Yes, yes, I apologise. After Kroc's story earlier today, and together with this one, we now have three stories in a row on the 
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Member since:2006-02-05
Its not only power though, its what the machine is capable of, and all the things that are available on the internet.
At home, I use my computer to
- read industry news
- play games
- program
- record and edit music
- watch tv/movies
- manage my various devices (iphone/ipod/e-reader)
- play around with virtualized operating systems
- experiment with apps and platforms I am not familiar with
My wife uses her computer to
- facebook
- youtube
- look at cute animal pictures
- IM
- watch tv/movies
Thats it. Thats what the iPad does (yeah, the name sucks), it does it well, it does it easily, and it does it with style. Not only that, but throw in 3g, and you don't even have to worry about ISPs or routers or anything like that. And finally, it is at a price comparable to a laptop.
I don't see how this cannot be huge. about 90% of tech bloggers seem to completely miss the point, but that shows more how out of touch they are then anything else (remember this? http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500) What people here need to realize is that they are a niche audience, things that are popular with them will probably never be mainstream in any significant way.
Edited 2010-01-29 15:31 UTC
Member since:2006-12-28
I absolutely agree, though I'd like to clarify that what I mean by low powered also includes long battery life. The one thing I use my netbook for is exactly what my girlfriend would use the iPad for but instead of having to deal with the complex environment that is a Linux distribution (even if it's Ubuntu), she could use a completely integrated environment with a minimum amount of setup and maintenance.
Sure, the lock-in would drive me mad but as you quite rightly pointed out, I'm a consumer of a niche market. Hell, I build my own systems because I want them to be just so.
What do you think about Adobe porting Flash to the iPad? Do they already have an ARM port?
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about."This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Member since:
2006-12-28
You have a very good point there. For us techies, such a device seems almost anathema considering how fast hardware and operating systems have advanced but for the average home user, a device like this is perfect.
My girlfriend has a user account on my custom built PC and I can tell you, the PC is a screamer. The only thing she uses her account for is web browsing (including email and watching TV shows), the odd text document or spread sheet and the odd bit of either skype or IM. While watching her computer usage habits, she would never use more than about 10% of systems resources and the biggest slice of that %10 is taken up by flash.
A device like the iPad (how I hate that name!) would be exceptionally practical for her. Almost all of her data is stored on the net (I refuse to say cloud ;-) so local storage needs are kept to a minimum. She uses one application at a time and doesn't require four gigs of ram or an SLi rig as the only games she ever plays are card games like solitaire.
I do think there is a market for low powered tablets and if anybody can market the concept, surely it's Apple.