

The iPad Literally Breaks Every Use Case I Had For It - Raphael
http://layeredbyte.com/2010/01/30/the-ipad-literally-breaks-every-use-case-i-had-for-it/

======
archgrove
Well, the browser has tabs (at least, the iPhone Mobile Safari does, so it's
no stretch to think this does as well). The lack of a camera is, I agree,
silly.

Rather than rebut the rest of his "points" directly, I'll focus on
"multitasking". Frankly, the iPhone and iPad _do_ multitask, in the ways that
are important to (most) people. Multitasking in an end user product really
means "I can do more than one thing at once", not "The computer runs many
processes". The iPhone OS currently accomplishes exactly this, via saved
state.

In any well behaved iPhone app, if you quit, the state of the UI and your data
is persisted, so that when you return, it's like you never left. The UI for
this multitasking is a bit clunky - hit "Home" then pick the app - but for
most people, this works fine. There are only two situations when this doesn't
- when the app does something interesting in the background, and when the
"stack" of application interactions collapses - if I click a mailto: link to
open Mail, quitting that doesn't return me to Safari - I have to go there
again manually.

The two cases of "Does something interesting in the background" that really
people want are audio streaming and notification of some event, and they're
real problems. However, Apple's persistently said they're trying to protect
the user experience (stability, battery life etc) by denying background apps.
I've no reason to believe this isn't the case (I'm mean really, what are they
gaining except geek ire by restricting this?). The audio case is annoying and
needs a solution - the notification case is slightly better since push was
rolled out.

Outside of these cases, the iPhone multitasks well enough for 99% of the
world. His reading case, catching up on the news etc all are handled - you
just have a slightly painful app switch process (i.e. you press two buttons
rather than just one). The only case that isn't is background movies/music
from 3rd party apps - and really, the only sensible case out of that is music
(Do you really watch a movie _and_ browse at the same time on a 10" screen?).
Regardless, I suspect the point will be moot soon enough - OS 4.0 seems very
likely to bring some notion of background processes.

The geek anti-iPad ire really confuses me. What did we expect, other than what
we got? It was _never_ going to run OS X - the user experience would have been
awful without major changes that broke all 3rd party OS X apps (and then,
what's the point?). The hardware, modulo camera, seems entirely reasonable at
a price that's damn good - who realistically expected anything more from an
affordable tablet machine at this point in technology? The "walled garden" is
a real issue, but I think we have, as a group, gained far more than we've lost
with the App store. All these people saying "I could never have been a
tinkerer with an iPad" - poppycock. Download the SDK for free, develop all you
want. Pay a nominal fee to deploy to 100 other devices without ever giving
Apple a look at your app. Or hell, just jailbreak it if the limits of the SDK
are so onerous.

Alternatively, just don't buy it. Having chosen this please, stop filling up
HN/Reddit/The Internet with "The iPad doesn't raise the dead, make me a
billionaire and cure cancer, so all my dreams are shattered and Apple is
awful".

~~~
yuvi
Develop all you want for free: as long as you only want to run your
application on a simulated iPhone. You can't load apps onto your own device
without paying $100/year or jailbreaking. Heck, you can't even use XCode to
compile an app for the iPhone (not simulator) without a license.

Anyway, an additional multitasking use-case is IRC and other apps where you're
in constant contact with a server. With Colloquy, for instance, right now you
need to setup a server to bounce off of or else you leave all channels every
time you switch apps. Of course, this class of uses is one that you don't want
running when the device is off or else the battery drains quickly.

I've always felt that Apple was waiting both for their hardware to become
powerful enough (the original iPod touch consistently ran out of RAM with 2
open webpages + music for instance, and page rendering wasn't exactly snappy)
and also to come up with a good way of limiting the number of background
processes without user involvement. You don't want every other app you launch
hanging around so that when you run out of resources, the OS kills the music
player which you actually wanted open.

------
jsz0
I don't understand why this individual is so angry. If it doesn't meet your
needs don't buy it. What's the problem? I always feel like people who write
this type of stuff just have a really bad attitude because they get so upset
over something so unimportant. It's like they're just trying to find things to
be upset about.

~~~
jeffcoat
No one complains about something that they have no interest at all in -- it's
not a rant about how IBM's newest z/OS mainframe has poor support for browsing
websites that use Flash.

