"iPad" entries
Tethering the iPad, in Perspective
"I am from the future. I bring you grave news. Humanity lies at a crossroads. Alas, in my time people did not choose wisely. We let our differences drive us apart, we neglected science and technology, and we lost far too many to war and plague before we realised the errors of our ways. I bring you hope in the…
Ebook annotations, links and notes: Must-haves or distractions?
O'Reilly editors discuss ebook functionality and connected reading experiences
Should ebooks be chock full of links, annotations, and sharing tools? Or is a quiet and disconnected experience the way to go? O'Reilly editors recently tackled these questions in a great back-channel discussion. We decided to share a handful of notable excerpts
The iPad isn't a computer, it's a distribution channel
The iPhone was a relatively open phone and we accepted it, but the iPad is a relatively closed computer designed to be a controlled distribution channel, and that's a bummer. The thing is, Jobs' argument was always a bit disingenuous. Closed follows from his brain architecture, not from an argument on behalf of his customers or their network providers. Those are post facto justifications supporting an already-held point of view. And the reason the iPad is going to stay closed isn't because it is good for users, it's because it is good for Apple.
Grumpy old men, the "Inmates" and margins
iPad, iPhone and the future of computing
As the iPad descends upon us, it is fair to ask, "Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?" Depending upon whom you ask, the conclusions vary widely. The yin and yang of openness vs. integrated raises a fundamental question that underscores the battle being fought in the simmering industry battle between Apple and Google.
We are iPad. Resistance is (not) futile
Apple may have closed the iPad, but you don't need permission to open it.
A lot of people are upset about how closed the iPhone, and now the iPad, are. Cory Doctorow wrote a lengthy piece about the evils of the iPad and its awful closed system. I agree that Apple has taken far too much away. I agree that it is infantalizing to require us to send in the iPad to get its battery replaced. But, my gosh, when did developers ever need permission to break things? When did Steve Jobs become not just rule maker, but some sort of deity that actually prevented me from ignoring said rule maker, and doing whatever I could with my device?
Games & Entertaiment account for half of all iPad apps
98% of apps in the U.S. iTunes app store label themselves as "iPad compatible", but most were written for iPhones or iPods. One week into its launch there are about 2,300 apps that run only on iPads. Measured in terms of number of unique apps, Games and Entertainment account for about half of all the iPad apps.
Why iPad Adaptation is an Uphill Battle for Incumbent Publishers
I heard quite a bit of buzz the past few days about the Popular Science+ iPad app, a "reimagining" of the magazine for the iPad (for the low-low price of $4.99 per issue), so I took a look at it last night. And while it's slick, the problem is that it's … a "reimagining" of the magazine. When someone…
Who is the iPad for?
iPad adoption carries mixed messages and open questions
Jason Grigsby says that despite claims by many techies that the iPad is targeted at those who need a simpler computer, Apple itself has never made that argument.
The iPad and computing's middle ground
How much computing happens between the phone and the laptop? We'll see.
The iPad doesn't quite achieve full-fledged "embedded" status, but Marc Hedlund says it does move computers and networks closer to activities that so far have been difficult to reach. One simple example: Phil Schiller's demo of the iWork spreadsheet app, Numbers, in the iPad launch keynote showed a spreadsheet tracking a local soccer team. It's a great demo. Would you carry a laptop around a soccer field?
iPad falls short on cloud integration
Complicated iPad synchronization reveals a missed opportunity
The iPad is an amazing piece of hardware, but it’s still a 1.0 device. At the top of the “to be improved list” should be a simple mechanism for synchronization and cloud access. The iPad and the iPhone are perfect smart terminals for cloud computing. At some level Apple knows this, as it was pushing a MobileMe discount with iPads this weekend. But when you get your hands on an iPad, you realize that Apple missed a real opportunity for deep integration with its cloud offerings.