

Sent From My iPad - zachwill
http://massivegreatness.com/sent-from-my-ipad

======
darkstalker
I'm an Android user and bought an iPad some days ago. Overall it feels pretty
weird and unintuitive from my point of view.

First thing I tried was uploading some images on it, but can't upload files
via USB storage, have to use iTunes for that. I'm a linux user, so had to
install windows on VirtualBox and then forward the USB por to virtualized
iTunes. After doing that I realize that can't just place files on the
filesystem, files are bound to a particular application, so I have to upload
the images to an image viewer, and that program "owns" the files. Also apps
seem to be isolated from each other, when on Android they often communicate
via "intents".

Then I went to the App Store to get some apps to get started, and it asked me
to create an Apple Id, I entered the info, then it asked me for credit card
number.. I just wanted to get some free apps and skip the credit card part,
but it didn't let me continue without it. So cancelled the Apple Id creation,
went googling, and after a few tries managed to create the Apple Id account
without registering a credit card (you need to download a free app). Seems
that it's persuading you to enter a credit card, since the "none" payment
option wasn't visible by default. After browsing the store for a while, most
of the apps are paid and it's pretty hard to get free apps. You can't really
get any decent app without paying, on Android 90% of the apps you'll use
everyday are free.

So, overall it feels limited, there is no contact with the underlying
filesystem or OS, most apps have very poor or zero configuration, and trivial
tasks (like uploading files from your PC) require extra cumbersome steps.
Seems to be designed as a device for consuming, a toy, not something you're
gonna work with. My desktop computer is far superior than an iPad.

~~~
mannkind
Have you ever watched someone organize their own files on disk? Copy files
between disks/USB drives? Try to copy a file between two machines (yes, even
on Windows)? Or get lost in settings or configuration files?

People, typical people, do. not. understand. any. of. those. things. Yes, some
people do but _most_ people don't and they don't _want_ to either.

Advanced users of < _anything_ > really need to realize that just because
something is simple to _you_ does not mean it's simple to _everyone_ ; heaven
forbid we try to make things that more people can use and understand.

~~~
vacri
Typical people understand the file/folder paradigm just fine. It's just a
myth, pure FUD, that people have trouble with this idea. Things like the
problem copying between computers is really about the issue of connectivity,
not about the concept of copying object foo onto computer bar.

Naives quite happily understand of their files as moveable objects, similar to
apples in a basket. In all the hand-holding I've done of naive users, even
those people who get thoroughly confused that there's 'left' and 'right'
'clicks' still firmly grasp the basic idea of files.

~~~
projct
In my spare time I tutor office workers, casual users, and students on how to
use Office and various other tools to improve their workflow, etc.

This is not FUD at all. The files/folders concept is one of those things that
most people just don't understand.

------
ansible
The keyboard is a crutch?

I strongly disagree. When there is another input method that allows me to
rapidly and precisely enter text, then, at that point the keyboard will be a
crutch for us old fogies.

I haven't seen anything short of a direct neural interface that can replace a
keyboard in the near future. I've tried some of the alternatives, but I didn't
see myself becoming fast and accurate enough for them not to be annoying.

~~~
dkrich
Agreed. There just isn't a more effective tool for communicating instructions
to a computer than a keyboard, and I don't think it's really close. To say
that the keyboard is "a crutch to the past" is in my view no different than
saying that spoken words or written language are a crutch to the past. Just
because something has worked well for a long time doesn't mean that it
necessarily is due for a change. Sometimes just working well is far more
valuable than perceived convenience or migrating to new technologies.

To me the only real pain point for using a keyboard is added bulk, but that in
and of itself is not a huge deal. In fact when I am traveling and have to use
my laptop, I miss having my iMac keyboard with a number pad and additional
inputs that don't have to be combined into single keys with multiple
functions. There's a reason nobody codes on their phones or tablets- there's
no effective way to communicate with it at high speeds.

~~~
whatusername
Really?

I'd love to see you edit a photo using just a keyboard.

A Physical keyboard is incredibly limited because it allows us to communicate
one of two things to the computer. We can communicate a single character. (ie
- a fraction of a word which is a fraction of an idea). Or we can communicate
a single pre-defined intent (ie - a function key or shortcut). The way we
communicate intents (CTRL-C, ESC, CTRL-ALT-DEL, F5) changes with the
application but the Hardware itself doesn't). This is very limiting.

