“If we look at the history of computers, it’s easy to chart their evolution: as time passes, they get smaller and more powerful — and their design changes to keep up with the advance of technology. It’s been nearly two decades since the laptop’s invention, and in that time we’ve moved into an era where portability is as necessary as a constant connection. In this new era, the laptop form factor has become increasingly unwieldy,” Michael DeAgonia reports for Computerworld. “Unless you’re sitting down, using one is an awkward balancing act; it’s not exactly the best fit for an increasingly mobile world.”
“For years, PC manufacturers fought the inherent awkwardness of their products by building smaller and smaller laptops,” DeAgonia reports. “But a small netbook or laptop still relies on the same, increasingly outdated design: flip-up screen and computer/keyboard base.”
“Then, in 2007, Apple changed the mobile game with the iPhone. The screen (and one main button) pretty much are the device. With the iPhone, the keyboard became virtual,” DeAgonia reports. “The iPhone form factor and software combination created an immersive, yet mobile, experience — and it showed what mobile computing really is. Suddenly, people everywhere realized they no longer had to have laptops to get work done on the go; they could do it on their iPhones.”
DeAgonia reports, “With the release of the iPad on April 3, Apple is moving to the logical next step: Portable, focused computing is getting a bigger screen… I believe the iPad will usher in an age of computing for people who, until now, have eschewed computers as too complicated to understand and use. It will be the delivery on the promise Apple CEO Steve Jobs made with the introduction of the first Macintosh in 1984… Apple abstracted the concept of computing with the iPhone. And with the iPad, it seems to be abstracting the computer itself, which was always Jobs’ goal.”
DeAgonia reports, “When we look back a few years from now, we may see that Apple again steered the course of computing in a new direction.”
Full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Correctamundo!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
This guy gets it…
Focused computing is snappy computing.
Next leap? Yes.
In other news, the Zune Foney will be a trip….
Mine is ordered. Can’t wait!!! I think Steve should be paid 5 dollars this year versus 1 dollar for a job well done!!!
Correctamundo is available on godaddy.
Asking price: $1100
Act now!
I’m glad that I would have taken part in shift in computing history. Those who are forward thinking will see this and welcome it. Those who are not forward thinking will lament over the missing physical keyboard, usb port, etc, etc. Apple really has a great lead with this next level of computing.
The iPad has changed my up grade path, I now use a 2006 iMac and have a Macbook for business travel. I had planned on getting a MacBook Pro, with the MDP 24″ monitor (once they up date to the 27″ version). I now plan on getting an iMac 27″ (love a large screen desk top at work) and am getting an iPad for when I travel (ordered yesterday)
We also plan on getting an iPad for my mother in-law, who has never used a computer! We figure we can set it up for her, and sync to our macs for updates and such. We home school our 2 kids, and have requested info if and when they may start offering texts for the iPad, no matter we will be getting them one each this summer for their B’Days!
Does anyone know if their is a WiFi device that you can hook up to your HDTV HDMI port, and could send video from your iPad? replacing an ATV
I would like to be able to use an iPad as the controller, stream from my iTunes library and send to the TV via WiFi, is this possible?? Or do you see something like this in the pike?
@ HotinPlaya,
I wish my Apple Express had this capability. I have one that sends to my living room stereo and a small laser printer. If only the ethernet socket was an output instead of an input I could have my HDTV connected. Guess I should have gone for a TV with built-in wireless.
@MDN “Correctamundo”… okay ‘Fonz’…
<sarcasm>Seriously, how will this change computers?! There are no ports? It doesn’t have a keyboard! How can you type and hold it with one hand? etc. with the usual iPad bashers for what the iPad isn’t, versus what the iPad is! </sarcasm>
I am curious though, with the bigger screen real estate that app developers have to add more form, functionality or whatever… Will the file size of the apps they now offer for iPhone, will their size increase dramatically. Especially for apps like Apple’s ‘Keynote, Pages and Numbers’! Anybody know what the file size is of those productivity apps just to give one an idea? I guess I’m just wondering how quickly a 16GB iPad will fill up versus a 64 GB iPad? Anyone with any thoughts?
When I saw my first Mac 128 in 1984, I was blown away and knew it was the future of computing.
