Macworld has put out a couple of surprisingly negative articles about the iPad so far, though alot of what they complain about are problems with tablets in general.
How so? It seems like each paragraph is targeted towards a specific nitpick like the lack of multitasking or the virtual keyboard.
Saw alot of complaints about virtual keyboards, having to hold it up, neck cramps from having to look at it at weird angles, etc.
None of those things are iPad specific.
Shorn Scrotum Man on
0
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited April 2010
So this is interesting:
The primary reason for the change, say sources familiar with Apple's plans, is to support sophisticated new multitasking APIs in iPhone 4.0. The system will now be evaluating apps as they run in order to implement smart multitasking. It can't do this if apps are running within a runtime or are cross compiled with a foreign structure that doesn't behave identically to a native C/C++/Obj-C app.
"[The operating system] can't swap out resources, it can't pause some threads while allowing others to run, it can't selectively notify, etc. Apple needs full access to a properly-compiled app to do the pull off the tricks they are with this new OS," wrote one reader under the name Ktappe.
If true, that gives Apple a valid reason to block apps built with these outside tools.
Now, if Adobe patches the flash builder in such a way that the threads are all transparently available to the OS and Apple still says no... then it's just spite.
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
This is going to sound really stupid I'm sure, but has anyone used the Marvel comic app? And as such, how to you exit from a particular comic? Ive tried all manner of pinching and sliding to no avail.
This is going to sound really stupid I'm sure, but has anyone used the Marvel comic app? And as such, how to you exit from a particular comic? Ive tried all manner of pinching and sliding to no avail.
Double tap on a panel to focus on it, then single tap. Only way I could get it to work.
The primary reason for the change, say sources familiar with Apple's plans, is to support sophisticated new multitasking APIs in iPhone 4.0. The system will now be evaluating apps as they run in order to implement smart multitasking. It can't do this if apps are running within a runtime or are cross compiled with a foreign structure that doesn't behave identically to a native C/C++/Obj-C app.
"[The operating system] can't swap out resources, it can't pause some threads while allowing others to run, it can't selectively notify, etc. Apple needs full access to a properly-compiled app to do the pull off the tricks they are with this new OS," wrote one reader under the name Ktappe.
If true, that gives Apple a valid reason to block apps built with these outside tools.
Now, if Adobe patches the flash builder in such a way that the threads are all transparently available to the OS and Apple still says no... then it's just spite.
I think they are just saying that. The stuff that Flash produces is signed code. It doesn't just materialize through a membrane from another universe. I can't imagine that it does anything other than spit out some modestly convoluted, scaleable Objective-C code and then run it through the Xcode compiler as you would anything else.
Now, could it all be one huge main() loop? Yes. In fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if it was, and Apple is permitted to have beef with that.
But let's not kid ourselves. This is at least in part motivated by Adobe's play into the iPhone market.
Saw alot of complaints about virtual keyboards, having to hold it up, neck cramps from having to look at it at weird angles, etc.
None of those things are iPad specific.
I was agreeing, just pointing out the error in Spoit's post.
I assume you're talking about the virtual keyboards you bolded in my post?
I don't know, I don't have a quarter of the problems when I use the virtual keyboard that's a quarter of the size on my half decade old WM PDA that I do with my ipod touch. Sure there's the whole accuracy thing with using fingers vs stylii, but even just using my fingernail, there's something much more responsive with the resistive screen than Apples Implementation. And it's also usually faster and easier to just pop up the virtual keyboard on my tablet PC than to turn it around and use the normal keyboard if I'm just writing a sentence or two
This is going to sound really stupid I'm sure, but has anyone used the Marvel comic app? And as such, how to you exit from a particular comic? Ive tried all manner of pinching and sliding to no avail.
Double tap on a panel to focus on it, then single tap. Only way I could get it to work.
Saw alot of complaints about virtual keyboards, having to hold it up, neck cramps from having to look at it at weird angles, etc.
None of those things are iPad specific.
