MacDailyNews Take: Despite numerous obvious shortcomings, of course. 
Dvorak continues, “The iPad is something different. The device eschews the old paradigm completely by not being a sketchpad/handwriting recognition device. The lesson, I suppose, was learned from the Newton, the company’s first attempt at such a machine. It was mocked for its miserable handwriting recognition function. Apple didn’t even try that this time.”
MacDailyNews Take: As Dvorak likely knows, but won’t admit, the final iterations of Newton were marvels of handwriting recognition. Even today, it remains so. In fact, the technology is part of Mac OS X. It’s called “Inkwell” (or “Ink.”) Users who connect a graphics tablet to their Mac, can handwrite on the tablet using a stylus and Inkwell translates what is written (or even scrawled) into typed words. It works quite well.
Dvorak continues, “Instead the company made the weird, but logical, step toward the small, easy-to-use app-oriented, touchy-feely UI. The iPad enlarged this new paradigm, which completely eliminates the desktop metaphor with its endless file folders. Now [on traditional PCs] we have buttons everywhere. [But with iPad], instead of mousing around on the desktop, opening and closing folder after folder or plowing through endless lists, you go from one self-contained app to the next.”
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, to make a touchscreen device with a “touchy-feely” UI that’s easy-to-use would be described by Dvorak as “weird.” Oftentimes the bloated gasbag just spews out words regardless of their actual meanings.
Dvorak continues, “So, what market segment does such a device impact? And what do competitors need to understand when they roll out their ‘iPad killers?’ First of all, the only company I’ve see that seems to understand the paradigm shift away from the messy desktop is Google with its Nexus One phone.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s easier to seem like you understand after you’ve had a mole sitting in Apple’s boardroom and infringed on at least 20 of Apple’s patents.
Dvorak continues, “But the company doesn’t seem to be as actively involved in the tablet space as it should be. That leaves everyone else meandering—including Microsoft, whose OS will be employed on a number of pads… A number of interesting gold rushes will keep us very busy in the months ahead. The first is the rush to make apps optimized for the iPad, rather than the iPhone/iPod touch. The second is the rush toward making an iPad killer. Since these devices will all be derivative, the likelihood of an iPad killer is nil, but we’ve probably never witnessed an attack like the one we are about to see.”
“What is completely overlooked at the moment, is the potential to sink Microsoft, once and for all—or at least relegate the company to commodity computing (formerly known as desktop computing),” Dvorak writes. “The irony, of course, is that Microsoft predicted the trend toward pad computing. It just didn’t predict that it, as a company, wouldn’t be playing in the big game. There is a very real possibility now that Linux will finally be able to make inroads on the desktop, since the Android OS is the one true competitor to the Apple iPad OS.”
MacDailyNews Take: Before proclaiming Android the “one true competitor,” let’s wait to hear what the judges say, okay? It’s pretty easy to look like Apple’s “one true competitor” when your tech is based on and infringing upon Apple’s patents, than by doing your own independent work. Billy Joe Manley looked like John Steinbeck’s “one true competitor” in high school English class, until the teacher found out he was copying Steinbeck’s essays. Billy Joe started and quickly folded several business ideas (they never got out of beta, if you catch our drift) and while basically pumping gas for a living. Not that there’s anything with with that, but, regardles of how it looked at one time, Steinbeck’s “one true competitor” he was not.
Dvorak continues, “People have asked me if I’m going to get one of these devices. I can see its usefulness for all sorts of minor chores like casual Web browsing while watching TV. It would make a great turn-by-turn GPS device, too. But I’m going to wait. I’d like to see a real camera, some sort of I/O like a USB port, and an OLED screen like the kind on the Nexus One.”
