Technology Apple confirms Jan. 27 media event to show off 'latest creation'

[S O F I]

Can you describe what a fail means?

In business terms, aka terms that matter, the iPad is a success with over 500k iPads shipped in the first week of release. Where is the fail?

 

[S O F I]

DailyKos

Tech geeks love numbers. When discussing computers, they speak of gigabits and gigahertz, of RAM and ports. The more tech adept among them will even swap out the internals or write their own code. They are tinkerers extraordinaire, and are just as happy customizing their rigs as they are in using their machines for their intended purposes, be it work or pleasure.

Then there's everyone else.

I became a Mac user because I got tired of cracking my machine open to deal with hardware, and I got tired of fighting my software to get any work done. My work needs are simple: a browser, a word processor, and sporadic use of office productivity software (covered by Microsoft Office and Apple iWorks). With Google Docs, I use less and less of my desktop apps. I love cloud-based computing.

I was a PC gamer, but the current generation of dedicated gaming consoles took care of that. My Xbox, despite being made by Microsoft, is stable, fast, and runs my games perfectly. How could a company that gave us Windows build such a great gaming platform?

Because it was a closed system.

Able to control its hardware and software, Microsoft avoided the instability created by the endless hardware/software configurations found on PCs. Not only are users spared the pain of endless crashes, but they don't have to worry about hardware requirements when purchasing games. Rather than fret about whether one has enough Video RAM or processor speed, it's literally plug and play.

Of course, that kind of stability has a price. Microsoft requires Xbox developers to register themselves, and all games must be approved by the company before they can be sold to the public. Such rigidity limits the freedom of developers to write for the platform as they see fit, but it allows Microsoft to ensure that end users get the kind of enjoyable experience that keeps them buying Xbox games. Same goes for Sony and the PlayStation, and I'm sure for Nintendo and its Wii as well.

In the end, those closed gaming systems have been so effective, that they effectively killed PC gaming.

My Mac, while not perfect, is far more solid than my PCs of old. While the software isn't locked down, The hardware homogenization of Apple's lineup means fewer hardware-related crashes. And given how few third-party apps I run, my software-related crashes are kept to a minimum. The day HTML 5 fully kills off Flash will be the day that 95% of my infrequent crashes are eliminated. Currently, I reboot my MacBook Pro about once every 2-3 months (mostly after software updates), while I have applications crash maybe once every two weeks (mostly MS Word when working on huge files, or Safari/Chrome when I have too many windows open with Flash playing).

And my iPhone? It's even more stable than my laptop. It's crashed maybe twice in the last three years. The iPad is similarly solid. Why? Because these two devices use the same "closed" approach that has served the video game console makers so well.

Why the iPad?

I travel a fair amount, and lugging my MacBook Pro is a slog. It weighs almost 6 lbs, including adapter, must be taken out during security at airports, will run out of power in flight before I hit the opposite coast, and runs toasty on my lap. And while most people like to curl up to a book or magazine before going to bed, I lug my big-ass laptop to bed with me, for a final pre-sleep tour of my favorite non-political sites. I'm sure my wife loves that.

I wanted something more portable.

Why not the iPad?

The tech community is highly polarized over this machine, with many angry with the machine's closed system. Software for the machine must be approved by Apple (though with over 180,000 applications for the iPhone and iPad, it's not exactly tough to get that approval). People also complain about the lack of third-party multi-tasking (Apple apps can multi-task). Apple claims that multi-tasking compromises the stability of the platform while draining valuable battery life, something it says it has fixed with the forthcoming upgrade to their iPhone OS this summer (which the iPad will get this fall).

The iPad, like the iPhone, also doesn't do Flash. Apple claims Flash creates system instability and is a huge battery drain. It is right. Are those drawbacks reason enough to refuse it on their mobile devices? That is certainly open to debate. But one thing's for sure, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is out to kill Flash, and given how many major sites have started working on Flash alternatives on their sites, the process has at least begun.

On the hardware front, there are no user-upgradeable parts. Even the battery can't be serviced by users. And the lack of USB ports has many seeing red. You can get a USB port via adapter, but many assume USB is an integral part of any computing device and should be directly included.

For some, those are deal breakers, and lucky for them, the marketplace will offer alternatives. Personally, none of that bothered me too much.

Laptop replacement?

I wasn't blown away at the iPad reveal in January (or was it February?), but I pre-ordered one anyway for one reason --the hope that I could leave my laptop at home when on the road. I got the device last Saturday, and spent three days in DC, Monday through Wednesday. The conclusion? I can use the iPad for about 90% of what I do on my laptop. As a travel machine, it was a huge success.