Much more frustrating is something that looks like it could be just exactly
perfect for you, but is for some reason fatally flawed, or just out of reach.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
z/OS doesn't ship with Flash because Adobe's runtime burns MIPs like nobody's
business. Data Center Operations does NOT like having to bring additional
capacity online because the Southeastern Division discovered Farmville in the
middle of year-end batch.

------
jwecker
I was looking forward to a humorous example of even a single use case being
literally broken, since I don't know how to literally break a use case. Alas,
it's just a list of use cases the iPad doesn't meet.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
...and use cases the iPad DOES meet, but which the poster doesn't realize it
meets. Like "tabbed" browsing, listening to music while running another app,
and playing free casual games.

------
bombs
"Even past the fact that the iPad does not have a camera, it cannot run two
applications at the same time. Meaning: talking to my girlfriend, I could not
look up a train time while we talked. Result: have to use my iPhone while we
video chat. All that in a device that commands a price premium."

How do you video chat using an iPhone, which has a camera on the back?

"Again, we run into a software problem. From what I have seen in images
surrounding the iPad, you can only have one tab open at a time. Excellent, if
this was 1996. Hell, even Internet Explorer 7 had multitab browsing. Oh, and
if that Apple sourced processor is so fast, why the hell can I not use it?
Single tabbed browsing is just a plain deal killer for content consumption,
period."

The button to switch windows or tabs is located between the forward and
bookmarks button. It is located in the bottom right on the iPhone.

"Apple almost got there with this one, copying someone else’s interface for
iBooks. But then it hit me again, only one app at a time! I listen to music
while I read. And Gmail is never closed. Blast, there goes that."

If you're using the iPod and Mail applications, this isn't an issue, as both
of these applications can run in the background.

"Again, when are we going to see HTML5 casual gaming? I love the game “desktop
tower defense,” which is flash based. iPad? No."

There are many casual games in the App Store, including many tower defence
games (my favourite is Star Defence, but there are plenty of good free ones,
if 99c is too dear). This is only going to increase with Flash CS5.

~~~
chrischen
> There are many casual games in the App Store, including many tower defence
> games (my favourite is Star Defence, but there are plenty of good free ones,
> if 99c is too dear). This is only going to increase with Flash CS5.

Why make people pay when there's FREE games out there online if only flash
were supported. Flash support means opening up to a whole world of preexisting
games, rich internet applications, and porn sites.

But not allowing flash creates an artificial monopoly that is the app store.

~~~
jstevens85
The argument against using Flash is that it's not suitable for a low-powered,
long battery-life hand held device. My guess is that Jobs is worried that if
Flash were enabled, the average consumer would notice a much shorter battery
life. The consumer won't understand that Flash is to blame, and will end up
blaming the iPad instead.

>Why make people pay when there's FREE games out there online if only flash
were supported.

There are also many free games on the App store. Also, with the new version of
Adobe Flash, it's a relatively trivial process to turn a Flash game into a
native iPhone app.

~~~
jacquesm
The application you have just started uses 'flash' content, this will
adversely affect your battery life.

Click <ok to continue> or <cancel to save your battery>

edit: way to go downmodder, getting modded down for presenting a possible
solution to an issue is a new low for HN.

Congratulations. Now if you'd be so kind as to explain why you thought that
was not a viable solution?

~~~
jstevens85
By removing Flash altogether, Apple is encouraging web developers to upgrade
to new web technologies (HTML 5). If the iPhone/iPad had the option of using
Flash, then web developers wouldn't have an incentive to produce non-Flash
content. I'm guessing that had the iPhone come with Flash at launch, Youtube
would never have implemented MP4 and HTML 5 video tags.

~~~
jacquesm
Ggp mentioned battery life explicitly, that's why I addressed that.

I'm probably one of the largest flash haters on the planet, it took me all of
7 years to convert our video to flash, because I simply can't stand it that
for basic functionality like that we need a plug-in.

That said, that particular plug in is now so widespread that even people that
can't stand it also can't really get around it.

HTML5 is not here yet, flash is here today. So, for live content, where
downloading and converting is not possible this move by apple limits their
users uses of the web.

The best way imo would be to show side-by-side the same functionality, have a
period of cross-over, dual implementation and to deprecate flash.

To simply not support it is not going to convince any developers to make HTML5
content, it's simply going to frustrate a lot of end users.

I just got an angry email from some guy ranting at me that since I won't
support the iphone he will no longer be frequenting my site. I sympathize, my
budget is limited, both in time as well as in funds so he'll have to go his
way.

I don't like it when choices are forced, choices ought to be free. HTML5 video
capable deployment still sucks, flash is, as annoying as it is, at this moment
in time the only viable way of getting good coverage on the majority of
platforms.

Battery life decisions should be up to the user, not up to the manufacturer.
If you need or want to see that video and there is no very good technical
reason why you can't (and shortening battery life is not a good enough reason,
if that were a prime decision factor the display in the iPad would have been a
more economical model) then you should simply be able to.

------
jkincaid
I don't really get why everyone is talking about Flash and its relation to
porn. If the the number of non-Flash playing devices grows, couldn't these
porn sites just go to HTML5?(this applies to all other video sites, actually)

