tl;dr – the iPad is shit, and broke all the use-cases that I had in mind for the tablet the I will (eventually) buy.
We have all seen the laundry list of faults with the device. It comes up short in so many categories that to quote them all would be redundant.
But what about use-cases? Features combine to create use-cases, situations where the device would be an excellent fit for a life activity. After the CrunchPad went the way of the Buffalo, I began to hunt for a replacement product to fill my tablet yearnings. The iPad was supposed to be it.
I had a number of scenarios when I would love to ditch my desktop or tablet laptop (both Windows 7 machines), and use a pure tablet device. What happened? The iPad killed them all. Every last one. Interesting thought for you to contemplate: what activities did you have in mind for the iPad before it came out, that you can no longer do?
My list:
Video chatting on my couch, with a device that I could hold.
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.
Catching up on the news.
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.
Writing a short blog post while watching a movie on the ol’ flat screen.
Dead. You need about 8 tabs to write a blog post. Gmail, two tabs for news, one for wordpress, one for post preview, one with an eye on traffic, and one watching the social reaction to the story that you are working on. Oh, and Pandora. Eight. iPad: one. I rest my case.
Reading:
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.
The Daily Show, Castle, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother:
All dead, out, kaput until HTML5 comes along and changes that. Want to guess how long until thedailyshow.com picks up HTML5? A fuck of a long time. That means: import it through iTunes to watch it. Or in other words, more revenue for Apple after I buy it. Most people will just pirate it, and then port it over to their iPad. Oh, but wait. Even after I do that I only have, get this, 16 gigabytes (on the low end device), to use. How about a big fuck that to go around? The power of streaming is that you don’t have to store shit. So yeah, if I did have flash, then I would probably not give a rat’s ass about the storage size. Apple porks you both ways.
Casual Gaming:
Again, when are we going to see HTML5 casual gaming? I love the game “desktop tower defense,” which is flash based. iPad? No.
Porn:
For the single males reading this, it’s a big deal, yeah? Right. No flash, no bang, if you get me.
I could go on, but you get it. No flash, multitasking, and tiny-storage has borked the device for me. It is literally worthless. If you buy one, bully.
“Catching up on the news.” – I wouldn't be suprised if there was an app that allows multiple tabs but even Mobile Safari allows for multiple windows which is basically the same thing on an iPhone/iPad.
“Reading” – The iPhone allowed you to listen to music whilst doing _anything_ else on the phone. I'm sure the iPad will also allow this.
“The Daily Show, Castle, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother” – Pay for it or wait until the stream providers get clever and offer iPhone compatible streams like BBC iPlayer.
“Casual Gaming” – Who gives one about HTML5 gaming when there's the friggin' app store?
“Porn” – I'm preeety sure there are iPhone compatible porn sites somewhere on the Internet.
“Catching up on the news.” – I wouldn't be suprised if there was an app that allows multiple tabs but even Mobile Safari allows for multiple windows which is basically the same thing on an iPhone/iPad.
“Reading” – The iPhone allowed you to listen to music whilst doing _anything_ else on the phone. I'm sure the iPad will also allow this.
“The Daily Show, Castle, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother” – Pay for it or wait until the stream providers get clever and offer iPhone compatible streams like BBC iPlayer.
“Casual Gaming” – Who gives one about HTML5 gaming when there's the friggin' app store?
“Porn” – I'm preeety sure there are iPhone compatible porn sites somewhere on the Internet.
horrible post. don't keep it up.
horrible post. don't keep it up.
I'm willing to the bet that the iPad will actually support most of these use cases just fine. The video chat and Flash are clearly out, however I think the rest are fine.
What makes you think that the iPad does not support tabbed browsing? Why would Apple create a new version of mobile Safari that has fewer features than the one on the iPhone? Obviously I can't make this statement for certain, but I suspect that the iPad supports tabbed browsing in exactly the same manner as the iPhone.
As for listening to music while doing other things; again, why would the iPad lack functionality that the iPhone already has? With the iPhone you can listen to music in the background through the iPod app. Why would this be any different on the iPad? You can even listen to internet radio in the background on the iPhone because it plays in QuickTime. What makes you think Apple will intentionally cripple the iPhone OS for the iPad?
