Posts Tagged iPad
The Death of the TV
This is purely anecdotal, which means it is irrefutable truth:
The days of passively watching TV are over. We don’t watch it anymore; it gets used for the occasional movie or video game, but it spends far more time off and silent than it does on. Yet, we still see plenty of shows and keep abreast of news as well as anyone else.
Everyone in the house can watch whatever they want to, whenever they want to, and it doesn’t interrupt what anyone else is watching or doing. We use our tablets, our phones, and our computers with services like Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, ABC and YouTube.
In ten years, this will be the norm and the big monolithic black rectangle on your wall will quietly hang there as a monument of a bygone era.
The headstone above the TV’s grave is brought to you by Sony and Google, and it looks like this:
You've got to be kidding me.
A TV’s remote needs to be simple. Distance is already a massive abstraction, which gives a psychological perception of sluggishness, regardless of how responsive the UI is. Thus, information and menus on the TV need to be large enough to be seen from a distance (something video game UI developers seem incapable of understanding), and manipulating them needs to be quick and concise. This is anything but. With the GoogleTV, Google expects you to view webpages – designed to be seen on a screen about 3′ away from you – with it, and, using this “remote,” use it as a “computer” from 10′-12′ away. You’re either going to become frustrated at being unable to immediately see what’s on the screen, or you’re going to be standing up and in the way of anyone else in the room who might want to see what’s on the screen. Even Microsoft learned years ago what a bad idea this is. Engadget, who has a massive unwarranted collective boner for anything pumped out by Google, calls it unwieldy and confusing. They’re trying to turn the TV into a monitor, when the world around them is turning their monitors into TVs.
The Google Cult is extremely excited about it, and thinks it will “revolutionize TV.” However, the Google Cult – if the caliber of Android owners are any indicator – are a bunch of broke, basement-dwelling neckbeards who think everything is owed them and should be priced at an affordable Zero dollars, so until these things start getting handed out for free don’t expect them to sell.
I have an iPad and you don’t (unless you do)
I finally picked up a 16GB WiFi+3G iPad a week ago. I can honestly say that I don’t know how I got along before this thing. I haven’t turned my MacBook Pro on once since buying it, and I’m spending a LOT less time at my desk. It’s really the perfect device; it’s larger and more accessible than the iPhone, but far more portable than a laptop or, I’d argue, a netbook. It’s immediately on when I want to do something, and the battery life is astounding.
So you’re thinking, “But it’s just a big iPhone, you moron!”
You’re the moron. After about 2-3 hours of using it, this line of thinking does a total inversion. The iPhone feels like a tiny, slightly pared-down, less robust iPad. Safari on the iPad is, for all intents and purposes, identical to Safari on the Mac or Windows. I’ve yet run into anything of importance that doesn’t work as well or better than a desktop browser.
“B-b-b-but it doesn’t have Flash!”
Browsing the web without Flash installed (or at least with it blocked) is actually a breath of fresh air. Try it. It’ll blow your mind how much smoother and less gaudy the web is without it.
“B-b-b-but it doesn’t have any USB ports! How do I used computer without hooking up all kinds of shit to it?”
You’re a moron.
“B-b-b-but I need my super pro razorback gaming mouse and 35 terabytes of pirated movies with me at all times!”
You’re an asshole, too.
There’s nothing I can really add that hasn’t already been gone over pretty extensively by much better professional reviewers, and I suggest reading what they have to say if you want an exhaustive, point-by-point review. What I do see in the iPad, however, is the future of personal computing. It’s a powerful platform in a very compact package that lends itself to being virtually anything you want it to be. Above all, though, I see the iPad – and the devices it will no doubt inspire for years to come – as the classroom of the future. It’s your textbook, it’s your link to your teachers, it’s where you take notes, it’s where you communicate with your classmates, it’s where you do your homework, it’s where you do your research.. and it’s completely untethered. You can be ‘in class’ while sitting in the back of a car going 70 down the freeway. It doesn’t replace the traditional computer in all things, but it does free you from it for most things. It is, without question, the birth of a whole new paradigm of personal computing, and it’s very exciting to watch.
Oh hey what up
I’m posting his shiz from my iPad suckaaaaaas!