I was agreeing, just pointing out the error in Spoit's post.
I know you were. I wasn't replying to you. I was lazy in quoting, that's all. My bad
You know if we're going with the whole 'pointing out errors' thing, those would be problems with slates, not necessarily tablets in general. And also dependent on particular implementations
Didn't someone, somewhere say changing the brightness apparently fixes this issue for who knows what reason?
It doesn't really. At least, not the issue I'm having. I updated my router firmware and changed the frequency to ensure it's not running on the same channel as anyone nearby. If the problems crop up again tomorrow I'm exchanging the iPad for a new one
Monoxide on
0
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited April 2010
So OS 4.0 is pretty sexy.
Not a lot of stuff outside of the apple apps multitask yet, but that is to be expected.
I plan on developing some great stuff for the iPad and iPhone.
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I'm pretty keen on trying to cash in on the app gold rush, but sadly I don't have any good ideas. Not much of an idea man. Anyone know what the rogue-like or other turn-based RPG situation is? That strikes me as one of the main genres of game I'd like to play on an iPhone or iPad. Don't need sound or fine motor control, making them perfect for car rides. (Which many DS games are not, which has long been a point of frustration for me.)
I guess I'll just have to get one and see what the functionality holes are. (But I kind of want to wait for OS 4.0 now, which is coming to iPad... in the fall? wtf?)
This needs to be stated and stated now, before it gets too late.
The mechanics of keyboard usage are changed when you're holding the keyboard with your other hand. The keys are far too wide for two finger pecking from one hand. I use my iPad standing up like, 80% of the time for productivity purposes. Sure, I can sit down and use it on a table or my lap, but in an environment where you move around a lot, it's shitty.
Some kind of swipe on the keyboard should shrink it down a bit, or maybe display a different style keyboard that is designed to be used with one hand. A swipe and it goes back. I think the issue will be one of those inherit "we could be X much better if we just had...." problems that you get with any device. However, addressing this as a known issue now could save some growing pains.
Anyone know what the rogue-like or other turn-based RPG situation is? That strikes me as one of the main genres of game I'd like to play on an iPhone or iPad. Don't need sound or fine motor control, making them perfect for car rides. (Which many DS games are not, which has long been a point of frustration for me.)
Not great. The few that exist are pretty bad, 100 Rogues is supposed to be OK but has yet to release. Nothing on the level of Crawl or DoomRL.
Edit: I just imagined a touch-driven Dwarf Fortress, which was a pretty rad thought, but then I imagined playing at .05 FPS and the eventual fire shooting from the dock port.
This needs to be stated and stated now, before it gets too late.
The mechanics of keyboard usage are changed when you're holding the keyboard with your other hand. The keys are far too wide for two finger pecking from one hand. I use my iPad standing up like, 80% of the time for productivity purposes. Sure, I can sit down and use it on a table or my lap, but in an environment where you move around a lot, it's shitty.
Some kind of swipe on the keyboard should shrink it down a bit, or maybe display a different style keyboard that is designed to be used with one hand. A swipe and it goes back. I think the issue will be one of those inherit "we could be X much better if we just had...." problems that you get with any device. However, addressing this as a known issue now could save some growing pains.
I don't have any problems typing on it while standing, just hold it upright in portrait mode. finger pecking with one hand while holding it with the other works fine, or you can just hold it like it's a big game controller and use your thumbs
I'm a small dude with small hands and this is pretty damn easy to do. it's just a different method of input than you're used to.
The portrait size is fine. I don't hold it in portrait however. I am always using it in landscape for the data I have to read/edit. As well, turning it every time I need to use the keyboard goes against the flow. And every time you turn that thing around while standing up is a chance the slick and sexy surface will be your doom as it glides out of your hand and onto the floor. I'm walking and talking, and I don't want to left go with the firm grip I have for some data input.
Easier to use. Check.
Better accuracy. Check.
Keep momentum in your workflow. Check.
