iPad usefulness?
in [UK Mac]
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From: Ben Shimmin on 1 Apr 2010 08:44 R <me32(a)privacy.net>: [...] > I'm sorry to say I view the iPhone and iTouch as slightly tacky > low quality devices. Quite a lot of the competition is even worse, > though. Which of the competition is better? 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
From: Ben Shimmin on 1 Apr 2010 09:01 Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org>: > On Thu, 1 Apr 2010 10:36:32 +0100, Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> > wrote: [...] >>I think you should try and live with a netbook (borrow one from a >>friend?) for a while before suggesting she gets one. >> >>None of the people I know with netbooks, apart from Woody, use them. > > My dad used a touchscreen Lifebook for a while, and then traded the 9" > one up to a 12". They're geeky toys, and barely practical - not small > enough to be pocketable, small enough to be fiddly to work with, > particularly the mousing. I'd be quite astonished if PeterC's s-i-l > didn't hate it after five minutes. Jaimie's bang on the money about the mousing. I think this is actually the bigger problem with `netbooks' than the keyboards. I suppose Peter could get his intended victim an external mouse, though, which is what we ended up doing for a project where we bought a dozen or so of the stupid things (I forget the brand now, but they were all as bad as each other, really) and found that the non-technical middle-aged women who were going to be using them found the trackpads impossible to use. 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
From: Woody on 1 Apr 2010 09:11 Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > > > If you are an author, back in the old days you would go to your desk, > > start typing. now you go to your desk, start your computer, run your > > word processor, navigate round your system to find your file, start > > writing hoping that the application doesn't crash and lose all your > > work, then save, make some backups. > > Hmmm. I gree in general with what you are saying but you risk > over-egging here; True - as usual. Just trying to indicate that the computer (as we have it today) is not perfect for many things. > for a writer, that simplicity has been available for a > very long time. One-key (okay, sometimes one multiple keypress that was > dead easy to remember) was all it took. Remember the Amstrads? > Especially the NC series? And the WP *never* crashed in the years I used > it all over London. I reckon the iPad is the modern equivalent. And I do > agree that horrors like Word have degraded the simplicity. They have. There used to be a lot of stand alone writing machines. > However, the iPad can do significantly more, and the problem is that > people may want to do these things. And none of the functions on the NCs > needed support from a 'real' computer. I'm sorried that the iPad will > do. Certainly it is a downside. Hopefully one that will be corrected at some point. If not by apple, by someone. I love tablet technology, I have a lot of them but wouldn't view them as a companion device as such. -- Woody
From: Woody on 1 Apr 2010 09:31 R <me32(a)privacy.net> wrote: > Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > > > R <me32(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > > > > Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: > > > > Media (music, videos, books, podcasts etc) - yes. > > > > > > Yes - if you don't mind the poor quality. Poor quality sound, > > > low resolution video and books, etc etc. > > > > The quality of sound and video is much higher than was available to most > > people in the history of TVs and computers > > I'm struggling the recall those 3.5" cinema screens. Sorry, thought you were talking about the iPad. Much higher resolution than TV -- Woody
From: Peter Ceresole on 1 Apr 2010 09:52
R <me32(a)privacy.net> wrote: > What I object to is that something else being forced upon the rest of > us, as if it's good for everyone. For the rest of us, there's laptops. Easy. -- Peter |