Initial Impressions of The iPad
The only value I see to the iPad is that it will force other companies to innovate and improve on the concept. Perhaps we can even hope for openness.
I cannot deny that it’s pretty. It’s very pretty. Shiny, too. Maybe I’m just getting old, but pretty doesn’t impress me much anymore. From what I can see, it’s not terribly useful and at the price point of $500…ahem…$499 for a measly 16G of space, it’s just not worth the money.
I also object to the inability use the device in any manner I choose. Apple’s need to control MY hardware and software is intrusive and offensive.
From Thomas Gideon’s iPad is Yet Another DRM Crippled Device:
I have vastly different expectations of a tablet, even one as stripped down as the iPad appears to be. How does Apple justify hobbling the device? Wireless carriers have begun offering comparably stripped down computers, netbooks, that are still open to the end user installing whatever they like. I might concede that a single distribution channel makes the experience better. And Apple is clearly more about experience these days than substance.
But why does the experience of some have to preclude the ability to exercise owner override? Would the App Store be any less used if power users could still install their own bundles? If the arguments Apple makes about their captive channel really hold water, why not open the device to both and see if the market agrees? Allowing users to install simple application bundles like on a regular old Mac would be the shortest way to turn around much of the negative PR the approval process for the App Store has generated almost since day one.
I have no doubt that people will buy it. There’s a market out there for it, and people will line up for the New Shiny. It’s sad that people will give up freedom and hard-earned cash for something so…vapid.
I found the following article interesting and, frankly, accurate.
Protestors: iPad is nothing more than a golden calf of DRM
Steve Jobs may have descended from the mountaintop today with Moses Tablet in hand, but a group of protesters were waiting in the foothills with a simple message: the iPad isn’t a divine revelation, but a golden calf.
Members of the Free Software Foundation staged a small protest outside today’s Apple event in San Francisco, making the case against Apple’s use of DRM. The group’s four-foot signs were headed with the message “Entering Apple Restriction Zone” and laid out the tablet’s detriments:
January 27th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
The whole DRM aspect of Apple’s content and lack of “universal” ports on the hardware is really swaying me more and more towards the Android/Miro/Creative Commons stuff.
You know I’m no fan boy (and maybe it is just age) but I just wasn’t bowled over by the iPad at all.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:53 am
This is exactly why I will never buy an Apple product. I’d rather own something more cheaply made that will actually do what I want, when I want. I think it will turn out that Apple may have overreached their boundaries with this one. I’d still rather have a laptop at this point.
February 20th, 2010 at 4:21 am
I don’t think the Ipad will be as successfull as the iphone, as it is not as knew and revolutionary.