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This is just further proof that people don't really want an iPad, they want a laptop with a better designed and easier OS. Computers run our lives, yet there's
by ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
This is just further proof that people don't really want an iPad, they want a laptop with a better designed and easier OS. Computers run our lives, yet there's only 2 major operating systems for consumers to choose from. Making them duopolies of the most important technological advancement in history. Mac and PC (and a bit of linux but we're talking consumers here, not sysadmins). And this lack of competition, I think, has really stagnated the OS user's experience.
Can you believe it's 2012 and operating systems still don't come with an manual or a guide?! So of course people are flocking to iPads. They're powerful yet brain dead simple. Which empowers people rather than making them feel incompetent or stressing them out.
I think Steve Jobs made a mistake. Maybe the iPad should have come with a keyboard and competed with the laptops.
- alanfalcon 15y agoIf this sells 13M units, then it will be proof of something, but as it is it's just a product design.
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y agoThere seems to be a lot of people interested in this and they just started two days ago http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/552506690/brydge-ipad-do-more http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/552506690/brydge-ipad-do...
- alanfalcon 15y agoAbsolutely. But the existence of the product doesn't prove anything the same way that the existence (and success!) of the Tik Tok[1] doesn't prove that Apple should have been competing in the "wristwatches that play music market". [1] http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-05/record-breaking-kickstarter-success-turns-nano-wristwatch http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-05/record-breakin...
- jbergerson 15y agoExcept Apple responded directly to the existence of the Tik Tok. They sell it in their retail stores. They referenced it in their media event. The first highlighted feature in their last update to the iPod Nano was "new watch faces". The success of the Tik Tok (and more recently the Pebble watch) proves something. Likewise the existence and success of all these keyboards for the iPad (thebrydge isn't the first and it won't be the last) proves something.
- reneherse 15y agoMuch more than a mere design, if you watch the video it appears to be a fully operational prototype. Impressively, it was designed, engineered, and machined all in-house by a three person team, of which two members had a prior successful hardware project on Kickstarter. The project appears to be the very opposite of vaporware.
- mbreese 15y agoThe question wasn't whether or not is exists, but whether it is evidence that the iPad itself should come with a keyboard. And the point was that until this sells 13M units, it doesn't show anything about the design of the iPad itself. iPad keyboards have been around for a long time, but they don't sell in numbers nearly as comparable to the iPad itself. To me, this says that most people in the post-PC world are happy without them... That being said - this does look like a nice design.
- reneherse 15y agoAh yes, thanks for pointing out my dropping of the original context. A signal that it's really time to get some sleep... I actually think what this says about the iPad, is how very strong a product & category it is. That it can spawn an ecosystem of very high end add ons to adapt it to different use cases. To me, that just further demonstrates the depth of its conception and quality of execution.
- ChrisClark 15y agoI completely agree but want to point out that you should have said, "Can you believe it's 2012 and operating systems don't come with a manual or guide anymore?" I remember Windows coming with a pretty thick manual explaining how to use it. Either way your point still stands, the OS has changed so little they don't feel like explaining it anymore. But it's not user friendly enough for other people.
- kijin 15y agoWhat? No, we don't need operating systems that come with manuals. The last manual I got with a software package ended up a doorstop pretty quickly. What we need is an operating system that doesn't need a manual because it's so intuitive and well-designed.
- TazeTSchnitzel 15y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyuuqsGoXys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyuuqsGoXys
- DavidAbrams 15y agoWhich is what the Mac once claimed to be, but Apple relies on unmarked, multi-fingered "gestures" and two-handed hotkeys. Yeah, it's a clinic of hypocrisy from the company that claimed two-button mice were "too complicated." Then it comes out with one inept, piece-of-shit mouse after another, culminating in a "multi-touch" mouse that you're somehow supposed to hold in place while swiping horizontally with multiple fingers.
- thatjoshguy 15y agoGestures are keyboard shortcuts for the mouse/trackpad. The thing about Mac is that none of these gestures are actually needed for the OS. Pretty much every gesture has a corresponding Dock item to launch it as well. Gestures are an extra. An added bonus. Think the multitasking gestures for iOS 5 on iPad
- dubya 15y agoI don't care for the multi-touch mouse, but the trackpad is really nice. The gestures probably should be more transparent or off by default though, since I suspect many users find them accidentally and aren't sure how. There are several short videos about the gestures in System Preferences -> Trackpad.
