The new iPad

[Kanada Kev]

There's people creaming their pants about the announcement of the latest Apple prod today.

The iPad was envisioned years ago and really is nothing new

[ollie]

I cringe every time I see the name.

This has got to be the early candidate for technology disappointment of the year. An iPod Touch for giants.

[bouche]

disagree. it's hardly cringeworthy. It's just obvious. The sector seems to be very interested in tablets, but no one has pulled one off yet. The iPhone SDK upgraded for a larger device seems like it could be the thing that actually helps to capture people's wallets.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video

[Guest Low Roller]

[bouche]

here's some things to hate about it right out of the box

[AD]

Would be nice if Apple realised that a LOT of people / sites use Flash.

[ollie]

disagree. it's hardly cringeworthy. It's just obvious.

I cringe because it sounds like a woman's sanitary napkin.

I'd be interested in one if it sported a lightweight OS-X and not the app model. It's not really what I think of as a tablet in that sense. And so many obvious features have been left out.

I also might have more interest if I didn't already have an iPod Touch. A lot of the comments I've read today indicate other users feel the same. So I wonder how much this will sell? It will also lose a lot of momentum with the long wait to market.

It's hard to figure out Apple's strategy here.

[bouche]

I have a feeling that they're holding back on some software. I'm sure it is more than capable of running apps in the background, and we know it can run flash. Alot of the beefs are based around the OS being close to iPHone. Remmeber, it's currently running iPHone OS 3.2

[AD]

it is more than capable of running apps in the background, and we know it can run flash

source? none of that is possible with the iphone software it ships with. lame.

seems like a bad idea, executed poorly.

[ollie]

Microsoft's rumoured Courier tablet looks cool...

http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet

[bradm]

Lenovo's tablet looks interesting, especially the way you can "dock" it into a keyboard, making it a laptop running Windows 7.

-5DYuVN6nuY

Aloha,

Brad

[bouche]

it is more than capable of running apps in the background' date=' and we know it can run flash [/quote']

source? none of that is possible with the iphone software it ships with. lame.

seems like a bad idea, executed poorly.

source=me just then and there

by "it", I meant the hardware (Processor: 1GHz Apple A4 Chip). that's why I mentioned the hope for a software release to make this possible.

Microsoft's rumoured Courier tablet looks cool...

http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet

yeah, CGI demos of hardware are so cool :susel:

[TheAlphaNerd]

Visinin says it better than I can

the iphone and (now) ipad are terrible devices because the distribution of content is controlled by one single entity who has proven many times that it is more than willing to abuse its position.

> is Ableton open? Is M4L open?

is the source available? no. is the platform itself open? yes. while ableton controls the software and the bundled plugins themselves, you are free not to use them. you can acquire or develop plugins for both Ableton and M4L (VSTs and externals, respectively) and Ableton and cycling74 will make no effort to control distribution of what you develop.

> is your Cable TV open?

no! this is exactly the problem. the analogy of cable TV is spot-on for the fact that the cable provider has sole discretion over what plays over their network. so, too, has apple insisted on maintaining a stronghold over the content that comes into their devices. the cable TV model is what you are buying into with these devices.

the issue here is that apple wants control, they want it bad, and they will go to great lengths to keep it. Peter makes an interesting point on CDM that it is apple, not the cell phone companies, that has kept such a tight grip on app development. i don't have a problem with the device itself, but i'm dismayed that apple has developed such a love affair with this model of distribution.

that being said, the ipad itself is a very nice piece of hardware. in my opinion, the fact that the reception is lukewarm is actually very good because a more open platform (ala linux) will fix some of the issues people are having with the device (no multitasking, etc).

[SaggyBalls]

multitasking would be great to have as a part of the iPad, as I have been envisioning owning Apogee's 'one' audio interface. it's a 1 channel USB device that has a built in condenser mic. the thing sounds great and is the size of an iPod...

...but it has its own control software, so it remains to be seen if it could even run on the iPad with a recording program...like a scaled back version of garageband.

Though the iPad would serve a lot of people really well and the interface is great, the product I've been waiting for for months has yet to materialize.

Too bad for me that the apogee products are pretty much mac only.

Fingers crossed...by the time I will be able to actually purchase a product like this, the kinks *should* be evened out.

[Schwa.]

WOW! Another different computer that works the same as every other computer in the world only it looks different but not that different because it's just bigger. WOW! Touch you say?!?!?! WOW! Browse the web you say??!!?? WOW! Play music and download stuff!?!?! WOW! Gives Davey Boy a bath?!?! WOW!! This fucker does everything! WOW!