The Hardware

I put the iPad, ensconced in Apple's own case, along with the adapter and Bluetooth keyboard on my kitchen scale: 2.12 lbs (1.5 lbs from the iPad itself). I threw them into a small satchel, with a couple of magazines, and I was set to hit the road with barely a tug on my shoulder.

The lack of ports except for Apple's own proprietary adapter is mostly irrelevant to me. If I'm wired to something, I feel like I've failed. Still, I may be getting the VGA adapter at some point so I can power presentations from it. I may even present with it at Netroots Nation. And it would be kind of cool to be able to upload photos from my camera when on vacation, and that would require ... USB. So as annoying as dongles may be, I may end up with two of them. So maybe it would've been nice to have those two built into the machine.

The screen is beyond gorgeous, and if this thing emits any kind of heat, I couldn't feel it. Even my iPhone gets warm to to the touch, but this thing? Cool as a cucumber.

On Monday at SFO, I was asked to take it out when going through TSA's security screening. But by Wednesday on my way home at Dulles in D.C., the agency had sent official word to screeners that the iPad didn't generally need to be removed from its bag. Just like that, flying has gotten quite a bit easier.

But does it replace a laptop?

Like i said, I spent three days without my laptop. And like I also said, most of my work is either browser based, or Microsoft Office based.

On Monday, I took it out at my terminal at SFO and logged on. Spent the next hour catching up on news, mostly getting used to the interface. I hadn't played with the iPad over the weekend -- my kids claimed it almost immediately after it was delivered. While in DC I found some great artwork my 6-year-old had left on the machine, using a paint application I had downloaded for him.

The internet browsing experience was fantastic. The iPad doesn't display Flash, which is supposed to be bad, but I didn't notice. Apparently Flash isn't common on my favorite news sites. I also downloaded a couple more apps for later perusal, like the Netflix and Marvel Comics apps. I still haven't gotten around to playing with them.

I then got on the plane, and it being Virgin, I was able to get back online at 30,000 feet. I decided to catch up on email. I kept my Bluetooth keyboard in its bag so I could play with the onscreen software keyboard. I've gotta say, gmail on the iPad looks better than gmail on my laptop. Google's mobile gmail app is fantastic. And the onscreen keyboard was a cinch to use. In portrait mode you have to use thumbs to type, like an easier iPhone. But landscape, I could type on it as if on a physical keyboard. Now, it wasn't as easy as on a real keyboard. I like to rest my fingers on keys when they're not pressing down on them, and you can't do that on the multi-touch Apple screen. So my hands had to hover over the keys, which fatigued them quicker. All in all, I guesstimate that I can type about 30-40 words per minute on the iPad on-screen keyboard. I can type 90-100 words per minute on a physical keyboard. So, about less than half my usual output, but still definitely usable.

The biggest problem when typing on that on-screen keyboard is the lack of arrow keys. If I screwed up, it was hard to back up 2-3 words to make quick edits. I had to tap the screen where I wanted the edits made, a much slower process than simply tapping back on the keyboard. Even worse, there is no apostrophe on the first-level keyboard, you have to click on the number key to get to a secondary keyboard. Apostrophes are quite common, obviously. Much more common than the exclamation mark on that first level keyboard. Luckily, the iPad has the same auto-correct feature that the iPhone has, so most of the time, typing in the word sans-apostrophe is enough. But if you need to type "it's", typing "its" does you no good.

But those are minor quibbles. For quick emails and filling out forms, the on-screen keyboard was more than good enough. And I love the ability to get a period by hitting the space key twice. I wish I could do that on my physical keyboard. I didn't get a chance to do it, but blogging would be easy with that on-screen keyboard, and Twitter was a natural for it. In fact, I did quite a bit of Twittering that evening while flying out east.

Before I hit the sack on that red eye, I had two more tests for the iPad. I got a video from Jed that I needed to review. While Daily Kos TV still uses a Flash wrapper (which will change at some point in the near future), he sent a non-Flash version so I could review. The iPad had no trouble playing it. The thing is designed for (non-Flash) media. The other was a little bit more of a pleasant surprise. I was flying to DC for a board meeting of SB Nation, the other company I founded. The company's CEO emailed a copy of the powerpoint deck for the meeting. I clicked on the link, and Gmail spawned another browser window displaying the presentation perfectly via Google Docs. A button also asked if I wanted to open it up in Keynote (Apple's presentation app, which I had purchased earlier), and I did so. Keynote opened it up perfectly. If I was so inclined, I could edit the deck to my heart's content, and then email it back to myself.