- Bud 15y agowhat the Mac once claimed to be You mean what the Mac still is. Apple relies on unmarked, multi-fingered "gestures" Actually, they are marked quite clearly, and only some of them are multi-fingered, and they are remarkably easy to use. and two-handed hotkeys Actually, Mac OS hotkeys are quite consistent and intuitive, and have survived the test of time. command-c, command-v, command-x, command-z, command-s, command-p all do what they did in 1984. It's simply not true that Mac hotkeys are less intuitive than the alternatives; indeed, Windows copied the most-common Mac hotkeys verbatim. Yeah, it's a clinic of hypocrisy This is where you really start to run off the rails. Then it comes out with one inept, piece-of-shit mouse after another You can argue with their ergonomics, but they certainly weren't pieces of shit. I found at least some of those mice quite usable. culminating in a "multi-touch" mouse The real culmination of Apple's input-device path is the Magic Trackpad, which is the best trackpad I've ever used, and it's not even a close comparison. I prefer it to any mouse, and I've used 28 years' worth of mice.
- dkarl 15y agoWhat do you mean computers still don't come with a manual? Used to be nobody used a computer without a book. This is progress.
- leif 15y agoWhen I got an iphone a couple months back, it came with a much more extensive manual than I expected.
- mbreese 15y agoEver since the first iPad there have been cases that have added a keyboard. But, I don't think that most people that have an iPad have an external keyboard for it. So this may be evidence that some people want a small laptop with a simple OS. But given that Apple has sold more than 60 million iPads without keyboards makes me think that the current design is working just fine for most people.
- DavidAbrams 15y agoWell, one might have reached the same conclusion about the millions upon millions of shitty cell phones that were sold right up through 2005. Cell phones with abysmal UIs, retarded ergnomics, and no working sync software. Sales figures don't prove something is good (or bad).
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- nsmartt 15y agoPeople want a laptop with a detachable keyboard and simplicity. With a keyboard (especially one as nice as this), the iPad achieves that goal. The iPad remains a toy because it is missing one major thing: power. That's one thing that Windows 8 has going for it. It's got the might of Windows but works on a tablet. That's the right idea, but Windows 8 will be installed on tablets with no keyboard, laptops whose keyboard can't be removed, and desktops. What we need is the simplicity of the iPad, the benefit of a keyboard, the option to remove the keyboard when we need to, and the power of an OS like Windows, OS X, or Linux. They also need the computing power of a laptop or desktop. I'm thinking the desktop will be replaced by a dock that lends power to the new generation of tablet, or that mice, monitors and larger keyboards will be available to connect to them. The latter lacks simplicity, so a dock sounds much more feasible. Just plug in and go to work, rather than connecting a handful of different cords.
- nl 15y agoAsus Transformer Prime.
- Casc 15y agoWe want portability and uniformity. Similar, familiar, comfortable look and feel across platforms. The same fundamental data, applications, and generic controls at our disposal despite the medium. A phone that can plug into a dock, and signal "dock mode" where it accepts slightly different control inputs by way of keyboard & mouse, displays on an external monitor, and possibly offers additional functionality now that it's plugged into a power source - unlock cores, activate dedicated GPU inside the unit, etc. I believe Microsoft was operating on a similar notion in Windows 8. The way I see it, as your use case changes, the OS would adapt, capabilities change (IOS turns into Snow Leopard when docked). Oh, I guess when I said "we", I meant "me".
- DavidAbrams 15y ago"Similar, familiar, comfortable look and feel across platforms." Then you'd better get rid of the keyboard on the computer.
- Casc 15y agoI think you missed what I'm getting at. I'm talking more from a software UI/UX standpoint regardless of hardware & input extensions.
- rimantas 15y ago> This is just further proof that people don't really want > an iPad I want iPad specifically because it has no keyboard—for me intend use (mostly reading and browsing) it adds very little, but makes the device inconvenient to use. And I prefer to do my racing in portrait mode. If I want to type more, bluetooth keyboard and a stand is more than enough.
- tjogin 15y agoSo people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly.. And people dont want the iPad, despite it selling like hotcakes, thats your conclusion? If the iPad is a mistake, it's a mistake to the tune of 67 million units over two years, and that's limited by manufacturing, not demand. Or you are wrong.
