

Falling out of love with the iPad - ZeroGravitas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/28/ipad_love_affair_goes_sour/

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junklight
Editor :- "I know what will get us more eyeballs: Another article about the
iPad"

Journalist :- "But there is nothing left to say"

Editor :- "sure there is - start small - say, how you no longer love it. In a
day or two we can do 'how the ipad ruined' my marriage. In a couple of weeks
we can have 'how the ipad made me homeless', and THEN we will be scraping the
barrel..."

~~~
jasonlotito
Despite that, it's a better review than all the reviews that came out before
the iPad launched. Almost two months of use for a review is far better than
describing how it feels when you first hold it.

~~~
steverb
It's the first review that has really mirrored my experience with the iPad.
Although the blush wore off in a week for me. Different usage patterns I
expect.

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maxklein
Unfortunately, I have the same problem. I have two PCs that I am always
sitting at when I am home. I rarely use my couch. And the PCs are just a
little bit easier to use and faster to use than the iPad, so I can hardly use
it for that.

The one thing I used to use the iPad regularly for is as a todo list with
"Things", but this has a minor problem that is very annoying to me - when I
lay the iPad under my head, I can see the reflection of my face. This makes me
feel self-consious, so I don't like using it.

I would not get rid of the iPad, I like having it around (and it was
absolutely brilliant for travelling), but I hardly use it when I am around my
PCs, which is most of the time.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_I have two PCs that I am always sitting at when I am home._

One reason I bought the iPad was to very deliberately force myself to stop
sitting in my computer chair all the time. I can use it in bed, I can use it
on the couch, I can carry it from room to room, I can prop it on random
objects.

But maybe that's not for you. Everyone's life is different. At last we begin
to glimpse the future of computing, the one we have been waiting for: Where
recommending a computing device to someone is going to be like recommending a
brand of underwear. There are going to be special-purpose computers for
everything. Already we have special computers just for music (the iPod
Shuffle), special computers just for reading (the Kindle), special computing
hardware just for making you exercise (the Wii Fit)... if anything, the iPad
may be _more_ of a general-purpose computer than one can expect to see in the
future. It's like a device for prototyping the single-purpose computers --
which will, of course, no longer be called _computers_ \-- that our
grandchildren will use.

~~~
Sukotto
How many of us geek-types buy a cheap crap IKEA couch, and an Aeron chair? I
bet most of us have a more ergonomic office chair than couch.

~~~
jteo
For those of us that are married, that may not be true. Once you have a
family, you tend to spend more time away from your main computer(s). The iPad
is designed for that use case of bite-sized consumption.

And remember folks: this is iPad version 1.0. What happens when there is
enough computing power in it to replace an entry level laptop?

~~~
ZeroGravitas
> _What happens when there is enough computing power in it to replace an entry
> level laptop?_

They release a new one with half the CPU power that's slightly thinner and
lighter and has room for more battery?

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loewenskind
I think the biggest problem people have with the iPad is viewing it as a "more
portable computer". Personally, I view mine as a binder+magazine+psp.

Before, my evening would go: get home, play with the kids, eat supper, think
"oh, I need to do a couple of things on the computer before I forget", "well,
since I've taken the effort to come in the office... may as well do x, y and
z". Before I know it I've spent the whole evening in the office and now it's
time to go to sleep.

Now I don't have to go in the office for small things. I get home, put the
ipad on the living room table. Someone will pick it up, doing something on it
and put it down again.

Ironically, I think the fact that you _don't_ stay in love with the thing is
exactly why it's going to change everything. A general consumption device that
isn't intrusive. Remember life before cell phones? "oh no, I'm away from home
and I need to make a call. Rats, I don't have any change on me..., ok, got
some change at the restaurant, now to find a pay phone... glad it's pissing
rain". It was really intrusive. Today I don't even notice my phone is with me
until I need to send an sms or make a call.

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tomlin
"Full disclosure: I write this as a fervent fanboi who has used Macs since
literally the first day that the original Macintosh 128k became available in
1984."

Pretty much every negative view of an Apple product has something along the
lines of this. It's like he knows the kind of reaction he'll get to his own,
personal and informed opinion.

~~~
spudlyo
Seems unprofessional to use that spelling of 'fanboy'.

~~~
a-priori
And using the word 'fanboy' _is_ professional?

~~~
spudlyo
Marginally.

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risotto
Didin't read the whole article but I'm incredibly frustrated with my iPad
already.

iTunes is such a pain in the ass for syncing files. I was playing around with
loading up some comic books for an upcoming trip. A nice directory structure
of .cbr files on my computer is mangled beyond repair when turned into a flat
list of files to add to a single app. The app (Cloudreaders) offers
organization via tagging, but re-tagging 500 files is untenable. The iPad
needs to expose itself as a USB storage device that I can drag folders onto,
security sandbox be damned.