I thought that was pretty cool.

In DC, I did little more than web surfing and check email. But on the way home Wednesday evening (with still 40% of juice left on the machine), I needed to work on a long document I was writing in Word. I had emailed it to myself before leaving on the trip, so it was waiting for me in Gmail. I clicked the link, and Google Docs opened it up for me. A button asked me if I wanted to open it up in Pages, Apple's word processor. I said I did, and I was suddenly faced with a 30-page document requiring heavy editing. Hmmm. The onscreen keyboard wasn't going to cut it here if I wanted to be efficient, and I did.

So I ignored the airline's prohibition against "any device that transmit signals, such as a cellphone or Bluetooth device", and fired up my Bluetooth keyboard. It synched up perfectly and the plane didn't crash. Success! I twittered my rule breaking so everyone knew I was such a rebel (did I mention how great Tweetdeck is on the iPad? Stellar!), and then got to work.

I propped up the iPad on the tray table, the keyboard on my lap, and got to work. And I've got to say, there was ZERO difference between the work I was doing, and doing it on my laptop. It was just as fast and efficient. The word processor worked great. Note, I wasn't doing fancy shit like version controls, track changes, adding footnotes, or things like that. This is not a full-fledged word processor, and had I needed that kind of functionality, I would've been SOL. But I didn't need those bells and whistles, so I was golden. BETTER than golden, because I worked on that machine the entire six-hour flight without having to worry about power, something that would've been impossible with my laptop.

Bottom line

My iPad scored big as my new travel machine. I needed it for basic word processing, downloading and viewing business documents (like the PPT presentation), web, and email. It did those tasks perfectly. The lack of third-party multi-tasking was at most a mild-annoyance, as I had no problem switching between Tweetdeck and whatever other task I was working on at the time. On my laptop, I can switch between apps near instantaneously. On the iPad, it might take 4-5 seconds, and that mild annoyance will be gone with the new OS upgrade this fall.

Will this work for you? Beats the shit out of me. It depends on what your job is, whether there are apps that fill your needs, whether you're happy or not with an on-screen keyboard, and whether you care enough about "open versus closed" systems to let Apple's heavy-handed control over the device's hardware and software bother you.

For me, all I care is whether a device makes my life easier. I could give a shit about whether the hackers love or hate it, or how much hype something has. The iPad filled my needs seamlessly, with only minor hassles. It was better than a laptop, allowing me to travel more efficiently.

Remember, if you don't like it, no one will make you buy it. Obama's ACORN goons aren't forcing you to an Apple store. There are alternatives that are "open" systems, if you like to tinker with your machine, blah blah blah.

But for me, this thing rocked.

Coda

At home, the iPad belongs to my kids. I've downloaded a bunch of educational apps, and the kids fight over the machine to either draw on it, or play. My six-year-old has already asked for one for his next birthday.

Update: On Twitter, someone pointed out that holding down the comma/exclamation point key on the iPhone/iPad's on-screen keyboard turns it into an apostrophe. I just checked it out, and it definitely works. So that one niggling annoyance has already been solved, if surreptitiously, by Apple.

 

[masta247]

Can you describe what a fail means?

In business terms, aka terms that matter, the iPad is a success with over 500k iPads shipped in the first week of release. Where is the fail?

In this case I didn't mean that this device is a fail (which I somehow think too) but lack of Flash is a fail. That's all I'm saying.

Business-wise - yes, it sells. Ipods sell too but I also consider most of them a failure as a device solely because I would never buy them and ever recommend to anyone - and I absolutely don't mean that in the "haterish" way. It's just that they are seriously crippled and don't offer basic functionality one would require from that specific device.
Average music quality, high price, most of them look faggish and don't have a radio.
Same with the Iphone and Ipad in their way. Iphone is a "not really a smartphone but it's trying" while I can get a much better smartphone with bigger functionality and of better quality for a better price. And I'm not even starting on the Ipad again.

I was incredibly surprised when all of these devices reached high sales. Back in the days when I didn't know much about Apple but was a music geek I was laughing my ass at first Ipods - "who would buy that?". Same with the Iphone. Now this happens with the Ipad - the only difference is that learning on past experiences I wasn't that surprised. I just see the power of marketing.

 

[S. Fourteen]

I just see the power of marketing

You make it sound like people who enjoy using Apple products are delusional. Are they?

