iPad usefulness?
in [UK Mac]
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From: Peter Ceresole on 31 Mar 2010 03:56 My sister in law (in Geneva) is talking of buying an iPad. She's never owned a computer before, except for an old terminally slow PC laptop that had belonged to her son in law, which I set up for her to work on dialup; it worked, after a manner of speaking, but was dreadful and she never used it. She's not interested in computers at all, just wants to have email and be able to shop and buy railway and airline tickets on line. I was thinking that she should have a basic ADSL or cable connection, with a Wifi router. Presumably she won't need a real computer as well, like for intance people who have AGAs but also need a real cooker to do anything useful. However, thanks to Steve, the iPad is crippled by not being able to run Flash. In spite of this, is she going to be able to do her shopping etc when using it? Reading Bella's experiences with Safari on the iPhone, it makes for slightly gloomy reading. This is for Quite Soon Now, not in some misty future when everybody has converted their sites to HTML 5. Should I be advising her to forget it for a few years? -- Peter
From: Peter Ceresole on 31 Mar 2010 04:00 Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > This is for Quite Soon Now, not in some misty future when everybody has > converted their sites to HTML 5. Should I be advising her to forget it > for a few years? In fact, should I be advising her to get ADSL/cable and a Netbook instead? -- Peter
From: Woody on 31 Mar 2010 04:28 Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > My sister in law (in Geneva) is talking of buying an iPad. She's never > owned a computer before, except for an old terminally slow PC laptop > that had belonged to her son in law, which I set up for her to work on > dialup; it worked, after a manner of speaking, but was dreadful and she > never used it. > > She's not interested in computers at all, just wants to have email and > be able to shop and buy railway and airline tickets on line. > > I was thinking that she should have a basic ADSL or cable connection, > with a Wifi router. Presumably she won't need a real computer as well, > like for intance people who have AGAs but also need a real cooker to do > anything useful. Unfortunately it is hard to answer that one at the moment as the iPad isn't out. There is a risk that you won't be able to update it without plugging it in, but until someone actually has one, there isn't a way to say for sure, everything is just speculation > However, thanks to Steve, the iPad is crippled by not being able to run > Flash. In spite of this, is she going to be able to do her shopping etc > when using it? I have flash switched off and haven't had to switch it on for anything I needed. I switched it on to see some guitar site the other day, but those sites are few and far between. > Reading Bella's experiences with Safari on the iPhone, it makes for > slightly gloomy reading. I haven't seen that yet, I am reading my mail backwards. I don't have a problem with safari on the iPhone (actually iCab on the iPhone), but I would if it was my only machine as the screen is so small. However, I used it to go round the states for 3 weeks booking hotel rooms every night, and tickets to things without any trouble. Actually, that is not true, the nasa website caused trouble, so I used the machine in the hotel, but I couldn't book with that either and that was straight win xp and IE, so I think nasa was broken! > This is for Quite Soon Now, not in some misty future when everybody has > converted their sites to HTML 5. Should I be advising her to forget it > for a few years? If there is a site she needs that needs flash, then yes, but otherwise, not on that basis (caveat being it hasn't caused a problem for me, maybe she needs some site I haven't seen). The flash thing wouldn't actually occur to me to be a problem, but the updating may be. Maybe in the basis that she isn't going to get one for another month at least as they haven't been released (depending on how soon is now) -- Woody
From: Woody on 31 Mar 2010 04:28 Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > This is for Quite Soon Now, not in some misty future when everybody has > > converted their sites to HTML 5. Should I be advising her to forget it > > for a few years? > > In fact, should I be advising her to get ADSL/cable and a Netbook > instead? If she didnt' like her desktop or a computer, she isn't going to like a netbook -- Woody
From: Jochem Huhmann on 31 Mar 2010 04:54
peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk (Peter Ceresole) writes: > Peter Ceresole <peter(a)cara.demon.co.uk> wrote: > >> This is for Quite Soon Now, not in some misty future when everybody has >> converted their sites to HTML 5. Should I be advising her to forget it >> for a few years? > > In fact, should I be advising her to get ADSL/cable and a Netbook > instead? How are the odds she will actually *use* a netbook? A netbook is just a small laptop with a small trackpad, a small screen and a small keyboard after all. For someone not at all into computers it is just a normal computer that is even harder to use than other computers. I think I have never seen any website requiring Flash to buy things. Apart from entertainment things (movies, games, designers showing off) Flash still is very much optional. 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 |