“How does Apple keep out-inventing the rest of the tech industry? Often, it’s by reinventing a product category that its competitors have given up on,” Harrty McCracken writes for TIME Magazine.
“In theory, the iPad is merely a follow-up to such resoundingly unpopular slate-style computers as Microsoft’s Tablet PC,” McCracken writes (with a straight face? – MDN Ed.) “But Apple is the first company that designed finger-friendly hardware and software from scratch rather than stuffing a PC into a keyboardless case.”
McCracken writes, “When it calls the results ‘magical’ and ‘revolutionary,’ it’s distorting reality only slightly. One analyst says the iPad is the fastest-selling nonphone gizmo in consumer-electronics history.”
The full list can be seen here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brian A.” for the heads up.]
Look, despite my location, I loath Microsoft and really like Apple Mac’s.
Unfortunately Apple has taken a dangerous detour lately that I can no longer recommend much of anything they make.
The iPad? Really? It’s a child’s toy with a restricted apps.
Now Apple is walling up OS X on Mac’s too with the MacAppStore.
Hey, free choice comes with some consequences and opportunities for the smart folks out there to make some money. And smart folks need certain “tools” that Apple will not allow on the MacAppStore.
Sure I recommended a Mac to people who didn’t want “virus issues” but still they needed geek services, AppleTV, iPods, backups etc., really can be complicated to the technology challenged.
The iPad and iOS? That’s putting me out of a job for the mere two support calls I get a year from my Mac users.
The iPad is killing regular computer sales as people just come to expect they have to live with a reduced device or worse, don’t know any better.
At least with a full open computer people can come across new ways to use it and then hire a smart guy to get it to work.
With the iOS that’s all gone. You are only allowed what Apple allows.
Steve and Apple knew what did not work in the old devices. When the development group showed Steve Jobs the iPad screen’s hardware ability, he gave it to the GUI team to see what they could do with it. A few months later, Steve saw an interface that could be a great smart phone. The iPad was set to the side. The iPhone took hold for a few years and then the the A4 chip was finished. Now, the iPad was finished up and blew them all away.
Then the AppleTV.
Then the “Just one more thing” … coming sooner than you think!
I just love a happy story. Don’t you Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, Dell, HP, …
It’s going to be a wondeful Xmas for Apple.
Off-topic – I dreamt last night that appl stock shot up by 60 points. Kinda bummed that it wasn’t true when I woke up this morning.
Anyone else get dreams like that or should I just go to see a shrink now
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Oh no, it’s November, so time for the “top X of Y for 2010” lists to start!
Hi Seattle WA Dude. The Mac and it’s OS X software is still there. Nothing changed. apps are like the free calculator you got with your PC. You never got a tech call about the calculator in the PC either. And the calculator never stopped developers from writing un-approved software for the Mac.
If you though things would always be a PC box, you never watched enough Sci-Fi.
“How Star Trek artists imagined the iPad… 23 years ago”
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/08/how-star-trek-artists-imagined-the-ipad-23-years-ago.ars
@ Seattle Dude
I see critical cogitation of the pros & cons of Apple’s walled garden approach is still alive & well. Thank you sir for pointing out Apple’s flaws. You would have thought that the Church of Apple lacked critical analysis of what is wrong with Apple’s ‘lack of choice’ for want of a better word. For example taking away a physical orientation lock on the iPad & iPhone was dumb beyond measure.
@ Seattle WA Dude and Ballmer’s left nut:
For some real insight into what’s behind the MacAppStore and why it’s good for Mac developers and Mac users alike, please read this article:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/11/01/why-the-mac-app-store-is-such-a-priority-for-apple/
@Ballmer…
Clearly you are delusional. There is STILL a physical orientation lock on each and every iPad sold today. Sheesh…you are such a dope. Just go away.
@Seattle WA Dude
If the Mac and iPad are “toys” then ALL computers are toys. I am so sick of morons throwing this put down off as if it were fact instead of their grand delusion, which is what it truly is. Annoyingly so. The iPad is incredibly usefu and youd know that if you used it for more than two minutesl, get over yourself. Most people I know, PC and Mac users alike, end of using their main computers a lot less once seduced by the ease and convenience of using an iPad.
Also Microsft is a bit of a walled garden too, as is Google. People are in severe denial thinking otherwise. EVERY company would love to hold you “captive” but sometimes it’s a good thing if it keeps the platform more manageable and clean for users. Any kind of censorship shouldn’t be tolerated but we all get to vote on that with how we spend our money. Apple, so far, is doing a splendiferous job. Never in my wildest dreams would I put the same level of trust in either Microsoft or Google who seem easily corruptible.
Is it me? Am I the only one that easily can recognize the iPad (and Square – thanks to Apple’s App Store) but as for the rest, never really heard of them, sorry Time, I must be living under a rock.