 

[S. Fourteen]

Ask any PC-loving computer nerd why Apple products have become the de facto choice of the masses, and you’ll likely hear something like, “People buy Apple products because they’re pretty.” That may be true for many, but one group of consumers who care little for Apple’s prodigious aesthetics are the blind.

They care more about how Apple products actually work. And while the iPad may be Apple's most controversial launch in recent memory, the blind community is unanimous in its support. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) even released a statement last January praising the device.

What are they so excited about?

First, consider what an e-reader represents to the blind community. The concept of an affordable, portable device that allows the visually impaired to consume media easily and without special consideration is an exciting proposition, but one never fully realized. In fact, Amazon’s Kindle, which until the iPad’s release was the most acclaimed and full-featured e-reader, had high potential for capturing the hearts of the 314 million visually impaired persons around the world. Instead, Amazon failed to fully consider what would be required for a blind person to successfully navigate the Kindle’s menus without assistance. While magazines, books and newspapers had full voice integration, allowing easy listening of all text, Amazon provided no way to enter a publication from the Kindle’s home screen. What good is a reader to someone who is blind if it requires a seeing person to get to the first page, let alone turn that page?

Both the NFB and the American Council of the Blind have lambasted the Kindle, filing a lawsuit against Arizona State University, which had been part of Kindle’s pilot program to replace textbooks with the e-reader, and sending a formal complaint to the Justice Department insisting all Kindles be removed from five other universities testing the Kindle with their student body. Two other universities, Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had previously told Amazon they would not order any Kindles until the text menus were fully accessible to the blind. Amazon has since released a statement saying the Kindle will be blind-friendly by this summer. It's too little, too late.



In stark contrast, all iPads have a standard application called VoiceOver, which allows for audible control of every single menu, even those included in third party applications. NFB has commended Apple for producing a device that is usable right out of the box for both seeing and the visually impaired alike. The NFB statement even mentions that the touch-screen “need not be a barrier” to the blind.

Computer nerds, tech columnists and the general public may not know where the iPad fits into the existing media consumption landscape--but the blind and visually impaired see it as the only e-reader worth owning. Call it further proof that Apple is more than just a pretty face.

Apple’s iPad Brings Easy Reading to the Blind « Forbes.com's Booked

 

[3en]

Ipods sell too but I also consider most of them a failure as a device solely because I would never buy them and ever recommend to anyone - and I absolutely don't mean that in the "haterish" way. It's just that they are seriously crippled and don't offer basic functionality one would require from that specific device. Average music quality, high price, most of them look faggish and don't have a radio.

Hater! lol, seriously tho how are iPods crippled? the most popular iPod nano has radio and a video camera ? I wouldn't call what 70/80 % market share a failure. If they were crippled and didn't have features that the majority of people needed they wouldn't sell.

I was incredibly surprised when all of these devices reached high sales. Back in the days when I didn't know much about Apple but was a music geek I was laughing my ass at first Ipods - "who would buy that?". Same with the Iphone. Now this happens with the Ipad - the only difference is that learning on past experiences I wasn't that surprised. I just see the power of marketing.

Well you were wrong about the iPod, also the iPhone and now the iPad.

Yea it must be just good marketing that people buy their products, c'mon now. Is it that hard to fathom Apple actually makes great products that people actually like using. Word of mouth from switchers of non Apple products is Apples biggest seller.

 

[Casey]

I think masta meant that they are crippled compared to other devices in the same price range. Hell, I've seen devices that can do more than iPod's, with more storage, for half the price. Like any other Apple product, you're buying the name and the perceived "status" that comes with it.

 

[masta247]

What Casey said. If it comes to Ipods there are products much superior much cheaper - in everything from build and sound quality to storage and ease of use (battery etc). There are many reasons why Ipods sell but I can't see a single one apart from wide known marketing.

The "because they work" is probably the most retarded reason ever. It's almost brainwashing. Like Irivers were more faulty (for example). And they work better.

 

[S. Fourteen]

Apple Is Hiring iPad Camera Engineer | Cult of Mac


no big surprise... i think the OS 4 release for iPad being Fall might be an indication that we'll see a refresh just in time for the Xmas season. gotta keeps those quarterly numbers up. we'll see though - that might upset the early buyers.

 

[S. Fourteen]

The network said that in the 10 days since the iPad's debut, its TV-show watching app has been downloaded 205,000 times, giving the Walt Disney Co. unit a presence on nearly half the 450,000 devices that Apple says it has sold. Moreover, users have watched at least part of 650,000 television episodes using the app, generating "several million" ad impressions, according to an ABC spokesman, although the precise number is still being calculated.

