
IPad Gripe Session - duck
http://www.subtraction.com/2010/08/18/ipad-gripe-session
======
loewenskind
>Whether we’ll ever type as much on the iPad as on a PC, it seems obvious to
me that some refinement is needed in managing how ‘touchable’ the iPad’s
screen is while entering text.

Odd. I don't find this at all. I type a great deal in the Notes application
and I find I'm nearly as fast on the screen as a real keyboard. Of course this
is only possible because the iPad manages to correct most of my "fingers
walking all over the screen" mistakes. I really didn't expect it to be as good
as it has been and figured the lack of typing feedback would be a huge
problem.

~~~
brk
I hate to just say "me too", but, me too.

I've found I can really crank along on my iPads keyboard (in landscape mode)
and can touch-type almost as efficiently as on a real keyboard. Overall I'd
probably say I have no realistic complaints or suggestions in regards to the
iPad soft keyboard.

The portrait mode is a touch cramped, IMO, but still very usable.

~~~
loewenskind
Yea, I should have mentioned that this is only the case in landscape. I don't
bother trying with portrait, it's definitely too cramped as you say.

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DeusExMachina
This passage really puzzles me:

 _As a gesture to invoke the Undo command, shaking a handheld device the size
of an iPhone is clever and workable. Shaking a much larger device like the
iPad is awkward at best_

My iPad has an undo button on the keyboard (and even a redo one) and shaking
it produces no result. Either our two iPads are different, which I don't
think, or that's just a statement that the author did not bother to verify.

~~~
arethuza
Shaking my iPad side to side quite vigorously does bring up an "Undo Typing"
dialog box.

I would never do this though - you seem to have to do it pretty quickly, much
easier to just hit the "undo" button.

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jcnnghm
_What’s not great is mobile Safari’s penchant for refreshing a browser window
nearly every time I return to it, regardless of how long the window has been
idle._

This is my biggest and perhaps only gripe about the iPad. It doesn't have
enough memory. My old iPhone 3g did the same thing, especially right before I
got the iPhone 4 because the system software had gotten bloated in the last
couple of years. Screen size doesn't help with this issue.

Apple either needs to spend some storage space on swap, or implement some kind
of caching mechanism within mobile safari itself. The limited memory makes
tabbed browsing incredibly frustrating, so much so that I use my iPhone 4
instead of the iPad most of the time now. I don't want to wait for a page load
every time I switch tabs, especially over 3g.

The next gen iPad should ship with at least 1GB of ram, there is plenty of
space in the case and ram is dirt cheap.

Edit: Looks like some people have already enabled paging by jailbreaking
(<http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=288228>). Apparently,
iOS4 is going to enable paging across the board.

~~~
allwein
_The next gen iPad should ship with at least 1GB of ram, there is plenty of
space in the case and ram is dirt cheap._

Keep in mind that space and price are not the only constraints when it comes
to RAM. Quadrupling the RAM amounts will also quadruple the power requirements
for RAM and will directly impact battery life, which is one of the iPad's
greatest features.

~~~
mrduncan
Does RAM actually take that much power? I'm curious because when battery life
for mobile devices is discussed, usually back-lighting and CPU are the only
thing anyone talks about.

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rix0r
I'm thoroughly annoyed by Safari refreshing tabs randomly, too. But I always
assume its because of memory restrictions, and that this content has been
evicted from memory to make room for web pages that I open in new tabs.

~~~
weaksauce
Memory is the root cause but it's more like they didn't implement a paging
virtual memory system in the original iPhone os until iOS4 which allows for
the persistance.

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doron
I use the ipad primarily for browsing, but i miss the aggressive word wrap
features on the Droid. text doesn't wrap as well on the safari, forcing me to
scroll left and right. they should definitely fix that.

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aresant
I agree with his first point in the article - it's hard not to have iOS4
loaded up.

When they launch the iTV are they going to have three different devices with
three different system cycles to support?

~~~
nanairo
If history is any indication, by the next OS update (4.2 or 5) they will be
merged. Apple seems to prefer to keep its horses decoupled: technologies
percolate more slowly through its stack, but it allows them not to get stuck
(so much).

For example with Longhorn MS tried to change the underlying kernel, the user
interface, and to add some of those changes in its main programs too. Apple
instead can take up to 2-3 iterations for a technology to become entrenched:
first its developed in some niche application (e.g. Core Animation in iOS),
then it gets generalised and turned into a general framework, and finally
later its application groups (iLife, iWorks, etc...) start making use of it.

(note: I am not saying either system is the best. They both have pros and
cons)