MacDailyNews Take: Camera, schamera. Nobody wants to look up your nose during a video chat, John. You want to take a snapshot, use your iPhone. You want to capture a photograph, use a real camera. As for I/O, iPad has plenty of I/O, it’s just not big on old wired I/O. It does have it’s Dock Connector, of course, which is a sophisticated wired I/O port, plus it has Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and/or 3G: UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz). As for the OLED screen on the Nexus One, it pales (pun intended) in comparison to iPhone’s and iPad’s IPS screens. Please see: Screen Test: Apple’s iPhone 3GS LCD gets the part over Google’s rebadged HTC ‘Nexus One’ OLED – February 22, 2010
Dvorak writes, “In the meantime, Apple has ignited a rocket with an unknown payload. One thing is for sure: in the coming months and years, we’re sure to see a lot of ripples from this device. Hang on!”
Full article, with lots wrong obviously, but, surprisingly, also with one or two things right (even a broken clock is right twice a day), here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like he’s finally starting to get it. As opposed to:
Now that the fizz has dissipated regarding the Apple Inc. iPad, we can objectively look at the device and conclude that it probably will not have the impact on the market that the iPhone had… The tablet market has only succeeded as a niche market over the years and it was hoped Apple would dream up some new paradigm to change all that. From what I’ve seen and heard, this won’t be it. – John C. Dvorak, January 29, 2010
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Dvorak will come around entirely, as I predicted. Perhaps he gets paid by the word.
Blah Blah Blah…
i guess you have to make a living pimping something…
Watch all these Metoosoft shills come around and embrace the iPad. They’ve been slamming Apple for 15 years but, dense as they are, they have got to see the writing on the wall. Metoosoft is clueless (nothing changed there) and all the “fun” is in Apple’s products. Mark my words…the shills will embrace the iPad as if it was somehow their idea.
He gets it but is afraid. He sees the advantage and wants one but is going to wait because just maybe. That is fear, plain and simple.
Tell me Dvorak can’t afford to get an upgraded model when they inevitably get better. We all know that useful elements didn’t make into the 1st generation.
He needs a map to get to the bathroom and someone to wipe his rearend.
No wonder, even with his name in papers, he has never has his picture used after his wins on the special olympics. He is that big of an embarrassment!!
I love and almost always agree with MDN’s takes, but I have to say that MDN will be eating a lot of crow when the next generation iPad comes out with a front-facing camera for video iChat. I think you need to iCal yourself on this one…
I would buy an iPad in an instant for my daughters (who don’t live with me- they are dependent on their mother’s MacBook which isn’t always available) so we could Skype. Guess I’ll have to wait a year (as will, I suspect, many others). The only reason Apple didn’t include a camera is because they wanted to have a new feature to add next year and (probably) because iChat for the iPhone OS wasn’t ready. That my 2¢ worth…
put a cam on it and add the ability to skype video and i will buy an ipad… simple
Camera wanters:
Steve will put a camera in iPad once they get the tech in their patent working at the right price point — I’m talking about Apple’s patent that puts the camera behind the screen so that when you video chat, you can actually appear like you are looking at them instead of off to one side wherever the camera is placed.
MacMan,
MacDailyNews did not say that future generations of iPads would not have a camera.
So, no, crow is not on MDN’s menu.
The reason Apple didn’t include a camera is not a matter of iChat not being ready. If the software needed to be ready, Apple would have the software ready. It’s a trivial matter.
It’s the carriers’ networks that aren’t ready for millions of video chats. If AT&T;can’t even handle iPhone tethering, they certainly can’t handle video iChats.
If you’re going to wait a whole year and deny your daughters all of iPad’s benefits just because you can’t video chat, then you might be assigning a bit too much importance to video chatting.
I thought this was funny:
“I can see its usefulness for all sorts of minor chores like casual Web browsing while watching TV”
Chores? Really? Minor?
i/o would be good.
The ability to EASILY get files onto and off of the iPad would make things better for those who use it for work, and I may ad, if you are away from the computer you use to sync your iPad, aside from an email attachment, there seems to be no way to get doc into the iPad for reading and/or editing…
No doubt this will come, but I’m not sure the total walled garden that has been the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad will last forever.
Dvorak has always been wrong about next gen computing and it is the first time he is admitting he was wrong. However, he is right about one thing lack of camera on the iPad. I went to the Apple Store on launch date and didn’t buy the sexy iPad after standing in line for two hours because of lack of camera and SD card slot.