ABC Sees Success in iPad App - Digits - WSJ

Killing television softly.

 

[S. Fourteen]

Rising iSun: Thoughts on the iPad's prospects in Japan

Rising iSun: Thoughts on the iPad's prospects in Japan
by TUAW Blogger (RSS feed) on Apr 18th 2010 at 12:45PM

Today's guest post is by Peter Payne, a longtime watcher of Apple's prospects in the Japanese markets. Peter is the proprietor of the Japanese pop-culture web shop jlist.com (some content NSFW).

Apple's new iPad has gotten off to a great start and managed to impress a lot of reviewers, which is quite an achievement if you think back to the negative press that was being written about it immediately after Steve Jobs announced it in January. By all accounts, it seems to be a wonderful invention; perhaps it's the perfect "throw this in your bag for a weekend in Vegas" computer. Still, how the device will be received outside of the U.S. remains to be seen.

Take Japan, a country that I've lived in for nearly two decades. When the iPhone 3G was introduced two years ago, it got off to an extremely slow start. The shape and functionality were just too different for the Japanese, who prefer clamshell phones with physical numeric keypads. Due to an odd linguistic quirk of the Japanese language, it's actually faster to enter Japanese hiragana-based text using a numeric keypad than with a QWERTY keyboard, and -- I am not kidding here -- many best-selling novels are actually written using keitai denwa (mobile phones) with numeric keypads.

However, as time went by, a core of dedicated Japanese iPhone fans emerged and helped evangelize the device, mainly by showing their friends all of the newest apps that they'd downloaded, and the iPhone started to catch on in a big way. Even the popular boy band SMAP quit their contract sponsoring NTT Docomo's phones and signed on with Softbank, presumably so that they could help promote the iPhone. These days, though, iPhone's share of the smartphone market tops 46 percent, and attending one of Danny Choo's media events for hipster blogger types is like a miniature iPhone convention.

How about the revolutionary iPad, though? Will Japanese fans go for this new device? I have some experience with Apple and the Japan iTunes store -- on my site, we sell the prepaid cards that let people around the world access iTMS Japan's content -- so I'll look into my crystal ball and see what's in store for iPad.


Frankly, I'm not sure that the future is going to be all that rosy. First of all, if you thought the iPad name was an embarrassment, imagine how Japanese fans might feel about using a product with the same name (phonetically) as the Ai-Pad: a pad made by Awajitec with an electronic sensor that lets others know when old people have wet themselves. However, a bigger issue is the hostility that Apple has encountered when trying to "change the world" in a conservative place like Japan.

Despite the resounding success of the iTunes Music Store as a way to distribute music in the age of the Internet, it took years for Japan's major music companies to put their content into the system. Several still hold back, only posting new releases after they've sold in traditional outlets for a while. Sony still does its best to ignore the iPod and iTunes entirely, and won't let its artists' music be distributed through iTunes Japan except in a few cases. Clearly, Sony is still miffed about losing its Walkman crown. This harms no one but Sony's customers, who can find the music they want for free if they're so inclined.

This issue of not being able to get compelling content from Japanese publishers is likely to be more of a problem in the case of iPad, which some see as nothing more than a device for media consumption. Take a look at the iPad "features" page on Apple's Japanese website. In place of advertising the cool Hollywood movies that you can watch on the device you have, you'll find...video podcasts? There's no mention of iBooks, or of using iTunes as a platform for viewing manga comics, which would be a potentially killer app.

I think that getting top-notch content for the iPad is likely to be a challenge for a couple of reasons:

1) Despite its reputation as a technologically advanced country, it's my experience that Japan is often happy to follow behind the rest of the world in many areas, and there's a general tendency to wait before embracing big changes that come along. If I've learned anything about Japan, it's that companies here are extremely risk-averse and will study an issue carefully before they act if they think there might be a downside later.

2) Currently, Japan's business world is set up in a way that guarantees lots of profit for companies producing content. Whereas a U.S. bookstore will get books for 45-55 percent off the cover price, the retail markup for books in Japan is less than half that, leaving another 25 percent of the pie for producers. This means that a manga company considering publishing on the iPad has to factor in taking a hit on per-unit sales, as well as agree to the more reasonable prices that digital distribution will require. The popular manga magazine Shonen Jump has a circulation of 2.8 million copies per week. Do you think they'll be in a hurry to embrace any change that might disrupt that gravy train?

