1,000 devs raid iPadded code kit A day before Steve Jobs uncloaked the Apple iPad - a tablet that doesn't multitask - Appcelerator told the world that its Titanium web-code-meets-local-app development kit would embrace the long-awaited Apple device. In the two days since, over 1,000 developers have downloaded the kit and registered to use it. Prior to the …
"... just a bigger iPod Touch"
Yes, it's just a bigger iPod Touch apart from the iPad will have a "faster" processor (to allow the apps to do more powerful things).
Oh, and the ipad has a higher resolution screen.
So, apart from the processor and the screen resolution then it is just a bigger iPod Touch.
Oh, and the iPad has a speaker built in.
So, apart from the processor and the screen resolution and the speaker, then it is just a bigger iPod Touch.
What about the microphone? Oh. Yes... microphone...
Right. So, apart from the processor and the screen resolution and the speaker and the microphone, then it is just a bigger iPod Touch.
Yes. 3G?
Argh... Ok... Apart from the processor, the screen resolution, the speaker, the microphone and the 3G (on selected models), then yes, it is just a bigger iPod Touch.
Just because it looks similar and shares some features, doesn't mean it is the same thing but a bit bigger. The iPhone is much more than "an iPod Touch with a phone in it". The constant availability of internet access (when O2's network is working) opens up much more possibilities for its use.
So, to the original poster - I guess you fall in to one (or more) of the following categories
1. You hate Apple and everything they do
2. You can't see a use for this new product
3. You can't afford to buy this new product
4. Your wife won't let you buy this new product
If you don't like it/can't see a use for it - JUST DON'T BUY IT.
Oh, and full marks for observation that it *LOOKS* like a bigger iPod Touch.
...I'm so sick of these people "Oh its just a big iPhone/iTouch..."
Have these people got no vision? Can you not use a tiny part of the brain to think of what you could do if you had a larger iTouch?
As a developer this is a potential goldmine... There are going to be thousands of middle aged people getting one of these, people who don't mind spending a few quid for an application which they find interesting...
To all the tech geeks out there, STOP thinking in geek mode for just a second... think of you parents, think of your wife/girlfriend, think of your kids, those less technical who just use a computer to check email, those who go on Facebook, YouTube, play Farmville and Bejeweled. They would no longer have to turn on a computer to do their meaningless time wasting, its there right in front of their face instantly...
If middle aged people get this, you better make sure you can scale things up.
Having said that, I have found usability on Apple kit generally better. One day I'll manage to convert my dad too - after I've bought a Mac laptop myself.
But I too think it's just a large iPhone, and the reason for that is crucial: it is ALWAYS; INSTANTLY available.
This is the bit that every %&* OS vendor seems to totally ignore, and so does every BIOS supplier. I do not WANT to know a memory count, the version number, how many USB controllers have been initialised, and I am well past finding a progress bar that starts again at the beginning when it's full amusing. I do not want animation, or a desktop that appears early but is then still unusable for another 5 minutes because of virus updates and whatever else the thing has to do to burn energy without me getting something back for it (and no, "suspend" isn't an option because that takes battery power too).
It is 2010, for crying out loud, and I think my IBM Turbo XT clone still booted faster than my gazillion core Intel inside with more GB RAM than you'll need to play Tetris.
For that very reason alone, I agree with you. I think the iPad will be a hit because of sheer usability. The computer that doesn't spend 10 minutes telling you it's a computer before it does something useful. The computer for "the rest of us" - although I'm maybe getting old enough to count myself by that "rest". I am sure I'll buy the 3rd generation of it - that's when I bought the iPhone too..
Lets just imagine that the iPad had been released 2 years ago and this week Apple released a new product called the iPod touch.
No doubt the naysayers piffle would be the same rhetoric.
"It's just a small iPad. The screen is too small and the resolution is crap. The mail app is a crippled version of the iPad's. It's too small to read email. Internet is too small. It wont run iWork apps," etc... snooore.
The iPod touch is brilliant for what it's designed to do. I use mine to check email and look stuff up on wikipedia when im watching a movie in the living room and arguing about who wrote such and such with mates. The touch is instant on, meaning I don't have to lug the laptop out and fire it up. Often I've wished it were a little larger.
So even if the iPad were just a bigger iPod touch (which isn't all it is) then it serves a purpose, just as the touch does. I ought to go on to explain why the iPad is going to be the way to do proper netbooks, but I really can't be arsed. Just look up Psion compare that with a full OS, consider cloud storage a think about what the middle ground netbook market is for and why a full OS is not right for this and then figure the rest out yourself.
Look at what Google are doing with Chrome OS. They want instant on / sub 7 second boot and closed app based services because they've figured it out. So have Apple. See if you can.
"There's gold in them thar hills I tells ya!"
They all want to a) convert their old apps or b) knock out some shitty naff app that will run on the iPad, but be the first in the queue to have an app available for the thing!
When the first people to buy iPads they want stuff to run, so if you're app is first in the queue on launch day, you're quids in!!
Either way, it will take 2 months and 16 submissions to break get your app through the diabolical AppStore vetting process, they want to get started now, so you can't really blame them!
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