"Porn is just fine! And I think my wife would agree."
Posted by Andrew | Filed under iPad
Those are the emailed words of one Ryan Tate of Valleywag, another Gawker property like Gizmodo. A few nights ago, he apparently go into an email debate with one Steve Jobs, CEO of the company that I write about on this blog and earner of eight million times more money than Gawker. They say Apple had twice as many “lawyers” as Gawker has “journalists.”
Tate admits after posting the email transcript that he regrets bringing up his wife in reference to the porn argument with Jobs who had said he offers “freedom from porn.” He doesn’t address the statement that he doesn’t believe it will “f**k up my kids if someone in my house looks at a porn clip.” Apparently, Ryan Tate is OK with people watching pornography in the presence of his children (I don’t know if he actually has kids yet, but he is married).
Please, I encourage everyone to read the emails, I think that most intelligent people will agree with me that Mr. Tate should have just ignored the fact he had an exchange with Jobs (or Jobs’s assistant or PR guy or something). All I could think of when I read it was a teenager debating an older adult, like a school teacher or something, about the facts of life.
Tate complains that Flash and Adobe development should be allowed on the iPad and that Apple is “forcing” publishers to develop Objective C based applications for the iPhone/iPad. Jobs of course reminds him that Apple is not forcing anyone. My two blogs don’t have iPhone/iPad apps (mostly because I don’t understand Objective C) and I didn’t get an email from Apple demanding to see my apps submitted soon. Publishers have the freedom to publish on any platform they want to be on and it is reasonable that Apple asks the publishers to play by their rules.
Jobs summed up his feelings and what I believe is part of Apple’s philosophy going forward:
Microsoft had (has) every right to enforce whatever rules for their platform that they want. If people don’t like it, they can write for another platform, which some did. Or they can buy another platform, which some did.
As for us, we’re just doing what we can try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure.
One last note, Mr. Tate didn’t reveal that he worked for Gawker until the exchange was in full swing. If he was intending on getting a story with his Bob Dylan bait (which Jobs probably couldn’t resist), he should have been up front about it. Then again, it is Gawker and it is Valleywag, which is like the back room cock fight at the world’s most filthy laundromat in the most crime ridden neighborhood in the world. Another issue I have is his use of profanity and dramatics to make his weak point sound stronger. Pretty cheap I think and Mr. Tate probably should have just left well enough alone after a long night picking fights with CEOs.
Why Flash is not Important
Posted by Andrew | Filed under iPad, iPhone
When Apple originally introduced the iPhone at MacWorld in 2007, many people were unhappy about it’s initial lack of support for Flash. Many though it would be added by launch later that year, and then again with the introductions of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. So far, it hasn’t come and with the introduction of the iPad, another device with no Flash support, it doesn’t look like Flash is coming to the Apple mobile platform. And that is a good thing.
I watch a lot of video on my MacBook Pro. H.264 files run without issue as do XVid or any other codec I run through VLC. Even Silverlight, a competitor to Flash made by Microsoft, has no problem running on my machine (NetFlix streaming in the browser uses Silverlight). And yet, every time I wish to watch any show or video on either YouTube or hulu, it always sounds like there is a jet taking off of my desk. Why on earth does Flash need so many CPU cycles?
Now that HTML 5 is finally starting to come into the spotlight and may actually become certified within the next year, Flash is dead anyway. Dave Hyatt is one of the lead developers of HTML 5 and the person responsible for such things as the Safari web browser, found on Macs, iPhones, and the iPad. The new standard will allow videos to be played within the web browser without the need for additional plug-ins. Finally, it won’t feel like we’re surfing the web in 1997 anymore.
Flash would add a whole level of complication to the iPhone and iPad that just isn’t necessary anymore. With the new HTML standard, and things like H.264 streaming video like what the YouTube application on the iPhone currently uses, Flash is just a big bloated memory hog that will crash your phone and cause problems. How many times has your browser, whether it be IE or Firefox or even Safari crashed when you were trying to use a website with Flash? And doesn’t Flash encourage bad habits like annoying background music and unnecessary website intro videos?
And don’t get me started on entire web sites built in Flash. At some point, the people depending on Flash for the functionality of their sites will have to give in to the heavy hand of Apple and move to more elegant and simple solutions for their web sites. And hopefully, that will mean that HTML 5 can be put on the fast track to certification.
