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.]
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!!!!!!!!