“It’s important to understand who these people are,” Elgan writes. “They’re the same kind of people who said automobiles are just a fad, who said nobody wants to hear movie actors talk, who said graphical computing isn’t real computing.”
MacDailyNews Take: Cough – Dvorak – cough.
Elgan continues, “They believe themselves to be enlightened skeptics. In fact, they’re just the kind of people that always come out of the woodwork when something breathtakingly new emerges. They can’t see — refuse to see — the obvious possibilities in the new because it threatens their advantages in the old… The iPad-can’t-create-content insanity tells much about how far we’ve drifted off course as a creative animal.”
“In Japan, millions of novels have been written on cell phones,” Elgan reminds. “My great-grandfather wrote his Ph.D. dissertation with a #2 pencil. Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jefferson wrote their brilliant works with bird feathers. Yet the iPad’s critics say creation is impossible using a device that would have been a Pentagon supercomputer 20 years ago. The computers that today’s writers say are absolutely necessary for writing didn’t even exist 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Is that when they think literacy started?”
“The iPad screen is incredible. The Apple Bluetooth keyboard is one of the best keyboards you can buy. And Apple’s Pages app is perfectly adequate for writing. You also might want reference materials and Internet access. Of course, the iPad has that, too… For artists, the iPad’s touch interface removes a layer of separation and abstraction… The notion that iPad can’t be used for content creation is patently, provably, laughably false,” Elgan writes. “Those repeating this absurd notion owe their readers, listeners and followers an apology, followed by a correction. It doesn’t matter if you want the iPad to exclusively serve content, the fact is that people are creating content on it every day. And the avalanche of creativity apps hasn’t even started yet.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
While effectively and amusingly debunking one myth, Mike Elgan perpetuates another in the same off-hand “assuming its true just by saying it” way that draws his ridicule for the “iPad is not for content creation” statement. From the end of the full article…
> Yes, the iPad is closed. It’s OK to hate the iPad, and prefer other devices…
I’m even more tired of the media repeating the “iPad is closed” (or “iPhone is closed”) line, without thinking or explaining. What does that really mean? Just saying it does not make it true, just as just saying “iPad is only for content consumption” makes it true.
Does it mean that you can only use apps that Apple creates? No, the number, variety, and quality of third-party apps are one of the key advantages of iPad/iPhone over the competition.
Does it mean you can only access content through Apple? No, you can use Safari (and now Opera) to access the web as desired, like on any computer. You can also use specialize apps to access specific data, such as maps and movies.
Does it mean you can only buy ebooks from Apple’s store? No, unlike Nook and Kindle, which are tied to their respective stores, you can use apps on an iPad to buy from any eBook vendor that has an ebookstore app.
Is Android completely “open”? No, Google puts significant restrictions in place too. So journalists need to stop saying “iPad is closed” as if it’s some absolute statement, versus “Android is open.” Apple has restrictions in place and Google has restrictions in place. They are different, but one is not absolutely “closed” and one is not absolutely “open.” In many ways, Apple is more “open” because Apple profits mostly from selling the hardware, not primarily from advertising revenue or from collecting (analyzing and using) customer information. Apple’s motivation is to sell you the iPad.
Apple’s leadership did not sit around in their iPad planning sessions with the goal to devise a “closed” strategy. Their strategy is one that they believe serves Apple, its shareholders, and its customers best, not the “open” or “closed” strategy. So stop saying “iPad is closed” without explaining what you mean.
@ neomonkey
I know this might totally shock you, but a lot of people don’t care.
@neomonkey
Thanks for posting the link – absolute proof of the size brain required to run the iPad.
@ wonderful wonderful
And this is a terrible thing, because only geniuses and geeks should be able to operate computers.
Since when did Mike Elgin become enlightened. That was seriously the most intelligent post I have ever seen from him. It’s like he really gets it. Best quote:
“Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jefferson wrote their brilliant works with bird feathers. Yet the iPad’s critics say creation is impossible using a device that would have been a Pentagon supercomputer 20 years ago. The computers that today’s writers say are absolutely necessary for writing didn’t even exist 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Is that when they think literacy started?”
@C1
iPad is not a computer. It’s a toy the purpose of which is to give its owners still more excuses to waste time.
@ jdb8167
Elgin’s stupid comparison is stupid. Comparing the creative ability of iPad to bird feathers is stupid. Comparing the creative ability of the iPad to a computer by suggesting it is capable of supporting creative writing is stupid.
Given the choice of writing with a feather or balancing a glass slate on their knees while sliding around on a fake keyboard, I feel sure Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jefferson would all choose the feather.
If the avalanche hasn’t started yet, then it must be imminent.
I know this might totally shock you, but a lot of people don’t care.
Chrissy, I don’t care either. What’s your point?
@W W
You may not be a troll, but you certainly are a jerk.
@wonderful wonderful
You may certainly offer differing opinions, but it would behoove you to express them more logically than this: “Given the choice of writing with a feather or balancing a glass slate on their knees while sliding around on a fake keyboard, I feel sure Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jefferson would all choose the feather.” I mean, really? You don’t think any of these gentlemen would have given away years of the ends of their lives to have been able to do their writing on a simple, portable device which had spell checking, formatting, and the world’s reference, all built in? Come on.
If you want to argue that creating on a powerful desktop is a better choice, then say so. But the point of the article is a valid one. Look at the stuff people have created on their iPhones using apps like Brushes. iPad will work wonderfully for a lot of creative endeavors.