Less chance of dropping. Check.
Seems like a good idea to me. Nothing HUGE of course, but little things are what make a device for me, because it's the little things that you are exposed to the most.
What is worse, a deep stab in the arm, or 100 hours of little stabs.
So I just grabbed AirVideo for the iPad(it's universal now). That is some hot shit right there. You run the free server software on you PC or Mac and point the server at your video folder and it will stream it to your device. It will even convert the videos as it's streaming so you can watch .avi videos on your iPad. There's a free demo which limits the number of fils you see to 3, but for $3, this thing is a steal. Works over the Internet too, not just local wifi.
I think my ipad wifi issues are resolved for real this time
I both updated the Tomato firmware and changed the WiFi channel to something that wasn't being used by any other nearby routers
it's been working smoothly since I made those changes friday night
I'm not really positive which one of them fixed it, but I'd assume it was the channel, since my neighbor's router was running on the same channel with a much stronger signal strength, which probably caused a lot of interference.
Now that I think about it, I had issues staying connected on my iPhone too, but since it would just drop and go to 3G i never thought much of it. The iPhone also always reconnected within a minute or two, where the iPad just refused to reconnect to the network all together. There's probably still a bug in there somewhere that Apple needs to get worked out, but it's working fine for me now.
I posted this in the apps thread, but I'm looking for a variety of opinions. I don't really need an iPad, but the one thing that could convince me to get one would be if its touchpad keyboard were large enough for me to use it for typing longer documents. I've written a novel on an Acer netbook, so a smaller keyboard than normal doesn't bug me -- I just need something physically large enough for me to use more than just one finger at a time. If it could do that, it could essentially turn into my mobile word processor, which would be awesome. Opinions from people who've used it?
(I know about the Bluetooth keyboard, but as soon as I'm carrying around multiple items, this loses its cool "Hey, I could just whip this out at Starbucks and work on my writing anywhere!" potential.)
I posted this in the apps thread, but I'm looking for a variety of opinions. I don't really need an iPad, but the one thing that could convince me to get one would be if its touchpad keyboard were large enough for me to use it for typing longer documents. I've written a novel on an Acer netbook, so a smaller keyboard than normal doesn't bug me -- I just need something physically large enough for me to use more than just one finger at a time. If it could do that, it could essentially turn into my mobile word processor, which would be awesome. Opinions from people who've used it?
(I know about the Bluetooth keyboard, but as soon as I'm carrying around multiple items, this loses its cool "Hey, I could just whip this out at Starbucks and work on my writing anywhere!" potential.)
In landscape, it's about the same size as an 8" or 9" net book keyboard, but you'd have to really use one to see if you could get used to typing on a touchscreen. Pages is pretty nice as a word processing app, and is easily worth the 10 bucks, but it really comes down to personal preference and whether or not you'd feel comfortable typing at length on the device.
So I just got one. Other then few random key issues like quotation marks I find that it works really well. I am estimating that I am typing about forty to fifty words a minute on it as it lays on a flat table. Auto correct sometimes gets i the way and sometimes it helps but overall I think i am going to turn it off.
I am loving this thing.
Some of. The new hd apps are just brilliant ... Especially the AOL free chat one. So much better then their iphone version.
Numbers and Pages work amazingly well as well.
I am at a family gathering and at least three people have seen the ipad and plan to buy one as soon as the 3G version comes out.
Edit: the auto capitalization and punctuation got the better of me above. That is another thing that I might have to turn off. I think with practice that i can hit faster then normal speeds If the keyboard recognition allows it. Not having a physical key for resistance I can type super fast.
I posted this in the apps thread, but I'm looking for a variety of opinions. I don't really need an iPad, but the one thing that could convince me to get one would be if its touchpad keyboard were large enough for me to use it for typing longer documents. I've written a novel on an Acer netbook, so a smaller keyboard than normal doesn't bug me -- I just need something physically large enough for me to use more than just one finger at a time. If it could do that, it could essentially turn into my mobile word processor, which would be awesome. Opinions from people who've used it?
