Steve Jobs, the iPad, and cultural sugar water
in [Mac Applications]
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From: Jochem Huhmann on 6 Jul 2010 06:14 "Todd Allcock" <elecconnec(a)AnoOspamL.com> writes: > While full file system access probably isn't desirable on something like an > iPad, does no one find it ironic that each new OS iteration adds additional > kludges to simulate the function of a file system? Shared folders? > "Sending" copies of files from one compatibile app to another? Apple's > working pretty hard to cobble together a fairly complicated simulation of a > file system to make things "easier" that having a user accessible file > system! Yes, even without a file system you need some ways to manage and transfer certain kinds of files... call it "document system" if you like ;-) I agree that much of what Apple has added here looks like kludges. I hope they will one day see the light and string all of this together and export all documents in all apps as a virtual file system via USB. Then you could finally plug the thing into any computer and would be able to copy documents on and off it. Jochem -- "A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
From: Wes Groleau on 6 Jul 2010 08:54 On 07-06-2010 06:14, Jochem Huhmann wrote: > export all documents in all apps as a virtual file system via USB. > Then you could finally plug the thing into any computer and would be > able to copy documents on and off it. And then those of us that whose relatives finally understand that we refuse to fix trashed Windows systems would want us to fix trashed iPads, and the education would have to start all over again. -- Wes Groleau Learning Another Language is Hard! http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/russell?itemid=1013
From: Todd Allcock on 6 Jul 2010 09:48 At 06 Jul 2010 08:54:09 -0400 Wes Groleau wrote: > On 07-06-2010 06:14, Jochem Huhmann wrote: > > export all documents in all apps as a virtual file system via USB. > > Then you could finally plug the thing into any computer and would be > > able to copy documents on and off it. > > And then those of us that whose relatives finally understand > that we refuse to fix trashed Windows systems would want us > to fix trashed iPads, and the education would have to start > all over again. Not really- the "secret" to File Management for Dummies, the seeming goal of the iOS' ridiculous half-assed file management, is to lock out users out of the OS, not their own content. No one is suggesting willy-nilly complete access to the iOS file system Windows-style. A single "documents" folder/hierarchy should've been exposed for all user- or third-party app created- documents, including the saving of email attachments. Any app that can access a particular file type should be able to. Then you could transfer files via USB (iTunes), WiFi, Dropbox, or whatever, and open then in the compatible app of your choice. None of this "that file 'belongs' to Netshare so I can't edit it in Docs2Go or add it to Dropbox'' nonsense. Instead, to simulate simple file transfer functionality you have dozens of third-party "transfer" apps that also have to act as viewers, editors, mail clients, etc., and now even the OS itself is back-peddling by adding document transfer and file exporting functions. Yeah, I know, working with files is soooo 20th-century, and iOS is the future. Fine. I'd accept that argument if there was some improved futuristic alternative in iOS, but what iOS essentially did was abandon file management without offering ANY decent workable alternative, and is slowly reintroducing file management in small ways, perhaps to deflect embarrassment from omitting it in the first place. When do figure Finder for iOS shows up? iOS 5? Maybe 6?
From: AES on 6 Jul 2010 11:19 In article <EFGYn.3559$Zp1.2535(a)newsfe15.iad>, Todd Allcock <elecconnec(a)AnoOspamL.com> wrote: > Not really- the "secret" to File Management for Dummies, the seeming goal > of the iOS' ridiculous half-assed file management, is to lock out users > out of the OS, not their own content. No one is suggesting willy-nilly > complete access to the iOS file system Windows-style. A single > "documents" folder/hierarchy should've been exposed for all user- or > third-party app created- documents, including the saving of email > attachments. Any app that can access a particular file type should be > able to. Then you could transfer files via USB (iTunes), WiFi, Dropbox, > or whatever, and open then in the compatible app of your choice. None of > this "that file 'belongs' to Netshare so I can't edit it in Docs2Go or > add it to Dropbox'' nonsense. > > Instead, to simulate simple file transfer functionality you have dozens > of third-party "transfer" apps that also have to act as viewers, editors, > mail clients, etc., and now even the OS itself is back-peddling by adding > document transfer and file exporting functions. > > Yeah, I know, working with files is soooo 20th-century, and iOS is the > future. Fine. I'd accept that argument if there was some improved > futuristic alternative in iOS, but what iOS essentially did was abandon > file management without offering ANY decent workable alternative, and is > slowly reintroducing file management in small ways, perhaps to deflect > embarrassment from omitting it in the first place. > > When do figure Finder for iOS shows up? iOS 5? Maybe 6? From my previous posts (viewed by some as rants), I'm obviously in full agreement with the above. The only major disagreement, or uncertainty, about the current situation is whether Apple designed these iGadgets so that they "lock users out of their own content" (nice turn of phrase, even if a bit exaggerated) in order to provide a _better, simpler interface_ to that content for all the cultural sugar water users, or whether they did it in order to maintain _a major degree of control_ over how these users can access, use, and re-transmit the content on their gadgets -- in other words, for primarily content-commercial reasons. I continue to believe the latter -- but who really knows?
From: BreadWithSpam on 6 Jul 2010 11:30
AES <siegman(a)stanford.edu> writes: > BreadWithSpam(a)fractious.net wrote: > > > > Applications? :-) > > No. The recipient of the document must be an application and no > > application other than the App Store app knows how to "receive" > > app files or install them. > And this is (with only slight exaggeration or hyerbole) a purely evil > limitation. I really don't think so. I find it a little bit annoying, but I can see why they do it. I don't understand why you can't. If you want to see the alternative, try an Android phone and wait for the Android tablets to start to arrive. -- Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed. |