Bob Cringely writes for I, Cringely, “A good friend of mine pointed out the money phrase from Steve Jobs at this week’s iPad 2 introduction: ‘This is worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough. It’s tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it’s the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive.'”
“But then we come to this very rational critique of the iPad 2 from a blogger named Allahpundit who points out that despite the iPad 2 being thinner and faster and just as cheap as the original iPad with two new cameras to boot, it is still a pain in the ass to cut and paste text with one,” Cringely writes. “Why, given Steve Jobs’s boast that these are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, would he build a device that is in this one important area is clearly harder to use than even a Windows PC?”
Cringely writes, “Steve is, well, a little bit of a hypocrite here…. For all Steve’s bold talk, Apple still relies on Mac sales for a quarter of its revenue — about $15 billion per year — which is a lot of revenue, so they have deliberately kept some things like production cutting and pasting text easier to do on a Mac than on an iPad 2.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This article was created on an iPad running iOS 4.2.1. Therefore, Cringely’s excerpts, his article’s URL, Allahpundit’s URL, multiple code snippets, the blurb, and many pre-built items were, of course, copied and pasted using the functions built into iOS 4.2.1. So, obviously, it can be done and we’re pretty good at it, having had a good amount of practice. It takes us about 10% more time to lay out a MacDailyNews post on an iPad as it does a Mac. (We’ve tested and timed ourselves rather extensively using various devices).
Apple’s iOS 4 cut, copy, and paste functions are unmatched by any touch-controlled device. It’s not even close.
That said, the devices we choose to use for production cutting and pasting are, in order of preference:
1. Mac with a Magic Mouse
2. Mac with a trackpad
3. iPad
4. iPhone or iPod touch (limited screen size)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
He’s such an ass…
Cringely is a bit of a dork
“Cringely” isn’t even a person! Talk about a “hypocrite”.
Every time I hear the word “Cringely,” I think of the old 50’s weirdo Criswell, as in “Criswell Predicts.” Not a real person- Weekly World news in the guise of a person.
I spent a surprising amount of time building a spreadsheet in an iPad…have to say it was nowhere near as productive. But the second spreadsheet was better.
Some of it is learning a new tool, some of it is the convenience of a mouse. Hard to beat for quick, accurate placement of art elements.
Don’t we mean “Cringley ARE a bit of a dork”? I say this because Cringley is a pseudonym for a BUNCH of people, right? From Wikipedia:
“Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld, the one-time weekly computer trade newspaper published by IDG.”
Still true?
American usage would have it as:
Cringley is……
Whereas Brit usage would have it as:
Cringley are……
Sort of like saying John Q. Public. I never thought there was anything behind the Robert X. Cringley moniker. That’s an interesting take I never knew about.
Talking about cut n’ paste, this is from wiki –
… Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld, the one-time weekly computer trade newspaper published by IDG.
… After a financial disagreement in 1995, Stephens was dismissed from Infoworld, and was promptly sued by IDG to prevent him from continuing to use the Cringely trademark. A settlement was reached out of court that allowed him to use the name, so long as he did not contribute to competing technology magazines. As a result, Stephens’ writing as Robert X. Cringely regularly appears in publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, and Worth.
… Stanford
Stephens earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster in Ohio[1] in 1975.
In 1998, it was revealed[6][7][8] that Stephens had falsely claimed to have received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and to have been employed as a professor there. Stanford’s administration stated that while Stephens had been a teaching assistant and had pursued course work toward a doctoral degree, he had never held a professorship nor had he been awarded the degree. Stephens then stated that while he had received a master’s degree from the department of communications and completed the classes and tests required for the Ph.D., he acknowledged that he failed to complete his dissertation. Asked about the resulting controversy, Stephens told a reporter: “[A] new fact has now become painfully clear to me: you don’t say you have the Ph.D unless you really have the Ph.D.”[9]
—
Infoworld, pc scum.
Newsweek, pissweek scum.
Forbes, Home Page For The World’s scum.
IDG, fscking scum of scum.
The New York Times, two faced scum.
Mark Stephens lying, cheating scum.
The guy is using the word “hypocrite” incorrectly.
Neither of the two sources here “get it”.
Yeah, I was about to post the same thing.
He’s not using the word correctly but he probably used it so that it sounded harsher and he got some notoriety……sigh.
Apple has the best implementation of copy & paste out of every mobile device manufacturer. Just like anything else, it’s incredibly easy once you get the hang of it. Apple doesn’t intentionally make features work like crap to protect another product’s existence. They have repeatedly said they would rather cannibalize their own products than have someone else do it. What a hack!
They do cannibalize their own products. The iPhone 3Gs killer was the iPhone 4. iPad killer was iPad 2.
He was joking right?
I don’t think the idea is to replace workstations as such, though in a pinch one can, for a short time. I agree with the MDN comments above. I think Jobs’ point is that people will begin to use it for new purposes, not just old tasks.
