iPad

[toblix]

Even if they do announce all of that tomorrow, I'm pretty sure we won't be getting it for a couple months.

Oh, definitely not. It'll probably be released alongside the next version of the phone in June/July. However, it's the news of the thing I'm looking forward to, not the thing itself.

[Scrobbs]

Announced for sale in UK apparently:

16Gb - £539.95

32Gb - £629.95

64Gb - £739.95

Ouch.

[pabosher]

Announced for sale in UK apparently:

16Gb - £539.95

32Gb - £629.95

64Gb - £739.95

Ouch.

That's taking the piss - completely and utterly flabbergasted. Laptop/Macbook it is then.

[Patters]

Announced for sale in UK apparently:

16Gb - £539.95

32Gb - £629.95

64Gb - £739.95

Ouch.

Saw it coming.

[Scrobbs]

Well, I could be wrong.

[Scrobbs]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/iCade.shtml

Sold!

[Scrobbs]

April fool apparently. Shame

[SoulChicken]

edit: oh not real

[Jake]

Let me ask you think, Jake, do you feel the same way about the HP Slate? It's the same price (roughly) and has four times the RAM and 50% more processing power, supports Flash and isn't locked down.

Given the choice (and if the Slate does everything HP promises), which would you pick?

I'd have to use one for a bit. The features sound extremely promising on paper, but the whole point of a device like this is that all of it works together. I've been using an iPad on and off since a few weeks before they were released and I like the way the software and the hardware are put together. It feels very much like a deliberate thing, front to back.

Also, though the lack of multitasking is frustrating*, one of my favorite things is the way almost all of the OS gets out of my way the moment I'm in an app. I don't know if that's what I want all the time (I will likely get sick of it the moment I intend to do anything productivity oriented), but at the moment it's extremely refreshing.

Does the Slate run an operating system built around touch, or is it running straight desktop Windows 7 or something? Or worst (and most likely) of all, is there a questionably-responsive "touch layer" of UI stuff bolted down on top of Windows 7?

I want a filesystem that is exposed, and it's frustrating that the iPad is built on synching, but the iPad has reminded me that I don't actually need or maybe even want the desktop metaphor all the time anymore. Especially on a touch device.

Anyway, very curious about the Slate, but dubious of its actual usability and interaction...smoothness, despite its more impressive feature bulletpoints.

Also, that video shows the opposite of using it. It shows a montage of a bunch of flashy video and scrolling things, unfortunately, so I have no sense of how it would actually feel to use. This is just marketing versus marketing, but I think with the iPad/iPhone, Apple has done a great job with their videos of letting you "feel" the device in your hands even if you haven't used one. I have no clue what the Slate does or how one uses it, other than it plays flashy rock videos and scrolls past a PDF of the New York times.

* Fortunately this one aspect will soon be remedied to some degree.

[JonCole]

Does the Slate run an operating system built around touch, or is it running straight desktop Windows 7 or something? Or worst (and most likely) of all, is there a questionably-responsive "touch layer" of UI stuff bolted down on top of Windows 7?

This. And on top of Windows 7 Home Premium, as well.

I want a filesystem that is exposed, and it's frustrating that the iPad is built on synching, but the iPad has reminded me that I don't actually need or maybe even want the desktop metaphor all the time anymore. Especially on a touch device.

I agree completely. Every time I hear someone discuss "full featured operating systems" on a tablet, I picture Windows Mobile devices. And then I cringe.

[Salacious Snake]

The importance of smooth scrolling cannot be overstated, and Apple really understands that. When you're swiping your way through a document, the metaphor of pushing the page around completely breaks down if it gets jerky. The inertial properties of the page also have to be finely tuned.

Even with the extra horsepower, HP may not prioritize that stuff enough (or they may be hamstrung by the OS), and that would make it absolutely brutal to use the Slate.

Also, there's no way I'm going to tap on a scrollbar, so if they were to ask me to do that I would just put the device down immediately.

[miffy495]

Really? My ipod touch scrolls like shit and is really unresponsive in the UI. I think Apple's stuff more noticeably deteriorates than others. It may be because it starts off so damn smooth, but after two years of using a touch, I dread having to scroll through anything on it. It's kind of the worst.

[SiN]

miffy, maybe you should backup your iPod on iTunes, then so a system restore (putting the original OS back on) and then during the iPod setup, ask it to restore your data from the backup you just did.

It takes a while to do, but it's relatively painless. Not sure if it'll help, but it's worth a shot.

[edited for coherency ]

[ThunderPeel2001]

Basically, the HP Slate is the device that all the tech nerds *think* they want. When it's released, the reviews will be so-so, the sales will be poor, and the tech nerds will be left confused, "It has multitasking, it runs Windows, how could this fail?" And they'll conclude that, "The iPad sold well because of brand name, not because it's better." It's frustrating to see this happen over and over again.