Same with the iPhone and the future of telephony.
I can see where the iPad paradigm will be the new future of computing but the iPad did not blow me away. The iPad is just a natural progression of the iPhone and the iPhone OS.
No real eureka moments when it comes to the iPad.
Evolution, even though Steve Jobs is some sort of Deity.
@Hotinaya,
that’s an AppleTV. I does exactly what you’re asking. Of course you need a mac (or pc), but you need one for the iPad anyway.
Or did you know that and were being a wiseguy?
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The IPAd is a MacDonald moment, a revolution of convenience. MacDonald did not create the hamburger. It just established a new convenience for getting one.
But MacDonald’s trick was to suddenly make a hamburger an “available everywhere” experience.
This is what the IPAD does for computer content. It makes the computer content always at hand, an everywhere experience. Toss an Ipod anywhere, and where it lands, you got a great hamburger, a satisfying access to the internet, etc.
The market power of creating a new convenience for accessing anything people already want, is the Mount Everest of marketing. Creating convenience beats using sex to sell, every time.
The emergence of the everywhere IPAD to consume computer stuff, is the same kind of event as the start of Macdonalds.to consume hamburgers.
The IPAD is the new fast food experience. Any where you plop it, you got it.
The IPAd will become a permanent fixture in world’s everyday existence.
We can say we were there when it started.
Scott Wray
@ B,
HotinPlaya stated that he wants something to replace an AppleTV.
And unlike 25 years ago when a certain company stole Apple’s idea and ran with a half-ass version of it, Jobs is older and wiser this time around.
This time Apple will be the one profiting from their innovation.
Hi B
No I wasn’t trying to be a wise guy, I have an ATV and love it. I just think a device that is wifi, and hooks up to your HDMI , with the iPad as the controller (streaming content from the Ipad or your iTune library) would give you all you need in the iPad functions, and eliminate the need for an ATV, I always stream now, do not need the hard drive.
Main reason, is we are building a 36 room condo hotel (21 units) in Mexico, I am trying to figure out how I can supply the net to the rooms, I have been looking at hacked ATV’s, or Mini’s, but I think that the iPad would do everything, if I could figure out how to stream to the HDTV’s.
I have been seeing these “Best Buy” ads that show them streaming from lap tops to TV’s , how do they do that?
In case any one is interested in buying into a condo hotel, heres the link
http://www.maknuk.com/
Sir Gill Bates
You wrote “If only the ethernet socket was an output instead of an input I could have my HDTV connected.”
This got me thinking … when the Airport Express creates a wi-fi network the single ethernet cable sends and receives data. I wonder what would happen if you did connect it to the HDTV.
As a test, I connected my Airport Express to my iMac by ethernet. I attempted to connect my MacBook Pro to the iMac. I had partial success. The iMac could mount the MacBook Pro using the finder. The MacBook Pro could not connect to the iMac using the Finder.
I am no network guru, I only advance by trial and error. An expert could explain. My suggestion is that you connect the Airport Express to the HDTV and see what happens.
HotinPLaya, Mak Nuk looks very nice, by the way! Airy…
@Sir Gill Bates — a followup
I neglected to write that my Airport Express was configured in “bridge mode” when I made my test. Also, I succeeded in mounting the iMac in the MacBook Pro’s Finder, and the opposite, I could mount the MacBook Pro in the iMac’s Finder.
The result: a mini network, two computers linked by one Airport Express.
So, maybe your HDTV can be connected successfully by ethernet cable to your Airport Express.
@tavita
Great analogy. Maybe that will help some of the naysayers to “get” the iPad!
“outdated design: flip-up screen and computer/keyboard base.””
Oh yes, having a device where your hands don’t block or muss up the the screen, and that can run any app on the planet is sooo yesterday.
@ mathdave,
Naw, it’s a no go on my LG BD player running into my LG TV. Won’t work on a Dell laptop either. I never tried it on my iBook since it’s wireless. It would be nice if the AE had both an IN and OUT LAN.
Aah Brau you mean like the big as table and all those touch screen enabled touch screen desktops that we are told are the future of computing. Seems to me a device like the iPad is much more suited to such use but only time will tell.