~~~
goostavos
>I'd love to see you edit a photo using just a keyboard.

Heh, I'd like to see you edit without one.

Any editor worth his salt will have mapped his shortcuts to sit under his
keyboard hand. How is moving a finger 1/4 of an inch in any direction to call
entirely new windows/tool/pulgins/etc limiting? What do you suggest as a
betting input device?

>The way we communicate intents (CTRL-C, ESC, CTRL-ALT-DEL, F5) changes with
the application but the Hardware itself doesn't). This is very limiting.

Could you expand on this? I don't quite get the point your trying to make.

------
magoon
I can SSH from my iPad. I can remote in. I have a bluetooth keyboard. I love
the Verizon 3G. I have taken it on trips solo.

The 11" MBA, on the other hand, is available with 8GB RAM and a high-speed SSD
that basically destroys the performance of most laptops with spindle hard-
drives.

Ever since I got the 11" MBA, I have not once reached for my iPad. I even toss
the MBA into my go bag and tether to my iPhone for light work on-the-go.

------
honestcoyote
I don't know why these articles, aimed at a relatively technical audience,
usually concentrate on the iPad as a desktop replacement when they should be
talking about Android.

Android allows you direct access to the filesystem, documents aren't locked to
open in only one app, has processes to allow apps to interoperate, offers
shells and compilers which allows coding in multiple languages, allows
sideloading of applications, has mouse/touchpad support, monitor output (on
tablets with hdmi out), and is generally not locked down to any noticeable
degree.

I could almost use my Asus Transformer, with the keyboard dock, as a laptop
replacement. If it would only offer window tiling so more than one app would
show up at once, and if it had a more robust image editor, then I could
probably make the switch full time. The 12 hour battery life would be a nice
plus.

~~~
Mythbusters
Or better still on Windows Rt with proven Os backing it, Windows should be a
much interesting alternative on a tablet being used as a productive device.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Windows 8 is not a proven OS.

Windows 8 RT probably shouldn't even be used in the same sentence as the word
"proven".

------
pooriaazimi
I too was skeptical about iPad and its usefulness for me (for the first 6 or 7
months after I bought an iPad 2), but right now I do "absolutely" everything I
do (except writing code, which admittedly is a big part of my daily life, but
not as big as I initially thought) on my iPad.

"Everything" includes all email, web browsing (and reading online tutorials
and articles), listening to audiobooks (to be honest I do it more on my iPhone
than iPad), managing tasks (OmniFocus is just fantastic), reading books that I
would've _never_ read on my MacBook _(books like 'JavaScript: The Good Parts',
'Git Pro', 'Head-First C', 'Node: Up and Running' and many chapters of other
books)_.

How do I know that I wouldn't have read these books if it wasn't for the iPad?
Because I wanted to read all of these books (or similar books) for the past
several years but never got to do so because reading PDFs on a computer is
really boring. I was content with blog articles and online tutorials and
thought books were something of the past; but I was really wrong. The quality
of these books are stunning and I've learned so much that my only regret is
why I didn't use my iPad more in the first 5 months (it used to sit on my desk
all day long).

Last year I would've recommended the iPad to novice, incompetent PC users.
Now, I recommend iPad to everyone. Well, maybe except those who can't live
without having direct access to the machine's gut. But even those people can
"jailbreak" (or get an Android tablet) and live a happy life.

------
mirsadm
I've got the complete opposite experience. I use it so rarely that keeping it
charged has become a hassle. Why? Simply because I work from home and my
laptop is right there. It does everything quicker and better the iPad does
(for me at least).

I've only found it useful when travelling for entertainment, light web
browsing etc. Basically a toy.

------
mikeash
It's funny, stories like this actually give me the impression that the iPad is
not yet ready to take over general-purpose computing tasks like this. Because,
if it were, then why bother writing about it? You'd just switch devices and go
about your life. It's kind of like the idea that any danger you see on the
news must be rare, because otherwise it wouldn't be newsworthy.

~~~
ctdonath
Wrong angle. Stories like this, and comments like yours, are because those
insisting "it's not ready" are stunned when they find it is - and has been.

