Let the peanut gallery throw stones

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Let's take a look at what blog commenters are saying about Apple's newly announced iPad in the first hour or so, shall we?

Unknown if it supports flash, and no multitasking that we've seen = fail.

I'll get the 499 version to tinker with, just as soon as its jailbroken.

So, the device is such a big fail that he's willing to spend $499 on it. If only everyone felt as strongly about it's failings, Apple would make even MORE money. Gosh, why not buy a Nexus One for only a dollar more? Moron.

not having Flash makes the big, empty video boxes in the middle of a page is pretty disappointing. Put differently, the fatal flaw of Apple's mobile browser has never been more apparent.

Seriously? You think that mobile Safari is doomed to a fatal death spiral 'cos it doesn't have Flash? Funny how that didn't stop 75 million people from buying the phone. Now with the iPad, I'm thinking that the fatality we're looking toward is the crashy, bloaty, resource-hoggy Flash itself.

There's no multitasking at all. It's a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you're working in Pages... you can figure it out. It's a real setback for this device.

"A real setback for this device." Yeah, I'm betting that no one will ever buy one.
Get real. "Multitasking" is such a ridiculous term. The iPhone is "multitasking" all the time. The problem is you're equating it with a regular computer. You know, one that's plugged in and charging all the time. Can it receive email while you're surfing? Yes. Can it get a phone call while you're playing Scrabble? Yup. Can it take a picture while you're using Twitterific? Sure. Can it play streaming music through a web browser when you're using the Maps app? No. And frankly, I don't want my web browser to be doing ANYTHING when I'm not in it, considering what an easy vector that is for all kinds of crud. Want to play music while you're doing something else? Um, it's an iPod. Every heard of it? Put your music on it and play while you're doing other things. MULTITASK.
Meanwhile, the biggest reason these devices don't really need multitasking: speed. Going from one app to launching another takes as little time as going from one window to another on my laptop. It might as well be multitasking.

no flash, no multitasking, no integrated webcam, no integrated physical keyboard
netbook killer?? seriously?

Who said it was a netbook killer except other dunderheaded pundits? Meanwhile, have you ever met someone who loves their "netbook" more than their iPhone?

no flash 10.1? heck it doesnt even have flash at all, even my nokia 5800 has flash lite

You enjoy interacting with slow, buggy flash on a tiny Nokia screen then, and leave the rest of us to our open standards.

would it have been insane to have added a camera, sd card slot, Gpu, flash support in the browser?!?!?!? I would gladly pay a extra 50 bucks for all that. (and ya it probably would cost less)

We have a winner...
The "best" crap gadget ever!

Thanks Steve. You did it... The Newton 2... FAIL !

Oh, and can anyone tell me who would ever need this thing? If you have an iphone, you have almost all of the functionality (okay, fine, youo dont have iWork on the iphone... but who is going to use this thing for work?, and even if you did, you seriously would buy this just to use iWork????
Really???

Even my Asus netbook has a built-in webcam. And Flash. And multitasking. What everyone is saying is right. The iPad isn't a proper computer at all. Hell, it's not even iPhone-caliber. It's a giant novelty iPod Touch.

You know, I've had a webcam for as long as I can remember. And I think I've had a video chat maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 10 years. Seriously. There's a reason that the Bell System PicturePhone didn't ever arrive in our living rooms. Get over it. Just because we can do a thing doesn't mean we must do a thing. (And seriously, I don't want to try to have a video chat with someone who's holding the camera in their hands and bouncing back and forth, much less deal with the bandwidth of transmitting a constantly moving, changing picture.)

I love how people don't pay attention to what's come before — whether in tech or history — and jam their fingers in their ears and go LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU and then assume they're somehow prescient for pointing out what many others have... long after they've been proven wrong.

Ugh. I can't read any more.

Seriously: if you haul rocks for a living, don't go on some websites and complain that the Mini Cooper won't haul boulders like an F-150 will. Really.

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