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Nil illegitimi carborundum : Don’t let the bastards grind you down
01/27/10
The iPad: Seriously, What the Fuck?
When I said that I wanted Apple to release a tablet Macintosh, I meant something running Mac OS X, or at least capable of running OS X and all of my OS X applications (i.e. Photoshop, CSSEdit, Transmit, Firefox, etc). I did not mean something with the watered down iPod/iPhone OS which only allows you to run applications which have been approved by Apple through the Apple store. Basically, it just looks like they took a shrink ray to the iPhone and iPod touch and reversed the process. It is horribly expensive, considering all of it’s limitations and it’s limited uses. It does hearken the possible end of Mac OS X and is quite a scary thing for Apple fans such as myself who believe truly and sincerely that the Mac OS is much superior to any other OS out there. It also reflects Apple’s unwillingness to learn from past mistakes, namely with continuing to use AT&T as the only wireless carrier that works with it. And finally, all of the early adopters are going to get screwed on this deal, this just happens to be a fact of the iPad, plain and simple.
Firstly, the iPad is horribly expensive, especially considering the limitations on the processing power and operating system. I mean, what I want out of a tablet PC is something that can do everything that my Mac at home can do. Even still, something that I can use to even connect to my Mac at home and get files off of it. This seems to fall desperately short of that goal by using the iPod and iPhone OS instead of real Mac OS X. This does make me worry where Apple’s priorities lie and what is the future of Mac OS if Apple will not focus on it for so many of it’s products. The Mac OS is a very powerful OS and I am a loyal Apple user because I believe in the OS but I am starting to see it come more and more into disuse. This is definitely distressing for someone who has been intimately involved with the Apple brand since her childhood and throughout her formative years. This makes it less of a tablet than I was hoping for and this is one of the biggest reasons why I will not be purchasing an iPad now nor in the future until this is corrected.
Secondly, if we learned anything from the iPhone, early adopters always pay a premium and the iPad seems to be no exception. The iPad is horribly expensive and Apple will more than likely reduce the price of the iPad with it’s second version. Hell, maybe Apple’s evil partner AT&T will consider providing a subsidy to the iPad that has 3G capabilities. It is likely that we will see $300 or $400 iPads because consumers will realize quite quickly that in reality, all they are is enlarged iPod touches and iPhones respectively. You could justify that charge if the iPad contained Mac OS X on it with the proper software that would allow us to use all of our applications much like with our desktop. I do believe that Apple has the technology and creative genius to create a port of Snow Leopard and each individual release of Mac OS X following Snow Leopard for the iPad. Hell, we have seen them create the technology to allow easy installation and restoration with the MacBook Air, which allows you to boot from a DVD in another Mac on your Wireless network. How much more difficult would it be to port this functionality for the iPad?
Thirdly, the iPad will not likely come with the ability to choose your Internet carrier, which is sad considering the fact that I do not like AT&T all too much. Apple has not learned it’s lesson from the iPhone to provide a lot more carrier diversity in the countries the iPhone was offered. I do like the idea of having 3G on the iPad because it would allow me to read the articles and readings that are posted on Naropa’s eReserves site while on the bus to class. However, the one thing that I do not like is AT&T’s horribly expensive extortion fee, er I mean deposit (actually, no I don’t) of $500. Yes, that is right, AT&T wants me to pay them $500 before they will even consider giving me service. Isn’t that just 17 different levels of fucked up or what?
I would, however, like to express a few points of joy about the iPad that I do like about it. The first thing is that when it come to web browsing, blogging, shooting off e-mails and some gaming – it seems to be very intuitive that will allow me to do what I need to do without lugging around a CD burner, a power adapter and a keyboard. From the battery life promise, it is very likely that I can take this to Naropa for a full day of classes and keep on taking notes with just a minor charge in between breaks. It could also be very useful for transpacific flights if it lives up to the battery life that is promised on the website. It would allow you to read a book (and along with Apple’s new iBook part of their iTunes store, you can read books for the Amazon Kindle and e-books from Barnes & Noble) on a plane while having the carry-on baggage footprint of a small magazine. It will also allow you to carry it in many bags, including your purse. However, given the reasons above as well, I just don’t think that the iPad is really a mature enough device and I would not advise buying it.
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Tags: apple, Apple iPad, Apple iPhone, Apple iPod, Apple iPod Touch, bad design, battery life, e-books, iPad OS, iPhone, iPhone OS, iPod, iPod Touch, iPod Touch OS, Mac OS X, tablet Mac, tablet PC
I am so sick of the neo-Nazism that has become Apple in the later part of this decade. You can clearly see why the iPhone jailbreaking community is so huge because people just aren’t satisfied with the LACK of functionality and LACK of openness that Apple has bestowed upon their products.
If this is the Apple of the future, then I want nothing to do with their products. Can you imagine a world where you can only download an application on the future versions of OSX through the App Store? As if Microsoft needs more market share but sure, go ahead Apple.