What f-ing asshats! Both of them. What do you expect? It’s much harder to create a user interface for an inaccurate pointing device (your finger) on a small surface than an accurate pointing device (a mouse) on a much larger surface.
F-ing idiots!!!
the clipboard on ios is better then any other pda I have ever used. making a user interface using a smaller screen just as easy to use as one on a bigger screen is just plain hard.
the way copy/cut/past works on the iphone is plain genius, the problem is that the iphone lacks a way to quickly select text
it needs something like the “leap” buttons on the cannon cat or something….
even that being said, there still isn’t a pda that I have used were text editing feels so easy and fluid (ti 84+, hp 32s, nds(with flash cart), sharp zarus, compact pad thing (absolutely horrendous),psp (running the MacOS 7.3.5)) all of them aren’t nearly as nice.
That’s a little harsh don’t you think? Some things are always going to be better with a mouse, there’s just no way around it (at least as things stand right now).
Cringley? Isn’t he a character from a Charles Dickens novel?
Played with the XOOM and Android OS a bit today, have to say its not bad. It is a bit sluggish however. And that is in direct comparison to the current iPad version. I will also say that I dont think the way Android implements multitasking actually helps the user at all. Maybe, maybe maybe i want to hit a web page and while it loads go to another app, but by the time im switched, my page should be loaded on a decent connection. The only multitasking i see that would be useful is WebOS. To be able to multitask to open an email, and then open a second email i.e. have multiple emails open at once and be able to switch between them is very helpful. The Android version does not appear to be. Maybe android guys can help me out here?
I did like the display and i liked the extra bit of size and reduced bezel.
Nobody ever said the traditional computer was going to be beaten in every single way by tablets. The point of Steve’s quote is that — for many, many tasks — a tablet can be as good or better.
I’m in publishing, and I find it very hard to believe I will ever be able to create rich page layouts or commercial printing design on a tablet. I’m a “truck driver” in that regard.
But my customers will drive “cars.”
Cringley, dude, you’re really reaching with this bullshit argument and you wasted everyone’s time with it.
Cringley aren’t “reaching” – they overreached, pure and simple. There is no hypocrisy here at all.
Still can’t launch the space shuttle with an iPad, either. When oh when will Jobs & crew fix that glaring omission? We’ve all shown remarkable restraint in not harping about that, but it’s getting where AAPL needs to deliver.
I use iOS devices extensively and rarely need to copy, cut, and paste. For me it os a non-issue.
Copy/paste isn’t that hard. Just hold your finger on the word for a second and when it turns blue just swipe up to select the whole paragraph. Then press tap copy. It takes about 2 seconds.
As for “content creation”: these guys are only talking about words/typing. Typing is better with an actual keyboard. But drawing, music recording, video editing, photo manipulation is (or will be) better on the iPad.
“Content” is more than just text.
Copy and paste is harder to do with ONE finger, vs.TWO hands, mouse and keyboard? Give the guy a medal for brilliance.
Or is he trying to qualify for the special olympics?
This is a classic case of hit-whoring.
Ignore.
Who will rid me of this turbulent dork?
He must not have a 2 or 3 button hand.
Ok. Real world now. My wife got me the Zagg mate keyboard for my iPad. (I said thank you.) If I can bluetooth a keyboard, I assume that a wireless mouse could be used if someone wanted to make the app or offer the option. (If I was given a mouse for my iPad, I would say thank you again.)
There is no way to hook up a mouse to an iPad, for obvious reasons. Mouse pointer (the arrow icon) does not exist in iOS. How would you know where you are clicking?
I think this was the top item on Cringley’s to do list today…
1. Desperately try to find something to write about Apple for today’s column.
His/their contention is that Apple is *intentionally* crippling cut-paste-copy on the iPad to protect the Mac? That is simply idiotic and worth not one second more of my time.
I would like to remind Bob of an old saying…
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Bob “can’t see the forest for trees” is another saying that’s appropriate. Bob is unaware (I think) that his commentary is very writer centric.
I think that Apple’s view is that, unlike a professional writer, a typical iPad user simply isn’t going to be doing a lot of heavy duty cut-n-paste.
speaking as a typical /iphone/ user (I want an ipad, but even though it has all those creative pro tools, there are no dev tools, so most of my work will be done on a mac)
I heavily use the pasteboard, no other pda I’v owned implement a universal pasteboard (at least one that didn’t suck) and I like it a lot, it’s selecting text that’s almost bad, but now with the select all button it really rocks
It was easier to apply the parking brake in my 1979 Malibu Classic than it is in my 2008 Volvo. That means the 1979 Malibu IS the better car. Don’t worry about the 6 mpg, heater that only blew cold air, radio that worked great on Wednesdays, the fact it took 23 revolutions to turn the wheel from left to right, the fact it shook like crazy above 75 mph, and it smelled like wet cheese. Because of the parking brake, something I use every day, the 1979 Malibu is the superior car.