“When I picked up my iPhone over the weekend, I had an epiphany. I was using the LinkedIn app to confirm an invitation to connect, and it hit me: This is the future of mobile computing, the mobile web — the mobile experience,” Brian X. Chen writes for Wired.
“No, I’m not saying the LinkedIn app is the future per se (that’d be silly), but rather the overall concept of it,” Chen writes. “The LinkedIn iPhone app is, in my opinion, better than the actual LinkedIn.com website. Same goes for the Facebook app compared to Facebook.com.”
“The Facebook and Linkedin apps are two key examples of popular services whose iPhone apps outdid the websites they were trying to ‘port.’ They’re two gems glistening brightly for the future of mobile,” Chen writes. “Now that we can have experiences like these on a bigger touchscreen, with the iPad and the horde of tablets that will follow it, we can expect computing to become much easier than what we’re accustomed to today.”
“The iPad opens a path for an improved web experience for everyone. As soon as the iPad and its competing slates are in people’s hands, we’ll see a host of websites tailoring their content for touchscreen tablet browsing, and it’s going to be far more pleasant than the web experience we’re used to today,” Chen writes. “Have you seen Flickr’s mobile website lately? Or YouTube’s? They’re both far friendlier, simpler and to-the-point than their original websites, and they’re plenty functional.”
Chen writes, “The iPhone and the iPad give web developers an excuse to break free from traditional user interfaces. As a side effect it’s also pushing developers to ditch old, outdated web standards, such as Adobe Flash, and embrace newer ones like HTML5. Thank goodness, because we’ve been needing a change. Cleaner, friendlier, intimate UI may sound like a step backward, but it’s not. There are huge implications.”
Full article, in which Chen correctly states that “we’re all heading with Apple into the future of computing, and it’s looking quite bright,” – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: A few more article like this, Brian, and we’ll forgive certain idiocies that you’ve committed in the past.
The app experince is so much better than the web experience.
He just now had this epiphany? Man, and I thought I was bad for not knowing that Mylie Cyrus and Hannah Montanna were the same person.
May Flash die a quick and complete death. Until then it’s ClicktoFlash for me. (And I never click.)
And what the iPad mean for the future of the ecologist?
Imagine all the fuel that will be not consume because you don’t need to carry out wood to make paper, or to carry news paper for distribution, or the energy used daily to produce books and newspapers, the time we will save going to the 7 eleven for the news paper, or going to the library for a book.
@Troy: Of course we’ll still need the fuel to get to the Apple Store to replace lost chargin cables, and to 7-11 for the Cheetoes and Pepsi fix…
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1) Netbooks are cheaper. The majority of them run between $200-$400. And after you spend all that money on accessories and upgrade options for the iPad, you’d be able to buy three netbooks for the same amount of money.
2) With a netbook, you can multitask, allowing you to run several apps at the same time.
3) Though it hasn’t been confirmed that there is absolutely no Flash support in the iPad, we at least know netbooks have full Flash support.
4) Netbooks have USB ports, about two to three on average. The iPad has none.
5) Higher Resolutions. There are several 10-inch netbooks that offer 1,366-by-768 resolutions, namely the HP Mini 5102, Dell Mini 10, and Sony VAIO VGN W-Series. The iPad tops out at 1,024 by 768.
6) Netbooks have options for bigger screens. You can get one with an 11-inch or 12-inch widescreen.
7) Removable batteries. You can buy an additional battery for your netbook if you want, allowing it to last for multiple days.
8) Every single netbook comes with a webcam for video conferencing and chats.
9) They have physical keyboards, so you don’t have to spend extra money to buy a physical one that docks.
10) Multiformat card readers are built into every netbook, so you can download photos and videos from your camera.
11) Netbooks have the potential to support handwriting recognition. Handwriting recognition is built into Windows and convertible netbook tablets already exist, so it’s only a matter of time before Wacom bursts into action.
12) Netbooks have a clamshell design, so their screens are less likely to get scratched.
13) Netbooks use faster processors.
14) Yeah, spinning drives on netbooks are less durable than the solid-state drives (SSDs) found in the iPad, but they come in greater capacities; and at least you can upgrade a netbook up to a 128GB SSD.
15) Netbooks can easily be “modded” with more RAM, bigger hard drive capacity, or a different operating system.
16) The Dell Mini 10v can be “hackintoshed” with a full-blown version of Mac OS 10.
17) With a netbook, you can get apps through other means besides iTunes.
18) Netbooks have widescreens, which aren’t necessarily better, but at least rotate, which gives you true portrait mode. The iPad screen can rotate, but it’s square-ish in dimension.
19) Netbooks have an Ethernet port and some have a Gigabit Ethernet. Thus, if the Wi-Fi’s throughput is not enough for streaming HD video, you can always plug in a network cable.
20) Some netbooks can play back 720p and 1080p HD videos, using the latest Nvidia Ion chips.
21) Netbooks have shown that they can last longer than 10 hours on a single battery charge.
22) There are countless netbook designs to choose from. So if, say, the Toshiba mini NB305-N410’s plastics don’t suit you, the metals in the HP Mini 5102 might.
