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This is already possible via any netbook or tablet -- via the browser, at netflix.com. I've been watching streaming Netflix videos this way on my laptop for a l

This is already possible via any netbook or tablet -- via the browser, at netflix.com. I've been watching streaming Netflix videos this way on my laptop for a long while. Are we honestly going to get hyped up about every last feature of existing services that an iPad application replicates?

glhaynes 17y ago
What you're seeing is that people are starting to realize that this device can do the vast majority of things that people want to do on their computers. And with nearly none of the time/cognitive/frustration burden of a "computer" -- notice how "normals" don't think of the iPad as a "computer": they think of it as... well, an iPad. Normals don't want computers but they want what computers can do.
crux 17y ago
Yes. The entire appeal of the iPad isn't, 'This can do a great many of the things that my computer can already do!' it's, 'This makes it so much more pleasant to do [X] than it is on a computer!' So every new feature that we see demonstrated isn't just filling in a little bit more of the difference between an iPad and a netbook; it's bringing the experience of the iPad to the tasks and behavior we're looking for. This is the way that innovation happens, even though a lot of people don't realize it. They're stuck in the old mode of innovation, the King's Quest VI mode. The first time I saw a CGI video playing off a CD-ROM I was blown away by the capabilities of computers. By now I know what computers can do, and I have seen enough CGI video to be pretty well-convinced that anything I want can be rendered by it. Likewise, we have enough technologies at our disposal right now that we could spend a long, long time improving the software that we use simply by designing better interfaces for it. If you wait around for an entirely new technology—something that isn't possible on your laptop, like Star Wars-style holograms—you're gonna miss several boats. To put it more directly: there's surely some people who have already ordered the iPad who will be thinking, 'Oh, nice. There's another thing I can use it for.' But the story here is the many, many more people who are thinking, 'I love Netflix/Hulu/[whatever pre-existing service will be replicated next week], and if I could use it on a magic ultra-light wireless multi-touch slate, I'd buy one in a fucking second.'

glhaynes 17y ago

What you're seeing is that people are starting to realize that this device can do the vast majority of things that people want to do on their computers. And with nearly none of the time/cognitive/frustration burden of a "computer" -- notice how "normals" don't think of the iPad as a "computer": they think of it as... well, an iPad. Normals don't want computers but they want what computers can do.

crux 17y ago

Yes. The entire appeal of the iPad isn't, 'This can do a great many of the things that my computer can already do!' it's, 'This makes it so much more pleasant to do [X] than it is on a computer!' So every new feature that we see demonstrated isn't just filling in a little bit more of the difference between an iPad and a netbook; it's bringing the experience of the iPad to the tasks and behavior we're looking for. This is the way that innovation happens, even though a lot of people don't realize it. They're stuck in the old mode of innovation, the King's Quest VI mode. The first time I saw a CGI video playing off a CD-ROM I was blown away by the capabilities of computers. By now I know what computers can do, and I have seen enough CGI video to be pretty well-convinced that anything I want can be rendered by it. Likewise, we have enough technologies at our disposal right now that we could spend a long, long time improving the software that we use simply by designing better interfaces for it. If you wait around for an entirely new technology—something that isn't possible on your laptop, like Star Wars-style holograms—you're gonna miss several boats. To put it more directly: there's surely some people who have already ordered the iPad who will be thinking, 'Oh, nice. There's another thing I can use it for.' But the story here is the many, many more people who are thinking, 'I love Netflix/Hulu/[whatever pre-existing service will be replicated next week], and if I could use it on a magic ultra-light wireless multi-touch slate, I'd buy one in a fucking second.'