No background processing is disappointing for a hacker like myself. I've been
building an in-browser HTML5 audio library. MP3/M4A playback works extremely
well on the iPad's Safari. Until you open a "new page" or jump out of the
browser. Thankfully the current song doesn't stop playing, but no Javascript
events fire so the next song can't start.

I also do miss Flash for various reasons. Flash can extract waveform data from
audio files to perform visualizations for example.

Battery life, blah blah blah, I need a computer I can hack and script.

I use Chrome and have my bookmarks synched across many computers, so Mobile
Safari is a black sheep anyway.

I do get in the zone on my iPad when I'm reading some PDFs or comic books,
watching ABC or Netflix, or playing pinball. The size and touchscreen and
battery are amazing. So it's not all bad.

But it's a toy, not a real computer, and that's frustrating to a hacker like
myself.

~~~
illumin8
To be fair, most of your complaints are extreme edge cases:

\- More than 500 comic books in .CBR format untagged. \- Javascript events
don't fire while Safari is running in the background.

What percentage of the 2 million iPad owners even know or care about
javascript events firing while Safari is running in the background? 0.00001%?

~~~
risotto
Yeah they are.

The iPad will continue to sell like hotcakes and millions of people will
continue to be extremely happy with it. I understand why Apple targets this
demographic and a simplified experience, catering to my needs wont sell more
iPads and could in fact weaken the experience for other users.

The only thing I hold against Apple is that I love my OS X machines so much --
they are the the ultimate hacker toy, great hardware, pretty OS and you can
drop down to a unix shell. They've spoiled me so the iPad stings a bit!

So for now I'm actively watching the tablet landscape for a more open device.
I know I'll be happier with one, and I hope to write some software that will
make other people happy too.

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starkfist
I've fallen out of love with mine... although I still do think it is a cool
device. The issue I have with the iPad is you can't really chat with friends
online and do anything else at the same time, which is pretty much what I use
my computer for when I'm not at work. It's now been relegated to being a
portable TV.

~~~
Terretta
1\. IM+ has chat (every major IM system) and web browser in the same app.

2\. Multitasking is just another word for accomplishing less, but more slowly.

~~~
starkfist
1\. IM+ sucks

2\. Thanks for repeating something you read on the internet in a patronizing
way

~~~
bruceboughton
Mobile OSX 4.0 is bringing multitasking to the iPhone. I think it's a safe
assumption the iPad will get the same brand of multitasking soon (next week?),
not least because they share apps.

~~~
booticon
Unfortunately the 4.0 software update isn't planned to be released for the
iPad until the Fall. Which is frustrating to say the least as I would _rather_
have multitasking on the iPad than the iPhone.

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parfe
I was recently given an iphone. The OS ruins what, hardware wise, is a nice
device. I was told "Any time you need to ask 'Can the iphone do this?' the
answer will be to jailbreak it."

And that was dead on. Overall the OS is disappointing. I never really bought
into the idea of Steve Jobs crippling his products creating an issue, but now
that I have one I'm starting to despise Apple for their decisions.

It definitely guarantees I will not spend money on an ipad. Luckily my phone
was free.

(sidenote: I was given this iphone because it had been run over by a car and
easily repaired by ordering a new screen. Very sturdy device.)

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scottmagdalein
Same result here, but we went a different path. I bought the iPad for myself,
but pitched it to my wife as a casual computer that she could use to browse
Facebook, the only thing she really cares to use a computer for. When I got it
home, I was immediately frustrated by the setup process and saw it as a
foreshadowing of frustrations to come.

When I gave it to my wife, it took her 5 minutes to say that she'd never use
it. And she gave one reason. You can't chat on Facebook AND do something else
on Facebook. For example, you can chat and browse your friends at the same
time. She handed it back to me and grabbed her 13" MBP and never thought about
the iPad again.

It's a shame really. A device pitched as the greatest wife-computer of all
time, and my wife hated it within 5 minutes.

~~~
bruceboughton
Wife-computer?!?!

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dan00
Tablet + Android + PixelQi = iPad + eReader

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Have you been following the announcements at Computex?

<http://Armdevices.net> has some videos with various Pixel Qi prototypes and
apparently "several" actual products are due to be announced by various
manufacturers today. They also do a iPad versus Pixel Qi in sunlight demo, but
it doesn't tell you anything you don't already know.

There's also a bunch of tv-connected HD media players running Android, with
one priced at $40.

~~~
dan00
Thanks for the info.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qLB_eHazQo&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qLB_eHazQo&feature=related#t=0m56s)

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TerminalDummy
Why they didn't simply make a touchscreen MacPro is beyond me. The iPad is
crippled.

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WilliamLP
Another technophile power-user (somewhere in 1% of the iPad market) finds that
it isn't a machine for technophile power users.