3) By and large, Japanese Internet users are not currently pirating media online in anywhere near the numbers that they are in Europe and the U.S., which means that Japanese media companies feel less urgency to act. They'd rather keep selling music CDs for $30 each as opposed to changing before the outside world forces change upon them. Yes, CDs really cost $30 in Japan, although imports from the U.S. are usually a more reasonable $18.

All is not lost for Apple, though. As it did with iTunes, it can play companies off of each other in various ways. If the number three publisher in a certain market would like to become the number two publisher, they are likely going to be interested in working with Apple in this new distribution platform. Apple can exploit this in the same way that some smaller music publishers were able to enjoy great success on iTunes Japan due to the lack of big names like Sony.

The Japanese market for electronic books designed to be read on cellular phones has been maturing for a number of years. In this market, there's no single site that dominates like iTunes does for music in the U.S., maybe Apple can appeal to the higher display quality of the iPad to win bibliophiles. The fact that iBooks will be available to everyone with an iPhone or iPod touch has got to be attractive to Japanese book publishers.

In a place that's as resistant to change as Japan is, doing what Apple is trying to do is going to be an uphill battle. I certainly wish the Apple team well.

 

[S. Fourteen]

iPad 3G Teardown - iFixit

The iPad's model number is A1337 as previously suggested by the FCC filing. Yes, we think that's l33t.

small nerd humor

PS. 3en, I'll try to test out iPad apps in the near future and post a rundown on my choices for the best.

 

[Casey]

Report: The iPad Won’t Go Mass Market Anytime Soon

As "magical" as Apple’s iPad may be, it’s unlikely to go mass market anytime soon. That’s according to research carried out in the UK, which concludes that consumers struggle to see how the device could fit into their lives.

Simpson Carpenter‘s qualitative research drew comments from participants such as: “It’s just a big iPod Touch … a big iPhone without the phone” and “everything it does I can do on my PC or my phone right now.”

All of the iPad’s perceived advantages were seen to be filling a niche or too use-case specific, such as reading eBooks, consuming content on the train, or making presentations. And while the majority of those interviewed thought that the iPad had the wow factor, they couldn’t justify a purchase.



Read more: Report: The iPad Won’t Go Mass Market Anytime Soon

 

[Casey]

I'm flying to the US tomorrow for a few weeks. I'll be picking up an iPad while I'm there, and jailbreaking it. It's for my cousin, before you guys ask. He'll be using it for one purpose only - a control surface for Pro Tools.

The way I see it - is that as a niche device, using it for one or two simple purposes, it's good. But the more you do with it, the more it begins to fall short. My main issue with it are with the idea of it replacing other hardware, because it's simply never going to do that. The OS is not good enough and too restricted to effectively do many of the tasks we use desktop and laptop PC's for.

However, for this one purpose, I think it might just work well, and the main consideration is that it's cost effective - our alternative is to by a hardware Pro Tools control surface which costs over a grand, and of course is less portable (we'll be mixing the new album whilst on tour in the US this summer, it seems, so of course we'll already be carrying a lot of clothing and instruments).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking it out, despite my dislike of Apple. I still very much doubt I'd ever purchase one for personal use, though.

And if it turns out to not be particularly effective at this one task, we'll just sell it here in the UK and probably make some profit on it seeing as they aren't out here yet.

 

[S O F I]

Apple-related.

How secure is Flash? Here's what Adobe won't tell you | ZDNet

 

[masta247]

 

[Flipmo]

LOL - these flash jokes never get old.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

^See, that's where you're wrong. Apple will not fail cause of Flash. People are used to Apple not supporting Flash on their mobile devices therefore developers will step in a la CNN app and create a back door to the content. It's simple supply and demand. If users want to visit a website but can't because of no Flash support, an app developer will step in to make a profit.

but why should people have to develop apps just to visit the content that would be available on a website anyway? this does not make the web browsing experience any better and in fact gives app developers a chance to charge for app usage/downloads whereas the content would be readily available free off charge on the website...

flash is a requirement, and without it, the iPad will indefinitely lag behind any other web browsing device that has its support.

 

[Cooper]

How to Install Android on Your iPhone - PCWorld

 

[S O F I]

but why should people have to develop apps just to visit the content that would be available on a website anyway? this does not make the web browsing experience any better and in fact gives app developers a chance to charge for app usage/downloads whereas the content would be readily available free off charge on the website...

flash is a requirement, and without it, the iPad will indefinitely lag behind any other web browsing device that has its support.

Google

insert coin.