iPad usefulness?
in [UK Mac]
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From: Woody on 31 Mar 2010 09:44 Andrew Templeman <andy(a)templeman.org.uk> wrote: > 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 suspect not external areas, no. But that is just speculation, there are no file explorers on the iPad simulator! -- Woody
From: Peter Ceresole on 31 Mar 2010 09:56 Jochem Huhmann <joh(a)gmx.net> wrote: > 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. I think that you are absolutely right. Here, I have an iG5 and Anne has a MBP. Both lovely, but actually only used to input text, emails, do some iChatting and transfer pictures round the family. I also scan slides for Anne to use as Powerpoint files with projectors, to give lectures, and process pictures I take with a Lumix. And we keep a common diary for us both. Plus the Web of course- information instantly available. The machines are ludicrously over powered for these jobs, but do them well and are a pleasure to use. I suspect that most users do even less with their computers, and are happy snapping pictures with their phones, keeping them as is. This is absolutely as it should be; people should be enabled, not cowed by the technology. Which is where I come back to the iPad. It should be a very nice starting point for the kind of machine everybody needs. Years ago I made a living writing scripts on a CPC6128 and an NC200, both using Protext. Nothing I have tried since has been any better for that job; something like Word seems to me to be considerably worse, because more complicated. More 'why the hell did it do that?' moments. Avoiding those seems to me to be the most important thing of all, and potentially the iPad could be a worthy successor to those wonderfully competent machines. -- Peter
From: Chris Ridd on 31 Mar 2010 10:05 On 2010-03-31 14:33:01 +0100, Jochem Huhmann said: > 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. My iPod Touch is not jailbroken, so I've not even had the option. I've never missed it! -- Chris
From: Sak Wathanasin on 31 Mar 2010 09:36 In article <1jg7rhe.yazdi91jdy3xtN%peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk>, peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk (Peter Ceresole) wrote: > Okay, thanks Woody. I was wondering about updates if she didn't have > another machine, but I presume that Apple will have sorted that out, as > the iPad is much more of a 'computer' than an iPhone, and people are > much more likely to have it as their sole device. I think the iPad is intended to be 'tethered" to an iTunes-capable system ala the iPhone. I'm planning on getting one for the missus - it's ideal for her as all she does is email, simple WP, web-surfing, the odd game. She already has an iPhone so is familiar the UI and it means she won't have to fight with the girls for the iBook except for syncing. I'm hoping the iPad on-screen keypad will be close to a full-size keyboard and much more useable than the iPhone's but no way to tell till I get my mitts on one. -- Sak Wathanasin Network Analysis Limited http://www.network-analysis.ltd.uk
From: Ben Shimmin on 31 Mar 2010 10:16
Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com>: > On 2010-03-31 12:29:06 +0100, Ben Shimmin said: [...] >> The prices aren't great either. (I was disgusted last night when I >> saw the pricing for Flash Builder...) > > Well you can now encode three things at once [1], can't you? So paying > 3 times the price seems perfectly reasonable :-) > > [1] all I've seen is a sentence about it on macnn. I/they could be > mistaken about this. I think that's for the Flash Media Encoder (the application you use for making FLVs, mainly). Flash Builder is the new name for what used to be called Flex Builder -- basically an Eclipse IDE with some drag-and-drop GUI bits for easily generating MXML. I think about twenty quid would be a fair price. b. -- <bas(a)bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/> `Zombies are defined by behavior and can be "explained" by many handy shortcuts: the supernatural, radiation, a virus, space visitors, secret weapons, a Harvard education and so on.' -- Roger Ebert |