(I know about the Bluetooth keyboard, but as soon as I'm carrying around multiple items, this loses its cool "Hey, I could just whip this out at Starbucks and work on my writing anywhere!" potential.)
In landscape, it's about the same size as an 8" or 9" net book keyboard, but you'd have to really use one to see if you could get used to typing on a touchscreen. Pages is pretty nice as a word processing app, and is easily worth the 10 bucks, but it really comes down to personal preference and whether or not you'd feel comfortable typing at length on the device.
One thing that I've heard that annoys people is that many common punctuation marks are on the secondary keyboard. Like apostrophes and quotation marks.
I ended up having to return my iPad today. I was hit with too many Wi-Fi issues, and unfortunately, the only place in my apartment that the device was completely unreliable was the one place I purchased it for: the bedroom. Sure, I could read my books in there, but if I wanted to stop for a moment to look something up online, no dice.
I did, however, purchase an iPhone 3GS today, and I'm pretty happy with it! I miss the iPad, but I'll wait until a generation or two when most of the bugs and issues have been worked out.
Yeah, that's my only beef. I can easily type 50+WPM on the thing, but having to type an apostrophe brings my entire flow to a screeching halt.
I think the idea with apostrophes is it should autocorrect them in for you, but quotes would be an issue if you plan on writing a novel with the thing.
It's kind of finicky though, since I'm not sure it really knows when to use it's vs. its. You can just backspace out the apostrophe in the latter case though, which is probably faster than swapping keyboards all the time.
I ended up having to return my iPad today. I was hit with too many Wi-Fi issues, and unfortunately, the only place in my apartment that the device was completely unreliable was the one place I purchased it for: the bedroom. Sure, I could read my books in there, but if I wanted to stop for a moment to look something up online, no dice.
I did, however, purchase an iPhone 3GS today, and I'm pretty happy with it! I miss the iPad, but I'll wait until a generation or two when most of the bugs and issues have been worked out.
Did you try updating your router firmware and changing the wireless channel? That cleared up my wifi issues, and I think I had nearly every reported issue simultaneously.
Edit: some users reported dual band routers being an issue too, so you could set it on N or G only. These fixes should be unnecessary, but they're really things that won't effect your other devices, so it isn't too big of a deal to go with them until Apple can release a wifi patch.
Also why would you buy a 3GS three months before the new hardware is coming out? You'll get the stuff Jobs announced for 4.0 on Thursday on your 3GS, but the upcoming hardware features and any additional software stuff that is phone 4 only will leave you a generation behind. A front facing camera with video chat, a better rear camera with improved zooming and a higher screen resolution are all but guaranteed at this point.
Yes, I've tried everything, believe me. Not only that, but the device's signal was terrible in public hotspots, and I'm pretty sure they were not going to fuck with their router settings just for me.
And Mono, the girl's phone died, and mine randomly kept turning off. We needed new phones, and couldn't afford to wait any longer. I was originally going to get a Nexus One on Verizon when it launched, but as I said, her phone stopped working, and I have missed emergency calls on mine since it just randomly turns off.
I don't mind paying later on to upgrade the phone, but now that I'm on AT&T, I'm probably going to switch over to the Nexus One by year's end.
Ah, well, that makes sense. I haven't had problems with the iPad on networks aside from my own yet, but I'm sure I will eventually, unless there's a fix out soon. The channel thing fixing it has me thinking that they just have the wifi adapter running in a low power state to save battery, so interference trips it up more than on other devices. There may be something else going on as well, but since it works great now, I'm hoping it has nothing to do with the physical hardware.
I started reading my first book in iBooks this morning and its pretty fantastic. I plowed through a quarter of Dexter by Design this morning while the girlfriend slept in, and I can already see I'm not going to miss paper very much at all. They just need to score more content deals, since books manually converted to epub don't have ideal formatting, and I don't really want my library fragmented between iBooks and the Kindle app.
