MacDailyNews Take: We haven’t had a drop to drink today, yet, nor did we the first time we said it on iPad unveiling day (in-between we make no claims), so we have no problem typing the following yet again, in bold: “This first iPad is going to be a smash hit.”
Johnson continues, “Nerds of 2040 will sigh and rattle off any number of previous computers if someone makes that [“iPad was the first real computer”] claim. But even those nerds will have to concede that the iPad marked the beginning of appliance computing, when physical devices and interfaces receded into the background and touch gave us an entirely new intimacy with our information.”
“Automobiles had been around for 30 years before Henry Ford put together the first Model T,” Johnson writes. “Those previous attempts at a mass-market car were critical to Ford’s success, but it’s Ford we remember.”
Johnson writes, “The iPad isn’t the most capable machine out there. It’s not a multitasker.”
MacDailyNews Take: Whoops. iPad, like every single iPhone and iPod touch that’s ever shipped, is a multitasker. It simply doesn’t yet allow for multitasking by third-party apps. Listen to your iPod while surfing the web and you’re multitasking. With iPhone 4.0, Apple will usher in multitasking for third-party apps, along with much more. It will be available as a software update to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer and a version of iPhone OS 4 will be coming to iPad this fall.
Johnson continues, “But the iPad’s limitations are also its strength. Because they’re uniform across the platform, developers can work with and around them. The same kind of uniformity has allowed video game consoles to stay competitive with—and sometimes eclipse—more-powerful gaming hardware… The iPad won’t be all things to all people. Those of us who need raw power will still have our Macs and our PCs and our mainframes for years to come. But I think we’ll find that dainty two-stroke computers like the iPad are surprisingly versatile.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]
@ lcm123
These things are all true.
I’ve also noticed that the iPad monitor is bloody beautiful, and shows more detail in the highlights, especially with ProPhoto16 files, than either of my Apple monitors or any laptop I’ve owned.
@lcm123
You can zoom on a Macbook by using Ctrl+Scroll. Doesn’t have nearly the cool factor of doing it on the iPad though.
@ Jimithy
True. But mousing (or track-padding) around to scroll and zoom takes far more effort and precision. Nothing beats pinching and flicking. ANd I’ve found that people have a much easier time following what you’re saying about an image if you’re actually pointing at it. Much more engaging.
I can’t wait until I can get a 24″ version. =)
@C1
“I sell a very little bit of stock photography, and my profession is certainly related to photography, but I don’t directly make any money on my photos either.”
Hmm, I guess blackmail is your thing then. Stay over there in Seattle
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Oh, and permit me to regress 30 years. All you people gabbing about photography get over it. This is a tech website, not an art or photography one. Sheesh, get a life.
And yes, I am incapable of not reading the stuff that bothers (hmm, how to know what bothers me unless I read it).
And still get offa my lawn!
@ C1
“But seriously… the best part about digital photography, as a hobbyist, is that I can go shoot anything I like, and it costs… nothing.”
Except your victim’s soul.
@ Contrarian
“Except your victim’s soul.”
Yeah… I’m gonna need to get bigger RAIDs for all these souls…
@ C1
Please stop at Snark! I’d be very afraid if you went all the way to Boojum!
@C1,
Maybe things have changed in the last 2 or 3 years, but my feeling is nothing beats large format color negative film which is then scanned with a good film scanner. Even at 35mm its a good way to go. But digital RAW is close (at 35mm) and way faster, cheaper, easier, and a sure thing.
@ DESuserIGN
I ran Linotype Hell 3400 drum scanners for many years… I can appreciate a good large format film capture and a good scan in LAB. But I’m not talking about large format here…where the benefits of film are still clear, especially if you address cost like I mentioned. Large format capture is WAY out of my price range for a good setup, and capture times are still studio-slow.
But for 35mm format forget about it. There about are the same amount of pixels on a 5D2 as there are on a piece of Velvia 50, and most people could afford a 5D2. I only use a 14mpx G10 and a 10mpx XTi and I still get better quality and sharpness than any film I ever shot.
El Guapo: “Release yourself from the shackles of 30 years of indoctrination that tell you you must have a keyboard, USB, CD drive, card reader, floppy disk, ad infinitum. See / think differently or the world will leave you behind.”
Doesn’t Apple sell an “Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit” with USB/card reader connectors? As well as a keyboard dock? Yes, I believe they do.
@Islandgirl
It’s for those that have a hard time letting go.
It’s for those that have a hard time letting go.
Like letting go of a way to load pix into the iPad.
Until iPhone OS 4.0 it’s Multitasking Lite, VERY LITE!
October cannot come fast enough!
@chrissyone you are right about the portability. Like yours, my iPad has not left my side either, and it does command an attention like no other device. While my laptop is mobile it is by far easier to bring my iPad into another room.
The iPad is the first device to truly make computers “personal.”