The Apple Tablet

[Peter Wolf]

That John Naughton guardian article quoted above was nothing but a lot of Bollox .Nothing but overblown rubbish.

A company that produces an item that is restrictive in the amount of applications it offers hardly makes them "One of the worlds biggest control freaks" does it ? or the "the gatekeeper to the online world".He would have been better off directing that diatribe towards Microsoft instead particularly when he starts babbling on about Orwell and Huxley.Then he starts babbling on about how Apple have a disruptive impact on the computing and media industries.WTF is that about ??Is he saying that a company that produces software and computers etc shouldnt produce innovative products ??
 

What a Crock of Shit.

John Naughton is just an opinionated Blowhard.

Come to think of it why would "One of the worlds biggest control freaks" give you the option if you buy a Mac with an Intel processor the option of running both windows and OS software  

I think that point alone kills off John Naughtons argument alone and if you dont like a product then dont buy it.Simple as that.

I am not a die hard Apple freak either as i only own a Mac and nothing else.This is partly because of security issues and partly because of Linux and partly because i have issues with Microsoft/Bill Gates and partly because i dont rate Microsoft products and i dont rate PCs.

[TordelBack]

I own and work with both Macs and PCs, and have for almost 25 years now.  At different times I've preferred one or the other, and cursed one or the other, but right now I can't afford to pay for tech support so have to ride herd over all my colleagues'  fairly undemanding  but heterogenous computer use - and in terms of what causes me the least trouble week in week out, Macs win hands down.

In fact I'd be happy if I never had to use a Windows machine for work again, even though I'm more comfortable rummaging about in their metaphorical innards, mainly because I've come to understand that there is a reason for that familiarity with what's under the hood - I have had to spend a disproportionate amount of time poking about in there.  On the rare occasions that one of our Macs isn't working it's usually a hardware problem, and frequently covered by warranty.  If one of our Windows machines isn't working it could be one of a million things, and bang goes my weekend finding out. 

Macs tend to be fit for purpose at the point of sale.  My MacBook has worked as my main work and entertainment computer every single day for four years now, on site and on planes and in tents, and aside from replacing the battery it's never caused me a moment's trouble - and it still does the relatively limited range of things I want it to do.  That'll do for me.

[radiator]

Article about this on Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/5463681/comic-books-will-look-incredible-on-the-ipad

[Peter Wolf]

Article about the lack of Flash on Ipads :



http://www.cultofmac.com/adobe-theres-no-flash-on-ipad-because-apple-is-protecting-content-revenue/28564

[Jim_Campbell]

Article about the lack of Flash on Ipads :
http://www.cultofmac.com/adobe-theres-no-flash-on-ipad-because-apple-is-protecting-content-revenue/28564

That article -- and Adobe -- are full of shit.

Firstly: YouTube will work on the iPad because it works on the iPhone, and that's because YouTube re-encoded all its videos in h264 format. Whatever the reasons for Apple wanting to resist .flv becoming the standard for delivering video on the web, the fact is that the formats Apple are promoting as the alternative -- HTML5 and h264 -- are open standards, where Flash is not.

Secondly: for Adobe to protest that Flash isn't buggy is laughable. Whenever Safari crashes, it asks for permission to send a crash report to Apple. I've heard on another forum from a software developer that more than 50% of those crash reports pinpoint Flash as the cause ... the average punter doesn't care what causes the crash, they'll just conclude that Safari is a buggy browser, but from Apple's point of view, if ONE piece of software is causing 50% of your crashes in a key application, I'd be doing my best to avoid it, too.

Cheers!

Jim

[Tweak72]

Interesting article on the possible wider ramifications of Apples current way of controlling things in the FT.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/054bd53c-1147-11df-a6d6-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

and an interesting break down of that artical on BBC blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/02/apple_an_open_and_shut_case.html

[Jim_Campbell]

and an interesting break down of that artical on BBC blog

*Shrug*

I'll confess that I don't get it ... games consoles are closed systems, and no-one pisses and moans about that.

Cheers

Jim

[Richard T Field]

I am really non techie.