The one thing that I still haven't found is a decent case. Apples offering kind of sucks, but it would be great if it were just a little less flimsy and didn't have that feathered edge that stabs into my hands all the time. I just want something to hold it up for typing and watching things, not some overly fancy leather cover to make it look like a piece of literature.
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Really?...you don't see that?
None of those things are iPad specific.
If true, that gives Apple a valid reason to block apps built with these outside tools.
Now, if Adobe patches the flash builder in such a way that the threads are all transparently available to the OS and Apple still says no... then it's just spite.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Double tap on a panel to focus on it, then single tap. Only way I could get it to work.
I was agreeing, just pointing out the error in Spoit's post.
I think they are just saying that. The stuff that Flash produces is signed code. It doesn't just materialize through a membrane from another universe. I can't imagine that it does anything other than spit out some modestly convoluted, scaleable Objective-C code and then run it through the Xcode compiler as you would anything else.
Now, could it all be one huge main() loop? Yes. In fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if it was, and Apple is permitted to have beef with that.
But let's not kid ourselves. This is at least in part motivated by Adobe's play into the iPhone market.
I don't know, I don't have a quarter of the problems when I use the virtual keyboard that's a quarter of the size on my half decade old WM PDA that I do with my ipod touch. Sure there's the whole accuracy thing with using fingers vs stylii, but even just using my fingernail, there's something much more responsive with the resistive screen than Apples Implementation. And it's also usually faster and easier to just pop up the virtual keyboard on my tablet PC than to turn it around and use the normal keyboard if I'm just writing a sentence or two
Thanks! Man, that is seriously a terrible design.
I know you were. I wasn't replying to you. I was lazy in quoting, that's all. My bad
You know if we're going with the whole 'pointing out errors' thing, those would be problems with slates, not necessarily tablets in general. And also dependent on particular implementations
They aren't.
Trying to decide whether or not it's worth it to try getting a new iPad or if it's really just a software problem/incompatibility.
It doesn't really. At least, not the issue I'm having. I updated my router firmware and changed the frequency to ensure it's not running on the same channel as anyone nearby. If the problems crop up again tomorrow I'm exchanging the iPad for a new one
Not a lot of stuff outside of the apple apps multitask yet, but that is to be expected.
I plan on developing some great stuff for the iPad and iPhone.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I guess I'll just have to get one and see what the functionality holes are. (But I kind of want to wait for OS 4.0 now, which is coming to iPad... in the fall? wtf?)
The mechanics of keyboard usage are changed when you're holding the keyboard with your other hand. The keys are far too wide for two finger pecking from one hand. I use my iPad standing up like, 80% of the time for productivity purposes. Sure, I can sit down and use it on a table or my lap, but in an environment where you move around a lot, it's shitty.
Some kind of swipe on the keyboard should shrink it down a bit, or maybe display a different style keyboard that is designed to be used with one hand. A swipe and it goes back. I think the issue will be one of those inherit "we could be X much better if we just had...." problems that you get with any device. However, addressing this as a known issue now could save some growing pains.
Not great. The few that exist are pretty bad, 100 Rogues is supposed to be OK but has yet to release. Nothing on the level of Crawl or DoomRL.
Edit: I just imagined a touch-driven Dwarf Fortress, which was a pretty rad thought, but then I imagined playing at .05 FPS and the eventual fire shooting from the dock port.
I don't have any problems typing on it while standing, just hold it upright in portrait mode. finger pecking with one hand while holding it with the other works fine, or you can just hold it like it's a big game controller and use your thumbs
I'm a small dude with small hands and this is pretty damn easy to do. it's just a different method of input than you're used to.
Cell phones have spoiled us with the one handed typing method. But as you get bigger you get tradeoffs.
netbook is easy, laptop not as easy.
Easier to use. Check.
Better accuracy. Check.
Keep momentum in your workflow. Check.
Less chance of dropping. Check.