And as for there being no HTML5 casual gaming, I give you freeciv.net.
Sure HTML5 might not be there right now to replace all the use cases for Flash, but the more people are out there with HTML5 supporting devices, especially HTML5 supporting devices that do not support Flash (and there are millions upon millions of such devices out there being used every day) the faster we will see HTML5 adoption and Flash's timely demise.
I'm willing to the bet that the iPad will actually support most of these use cases just fine. The video chat and Flash are clearly out, however I think the rest are fine.
What makes you think that the iPad does not support tabbed browsing? Why would Apple create a new version of mobile Safari that has fewer features than the one on the iPhone? Obviously I can't make this statement for certain, but I suspect that the iPad supports tabbed browsing in exactly the same manner as the iPhone.
As for listening to music while doing other things; again, why would the iPad lack functionality that the iPhone already has? With the iPhone you can listen to music in the background through the iPod app. Why would this be any different on the iPad? You can even listen to internet radio in the background on the iPhone because it plays in QuickTime. What makes you think Apple will intentionally cripple the iPhone OS for the iPad?
And as for there being no HTML5 casual gaming, I give you freeciv.net.
Sure HTML5 might not be there right now to replace all the use cases for Flash, but the more people are out there with HTML5 supporting devices, especially HTML5 supporting devices that do not support Flash (and there are millions upon millions of such devices out there being used every day) the faster we will see HTML5 adoption and Flash's timely demise.
The iPhone/iTouch allows a maximum of 8 simultaneous windows/tabs, it just requires an additional tap to switch between them. From the screenshots, the iPad has this too (no clue if it has the same limit), so it's just a tradeoff of an additional tap when switching windows/tabs vs. more screen space all the time by hiding the tabs.
Music is one of the allowed background apps since it's Apple's, so unless by no music while you read you meant no streaming from 3rd party apps, that bullet point works perfectly.
Safari stays open too unless you run out of RAM, in which case it simply reloads the active page. Actually, outside of apps that need constant network access (voice chat, streaming music, etc), there isn't much difference between true multitasking and the current system of apps quickly launching to the exact place you left off + push notifications. Well unless you want multiple apps on the screen at once, which the iPhone can't do well due to screen size and iPad is probably avoiding for now for simplicity.
No, there's no Flash support. Sites that rely on Flash are dwindling (good riddance, assuming ads won't start using <video>), several porn sites already have an iPhone version for instance.
The iPhone/iTouch allows a maximum of 8 simultaneous windows/tabs, it just requires an additional tap to switch between them. From the screenshots, the iPad has this too (no clue if it has the same limit), so it's just a tradeoff of an additional tap when switching windows/tabs vs. more screen space all the time by displaying the tabs.
Music is one of the allowed background apps since it's Apple's, so unless by no music while you read you meant no streaming from 3rd party apps, that bullet point works perfectly.
Safari stays open too unless you run out of RAM, in which case it simply reloads the active page. Actually, outside of apps that need constant network access (voice chat, streaming music, etc), there isn't much difference between true multitasking and the current system of apps quickly launching to the exact place you left off + push notifications. Well unless you want multiple apps on the screen at once, which the iPhone can't do well due to screen size and iPad is probably avoiding for now for simplicity.
No, there's no Flash support. Sites that rely on Flash are dwindling (good riddance, assuming ads won't start using <video>), several porn sites already have an iPhone version for instance.
pornhub.com
pornhub.com
TL;DR standard for “Terrible Lists; Don't Read” right?
TL;DR standard for “Terrible Lists; Don't Read” right?
Mobile Safari supports tabbed browsing.
The iPad (and iPhone and iPod touch) do have limited multitasking. Mail, Safari, and iPod apps continue to run in the background I believe. You can definitely listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks while you do other things.
Mobile Safari supports tabbed browsing.
The iPad (and iPhone and iPod touch) do have limited multitasking. Mail, Safari, and iPod apps continue to run in the background I believe. You can definitely listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks while you do other things.
That is the best comment lol
This is real, friend. Understand the reasons. Also try http://goo.gl/Wtop
This is real, friend. Understand the reasons. Also try http://goo.gl/Wtop
this is such a waste of money