[Booche]

Just dont try and plug a USB device into it and you'll be fine.

[phishtaper]

I cringe because it sounds like a woman's sanitary napkin.

yeah, it's a strange name and i cannot help but wonder how much focus group work they did on this. sure, ipod, ipad, i get it.

maybe im just as sick as you are, ollie. but still. London Fog doesn't make fancy outerwear called Coat-X.

[Northern Wish]

From the Lefsetz Letter:

1. Shitty Name

There's a linguist somewhere who can explain why the hard "a" sound in "Pad" is unappealing. "iSlate" was better. So many of the Web prognostications were better. And if the original hard drive iPod can be renamed the "Classic", maybe the iPod Touch can be renamed the "iPhone For Verizon Subscribers" and the iPad can gain its rightful title, "iTouch".

2. Narrative

Steve Jobs understands it's about story. Whenever you try to sell something, facts and emotions need to be woven into a fable, starting here and ending up there. Presentation is key.

And speaking of presentation, the Keynote effect of dust being blown up whenever a price descended was genius. Kind of like when lasers were first introduced in rock shows.

3. No Fakery

Jobs was actually using the iPad, you could see what he was doing on it transferred to the big screen, it lent credence to the product, to the whole proceeding. When you drape your music in effects, it actually undercuts the music itself. Then again, if the music can't stand on its own...

4. A&R

The presentation needed to be shorter and needed a hit single.

Got to give Jobs credit, when no one was clapping, he didn't lose his cool, he didn't speed up, he stayed to the script. If you do live presentations, you know this is almost impossible to achieve. Which is why bands will tell you one show is better than the next, they can feel the energy of the audience, the audience was with them. Steve started out with the audience in his hand, then he lost them, minute by minute.

5. Hit Single

Jobs needed the one killer app that would make us rush out and buy an iPad. He was so busy focusing on album tracks, he forgot the home run. Sure, the iPad can surf, display pictures, create presentations, but what can it do that wows us? The iPad is like a blank CD. The technology is marvelous. But you get over that. Because the music is what you're truly interested in, even if the sound ain't that great, you get the magic of "Satisfaction".

One can argue that iBooks is the killer app. If so, Jobs should have focused on that, convinced people why they needed the iPad for books. Talked about inventory, prices, readability. But he did none of this. So busy trumpeting elements we didn't care about, he buried his message.

6. Saving The Media Business

I think Jobs tried. But he shouldn't have introduced the product until he had partners. Hell, he's not shipping for 60 days anyway. It would have looked better if there were more desirable ways to consume films and tv shows and magazines, all the elements the media speculated about. But these were completely absent. It was like launching a new record company without product. Sure, you might have some legendary executives, you're getting me to pay attention, but now what?

7. Buzz

Now this is the modern music business. Where the anticipation is at a fever pitch, and the product is wanting. And by telling us how great the iPad was, Jobs just made us uncomfortable. He would have been better off underselling it. Talking about hopes and dreams.

Again and again, Jobs has delivered. Met our expectations, even exceeded them. This time, he did not. Proving that everybody can fuck up.

But if you know your rock history, Bob Dylan finally released a clunker known as "Self Portrait". Reviews were scathing. What did Dylan do? He immediately went back into the studio and recorded "New Morning". Because when you're pissed and you've got something to prove, you refocus, you can do great work almost instantly.

Steve... How about another presentation the day this product actually ships?

And how about a Verizon iPhone? Yeah, I know it's incompatible technology, that only a few countries use CDMA, but trumpeting AT&T is like the music industry trumpeting slotMusic and the Digital Compact Cassette, lame formats that work for the businesses purveying them, but are considered a joke by the public.

[Velvet]

Perhaps they could call it the i-makeitshinyandpeoplewillforgetthattheywillwantabetteroneinfourteenmonths.

It's truly a shame what the world is becoming.

[phishtaper]

what is the world becoming?

[Velvet]

I will add that it's because of useless garbage like this that I will one day not be able to buy and read a book, and I like books.

[Velvet]

what is the world becoming?

The world is becoming infatuated with flashing little devices that allow you to spend every spare moment engaged in a time-killing endeavor.

Seriously, every time I see a new useless distraction like this I feel the world getting one dumber.

By the way, I see it every single day. When I ask a kid a question they never bother to think anymore, they just say "I don't know" or take random guesses. They are all walking around with their brain functions in their hands.

You know what calculators did to our ability to do math? These access to information devices are doing that to everything else in our lives.

[Velvet]

chug

[ollie]

+1 Velvet

[Schwa.]

iFad.

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