I saw under the military category ‘Super Soaker’ and thought they brought back water boarding. Instead it’s a device to rid IED’s in Afghanistan which is also a good thing!
Seattle WA Dude,
Dude, if you are going to troll effectively (and not prove yourself a clueless adolescent like BLN has) you are going to have to stop the silly leading disclaimer:
“Look, despite my location, I loath Microsoft and really like Apple Mac’s.”
That, literally screams pathetic little apple hating troll. We need to read no further to determine you are 1) a troll and 2) likely still in high school (or at least have not learned to compose written arguments effectively)
Step up your game silly boy, then your posts might at least be amusing, now they are just pathetic.
Really, SeattleWA dude?
“At least with a full open computer people can come across new ways to use it and then hire a smart guy to get it to work.”
Hire a smart guy to get it to work? So you mean people have to buy the thing, and then they STILL CANT USE IT because it’s designed badly, created deliberately to be just bad enough to not work well, to keep you employed? If it needs a ‘smart guy’ to get it to work, why the hell should I spend any money on it? That’s gotta be the stupidest thing ever.
My brother is an IT guy. His attitude is that if the product was well-designed in the first place, people wouldn’t need him. He’s hoping someday his job will be made redundant by the fact that people have just bought Macs and they just work. He has an iMac at home. His wife is getting an iPad for xmas, and he WILL NEVER HAVE TO SERVICE IT.
Like the old story about the cobbler whose kids have crappy shoes, or a mechanic whose wife has a crappy car, most people don’t want to do more of the same kind of work when they get home from work. I don’t work in IT, and I DON’T WANT TO so I got a Mac.
MDN magic word: window. As in, “hole in wall designed to allow PC victims, erm I mean survivors, to throw their crappy computers out, in desperate frustration”
Jeez.
@Michael
You are a prime example why the RDF works on nutters like you. In case you haven’t woken up from 2007 the physical orientation lock was removed from the iPhone in iOS 4.0 & will be removed from the iPad in iOS 4.2. Keep on playing with the fart app in your iPad, you might actually improve your IQ.
@Uncle Fester’s Cousin
You need to undergo a waterboarding session to wean you of your fetish for all things Apple. No make that 3 sessions with a free ticket to Guantanamo Bay to join the rest of the zealots & Taliban there.
@ Seattle WA Dude
Change in constant and so you (your job) need to adapt as products and society change. The iPad is not killing the regular computer sales, it’s giving people what they want and not a do-it-all computer that will do everything except toast bread.
“Reduced device? Childs toy”? Spoke like a typical IT saleman/person that think they’re clients or customers are inept.
I don’t need a sledge hammer to kill a fly and neither does a large percentage of the world.
@Seattle WA Dude
If I read your post correctly it sounds like Mac is so well manufactured and designed that it is putting you out of a job. Well if Mac is that well made then count me in.
Maybe it is time for you to retrain. Apple has this great program where you can write apps for their Macs and ipods and people are making money at it. Maybe you should try that.
Seattle WA Dude – I’m going to make a wild guess that you work in the Geek Squad for Best Buy. Am I right?
Seattle dude
Next time get your mommy to proofread your post before submitting. OK?
I hate to get off this analysis of Seattle dude’s post, but no one has yet noted that out of Time’s Top 6 Technology items HALF were related to Apple.
iPad- Obvious
Flipboard – app for iPad
Square – Credit Card reader for iPhone.
Out of ALL the world of technology inventions for the past year, HALF of the top items are from Apple or Inspired by Apple. Tell me again why Apple needs “competition” to spur innovation?
@Seattle WA Dude,
The Mac App Store is optional. Developers can continue to sell software via their websites. The App Store will actually increase developers sales – not hurt them.
Nook Color is better for reading than iPad and better for everything else than Kindle. Nook Color is better for $249. Nook Color screen is supposed to be better (less reflective) for reading than iPad thanks to new LG screen with anti-reflection coating. It allows to watch videos, listen to the music, view Office documents and PDF’s. The Nook Color will not run apps straight out of the Android Market, but that does not mean it cannot run them. In fact, they have done a lot of tests on apps from standard Android smartphones and they pretty much run on Nook Color, which has Android 2.1 under the hood. (The Nook native interface and apps are just standard Android application layers.) Barnes & Noble special Nook SDK runs on top of the standard Android one and gives developers access to exclusive extensions and APIs for the Nook and its interface. So porting Android apps is not difficult. B&N says it is more like optimising them for Nook than porting them. If you prefer e-Ink screen, the original Nook is still available from BN.
Seattle dude –
Ipad – ” Childish Toy ” ? Are you related to Steve Balmer ?
More like – Tool !!!! Not toy …
Obviously you are not an iPad owner !!!!!