I am really upset at this product for a few reasons:
So, Apple. You are telling me that I can NOT have IM+, AIM, or any other messaging client open while I browse the web or check my email? Why would I EVER use a chat client then? The entire idea behind the invention of a chat client was to have it running in the background while you do other things. You pack this iPad Tampon (I couldn’t resist, sorry lol) with an extremely powerful processor and we are supposed to do what with it? Use 1/4 of its potential by playing a fucking game? Give me a break. This reason and this reason alone is why the iPad jailbreaking community will flourish just like the iPhone community did.
Okay so now if I want to grab photos off my camera I have to pay $30+ for a fucking USB adapter? Something that is an INDUSTRY standard across all forms of computing devices by the way.
Oh there’s more? No notifications… no camera… ridiculous pricing scheme… horribly UGLY design (4:3 screen makes watching movies shitty and have you seen the bezel?) stupidly expensive accessories and adapters… no iBooks in Canada upon launch so that defeats half the purpose of owning one for us right there… and not to mention the fact that our local carrier (Rogers who I’m sure Apple with buttfuck with just like they do with AT&T) will charge even more then AT&T does.
Keep pulling this shit on me Apple and I will take my thousands of dollars to buy new computing devices elsewhere… Somewhere where I can actually run the apps that I WANT to run.
Matthew Craig´s last blog ..mattycraig: If I said I want you back I’d be a liar. There’s nothing left for us to long for anymore.
I was laughing so hard i nearly shit my pants when you called mac OS “powerful.”
You are obviously one of the most ignorant people on the face of the earth.
Powerful operating systems and computers go hand in hand.
I build custom gaming computers for a living and i can honestly tell you that they are some of the most powerful systems that are available to the consumer. I talking i7′s OC’ed to just sub 4 ghz, GDDR3 1800 random access, and some of the newer ait cards with 2 gigs of GDDR5 mem with 3200 streams running in crossfire X. Additionally we have set up 13 server farms for file sharing companies, and data management centers. All of the tasks that these computers have to go through are some of the most fierce processing imaginable
So you may ask, what is the reason why i felt the need to mention these computers? Heres why:
In the 27 years of computer building we have NEVER HAD A SINGLE COSTUMER ASK FOR MAC OS INSTALLED ON THEIR RIG.
Why?
Because linux is THE MOST LIGHTWEIGHT OS EVER. That is the reason that a huge chunk of server farms use it for its hosting.
When it is not used windows is used due to its ability to run some of the most powerful, userfriendly, VPS there are. The world is built on windows and windows built the world.
Match any serous Windows Gaming rig up against a mac and the windows PC will rape the shit out of it 100% of the time in any benchmark.
W7 is the present and future, stop fucking around with this mac bullshit
“Truth”, while your weird accusation that I’m ignorant because of my choice of operating system and your even weirder (and more telling) statement of how Windows 7 (at least, that’s what I assume from your abbreviation, W7) is the ‘present and future’. However, I will make a few comments in response to your comment.
Firstly, I noticed that you used a fake e-mail address and didn’t attach your name to your comments? Why is that? Are you ashamed of what you have to say? You also claim that you have been working on computers for 27 years. Well, here’s the thing, for the first 23 years, that would not be possible unless you were building rigs with PowerPC architecture. The Hackintosh community gathered together once the capability was in the operating system and this happened when they started introducing Intel macs in early 2006.
Secondly, unless you know a business that specializes in it, you wouldn’t order a Hackintosh from just any computer building store. People order Hackintoshes from Psystar because Psystar also wrote much of the BIOS and bootloader software that allows people to install Mac OS X on your computer. People who are generally interested in hackintoshes are uber-geeks that do not want to purchase an Apple-made rig but rather, want some level of customization. To have this desire is indicative of more knowledge about computers than the average user has.
As for running datacentres, I know something about that. I am currently working on a project with a few friends of mine to make the best totally Mac-based hosting company around. We are also contemplating having some of our systems configed to run Windows and Linux to create a gaming server hosting company like the defunct Insomnia 365 (which I used to work with back when I was playing male) but we are talking about how this will compromise our Mac-only stance and maybe putting it off or possibly structuring it into it’s own, separate company.
Macintosh isn’t bullshit. Apple a la Steve Jobs is. Microsoft is. Windows is. But I believe in the power of the Mac community and the Macintosh platform.
Jessica Sideways´s last blog ..Dear Donald
Fuck you the new IPad is awsome and when it comes out I am going to be the first in line to get it.
Kim, while you are very much entitled to your opinion and I do not doubt for a second that you want it, there are some serious implications about what buying the iPad could mean – especially for Apple’s future. I explained all of my reasons above and I really do hope that you give this a much more rational, level headed read over to see if this is something that you really want.
Apple could have made the iPad do so much more. What sucks about Apple is their marketing strategy; they’re just so cheap when it comes to putting/upgrading features on their products every generation.