Seems like a good idea to me. Nothing HUGE of course, but little things are what make a device for me, because it's the little things that you are exposed to the most.
What is worse, a deep stab in the arm, or 100 hours of little stabs.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
And you have a copy.... how?
That's why they put the OS out there months in advance, I guess.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I think my ipad wifi issues are resolved for real this time
I both updated the Tomato firmware and changed the WiFi channel to something that wasn't being used by any other nearby routers
it's been working smoothly since I made those changes friday night
I'm not really positive which one of them fixed it, but I'd assume it was the channel, since my neighbor's router was running on the same channel with a much stronger signal strength, which probably caused a lot of interference.
Now that I think about it, I had issues staying connected on my iPhone too, but since it would just drop and go to 3G i never thought much of it. The iPhone also always reconnected within a minute or two, where the iPad just refused to reconnect to the network all together. There's probably still a bug in there somewhere that Apple needs to get worked out, but it's working fine for me now.
(I know about the Bluetooth keyboard, but as soon as I'm carrying around multiple items, this loses its cool "Hey, I could just whip this out at Starbucks and work on my writing anywhere!" potential.)
In landscape, it's about the same size as an 8" or 9" net book keyboard, but you'd have to really use one to see if you could get used to typing on a touchscreen. Pages is pretty nice as a word processing app, and is easily worth the 10 bucks, but it really comes down to personal preference and whether or not you'd feel comfortable typing at length on the device.
I am loving this thing.
Some of. The new hd apps are just brilliant ... Especially the AOL free chat one. So much better then their iphone version.
Numbers and Pages work amazingly well as well.
I am at a family gathering and at least three people have seen the ipad and plan to buy one as soon as the 3G version comes out.
Edit: the auto capitalization and punctuation got the better of me above. That is another thing that I might have to turn off. I think with practice that i can hit faster then normal speeds If the keyboard recognition allows it. Not having a physical key for resistance I can type super fast.
One thing that I've heard that annoys people is that many common punctuation marks are on the secondary keyboard. Like apostrophes and quotation marks.
I did, however, purchase an iPhone 3GS today, and I'm pretty happy with it! I miss the iPad, but I'll wait until a generation or two when most of the bugs and issues have been worked out.
I think the idea with apostrophes is it should autocorrect them in for you, but quotes would be an issue if you plan on writing a novel with the thing.
It's kind of finicky though, since I'm not sure it really knows when to use it's vs. its. You can just backspace out the apostrophe in the latter case though, which is probably faster than swapping keyboards all the time.
Did you try updating your router firmware and changing the wireless channel? That cleared up my wifi issues, and I think I had nearly every reported issue simultaneously.
Edit: some users reported dual band routers being an issue too, so you could set it on N or G only. These fixes should be unnecessary, but they're really things that won't effect your other devices, so it isn't too big of a deal to go with them until Apple can release a wifi patch.
Also why would you buy a 3GS three months before the new hardware is coming out? You'll get the stuff Jobs announced for 4.0 on Thursday on your 3GS, but the upcoming hardware features and any additional software stuff that is phone 4 only will leave you a generation behind. A front facing camera with video chat, a better rear camera with improved zooming and a higher screen resolution are all but guaranteed at this point.
And Mono, the girl's phone died, and mine randomly kept turning off. We needed new phones, and couldn't afford to wait any longer. I was originally going to get a Nexus One on Verizon when it launched, but as I said, her phone stopped working, and I have missed emergency calls on mine since it just randomly turns off.
I don't mind paying later on to upgrade the phone, but now that I'm on AT&T, I'm probably going to switch over to the Nexus One by year's end.
I started reading my first book in iBooks this morning and its pretty fantastic. I plowed through a quarter of Dexter by Design this morning while the girlfriend slept in, and I can already see I'm not going to miss paper very much at all. They just need to score more content deals, since books manually converted to epub don't have ideal formatting, and I don't really want my library fragmented between iBooks and the Kindle app.