filming for a China talk show.
He was captured on camera (and broadcast around China) playing Blackjack on
the iPhone. Its a remarkably accessible device ;).

~~~
joezydeco
I agree, the iPhone really has been a remarkable thing in terms of how kids
latch onto it. One can probably do a whole human factors study on the
affordances of the slide-to-unlock thingy.

If only Apple would give us a way to disable the Home button. I could write
all _kinds_ of killer little games for the rugrat to play with.

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wglb
This sounds like a good idea, but keep in mind that various stages in a baby's
development is shorter than you might otherwise think. I worked at home when
my kids were born, and for a while it was cool to have a mat in my office
where I could lay them down for a nap. Shortly, they were walking. Strategies
for one stage went out the window when the next stage came along. But, hey, if
that is what helps you decide to purchase an iSlate, more power to you.

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axod
It'd be nice if they made it 100% waterproof.

I used to perch a laptop on my lap whilst feeding my son with a bottle. That
stopped reasonably sharpish after he puked all over the laptop keyboard.

How hard can it be to make laptops waterproof? Or at least resistant to water
spills etc :/

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mortenjorck
Until you can find a way to cool a laptop CPU passively, you're going to need
airflow, so sealing the case is out.

Although building the platform on ARM (as we presume the Tablet to be)
probably fixes that by simply not using a laptop CPU. Not to say that you
can't have a passively-cooled x86 system, but are any of the new integrated
platforms cool enough for that? Given the power you can get with ARM SOCs
these days, it may not matter.

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axod
true, true. I'd at least like to see laptops that have a sealed keyboard/top
system, so that they can withstand a spill from above. They'd sell like
hotcakes.

~~~
weaksauce
They do make those but they are "rugged" pc's you can spill your whole water
on it while running and it won't stutter.

The downside is that they are expensive as all get out for a lobotomized
laptop. <http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/>

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carlcoryell
tl;dr I'm going to buy a tablet so I can distract myself while watching the
baby.