What is the big deal with Flash. Why is it a big deal that it isn't on the Ipad?

[Jim_Campbell]

What is the big deal with Flash. Why is it a big deal that it isn't on the Ipad?

None of those games you play on Facebook will work, because they're all built with Flash, and a great deal of the video you will encounter on the web (outside of YouTube) will refuse to work because the video has been encoded with Flash. This will rule about 99% of porn sites, BTW.

Cheers!

Jim

[Tweak72]

Well, unless you are
A) One of the board
B) A hardcore gamer
C) 12 years old
D) All of the above

Then gaming is a small part of computer use and more and more these games are played on specific gaming machines like the 360, PS3 and Wii. There are starting to be more uses for consoles like limited browsing, email and social networking but again that’s specific to a certain market, Gamers.

So you have gaming and then you have everyone else. Trends change. Systems change. And usage changes with the multi use platform people are always trying to find more new ways to use it. Sites like Friends Reunited and Live Journal kind of started the social network and blogging thing and then Blogger and MySpace did it a different way, then Facebook, then Twitter and so innovation goes on.

The point is if a Company like Microsoft or Apple have a popular system that they control and then stop anything they don’t like it is likely to stagnate that system. Microsoft did it with Netscape but they didn’t get away with it. And so we now have an alternative of Firefox to both IE and Safari that more people are happy with.

Adobe Flash may very well be rubbish. Apple may also be using that as an excuse for protecting their own system and making things difficult for the competition.

And what happens if one of the developers ends up with the potential to be the next Apple or Facebook or Twitter and Apple stops them because they have their own not as good programme? What happens if Apple loses their edge and start becoming as shoddy as Microsoft has been in the past?

[Richard T Field]

Ok. Good job i just want it to read comics on.

Is it going to have a port to connect to a PC if the wifi coverage is a bit dicey.

This is how I currently load songs onto my ipod.

[pauljholden]

There's an apple ipod connector (plugs into the USB port)

-pj

[Dandontdare]

This will rule about 99% of porn sites, BTW.

Is that a good idea, commercially speaking? If no flash = no porn, then it's a foot-shooting incident surely?

[Jim_Campbell]

The point is if a Company like Microsoft or Apple have a popular system that they control and then stop anything they don’t like it is likely to stagnate that system. Microsoft did it with Netscape but they didn’t get away with it. And so we now have an alternative of Firefox to both IE and Safari that more people are happy with.

You're lumping Safari in with IE? You're aware that Apple only developed a browser because Microsoft discontinued IE for the Mac, right? Apple had no intention of producing browser software until that point. Also, Safari is built on WebKit, which is open source.

FWIW, although there is a popular myth that Microsoft drove Netscape out of business, the simple fact of the matter was that IE4 and IE5 were very, very good browsers, whilst at the same time Netscape tried to consolidate browser and e-mail client into one product -- Netscape Communicator -- which was unusable for either purpose.

(I know, I tried to use Communicator briefly ... try this for a genius piece of software design: in the days when dial-up was still the norm, Netscape would re-load the entire page if you resized the browser window.)

Plus, I'll point out again that the alternative option that Apple are promoting to Flash -- a proprietary format that can only be coded for using Adobe's own software -- is a combination of h264 for video encoding and HTML5 for interactive content, both of which are open standards.

Now, if you want to discuss the difference between a vertical strategy like Apple's and a horizontal one, like Microsoft's, and have a sensible conversation about whether the Jobs' control-freakery is too high a price to pay for the unified user experience, I'm fine with that.

If, on the other hand, you want to make snotty little jibes about "iSheep" and convince yourself that you're somehow superior to the crowd, then I'm afraid you can just fuck off.

Jim

[Mike Gloady]

This thread scares me.  Some folks get all tribal about the browser/computer/mp3 player they use.  It's rather football-hooligan sometimes.

The iSheep comment is something I've heard a bit of in the past.  Don't like it and don't like the attitude it presents.  It's just STUFF you use for a given purpose.  If it works for you, great.  If not - use something else. 

Your chosen browser/computer/mp3 doesn't make you a better person or give you membership of an elite tribe.