I think it's only fair to say that it's largely part due to branding. My Zune is better than any iPod I've ever used, but it still sold less well than the iPod, despite having a better menu system, interface (IMO) and more features.

[Patters]

I think it's only fair to say that it's largely part due to branding. My Zune is better than any iPod I've ever used, but it still sold less well than the iPod, despite having a better menu system, interface (IMO) and more features.

Yeah, I've wanted a Zune HD since they were announced, though it seems unlikely to come out over here, which while bullshit isn't relevant here.

[Rueler]

I think it's only fair to say that it's largely part due to branding. My Zune is better than any iPod I've ever used, but it still sold less well than the iPod, despite having a better menu system, interface (IMO) and more features.

I think it's safe to say that the iPod Touch is better than any Zune (keeping in mind all of the apps).

[ThunderPeel2001]

I think it's safe to say that the iPod Touch is better than any Zune (keeping in mind all of the apps).

When the Zune was released, the iPod Touch was still a year a way. (Also: When it was released it cost $500, twice the price of a Zune for the same capacity. That's a lot of money just to be able to buy Apps if you ask me.)

[Jayel]

When iPod touch was first released, it didn't have volume buttons either. I hope whoever came up with that decision got fired.

edit:

This may be old news to most of you, but the newest iphone developer agreement bans apps developed using languages other than c/c++/objective-c. This is so fucking stupid and childish I refuse to believe a rational minded adult wrote it. To non-developers, it's like saying you can't sell music on itunes unless it was made in garageband, or can't sell a video on itunes unless it was edited using final cut pro. Maybe not quite as dramatic because most people use do use c/c++/objective-c for iphone development (nor do apple have any stake in c/c++) but you get the idea.

Apple so far hasn't acted on this new agreement yet (and can't, since os4 isn't out yet), so I'll try to reserve my outrage until they start banning apps written using flash/monotouch/unity3d/etc.

Edited April 10, 2010 by Jayel

[Armchair General]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/iCade.shtml

Sold!

Man if that was real, I would have one tomorrow. There is an amazing business opportunity right there for some budding entrepreneur. I want it.

[JonCole]

I think it's only fair to say that it's largely part due to branding. My Zune is better than any iPod I've ever used, but it still sold less well than the iPod, despite having a better menu system, interface (IMO) and more features.

It's sort of difficult to compare the Zune interface with the iPod Touch interface, considering they're trying to do completely different things. I think that 100 or more apps listed in pure text with only 6-8 apps showing at a time would be pretty goddamn horrendous.

[Xeneth]

Yeah, ThinkGeek is weird... Their April Fools jokes, rather than being funny, tend to be mouth-watering.

And then inevitably they end up making the damn thing and selling a million of them. (See Tauntaun sleeping bag or mp3 playing speaker shirt) It feels very much like they miss the point of April Fools and should just start making cool crap up and asking the internet "how much would you pay for X?"

[Erkki]

BTW Another weakness of the App Store approval process:

This has been there from 7th April and still is. In a normal system, the developer should be able to issue a fix as soon as possible, or at least disable this update. Or maybe they can, but just didn't do that?

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's sort of difficult to compare the Zune interface with the iPod Touch interface, considering they're trying to do completely different things. I think that 100 or more apps listed in pure text with only 6-8 apps showing at a time would be pretty goddamn horrendous.

I have no idea what you're talking about. (Did you miss this?)

[JonCole]

I have no idea what you're talking about. (Did you miss this?)

No, I didn't miss that. What I'm saying is the iPod Touch's interface isn't translatable to the Zune's.

I don't really know how to address what you linked me... if you're saying you don't care about apps, it's hard to ignore them if you own a Touch. That's what I was commenting on... having a list (in the style of the Zune) of hundreds of apps simply doesn't work.

If you're saying the Zune came out before the Touch, so what? They both exist now and you were making the comparison by saying that the Zune has the better interface. That's like saying - "Well, you can't say Mac OS 10 is better than Windows 95 because they weren't released at the same time!" Just because it's an unfair comparison doesn't mean you can't compare them at all.

[ThunderPeel2001]

If you're saying the Zune came out before the Touch, so what? They both exist now and you were making the comparison by saying that the Zune has the better interface.

I think it's fairly clear that I was comparing the Zune to its iPod contemporaries, not to a device that hadn't been invented yet. And I was specifically making reference to your complaint that about the iPad's contemporaries failing. Your point being that their failure would only be because they were inferior machines, not because of Apple marketing hype helping them dominate the market. And how frustrating it is for you to keep seeing the 'tech nerds' not realise that.

Edited April 18, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001