23) Netbooks can run a full-blown Windows OS.
24) You’re not tempted to spend hundreds of dollars on accessories for netbooks.
25) Some netbooks have both VGA-Out and HDMI-Out, without the need for a connector.
26) Gaming is more advanced on a netbook, albeit not by much.
27) Some netbooks, like the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and S10, have ExpressCard slots, so you can add expansion cards for FireWire, TV tuner, legacy ports, or 3G/4G wireless.
28) You can choose different 3G wireless carriers with a netbook.
29) Netbooks purchased from Costco or ASUS come with two-year standard warranties. The iPad will likely give you one year standard.
30) You can print files from a netbook.
31) Netbooks have more networking capabilities, such as the ability to map to drives and printers.
32) We know Intel and AMD processor and chipset technology will scale each year. The iPad is using an unproven, homebrewed chipset, so we don’t know how well it will scale.
33) With a netbook, you can connect an optical drive for all your Netflix and Blockbuster rentals.
34) You can buy turn-by-turn direction software for netbooks that have embedded GPS options.
35) Netbooks can support multiple OSes. Most netbooks have Linux pre-boot environments that will get you access to a browser and e-mail data within seconds.
36) Netbooks are more child-friendly. Disney and Nickelodeon have launched netbooks with a ton of child-friendly software. And netbooks like the Dell Latitude 2100 and HP Mini 5102 are being deployed in schools.
37) The Dell Mini 10 has an option for a built-in TV tuner, so you can watch and record live TV.
38) Your netbook can run multiple browsers, so you’re not stuck with Safari only.
39) Netbooks can run Java.
40) Netbooks can run multiple Exchange Mail accounts.
41) You don’t need another computer to sync your data.
42) Netbooks with Nvidia’s Ion chipset can support external Blu-ray drives.
Those 42 items come from PC World by the way.
I agree with a few, but I suspect they are missing the point.
The point being that yes, *we* can all do many things with netbooks and full on laptops, but with the iPad, everyone else will be able to do most of them also.
@theIoniousMac
I’d say that list contains a fair few disadvantages (not that you said it didn’t). For example, why would I actually want the Windows OS? And this is a tablet not a netbook. Steve Jobs, His Onebuttonness, decreed netbooks useless!
@theloniousmac
even if all true, I don’t want no stinkin’ netbook. Too much fucking overhead with windows. Give me simplicity of what I want out of the iPad.
Thats quite a list. I think it only fair to make my list of pro’s for the iPad.
1. It does what 90% of the population needs it for.
Done.
Hehe… this is more fun than the switcher ads.
Did you see the comments on the wired page?
The fanatic apple hating win fan boys have whipped themselves into yet another frothy mouthed frenzy.
Mylie Cyrus and Hannah Montana are the same person?!?!?!
@theloniousMac
You forgot the most famous argument of all:
“R2 will be pissed because he can’t stream Pandora while > insert action here <!
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Netbooks *are* useless.
@ UFN, yeah at gizmodo too. ITS THE END OF THE WORLD! Gnashing of teeth and such. The evil empire is taking over and making everybody brain dead idiots…Bitchers and whiners…Don’t like it, go get a HP tablet then. THEN it will all be ok right?
Good going Apple, you broke the world….
@ theloniousMac
It’s amazing that something that can do 42 things so well does the only 3 things I want to do so poorly.
@ justme2 “Of course we’ll still need the fuel to get to the Apple Store to replace lost chargin cables, and to 7-11 for the Cheetoes and Pepsi fix…”
I think you mean chagrin cables…
Netbooks?
This dumbo cannot be serious.
They are frustrating little bastards. And heavier than a Pad too.
Mine never gets taken out any more, back in its box, and is VERY lucky it didn’t get its face smashed in for being so un-Mac in its usability. Honestly, who puts these Frankenstein things together?
I’m sure Linux is great for geeks, being as nasty as Windows, but useless for people who actually WORK for a living on real things.
As a magazine photo/journalist I know in my water that the iPad will be better for writing on the move than anything; and maybe even for going through a photo-shoot and marking the good ones.
Netbooks can do lots of things, really badly; but are best at hammering-in nails, flattening lino, breaking ice-cubes, attacking Jehovah’s Witnesses who call uninvited… you get the idea.
A netbook is just another typewriter. And I’m tired of typewriters.
The Cult of Microsoft is in full crisis mode, 42 whining talking points of why netbooks are better. LOL!
Anyway the reason for the frenzy is clear…THEY know that Apple will continue to define the direction of mass computing…namely a long downhill slide to obviation and obsolescence for Rube Goldberg gadgets that don’t work even after paying money and homage… to THEM…
We have been here before
q.v. “The Marching Morons” (1951)
and of course you’d rather be a Morlock, in
The Time Machine (1895)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons
How is Flash support a plus? Just sayin’.
If you didn’t understand the iPod or the iPhone…you won’t understand the iPad!
@gooberpiemac,
Uh huh. More bullet points that don’t mean a damn thing. Go google yourself, Sir.