~~~
pyre
Well, he could also be talking about no flash memory card slot. If you were to
watch non-streaming porn on the device, I doubt that you would want it to be
in the same place on the device as your regular movies (lest you hand the iPad
to someone else that stumbles across them). You would probably want to have
your porn on a memory card that you could remove when you are no longer using
it.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
Or in a locked "porn vault" on the device. Which there are already apps for.

------
jaxn
I read the article and it seems like flamebait to me.

The iPhone has what is essentially 8 tabs for browsing. Music is able to be
played in the background. Gmail will have push email so how is that different
than running in the background from a use-case perspective?

This post does not deserve to make it such a high spot on HN. Not even on the
weekend.

------
akamaka
This guy is a complete idiot, and has obviously never even used and iPhone or
iPod Touch.

 _Apple almost got there with this one, copying someone else’s interface for
iBooks. But then it hit me again, only one app at a time! I listen to music
while I read._

~~~
raptrex
Unless he's talking about using Pandora while reading, I'm pretty sure you can
use the music app in the background

------
martythemaniak
You can't convince fanboys that lack of features will eventually lead to pain
for the users.

~~~
mechanical_fish
You also can't convince nerds that excessive degrees of freedom are a serious
usability problem.

After all, doing six things at once while remembering the state of a bunch of
invisible stateful objects -- tabs, background apps, file hierarchies -- is
the nerd core skill.

Meanwhile, I would note that Apple has apparently sold about 35 million iPod
Touches:

[http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/28/ipod-touch-now-
outselling...](http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/28/ipod-touch-now-outselling-
iphone/)

... which exhibit the exact same set of "missing features" as the iPad.

~~~
jacquesm
But they exhibit at least two features the ipad lacks:

    
    
        - sub $300 pricing
    
        - fit in pockets

~~~
mechanical_fish
Pricing is a question of time. The iPod Touch launched at $300 and $400 price
points. Now it starts at $199.

You're right about the pocket factor: The iPad is a gamble, of course, which
is what makes it interesting. It's hard to know, without trying, how many
people will trade the inconvenience of a larger device for much more screen
real estate, higher performance, and optional 3G networking. All we know is
that there's a market for netbooks, a market for Kindles, and a market for
iPod Touches, which seems to suggest that the potential market for the iPad --
which is both like and not like each of these things -- is worth sampling.

~~~
jacquesm
The problem I see with that is if you're going to lug something that size
around a macbook air is 3 times as expensive, but a run-of-the-mill netbook is
more powerful _and_ a lot cheaper.

~~~
easp
The problem I see is that any netbook I lug around is going to be less useful
than an iPad. The netbook screen is short and you pretty much have to use it
in landscape orientation. The keyboard and trackpad are small and cramped.

Also, I question "a lot more powerful." if you mean powerful in terms of range
of apps or peripherals, then I see your point. If you are talking about raw
performance, you are probably right, but I doubt the difference is going to be
that significant.

I have access to a netbook, but I almost never use it. There aren't many
situations that I'd choose it over either my iPhone or my laptop. The size,
runtime and interaction model of the iPad, on the other hand, suggests
advantages over both a laptop and my iPhone for situations I'm in every day
(not that I won't have me iPhone with me a. The same time).

------
Herring
> _The Daily Show, Castle, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother:_

Annoying workaround, but Air Video can stream from your desktop.

~~~
chrischen
I've always envisioned watching TV on a TV while I have the iPad on the couch
doing other stuff.

