iPad usefulness?
in [UK Mac]
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From: Woody on 31 Mar 2010 09:07 Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > > > > Not live radio; she'd want Listen Again. > > > > Ah, ok, I don't know how any of that stuff works, so I have never > > looked. > > Using the iPlayer, it's just a click, a search and a click. I only used the iPlayer once, and it didn't seem to work very well for me at the time.. Not something that I have that much use for. -- Woody
From: Jochem Huhmann on 31 Mar 2010 09:27 me32(a)privacy.net (R) writes: > zoara <me18(a)privacy.net> wrote: > >> Well, not always the iPad - but nevertheless I reckon "uncomputers" - >> computers that feel like appliances - will become the norm, and real >> computers will become the thing that only "specialists" use, or the >> thing you're forced to use at work and hate with a passion. > > This seems like nothing less to me than a concerted attempt to > control the consumer and as such is a terribly retrograde move. > > In effect, we are being told we are too dumb to use the liberating > technology known as the computer and we should use devices > made for the passive consumption of content produced by others. You're partly right and partly totally wrong. For many people computers are nothing less than liberating. They fear and hate them and do *less* with them than what they could do with a more streamlined and simpler device (and software). And do you really think that "content production" is limited by technical features and not by the percentage of people actually wanting to produce content and having the time and knowledge to actually do that? No, I think the absurd complexity of modern computers, operating systems and software is totally crazy. Mindlessly piling up badly designed features has totally sidelined usability and has lead to people needing to become computer experts to do the most basic things with them. The average person with an iPad and Pages and the keyboard dock will probably learn to enjoy writing more than with a PC and MS Word and a "full computer and fully-featured OS" to fight with at the same time. You're right about the consuming angle, but this has nothing to do with Apple or computers. We have all been turned into consumers for a long time now. And while toying and tinkering around with computers and installing software and fighting it might not be exactly "consuming", it isn't "content production" either. Not everything which is hard and time-consuming is automatically productive. Many "power users" and "computer enthusiasts" never produce anything in all the time they're spending with their beloved toys. 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: Jochem Huhmann on 31 Mar 2010 09:33 Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> writes: > On 2010-03-31 12:53:27 +0100, Peter Ceresole said: > >> It's just that being able to use a machine in a spanner-like way can be >> very useful if things go wrong. On *my* desktop, I sometimes need to be >> able to look on the floor underneath for things that have fallen down. >> Not often, but useful. So some basic capabilities are necessary, like >> Terminal in OS10. I do hope there'll be some equivalent, or that >> somebody will make a mini Finder available. > > How often have you *needed* to do that on your iPod Touch? For me, the > answer is never, and even though I'm a Unixy tinkerer, that suits me > fine. I have had an Terminal on my (jailbroken) iPod touch from the beginning. Apart from digging around in apps and the system for sheer curiosity and using ssh (which I could also do with one of several official apps) I've never needed 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: Peter Ceresole on 31 Mar 2010 09:36 Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: > > I do hope there'll be some equivalent, or that > > somebody will make a mini Finder available. > > How often have you *needed* to do that on your iPod Touch? For me, the > answer is never, and even though I'm a Unixy tinkerer, that suits me > fine. I have to say that the iTouch is so extremely limited that I hardly ever use it. I admit that it was a 'gadget' impulse purchase, and a mistake. It's basically like a piece of jewellery. It's sweet, but unnecessary. And I find the interface irritating. If I needed to do anything much, I'd carry a laptop. BUT... I hate music on the move- it spoils the music and spoils the move. Like Black Velvet, described to me in a pub in Dublin as 'a waste of Guinness and a waste of champagne'. The guy was right. I never tried it again. Same with the iTouch. As I never want to look at video on a train again... So I'm not exactly iPod fodder. But the iPad seems to me to have promise as a primary second machine, or even a primary first machine for someone like my sister in law. -- Peter
From: Andrew Templeman on 31 Mar 2010 09:41
Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > Andrew Templeman <andy(a)templeman.org.uk> wrote: > > > Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > Andrew Templeman <andy(a)templeman.org.uk> wrote: > > > > > It doesn't have Finder (or a user visible file system) so you can't just > > > > copy your mail folders and so on to anywhere. It's all done by syncing > > > > with iTunes. > > > > > > No, you can, it has a shared file space for transfering files between > > > applications. > > > > Is this visible from the iPad? The little I've seen mentioned indicate > > that it shows up as a folder on the host computer when you plug in to > > sync, a bit like photos from the camera roll of an iphone are available > > in image capture and notes are in mail. > > Yes, but it is also available to iPad applications, so yes, to the iPad. > There isn't a 'file manager' application as such on the iPad as such, > but someone will write one. > That'll just let you move stuff arround in the sandbox's little area, yes? I wouldn't have thought that it would let you get at the mailstore or other (external) volumes should they ever allow you to mount them. > > I would just expect a 'ipad Documents' share to be mounted on the Mac > > while the ipad is connected and you can copy files in and out. > > that happens too. -- Andy Templeman <http://www.templeman.org.uk/> |