By the way, Windows 7 can go fuck itself; it may be the present and future for Windows users but it’s the past for Mac OS X users.
iPad sucks – you get very little performance & functionality for a big price tag. But a big touch screen make it all worth it, right? What I find most ironic is that it has no USB and currently it does not allow multitasking! What a piece of junk!
I find it ironic that people say Windows is better than OS X, or OS X better than Windows; or a MacBook is better than laptops running Windows, etc. Except for low priced laptops, the hardware for either are very comparable in price and performance depending on what components you look for in the machine. Linux, Windows and OS X all have advantages and disadvantages. Treating people with insults, vulgarity and disrespect says more about you as a person than it does for which OS you prefer to use, especially if you do not state the reasons why it is better.
MAC OS = Communist OS
No one should tell you what you can and can not do on your own computer except for yourself
Jessica, what are you talking about with the 20+ years thing? The Mac came out 26 years ago. PCs were out even earlier. And most of us oldsters were using minis and mainframes before that. I built my first computer 34 years ago and first programmed 40 years ago.
I met “Steve and Steve” in the 70s when they were making the homebrew/techno-hippie circuit with a prototype in a wooden case. Back then we believed in the liberation of humanity by computing for everyone. To see Steve now lock everything down is utterly disgusting.
i seriously just cant think of what you could do with that ipad thing, its so big!! it doesnt fit in ya pocket! its like so weird, it would be a pain tobring a around, just imagine around the house the big ipad, so stupid!! how awkward would typing be!
Jessica, you’re smart and hillarious. And here I sat thinking W7 meant “w@nker to the power of 7″.
xx
I must say, I havent had experience with Apple Mac etc. but always faced a stream of “intellectualls” telling me I had to have a mac to be considered “serious” or “in the loop” with music or my photography. This was minor irritation as I was getting what I needed.
Now however, since the Ipod, everything has been termed some kind of “new wave experience” – even checking email “the Ipad email retrieval experience” as if the world is in some kind of sonic space age all because of a new way to check email. The minor irritation has become almost cult-ish to the point of rational people buying these things supposedly in a recession time. I am totally bewildered………..then the report on the slave labour conditions of the people making the Ipads (complete with nets across the dorms to stop them jumping to their deaths) just made me sick.
So no, I will continue to be uncool or “uncultured”, shooting my photographs and making my music with whatever I choose, and letting the cult of Ipod, Imac, I-whatever carry on without me.
Shumon, anyone who pressures you into something that doesn’t fit your workflow either doesn’t understand the artistic process or isn’t an intellectual. If you have a workspace configured the way you want it – why change it up unless YOU want to try something new?
I may be a Mac fangirl but I would never suggest to anyone that a Mac is definitely better for some things than others – especially for artistic people. Macintosh computers have their advantages, just like Windows have their own advantages and Linux have their advantages. It’s about what you are comfortable creating with.
Jessica Sideways´s last blog ..Don’t Remind Me
Hi Jessica many thanks for that, my point really was the “cult” that seems to have been bred. Its seeds were sown in those early days, but now it seems through clever branding and “image” PR that there is a cult for these “I” products – a cult that has little to do with functionality or output, just more product to sell.
Well, while you say that it’s not about functionality, I do have to disagree as a Mac is better for ME and my personal style of work and play. It has the functionality that I need and want in my own workspace. I do have to agree that the PR is maddening and that Apple has done a few things to it’s customers that I’m not too particularly happy with – most notably choosing AT&T as the cellular provider for the iPhone and iPad, as well as not having developed an actual tablet computer or netbook yet.
We’re waiting. But I get the feeling that the company needs new leadership in order to bring affordable Macintosh computers and properly leverage all of the technology that Apple has in store to better suit the needs of it’s customers. There are some things that Apple could be doing that could be done much better. But they’re not and that really irritates me.
Jessica Sideways´s last blog ..Don’t Remind Me
Hi Jessica,
Yes you are right regarding functionality of Mac etc. but my point was back then it was merely a difference of opinion, and as you put it – people chose what was best for them. That some developed snobbery was mildy irritating to me, but nothing more.
My point NOW is the IPad etc isnt about functionality but a product to push onto people who seem to believe in the bizzare cult almost. I am agreeing with what you have said, and even yourself as a long time apple customer is sensing the same thing with the new products.
Yeah, I do have to admit that when Scully was running Apple, he did make some fairly bad decisions but nothing like what’s going on here. When Steve Jobs got back to Apple, he killed the Newton, created the iMac and iPod (before then, Macs had names like Performa, Quadra, PowerMac), merged the technology from his company after Apple (NeXT) with Mac OS to create Mac OS X and then created the iPhone/iPod Touch, closed computing environments.
The iPad falls short of what Apple COULD do with this amazing technology. They could have made a Macintosh tablet laptop or netbook which ran Mac OS X which anyone can develop and release apps for without approval (open computing environments). The iPad, in my opinion, is a disappointment.