Up until now I’ve only seen fish flip-flop this much.
The first handwriting recognition software for the Newton was farmed out to Russians, and resulted in some famous Newton blank verse poetry. The company corrected the problem by bringing the project in-house at Apple, which yielded the “marvel of handwriting recognition,” to which MDN refers. None of this, of course was done under Steve Jobs’ split tenure.
You could have determined that without standing in line for two hours. Specifications were available from Apple for weeks before the release. I call BULLSHIT.
Well said Jennnifer.
I hate to say it, but I’m tired of hearing Dvorak pontificate about Apple did this, Apple did that.
He’s over the hill, and going down with the ship the “SS Microshaft”.
Bye-bye.
John is a phony bastard. He HAD to write this… There was no way he’d dis the iPad completely- he did throw in the typical no IO, no camara shots as well as the condescending “touchy feely” references. He wrote this to protect his credibility – which, he has none with people that know better – like us. He’s just a foolish hit whore that actually thinks what he thinks— matters.
P.S. I own an iPad. It’s a HUGE game changer, and very well protected by numerous patents. It looks like Apple is well into its long term strategy, and no one will catch them for years, if ever.
I remember reading an article years ago about the significance of Apple being an astute software company, and that was where its strength was. Well, they’re even well beyond that now.
Right on Jennifer – good for you.
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@Cleetus
I think it`s starting already, I`ve already seen forum posts on other sites where the apologists are spouting “Don`t get me wrong, I really like the ipad, but if it wasn`t for Gates` tablet vision in 2001….” and all that crap.
“Nobody wants to look up your nose during a video chat…” No, they don’t, and they don’t need to either. Put the iPad in Apple’s case, and stand it on the table in front of you. Or prop it further up on your knee.
Nose hairs are not an argument against a camera in an iPad. I’ll consider an iPad when it has a front-facing webcam, although I’m less convinced about the need for a camera on the back.
He forgot to mention that nobody has proven that these tablet devices will work without a mouse, and that people would actually want a computer without a mouse.
This weeks episode of Cranky Geeks was really irritating. Dvorak and crew (including our favorite whipping boy Rob Enderle) were really ripping the iPad. I normally can ignore a lot of the moronic anti-Apple banter on his show, but this one made me want to kick all of their pasty asses.
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Well, fortunately millions of us are buying iPads without cameras and other shnick schnack, in fact we’re buying them precisely for not suffering from such gadgetitis. Remember all the people who refused to buy iPods because they didn’t have FM receivers or cameras? How many years did it take-and how many millions of iPods–before Apple came around to add these things? If you’re waiting on the sidelines for Apple to add a camera to the iPad, then you will likely wait a long, long time!
No, MDN is wrong on Inkwell, there’s no comparison to the Newton ink recognition. The latter was terrific, it worked in full productivity mode. Inkwell, on the other hand, has never worked well for me, it seems like an afterthought for Apple. If you want something decent on an Apple product, then get WritePad for the iPad, it works almost as good as the Newton.
I refuse to buy this car until it has cup holders. Until then, I will continue to walk 40 miles one-way to work.
This “No camera” BS is almost reaching the level of Glossy Screens.
Notice how everything will be compared to the iPad. Once again, Apple makes the industry standard.
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@twinkie, somehow 35 million iPod touch owners have learned to cope without a camera. They obviously are on prozac or something.
oh how dull life would be if we didn’t have idiots like Dvorak to make us laugh.
This is a good review from Dvorak, and MDN missed a few compliments in there.
“A few obvious shortcomings” This is another way of saying that only Apple can take what any other company would consider an obvious shortcoming and turn it into got-to-have-it feature.
“Apple didn’t even try handwriting recognition” That’s true, they didn’t even try to put it on the iPad. Handwriting is so 19th century. I took typing class in 1962 so I wouldn’t have to write by hand. I certainly don’t want a computer that throws me back to parchment and quill pens.
