The media is awash with reviews about the iPad being underwhelming, limited and so forth but mostly missing the point save for a few notable exceptions (1, 2, 3).
I am going to state in no equivocal manner that the iPad is the biggest thing since the PC was introduced by IBM in 1981 and for a long while it is going to be in a class of it’s own that could be easily called the “Truly” Personal Computer.
It is going to be the first choice as a first computer for people not having one, and the first choice as the first portable/tablet device for people not having one.
It is going to sell huge numbers slowly but steadily and by 2015 there are probably going to be 100-200 million units sold compared to 1-2 billion computers worldwide.
Why ? 5 reasons :
1 – no operating system learning curve The majority of computer users do not want to learn how to use a operating system and only use one for a limited number of tasks identified by apple as : access the internet/email, read books/periodicals, watch/listen to audio-visual media, play games, manage contacts/calendar/spreadsheets etc.
For everything else there will be a app, you know “there’s an app for that”, as for the techies/geeks will probably sport jailbroken iPad’s or run OSX on it.
The majority of computer users are not really familiar with how a operating system works, and they should not be, once they figure out that they can do pretty much everything they need on the iPad the time they use a PC will dramatically decrease.
2 – touch: Have you ever watched a person learning to handle a mouse trying to click a icon and instead dragging it, struggling with frustration to grasp the user interface elements in a operating system ?
Have you ever seen someone that never used a touch device like a iphone before or a 5 year old just take it and immediately figure out by intuition alone how it works and how to handle it ?
Touch is infinitely more natural than cursor/pointer based interaction with user interface elements and the mouse will slowly grow limited to the those of us that really need the precision the same way that trackball and graphic tablet users are limited to those that need it’s added functionality when interacting with a computer.
3 – portability : The “personal” in PC used to mean you owned it, it was yours, but nothing is more personal than something you can carry on person, have it always with you, nothing more personal than an device you control by touch alone.
The technology is mature enough at this point that devices are really starting to be portable , at this point the size of the device for now is almost solely dictated only by the size we want it’s display to be.
The iPad is exactly the right size between a phone and a laptop to be wearable in our bags and purses without being a bother.
10 hours of battery is finally starting to get close to handling a full day of usage unprecedented in portable computers.
4 - multipurpose platform : Every single engineering/musical/medical etc. multitouch device can be replaced by a single iPad having multiple specific software, people have been dreaming this for ages, the days of proprietary devices that married one specific piece of software with a specific piece of hardware are numbered.
5 – affordability : Apple has really made apparent their intention of having the iPad priced as low as possible and as they sell more and more of them and the technology evolves and cheapens they are going to significantly lower the price at which they sell the iPad without a significant loss of the margins.
That being said the iPad is great, the only issue with it is the paradox that makes the level of simplification in the iPad only possible in conjunction with paramount control over they way it behaves, if i could ask Apple for one thing it would be a single switch that takes away a bit of simplicity in exchange for a bit of flexibility, there are certainly a number of us out there that would pull it.
Peering into the settings for the magic mouse i have found out what looks like support for 3 finger tap gestures for Dashboard and/or Expose control , namely :
“Dashboard” – three fingers tap
“Exposé All Windows” - three fingers tap to expose all window
“Exposé Application Windows” - three fingers tap to expose app window
“Exposé Desktop” - three fingers tap to expose desktop
These look like the options you would see in a dropdown list from which to select one action associated with a 3finger tap.
Currently you do not have a mouse system preferences option for 3finger , only “One Finger” and “Two Finger” sections are available for now.
Another thing to note is that a 1 finger swipe action is also referenced , and that “Mighty Mouse” still remains as as string reference , if you search for that in system prefs the mouse icon will be highlighted , this could show that apple was really in a hurry on this , sloppy or understaffed , either way here is the system preferences movie for the magic mouse:
Who knows if 3 finger tap functionality was planned but not finished or removed , but it was not entirely built and disabled either , because it can not be enabled as it is.
EDIT : I released a free app to enable adding middle click , expose , dashboard , desktop , spaces , both button holding , etc , the works in my app MagicPrefs
Personally i think a gesture enabled mouse is a great move , and am looking forward to seeing it implemented in more mice , besides the mighty mouse i have been using a Logitech Air mouse which has a touch scroll with momentum which i miss dearly when using the mighty mouse , i am sure the same will be true about gestures.
