iPad

[Jonzjob]

You should have bought an iMac first ten you would have had the safety net of a Mac and the bluetooth keyboard comes with it.

Total cover 8) 8)

 

[Eric The Viking]

Well, we did.

We have a 2nd Gen. Bondi Blue iMac, two eMacs (G4), a G3 tower and a G4 tower, almost all of which are still working just fine. The trouble is, Apple have given up on backwards compatibility. The main reason for the iPad is that I can no longer find a recent version of Firefox compiled for the G3 tower, which has been my wife's main desktop machine. The G4s run 10.5, so run a reasonably current version of FF.

We'll probably get a current iMac in due course, however they remain expensive for what they offer. I also haven't yet dealt with the problem of AirPrint (or whatever). It's insane that, given an iPad has to be able to read PDFs, it can't talk simple Postscript to a Postscript printer. But hey, it's gotta be a process improvement, right?

Don't get me wrong: I love Apples. The ones in the house need practically no maintenance, and they just do their job without fuss and bother. Often, however, Apple's refusal to 'play nicely' with open standards (or de facto ones in the case of PS) is almost as infuriating as Microsoft's. When Apple is forced into things (Samba to mention no names), it does them well and we all benefit, however, much as I've enjoyed playing with this thing over a day or so, it took 15 minutes or less to bump into annoyances that would be easily fixed on a more open architecture, and now I've got a toilet-roll-long list of them.

So, high on the list is finding a fix for Postscript printing (possibly via Windows - an irony the denizens of Infinite Loop seem to have missed!), followed by a decent browser (Safari seems to have returned to its truly horrible roots).

This latter point isn't trivial: the domestic controller uses a very weird, secure "x-term" type of application to control her work desktop PC from home via a browser. Currently this actually does run on Firefox on the G3, but slim chance on Safari on the iPad. She needs to do this as it's her only method of getting to important, confidential stuff in an emergency. She's not alone in this, and the point--that Flash- and Java-enabled web sites are used for things a helluvalot more important than games--seems to have eluded Apple.

Am I impressed with the iPad? Yes, undoubtedly. It has some amazing features and functionality. Is it the universal answer to mobile computing? Apparently not, unless I can find suitable apps, or a jailbreak solution.

Frankly, I thought I'd be a bit more 'wowed' than I have been in reality. It's been hyped, true, but more fool me for falling for it. I'll see how I feel in a couple of months, after perhaps getting round some of its major deficiencies.

E.

PS: If anyone knows of an app that lets you assign common functions to 'unused' keys on the Bluetooth keyboard, that would be a major headache saver right now. Both of us type quickly, and lifting a hand to peck at a wobbly, near vertical surface is really annoying, when there is an entire row of function keys and a set of arrows doing almost nothing.

 

[RogerS]

.... followed by a decent browser (Safari seems to have returned to its truly horrible roots).

This latter point isn't trivial: the domestic controller uses a very weird, secure "x-term" type of application to control her work desktop PC from home via a browser.

I think you;re being unreasonable in your expectations. By your own admission, you want a browser to run a 'very weird, secure....'. Certainly not mainstream. What would you like next? Ability to run Sinclair ZX81 code?

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in this, and the point--that Flash- and Java-enabled web sites are used for things a helluvalot more important than games--seems to have eluded Apple.

No it hasn't eluded them. Just that they actually bother about security and Flash is well known for its security loopholes. I'd rather have a secure system then something that will view some overhyped whizzy website.

 

[Eric The Viking]

.... followed by a decent browser (Safari seems to have returned to its truly horrible roots).

This latter point isn't trivial: the domestic controller uses a very weird, secure "x-term" type of application to control her work desktop PC from home via a browser.

I think you;re being unreasonable in your expectations. By your own admission, you want a browser to run a 'very weird, secure....'. Certainly not mainstream. What would you like next? Ability to run Sinclair ZX81 code?

Actually it is very mainstream - used all over the NHS. It's the difference between commercial and home computing - customization.

Anyway, given the ZX80/81 was Z80-based, it would probably run on an Intel Mac (but not an i5), admittedly given a lot of hard work. IIRC, Intel bought Zilog, and you could emulate a Z80 (or even an 8080) on an 8086-derived platform. But I digress.

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in this, and the point--that Flash- and Java-enabled web sites are used for things a helluvalot more important than games--seems to have eluded Apple.

No it hasn't eluded them. Just that they actually bother about security and Flash is well known for its security loopholes. I'd rather have a secure system then something that will view some overhyped whizzy website.

I don't like overhyped, whizzy web sites either, but Flash isn't an issue if the machine's security model is adequate. In more than twenty years of Mac and UNIX use, I have never encountered a virus on either platform. They do exist but they're hard to propagate, and aren't worth the criminals' time, it seems. I agree Flash has issues, but they're amplified by the deficiencies in Windows' security model, which have been there from the outset, unlike UNIX, which isn't perfect but is much more sensible (likewise Novell, but again I digress too far, probably!).

Anyway, there's no reason why function keys shouldn't work, except that Apple couldn't be bothered. Honestly, the iPad, to a newcomer like me, seems to be the most "bend to our will" product I've ever seen from Apple. They actually used to ship a developer toolkit with every OS9 and OS X machine, and oddly, that didn't seem to open them up to mass virus attack!

As I said, I'll spend a month of spare moments fiddling about before I come to a conclusion as to whether one in the household is quite enough, or if I'll take the plunge myself.

E.

 

[RogerS]

.......
As I said, I'll spend a month of spare moments fiddling about before I come to a conclusion as to whether one in the household is quite enough, or if I'll take the plunge myself.

E.

An interesting question. I bought a secondhand iPad purely for backing up photos and accessing the web etc while we are away in May. Once I'd set it up and played with a few apps, I've not turned it on once! OK..I tell a lie. I took it down with me to Sussex when I went on a course and used it (briefly) to access emails and also laying in bed watching a film on iPlayer was pretty cool. But I will most likely sell it on our return.