~~~
pyre
That may be, but in the Keynote they did push the 'you can watch 10 hours of
video on a single charge' so they _are_ pushing this as a device to watch
video on. If it fails at video, then it's a failure of the device if that is
one of its goals.

~~~
chrischen
They also pushed YouTube on the iPhone and video on the iPhone. Both features
have been unpractical for me (converting videos, tiny screen, battery drain
with 3G video) and the Youtube feature just seems to have been a selling point
tacked on.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
The Youtube feature was Apple laying the groundwork for H.264 displacing FLV
on the web as a whole.

------
dghughes
The Axitron looks pretty sweet, it's a Macbook modded by Axiotron to become a
real Mac tablet computer, the Modbook.

Woz is on the board of advisors.

<http://www.axiotron.com>

------
alextgordon
No tabbed browsing in _Safari_. I'm guessing dozens of tabbed browsers will
pop up in the App store almost immediately. Unless Apple rejects them of
course.

~~~
Zak
Last I checked, Apple rejects anything that duplicates the core functions
included on the device. Those include web browsing, media playing and email.

~~~
jstevens85
<http://www.macworld.com/appguide/article.html?article=138409>

Apple doesn't have a problem with third-party web browsers as long as they use
the WebKit engine. Otherwise, the app would be implementing its own language
interpreter and therefore be against the developer agreement.

~~~
spot
wait did i hear you right -- apple prohibits interpreters?? that would be
truly sad. i was thinking of making a graphical programming language for kids.

------
chrischen
iPad is really good at doing what it's designed to do, and really bad
otherwise. It's not a satisfy all device, as we've seen in the response to it
so far.

~~~
dbz
Really? What the fuck was it supposed to be really good at doing? Running the
iphone OS?

~~~
jstevens85
Yep, exactly.

A lot of tech nerds don't understand just how unnecessarily complex computers
are today. Watch a 60 year old try and use a PC for the first time and you'll
realise how non-intuitive the modern desktop OS is today.

The iPhone OS moves away from antiquated input devices (mice and keyboards
with cursor keys and function buttons) and towards a touch interface that is
simple and intuitive.

The other benefit is the sandboxed limited nature of the native apps. The
average user is tired of having to do a clean wipe of their computer every
couple of years because the software they've installed has slowed down the OS.
I think that in the future, apps won't be allowed to make changes to the
underlying OS. If you want to do something complicated, you'll need offload
your app to the cloud.

~~~
jacquesm
Watch anybody use _any_ piece of advanced technology for the first time and
realize how non-intuitive technology really is.

But after a little bit of practice just about anybody can use a PC, or a Mac
(or a linux box) for that matter.

~~~
evgen
I watched both of my non-techie parents use my iPhone two years ago when I
brought my family home for Xmas and by new years day they both had shiny new
iPhones. They hardly ever used the computers I set up for them and would
routinely update/replace whenever I returned over two decades but they dived
right into the iPhone. My mom had a 3GS before I did.

The learning curve was not as steep and the rewards for learning the device
were more direct and obvious. Anyone can eventually learn to use a computer
running Linux, OS X, or Windows if they really have to, but there is a big
difference between needing to learn how to use something and getting past that
initial hump so quickly that you don't even notice it.

------
waterlesscloud
Is it really single tab browsing? Ugh.

~~~
tdmackey
It allows for multiple windows, which is somewhat similar.

~~~
dschobel
I didn't understand his objection here. Is it the inconvenience of hitting the
"windows" button?

With the iphone's touch interface this is painless and I can't imagine it'll
be any worse for the ipad.

~~~
dbz
Well, for starters, any inconvenience sucks. Glad I got that out of the way =]

His example of having (AT LEAST) 8 tabs open is not the same as eight windows.
Searching through all of them can be quite the inconvenience. I, for example,
currently have 14 tabs open, and six applications running. I do not want to
search through all of those to get to what should be "another tab." I
understand what he's talking about...

~~~
jstevens85
Well, I don't think we've seen yet how the iPad will manage browser windows.
Perhaps when you click on windows, it will be be able to display all of the
open windows at the same time in a grid view.

~~~
GHFigs
_There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to
let you quickly move from one page to the next._ \--
<http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/>