But for now i want to touch on some issues with the magic mouse , when it was announced i was hoping a old issue with te apple mouses might have been addressed , that is the inability to hold down both buttons , the mouse registers a left click when a user clicks with both the right and the left fingers pressing.
While the swipe functionality alleviates this a bit there are still a number of 3d applications , games , and browsers that need the old “poorman’s swipe” a left swipe being similar to pressing and holding the right button then pressing the left and vice-versa , but this way of clicking can not be entirely replaced by the swipe feature as you can not swipe and drag for example.
What i do hope is that software developers will start to be aware of gesture enabled mice and of mice lacking 2button hold functionality , or even better mice manufacturers start making mice that implement both features , in any event here is a osx application i wrote for the purpose of testing mouse functionality.
With the onset of copy/paste in the 3.0 version of the Iphone OS i figured i would write some software providing a facile way of encrypting text with a password for sending via sms , email and whatnot, it is called TXTcrypt after a long struggle it is now both on the appstore and as a free desktop version which is legal to download.
Enter the 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement signed by 41 states (see attached map) , requiring special permission to market/export encryption software with keys greater than 56 bits in size and 64 bits in length (Category 5 Part 2 5.A.2.a.1.a.) .
This limitation applies to symmetric key algorithms , and just determining what i stated above required me to study dozens of cumbersome and often confusing documentations (that use length and size interchangeably).
Moving on, as the Apple App Store is based in the US , and US is a signatory of said act , applications using cryptography for anything else than authentication purposes are subject to the regulations of the Wassenaar Arrangement body in the US , namely The Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce (BIS) .
The regulations for the named (5.A.2.a.1.a.) category fall into the BIS ECCN (Export Control Classification Number) 5D992 , and can be exported under the EAR to most destinations with No License Required (“NLR”) but a NLR Notification742.15(a)(i)
For software exceeding 56/64 bits the classification is ECCN is 5D002742.15(b) , and a export license if required in the form of a Commodity Classification Automated Tracking System (CCATS) number , luckily BIS has the conveniently named Simplified Network Application Process Redesign (SNAP-R) application for that , but just registering your company to request a PIN to access that turned into a monthly long enterprise , about the time when i abandoned this approach.
Because as it turns out , Apple does have a process handy shall you abandon or be stuck for a very long time in the claws of BIS , ECCN 5D002 rated applications without a export license can be posted to the app store for the U.S. and Canada only , just set it as so in itunesconnect and send the completed form (U.S.Canada Only Form.pdf attached) to the Apple Export Department.
Ok so i have to quote and comment on the following from informationweek : ^
Jobs’ statements are sure to disappoint Web developers, many of whom are familiar with Flash development
I am a web developer and i am not disappointed at all by his statement which for the record was straight on and amounted to :
“Flash is not yet good enough for the iPhone,”
Now i certainly do not know who advises Jobbs , but i can tell you that a software engineers or web developer will agree with him on that , only the web designers and entrenched corporate entities might differ but that is another story.
And even them benefit from the fact that Jobbs is pushing innovation by forcing adobe to improve the inners of the flash mess and not helping it’s monopoly over web content delivery systems.
Either way the folks at information week could use a touch of pertinence while delivering their comments.
That is to say in plain words that are either idiots or they are pushing agendas like any corporate monkey.
And here are quotes of comments on their own article page from people that probably developed with flash too instead of only looking at flash content as a way to make them experts on it.
Derek commented on Mar 5, 2008 4:13:57 PM Jobs is right – flash sucks. Ever try decompiling a swf file? It’s painful and arcane. Flash is ok from a user experience level and more efficient from a download perspective but the tools and formats for it are voodoo.
Webwin commented on Mar 5, 2008 4:16:24 PM Right on – I’m a developer and HATE dealing with Flash. It’s simply not open enough and as the previous poster mentioned – voodoo to some extent. As a developer I hate blindly writing to formats that aren’t open.
Shane Johnson commented on Mar 5, 2008 4:18:46 PM I’m surprised that so many sites use Flash myself. It’s about time someone stuck a flag in the ground out of defiance. There MUST be a better way to deliver video content than Flash.
kurt Witcher commented on Mar 5, 2008 4:38:18 PM I think a big problem with flash is the huge amount of processing power it takes to run. I’m guessing flash in its current form would drain the iphones battery probably 3 times faste, just so we can watch our online advertising bounce.