Having said that…
I’m still wondering how long it will be before there’s a tipping point in device sales, and a majority of people are buying tablets, not just Apple’s but from others, as well. When sales of desktops slow to a fraction of what they are now, will Apple and the other manufacturers have to raise prices just to make up for losing the economy of scale they have now? What if, at that point, Apple actually DID license its o.s. to other manufacturers in order to help keep prices down? I’m just thinking out loud here…
@ wonderful wonderful
The iPad is a toy?
Either your parents forgot to educate you or you smoked a little too much dope in your life.
What, instead of using the iPad you should use a netbook, or a laptop, desktop, supercomputer?
What device moves out of the toy category?
Or, is it just because it does not have a keyboard, mouse and is very simple to operate?
If, you call it a toy because of the simplified interface, then you are dumb. It takes a very advanced computer and OS to make a human interface that is very simple and easy to use. It is this ease of use that will move this in to more users hands than any other computer in the past. This is what we want right? Give more people the ability to use computers and learn from that. See what they can create and teach others.
But you denigrate it by calling it a toy. So close minded. I am glad the engineers at Apple are not like you. I’m glad most of the engineers and inventors in the world are not like you. If they were, we still be driving horse and buggies, listening to the radio and complaining about talkies.
Try some of the ground breaking programs that are written for the iPad.
I recommended Star Walk for a customer. Loaded it up and tested it. Talk about a mind-bending cool program that never existed before.
If you haven’t heard of it. You go outside at night to stargaze, hold the iPad up in the sky like a window and it automatically orients the stars on screen to show you exactly what you are looking at. Move it in realtime up, down, left, right and the stars just scroll on and off the screen. They are labeled so you can identify unknown objects. Very simple but amazing software. It does much more.
Why bring it up?
@ wonderful wonderful
Hundreds of thousands of published novels have been written on archaic mechanical typewriters.
I’m sure an iPad would be a better choice than a mechanical typewriter.
So, an iPad will create content.
Don’t you look stupid.
@BigAl
@twinkie
Two smart ass kids with toys.
Very different from those who have engaged my comments with mature responses.
The iPad is destined to evolve into something more useful than it is today – add a port or two, give it more functionality and with its optional real keyboard and little stand you might even have a really low end, crippled laptop.
But it will never, as in not ever, take the place of the kind of amazing computers Apple is famous for and, I’m afraid, about to declare the products of their past.
I’m out.
neomonkey: “auren, there’s something you don’t know about C1”
Yeah, obviously.
In the years I’ve known Chrissy, I’ve discovered a razor sharp intellect, a creative eye that deserves recognition, a sense of humor that turns trolls into a pile of their own frightened mush and a love of technology better or equal to anyone MDN poster.
She’s a true friend and I will always respect her and her opinion.
Is that what you meant?
“iPad is not a computer. It’s a toy the purpose of which is to give its owners still more excuses to waste time.”
Complete and utter bullshit.
I talked with my doctor about using an anatomy app on the iPad for teaching.
The possibilities with multi-touch and multi-dimensions are phenomenal.
Chemists, engineers, teachers, inventors, animators, farmers, mathematicians, physicists . . . use your imagination (if you have one).
“Two smart ass kids with toys.”
A post from a dullard that is a waste of time.
Go play elsewhere.
“The iPad is destined to evolve into something more useful than it is today – add a port or two, give it more functionality and with its optional real keyboard and little stand you might even have a really low end, crippled laptop.”
That is one of the single most pathetic and fucked up statements made here ever.
And I’ve made a few.
@ Ampar
Word.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I shall ignore the trolling here (regardless of volumes of flat-out incorrect facts they keep trying to put out) and chime in with a different point.
Many here seem to refer to the possibility of Apple abandoning desktop (or ‘real’) computing in favour of mobile-only solutions. They fail to comprehend Fazil’s point.
Apple is following through with the first part of Jobs’s quote from the mid- 90’s that has already been mentioned elsewhere on MDN:
“If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”
The next great thing isn’t iPad (nor is it iPhone). It is the underlying GUI part of OS X. Apple is setting users up for computing via a GUI that is significantly better, easier, more intuitive, more logical and less support-demanding than Mac OS X. As soon as hundreds of millions of users learn and get comfortable with this UI, Apple will shift their ‘real’ computers over to the new GUI OS. As they have already done many times before (transition from Motorola 68k to PPC, from OS 9 to OS X, from PPC to Intel, 32bit to 64bit… a long list), they will transition from Mac OS X to the new mobile OS X, dragging the major developers kicking and screaming (Adobe, Quark, MS…), but they’ll eventually do it and eventually, we will all be effortlessly doing heavy lifting on future Mac Pros and iMacs without a mouse or a keyboard (obviously, heavy typing tasks will continue to be done on a keyboard).
This is why Apple has won and MS has lost. Once this move is complete, working with Windows will still require heavy IT support, while this platform will even further reduce already fairly minimal support requirements for the current Mac OS.
So, no; iPad will likely never be expected to do Photoshop duties (even though it’s twice as powerful and twice as fast as the first Mac ‘supercomputer’, the PowerMac G4 of 10 years ago; we did some heavy video editing, photoshop, illustrator, ProTools audio and other serious work on it). All this will be done on iPad’s more powerful brothers, running the same OS.
I can’t believe so few people are seeing it.
Replace ‘Fazil’ with ‘Elgan’ above. The comment was re-posted from another MDN thread with the same substance.
Ampar:
If you can’t comprehend, please take my order.
BTW, Predrag.
Ditto …
Ampar aka MDN
Think Different!
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” Connect the dots” as Jobs has said. One lead to another and you can not be here without the dots before. Future dots are being paved with careful thoughts and planning through continued business plans plus add along new recent profitable “iPad.” Well that makes AAPL very profitable for a few years now and is projected to pass the $50 Billion fiscal revenue by end of Sept. 2010!!!!
Wow