“Weird UI” This is a compliment. If you had never seen an iPhone and someone showed you a Windows tablet right before showing you the iPad for the first time, you’d say it’s weird. Which makes it all the more astonishing that Apple actually made such a radically different UI so good that people fall in love with it at first touch!
“Android OS is the one true competitor” This is another way of saying that there aren’t any other competitors and that iPad is lightyears ahead of the pack.
Wish list of features: Everything Dvorak would like to see, some fanboi is going to want, too.
Somehow the iPad actually drove Dvorak sane!
For those wanting to download files on their ipad chack out goodreader for ipad it’s fantastic and only a buck.
As for cameras I think a wireless cam is the way to go for the ipad. There are already a few apps that let u use your iPhone camera on your ipad.
In time hopefully we will see apps like skype add this function.
No need for a cam in the ipad really.
@MDN I find this whole notion of schmidt sitting in board meetings, pillaging apple secrets and giving them to google completely absurd and utter nonsence (if not slanderous). Because if he was willing to do that to apple then why wouldn’t he also be willing to do it to google, thereby making him utterly untrustworthy and unemployable. So to suggest android infringes on apples patents is pure speculation. Apple didn’t invent touchscreen or gesture control. Apple ‘borrowed’ them too. So get over it…
Anyway, no iSight on an iPad is a bit of an annoyance since if you use skype…
Well, it WAS the whole Flash thing, ya know, I won’t get an iPad because of the lack of Flash. Still some who are using that one. But it’ll die down.
Then it WAS the whole it won’t Multitask. That one has been shut up.
But still we have the “I’ll buy one the minute it has a camera” bunch. Really? The stupid camera is the deal breaker here? You’re missing this whole revolution because it doesn’t have a Skype camera? I really wish there were some stats on just how much the camera built into the iMac and the laptops get used for Skype video chatting.
I say that even though I’m a grandparent and my Grandchild is a thousand miles away. We Skype; but I DID get the iPad. I can skype with the laptop. Not really convinced that a handheld video chat camera makes much sense.
Your Dvorak diatribes are getting really old, isn’t it time to find a new target for your puerile attacks?
@ The_Steve,
“… isn’t it time to find a new target for your puerile attacks?”
I agree. Would you mind posting your real name?
Dvorak is right (even a dead-broke clock is right once or twice a day) in that the iPad is selling quite well despite its many short-comings. Of course, one person’s “short-coming” could be another persons “feature”. Then again, sometimes what’s included is enough to justify the price, even with all those short-comings. Not for me. I’m not at all interested in a v1.0 iPad. Nice as it is, I don’t want to have to justify swapping up to a v2.0 when my wife asks. No. I’ll go straight to the v2.0 and avoid the fight. ;^)
Geez. Dvorak writes a good article about Apple and still gets blasted by mdn. This has grown beyond tiresome.
Btw. A camera on an iPad for video chat would not be looking up your nose. Do you guys actually use one? 99% of the time I am leaned back in a recliner with the pad angled right at my face. I don’t know anyone that places it flat on the table and looks straight ahead. You look at the screen which inevitably points your face directly at the spot where a camera would be. Unless of course you’re a contortionist or just strange.
Thinks about things before spouting off after every article. Credibility is not something mdn has much of. It’s more or less childlike and amateur commentary.
I really need to find a better apple news site that is at least high school level in their responses. Fanboy rants disecting every paragraph of an article is just. Oh nevermind. Blah
Poor John Dvorak.
Still pissed off Apple didn’t buy Be OS and make him a multimillionaire. Thank Steve they went with Next.
ONCE AGAIN ON THE NEWTON BEING A FAILURE !! Why, do people hang onto the negative and forget the positive? YES. The Newton OS in its initial form was problematic. But subsequent version were not prone to the handwriting recognition ! My Newton ran on nothing newer than version 1.3…. (I believe the Newton OS evolved up to 2.X) and .