I've been using this iPad 1 for everything (save heavy duty coding) since
minutes after it came out. I just switched devices and went about my life.
Nice to see people figure it out ... if years late. Wish others would realize
its not novel just because it shows up on the news.

(It could be a good coding platform too if Apple allowed compilers on iOS.)

~~~
barbs
> I've been using this iPad 1 for everything (save heavy duty coding) since
> minutes after it came out. I just switched devices and went about my life.
> Nice to see people figure it out ... if years late.

Bloody hipster. :P

------
goronbjorn
I'm dreaming of the day when a programmer writes this article.

~~~
stackingcode
One did.

[http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-
macbook-...](http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-
an-ipad)

------
mparlane
Here was me thinking the title implied the article was going to be about the
dangers of leaking information such as the device used to post on a certain
network.

The other day I got twitter spam directed to my account that was designed to
be run on android but not display anything on a pc :(

------
mrwilliamchang
This experiment is something I've been curious about for awhile. Tablets are
so much easier and cheaper than traditional PC's that is hard to imagine
normal consumers buying PC's in the future. However normal consumers still
need to type. The obvious answer is buying a keyboard for your tablet, but
this has not caught on. Maybe Siegler is the start of a trend?

------
Brajeshwar
One of the first things I do on my mobile devices is to change that "Sent from
my iThing" to my own simple signature.

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celerity
How does clumsily being able to replicate a very basic task that laptops have
been doing for many years extremely well for $100 imply that tablets are going
to kill computers? This might well be the case (I hope so!), but being able to
attach a keyboard is not the indicator of change this guy wants it to be.

------
fukutis
I personally found that MBA 13" is so much better than my iPad 3, not much
difference in weight either.

------
Mythbusters
and this is why the Surface device sounds so exciting. iPad hasn't been
exploited as a productivity device yet. With Microsoft's stronghold on
productivity market, this should be interesting.

------
orangethirty
Send me an email and see where I send emails from. :) Hint: not an iPad.

------
drivebyacct2
Am I the only one insane that continues to read these "I only use an iPad" and
just roll their eyes?

Even on an Android tablet I would be extremely upset without a keyboard and my
suite of applications. I can't even possibly begin to imagine how painful it
would be on an iPad. The article from the developer who uses Linode isn't even
a good comparison point. As in, the iPad is effectively nothing more than a
thin client. A $35 raspberry Pi and a freebie monitor off of Craigslist can do
all of that.

Most of the articles can be summarized as: most of the time, tablets are fine
for people consuming content. Wifi, Cellular data make access to the cloud
trivial. I'm sure if I were writing for my blog named "massivegreatness" then
I would be perfectly happy with my Android phone and a keyboard. The notion
that keyboards are going away is more of the delusion I expect from MG.

Furthermore, who cares if he wrote this on his iPad? I could write this on my
phone without a keyboard, or I could write this on my 11" MBA, or I could
write this on an iPad with a keyboard.

(Hint, the MBA is more powerful, and as compact as an iPad+KB.)

~~~
ricardobeat
_bla bla bla content consumption_

This is just parroting. The author specifically says he uses a Macbook at
home, and the iPad is now his choice for travel, not his only computer.

A raspberry pi is nowhere near the computing/graphics power, portability,
battery life (haha) of an iPad. It doesn't even have a case for christ's sake,
what a stupid comparison. Yeah, lugging around a bare motherboard attached to
a monitor is just the same.

How's this for a "consumption only device"?
<http://madewithpaper.fiftythree.com/>

~~~
drivebyacct2
"For christ's sake, what a stupid" reply. You mixed and matched what you
wanted to make me look silly. Despite being disingenuous, you missed the
entire point of my post.

edit: I just can't get over the tone of your post, especially given that
despite my implication of productiveness and keyboard, you gave an example
that explicitly and obviously only requires a stylus.

~~~
ricardobeat
It doesn't require a stylus, a finger is fine - and a laptop/desktop requires
a mouse/trackpad...

Sorry about the tone, I just found myself comparing a raspberry to an iPad,
couldn't help it. Point stands, an iPad is not just a thin client nor
replaceable by one, and perfectly capable of being used for (some kinds of)
productive work.

