“One can’t help being struck by the volume and vehemence of apparently technologically sophisticated people inveighing against the iPad,” Fraser Speirs blogs. “What you’re seeing in the industry’s reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.”
Speirs continues, “For years we’ve all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the ‘average person’. I find it difficult to come to any conclusion other than that we have totally failed in this effort… Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism,” Speirs writes. “Those incantations that only we can perform to heal their computers, those oracular proclamations that we make over the future and the blessings we bestow on purchasing choices.”
“I’m often saddened by the infantilising effect of high technology on adults,” Speirs writes. “From being in control of their world, they’re thrust back to a childish, mediaeval world in which gremlins appear to torment them and disappear at will and against which magic, spells, and the local witch doctor are their only refuges… With the iPhone OS as incarnated in the iPad, Apple proposes to do something about this, and I mean really do something about it instead of just talking about doing something about it, and the world is going mental.”
“Not the entire world, though. The people whose backs have been broken under the weight of technological complexity and failure immediately understand what’s happening here… The visigoths are at the gate of the city. They’re demanding access to software. they’re demanding to be in control of their own experience of information… They are the people we have claimed to serve for 30 years whilst screwing them over in innumerable ways,” Speirs writes. “There are also many, many more of them than us.”
“Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. Think of the lengths that people have gone to in order to acquire skills that are orthogonal to their core interests and their job, just so they can get their job done,” Speirs writes. “If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people’s perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with. I find it hard to believe that the loss of background processing isn’t a price worth paying to have a computer that isn’t frightening anymore.”
Speirs writes, “In the meantime, Adobe and Microsoft will continue to stamp their feet and whine.”
Please click through and read the excellent full article — it’s worth it; Speirs really gets it — here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Dark Ages of Personal Computing ushered in by the scheming, thieving, tasteless Bill Gates and Microsoft are finally, thankfully coming to an end.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
Geeks need to stop whining…. “no keyboard, no webcam, no multitasking, no place to stimulate myself, blah blah….” Do you really want to listen to the opinion of someone who couldn’t get laid if their life depended on it……
The iPad is perfect for my in-laws and my mom. Since they live faraway the only thing missing is a webcam for them to be able to talk to their grandkids. When Apple either makes it possible to attach a camera or better yet builds it into the iPad I won’t be able to buy it fir them. My eleven year loves it though and I think it will be perfect for him since the iWork suite makes it an affordable computer for what he typically does. When and if he wants to get his geek on he’ll be able to use my MacBook.
Not first. Just like the iPad. But I believe the quality of my post is second to none.
The screaming and naysaying will fade away in a few months.
“Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism. Those incantations that only we can perform to heal their computers, those oracular proclamations that we make over the future and the blessings we bestow on purchasing choices.”
Nail. Hammer. Hit!
Your typical IT geek does not like so-called disruptive technologies like the iPad:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/act-now-avoid-apple-tablet-apocalypse-352
BTW, Fraser Spears is the Mac developer of FlickrExport for iPhoto and Aperture.
http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/
I can definitely see the more simplified data handling model of the iPad taking off, perhaps not in the exact form they showed us, but definitely more along those lines. Households would be the perfect example, a family may have 1, 2, 3 or more computers now, but you’ll no doubt find that 90% of their usage is related to the things the iPad does. I can see a house having 1 main computer, maybe 2 and then a couple of iPads for day to day use.
I greatly appreciate Speirs and the few others that can see the obvious path that Apple is taking us on. Many state, this is what Apple HAS DONE. Most see what Apple is DOING NOW. Almost none of the talking heads are looking to see what foundations Apple is establishing as they take use into THE FUTURE!
You all know that Apple’s BILLION DOLLAR server farm will be coming on line this year? They started it last August. Think iPad and CLOUD COMPUTING. Think … think … think … Can you see it now?
“The screaming and naysaying will fade away in a few months.”
Except for the lack of a web cam. I, too, would buy one for my girls who don’t live with me if they could use it to Skype with me. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait a year for the next iteration…
is it too much to ask ? a tablet for geeks and a tablet for newbies ? (ie a macbook touch and a big ipod touch)
for gods sake, stopping licking steves balls people
@mac
You just made my point for me. Go back to watching your Star Wars DVD.
This is exactly why I’m thinking of getting one of these for my mother, a “what do I need a computer for?’ hold out. Still need to see how viable an iPad would be as an only computer though. Like, will you be able to print from it for all the pictures she’s about to get sent etc.
Finally, a guy who can use the English language coherently.
Good job Mr. Speirs
Mac:
A tablet for geeks wouldn’t sell. There are too few geeks (like us) in the world to make it worthwhile. Much like the matte screen on MacBooks and iMacs.
Future shock? On a device that can’t surf the Web and play Pandora at the same time? I think not!
I wonder if the naysayers have stopped to think a little bit about how the iPad is intended to be used — as an appliance, not a laptop, nor as a tablet with a full-blown operating system. Windows- and Linux-based netbooks and tablets just don’t work well as lightweight appliances because their user interfaces were never designed for this kind of use. A large multi-touch screen on a very light tablet running a robust, zero-administration operating system with Wifi, 3G, and Bluetooth connectivity would work very well.