@ Brulek,
“So to suggest android infringes on apples patents is pure speculation. Apple didn’t invent touchscreen or gesture control. Apple ‘borrowed’ them too. So get over it…”
Apple bought the company that obtained patents on touchscreen gestures. Apple received even more patents on multi-touch gestures that build on the patents Apple bought.
Multi-touch gestures belong to Apple and any company using Apple’s IP will not be doing any business in America.
So, in a nutshell, you haven’t got a clue about Apple’s IP and who’s infringing upon their patents.
A tired blowhard who can only blow soft. Goodnight, John.
“Your Dvorak diatribes are getting really old . . .”
According to whom?
It does need a camera for video chat. It can easily be propped up. If you’re doing video chat you don’t need to be typing.
What amuses me more than even Dvorak is the little menu bar at the top that begins “News, Opinions, Archives…” as if “news” and “opinions” are two different categories in MDN! I love this site: it is the computer version of a Star Trek convention.
Dvorak is right about one thing — Microsoft is well on its way to being relegated to total irrelevance in mobile computing. Heck, some might say it’s already there. It will still milk its desktop dominance and Office cash cows for as long as it can, but will soon be tottering off to the corporate equivalent of a nursing home, where it will continue to exist, but be out of sight and mind, gradually becoming enfeebled. I call it karma.
This oversized gasbag is a perfect example of the pompous idiots that all M$ fanboy are.
Please don’t let him have an ipad. His punishment shall be that he must use Winpoop forever.
oh come on people, this guy spews comedic gold every time he opens his mouth. and you know he’s a mac guy just playing the part of the ms shill. any moron with two brain cells rubbing together knows the future is being worked and massaged by jobs and co. this guy is just doing zune tang on a larger scale. hi-larious.
Numerous shortcomings like the lack of Flash which just rendered the last 5 sites I visited on my iPhone useless.
I seriously don’t care whose fault it is. Fix it.
Nobama: You’re a selfish idiot and obviously addicted to sugar.
@Jennifer
I am with Macman. Although I bought an iPad, I will definitely upgrade to a camera version when first available. I really think that will be the “killer app” to launch the iPad to the stratosphere [and all the apps that will be written to take advantage of the camera(s)].
And yes, IMO tho I love MacDailyNews, they do imply that the camera is not important. ie…
“…MacDailyNews Take: Camera, schamera. Nobody wants to look up your nose during a video chat…”
I’m not sure how much impact a camera a will have. I can see how iChat could be useful, but how much adoption will it have if it’s as difficult to use as the computer version is.
If something like iChat on an iPad is going to work, it’s going to have be as extraordinarily simple to use as making a phone call. You dial a number (or select someone from a contact list), push the send button, (and if the other party is there) they answer and you talk.
On an iPad it will have to be as simple as as that.
Configuring anything is going to have to be out.
All our macs have built-in cameras and iChat. We don’t use either. I’m something of a tech-savy guy, but trying to configure iChat was such a royal pain we gave up.
We could never get iChat to function the way we wanted without having it running continuously in the background. I equated this to having to leave an old-style land line phone off the hook before being able to receive phone calls.
Linux will never be successful on a tablet device. People who want to use tablets just want it to work – they don’t want to mess around with command lines and other stuff that doesn’t work. I have no doubt someone will put Linux on an iPad, but it will be a sheer exercise in “Look what I can do!” and not “People really want this.”
The very interesting aspect of the iPhone OS is that the emphasis is finally on the apps and not the OS, because the OS is barely noticeable. And that’s the way it should be.
Quick! Someone ask Dvorak what the lottery numbers are for June 2010…’cause…theeee iPad is like 12 seconds old. He slipped and said it was a success…soooo he’s obviously reporting from about 6 -12 months in the future.
I’M GONNA BE RICH…BE-OTCH!!!!
quick!! someone ask Dvorak what the lottery numbers are for June 2010…’cause the iPad is only like 12 seconds old. He obviously slipped a said it was a success….sooooo he’s obviously reporting from like 6-12 months in the future, no?
I’M GONNA BE RICH, BEE-OTCH!!!!!!
sorry that should be plural….BEE-OTCHES!!!!!!!!