- polshaw 15y ago>So people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly YES. They sell poorly because they are crap and expensive. Exactly like tablets were before the iPad. Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. This dock (+retina ipad) has brought me closer to wanting the ipad than ever before.
- tjogin 15y ago> Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. So if you combine a bunch of things that each sell very poorly then that would sell really well?
- polshaw 15y agoYes, because they are not mature products. If i had suggested in 2003 we took the tablet PC, swapped in an arm processor and took away all the ports, i'm sure you wouldn't have thought it was such a great idea either. The basic problem is the age old one- tablets (/os) suck at content creation. That is a problem of both OS and lack of keyboard. So a keyboard alone doesn't cut it. As for linux, I would take any desktop OS, but MS have already committed to locking down their bootloader + laming arm windows 8, and there are no signs that apple is about to cannibalise their MBA line. OTOH android integrates well with linux, sharing the kernel-- as ubuntu have demonstrated. And wtf @ downvoting that comment.. why??.
- ZeroGravitas 15y agoAs someone on the lookout to buy an ARM based netbook or web tablet for a while before the iPad existed, I'd say the chip lock-in was another monopoly that the iPad escaped but gets less attention than it should. Every time I read a headline about how much money Apple are making, I reflect on how much pent up demand there was for years, held back by the Wintel (and IE) monopolies.
- DavidAbrams 15y ago"Chip lock-in"? What do you mean?
- wavephorm 15y agoThis is just further proof that people don't really want an iPad, they want a laptop It's not really about hardware. I think what people really want is to escape the desktop operating system paradigm. When someone buys an iPad they are escaping the hangover of using Microsoft Windows for two decades. You'll find most iPad owners love their tablet precisely because there is no concept of files and folders, and drivers, and a long bootup process, and hard drives, and defrag utilities, and spyware, and virus protection... None of that stuff really improve users' experience. Ordinary people just want to get onto the internet, play some games, and read facebook. Whether the hardware that lets them do this in an easy way is a tablet, or a laptop form factor is irrelevant.
- tehayj 15y agoEveryone I know complains most about having no file system, but I agree the average mom who looks at her recipe app won't miss it.
- DavidAbrams 15y agoUntil she wants to send the recipe to her friend. Or move it to some other app after the vendor goes defunct. Or print it. Apologists for the crippled user experience act as though a file system is some kind of arcane "nerdy" or "geeky" facility. It isn't. It's how people organize information. That's why we have file cabinets and recipe boxes. It's also how multiple applications can act on the same files. In iOS we have mobile, handheld Unix computers that are ironically cut off from the outside world on purpose. On those computers we have applications that can't interact with each other or each other's data. This is not progress.
- jasonlotito 15y ago> Until she wants to send the recipe to her friend. Or move it to some other app after the vendor goes defunct. Or print it. The problem with that is she'll complain about the application being at fault. And maybe it is. After all, sending a recipe to a friend should be easy. And exporting the recipe to some standard format should be available. And printing is something that can happen. None of those complaints can be levied against iOS. Of course, the flip side is also true: the nature of iOS and the App Store means the app developers really are limited by what Apple will allow them to do. I hate reading app reviews that complain about things that aren't the fault of the app, but rather Apple or another 3rd party. In essence, I see a damned if you do, damned if you don't approach.
- mark_integerdsv 15y ago>This is just further proof that people don't really want an iPad, they want a laptop with a better designed and easier OS. Too black and white. Imagine more. MBP on the bottom, lid snaps off and is an iPad. Compatible applications sync on event: snap off/on between the iPad and the MBP. So basically it's the Asus tablet and base station affair (or this Brydge thingamabob) but instead of just speakers/keyboard/battery you have the works in the base station and you can plug in a monitor and use it separately from the iPad/screen assembly. It's not that people want this or that, it's that they want it all.
- DavidAbrams 15y agoThe Mac IS a PC. If you mean Windows, say Windows.
- ChrisNorstrom 14y agoCan you upgrade your mac's processor and motherboard to whatever you want the way you can with a PC? It goes beyond just an operating system. I like to think of PCs as Personalizable Computers.
- jodosha 15y agoThis is smaller than a MacBook Air and it's a neat solution. Indeed, I think that at the upcoming WWDC we will see something really similar released by Apple.