You’ve got to use your imagination a little bit and think of the possible use cases. For me it is exactly what I want to be able to carry around with me to do the lightweight stuff. I can use the iPad and its direct and effective user-interface to surf the web, watch videos, plan my calendar, organize my contacts, chat online, browse my photos, and read my books. The iPhone screen is just too small to do all of that, unless I really have absolutely no choice. But the iPad allows me to leave my heavy lifting on the laptop, and do the rest wherever and whenever, with apps that reside in the appliance and in the Cloud.
Now think of all the other places that the iPad can be used in a commercial setting — in hospitals, for order taking, inventory management, teaching (get a glimpse of what’s possible by visiting the iTunes University), etc. It won’t take long for a slew of interesting applications and new takes on old usage paradigms to appear.
Then there are the complaints about no Flash, no multitasking etc. Lack of Flash is a minor irritant. Eventually it will go away because Flash will go away. It is the single most common cause of browser crashes. But if you really need a Flash-capable browser there are at least two that you can download from the App Store for a couple of bucks.
Multitasking. I am surprised that Apple hasn’t explained it better. The iPhone OS does multitask, but it only runs the apps which Apple says are allowed to run concurrently. For example, I can run the iPod application in the background and listen to music while I run other apps. While on a call I can switch to any other app while the call is on-going, and then touch the bar at the top of the screen to return to the phone app.
As for doing things like email and online chats, well, use email and messaging apps that have push notification. You can set push notification on so that if new email or chat messages arrive while you are watching a video (for example), the alert pops up and you can choose to dismiss the alert or else switch immediately to the email app or the messaging app. The active app is suspended and put into the background. Backgrounded apps are suspended, not terminated. Therefore you don’t lose state if the app is written correctly.
In general Apple cannot allow non-sanctioned apps to run willy-nilly all at the same time. Memory is limited. If there are not strict boundaries placed on multitasking will eventually result in memory fragmentation that becomes so bad that the system slowly grinds to a halt. At that point you either reboot, or use another app (if you can get it to run) to kill all running processes and force the operating system to garbage-collect. We all know that from the Windows Mobile disaster of an OS.
Allowing unconstrained multitasking is also a drain on power. In a mobile device there is a limited energy budget, so if you don’t control multitasking you’ll blow through the battery very quickly.
In any case, with the iPhone, and especially the iPad, starting up or resuming an application is fast. So the kind of multitasking that so many people keep bitching about is moot anyway.
” On a device that can’t surf the Web and play Pandora”
This point has been posted so many times, its hilarious. It makes these users looks like idiots because pandora while surfing is such a HUUUUUGE deal. ahahaha.. big whoopeeedooo…
This is all fine and good, but people also need to realize that the iPdad is not meant to replace a computer. It replaces books, and magazines with video and games as bonuses.
You still need a computer. So all this banishing gremlins, etc., only goes so far.
Thank goodness the FUD period is only 2 months this time. The iPhone FUD period was way too long…although it did produce some really good idiotic sound bytes, enhancing the MDN’s iCal effect.
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” On a device that can’t surf the Web and play Pandora”
It’s called battery life. Having a thin, extremely portable tablet doesn’t do you much good if you need an extension cord to walk around your house because the battery keeps failing.
People keep saying if they can listen to the iPod while using other apps, why not Pandora? Because Pandora is constantly streaming music, so it is constantly using the radio connection (Wifi or cellular), thus constantly draining the battery at maximum rate. The music on the iPod is stored locally, and thus requires much less power to access and play.
If listening to Pandora while surfing is that important, then listen on your iPhone and surf on the iPad. Problem solved.
I was surprised when I was speaking to my mum on the phone earlier and she was independently excited and CLEARLY IMAGINING how an iPad could fit into her life. This is definitely new. Usually my mum is fuzzy about computers to say the least.
Pandora is cool, for those who live in a country where it is available. I don’t, so somehow I’ll have to get by with listening to my iTunes music collection while doing other tasks on my iPad (once it arrives.) Poor me, how will I ever survive?
It bears repeating. Three of the most popular apps for Android are apps that turn off background apps.
It appears that there are two camps regarding the iPad, those who have never tried one and those who have. The ones who complain about the iPad come almost exclusively from those who have never tried one and/or have no imagination.
Apple is promoting HTML5, which doesn’t need Flash or Silverblight. Just as they did with the switch from ADB to USB among other technologies, Apple is forcing the industry to move forward, when if given a choice there would be no advancement. Change is not without challenge and pain but the only way out is through.
We are all guilty of mistaking our own ignorance and prejudices for the truth
@ R2,
If you’re too broke to buy your own music collection, steal it with LimeWire and create your own playlists. Then you could listen to what you like at a higher bit rate while you surf the web on your iPad.
Pandora is just FM Radio with a lower bit rate and someone else’s playlist.
Of course, you don’t want to listen to music while you surf the net. You want to make a point of the fact that not every App on the iPad will multitask yet.
The iPhone was the sharp point of the spear. The iPad is delivering the broad blade. 56 days ’til the bloodbath.
We need a specific verb or phrase for whining about Pandora… Something scathing and accurate…