Not the "Must Have" College Accessory
Posted by Andrew | Filed under iPad
I don’t believe that the iPad is going to be the must have college accessory. I mean, many college students are going to want one of course, however I don’t think that they (and by they, I mean us) will be lining up to buy one in a couple of months. There are many reasons that college students would want one, the web surfing, the ability to hold all of there textbooks with color graphics, keeping notes on it, etcetera. However, these will not get around the prohibiting aspect of the price.
$499 doesn’t seem like a lot of money for a tablet computer, most tablets currently cost over $1000. However, the iPad does not meet all the needs of the average college student, all of those needs being met in excess by a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, starting at $999. Most college students will compare an iPad to a MacBook and decide in the end that they really need the MacBook and leave the iPad for the medical professional or the realtor looking to impress their clients.
One thing the iPad lacks right off the bat is a built in keyboard. It may have a soft keyboard in it’s programming and you can buy a special dock with a keyboard which Apple hasn’t released any pricing on yet, but at the end of the day, I don’t see a student wanting to type out a ten page term paper on a soft keyboard and having to pay Jobs knows how much money for an accessory keyboard (will not be surprised at a $79 or $99 price point, I’d put money on it).
Next is the multi-tasking. Have you seen how college students multi-task on their laptops? They have at minimum five browser windows (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Gmail, and one for general interest) as well as iTunes and then a word processor with their notes on it or their paper due next Tuesday. Depending on computer savvy, they may also have some torrents or LimeWire running downloads in the background, and they may also have a movie playing on the side. Can the iPad do that? Probably not.
So, when your average college student is standing in the Apple store the week before they leave for school, they will look at the iPad. They will play with it, send an email or two, play a song on it, and then they will put it down and buy a MacBook. Because when you are a college student, you typically have $1000 to $2000 to spend on your tech, and you have to be happy with it for the rest of the year at least. So, you are going to buy a $1000 MacBook, maybe $1200 or $1500 after some upgrades, many choosing the 13 inch MacBook Pro instead. And then, they buy an iPod touch or an iPhone that can run all the same apps as the iPad and has the same basic software, and you are out of money.
I will give you that there will always be that rich kid at school who can afford an iPad (he’s the same punk carrying a Kindle
I have the sense that Apple isn’t aiming this at the college crowd. If they were, something about textbooks would have been highlighted in the keynote last week. Maybe if Apple were to cut the price for students by $100 like they did for the notebooks, maybe people would forsake the iPod touch or the iPhone for the iPad. But, why would they do that when they are already making money off of those sales and $399 iPad would probably eat their entire margin.
Thoughts on the iPad
Posted by Andrew | Filed under iPad
Originally published on The Duo Citizen on Thursday, January 27th, 2010:
Today, Apple finally ended the endless speculation about the magical super tablet computer device by introducing a very big iPhone. Okay, so it’s not really just a big iPhone. It’s more of a shrunken MacBook with a more simple version of OS X. Remember, the software running the iPhone is OS X.
I still don’t think that this is a device with mass appeal. It is a really specialized device which I think is perfect for people who do a lot of traveling who want a small device with a big screen to watch movies and read books with in the airport and on the plane and in the bus. I also can see that there is a lot of potential in the medical field. However, if you think that college students like me are going to be carrying these things around with their textbooks on them, well, there’s a problem.
It’s too expensive for the people living on my budget. I mean, digital versions of textbooks are cheaper than there physical counterparts, but they are still pretty expensive. But instantly, without buying a single textbook, you’ve spent at least $500, and let’s be honest, you will have spent closer to 6 or 700 for the better versions. Then, lets say you are going to be saving around $150 a semester on books, so you have to be in school at least 2 years before it actually pays itself off. And that’s all depending on if the textbooks are actually available on the iBook Store or somewhere else.
Oh, and by the time it pays it’s self off, you will want to buy a new one. Because the new one will have a camera, and 4G wireless, and will cost $200 less.
That being said, I want one. I have to just give it up, I am a wanna-be Apple fanboy I would buy anything that Steve Jobs tells me too if only I had the money. I think that this is a great device and would love to just have one to carry around to use to surf the net and to take notes and all of that. I am quite tired of carrying my 15 inch MacBook Pro around, it’s pretty heavy after you’ve been out on campus for a whole day.
Some may say, why not just buy a smaller, less heavy netbook like the Dell Mini or an ASUS Eee PC. It would be cheaper and offer all the functionality you need for a day in class. Well, it’s really hard to use a clamshell laptop when you’re legs are crossed. A tablet solves this promise. And the netbooks aren’t that inexpensive, I mean, do you really want to deal with Linux or Windows 7 Starter?