iPadamonium
God, why is the iPad getting so much press? I mean, I played with one the other day, and it was pretty sweet, but there’s absolutely nothing revolutionary about it. They took an iPhone, made it bigger, removed the ability to make phone calls, and made the display better. Don’t get me wrong, it would make the perfect replacement for my crusty netbook, and it will change the way newspapers and magazines distribute their goods, but there’s nothing overtly amazing about it. It can do everything an iPhone can do, minus phone calls, but on a larger scale. That’s it! We’re through!
In other news, the Denton Arts & Jazz fest is coming up on the 23-25, and I’ll be volunteering at the KNTU booth Friday night during the Chick Corea concert and Sunday afternoon during…some other stuff.
The iPad: Meh.
I’m a Mac owner, but as a computer support guy, I think it’s my responsibility to remain objective about any computer platform. Windows sucks in its own ways, and OS X sucks in its own ways. No computing system is without flaws, so it really pisses me off to see Apple fanboys herald each and every Apple release as undebatable perfection. I’ve seen people treat the iPad the same way.
Last week was finally the week. The week Apple was set to change the world as we know it; to change the way each and every one of us was to interface with the world once and for all. That’s at least what the fanboys said. However, we got the iPad, an impressive, yet still disappointing tablet from the folks at Cupertino.
First off, it’s impossible to deny that this is a seriously cool looking device. The screen looks beautiful and is surrounded by an awesome looking case. The software also looks elegant and intuitive, just like that of the iPhone. Just like nearly every other Apple product, it’s a visual masterpiece. That’s just about where the “perfection” ends.
First off, there isn’t any multitasking on this thing. Usually, when I pay $500 or more for a computer, I expect to do a couple of things at once. This will be a debilitating flaw in the iPad, but it’s also one that can be easily fixed with a software update, which I expect them to do once enough backlash surfaces.
Next is the iPhone OS. The iPad probably has plenty of power to run at least a basic version of OS X that Mac desktop and laptop users would be familiar with. The 9.7″ screen should be more than adequate to view a OS X environment comfortably, since gobs of people have been installing it on much smaller netbooks and have been satisfied. This “OS X for iPad” should at least be an option for users to install.
Other than those two huge flaws, there are a few little things. There isn’t a camera, which can be forgiven, but is still an odd omission, given that almost every laptop, netbook, and phone has one. There is also the inability to make phone calls, despite the availability of 3G service. This can also be forgiven, but it’s still strange that they didn’t just throw it in there.
Even though the iPad is really just a big-ass iPod touch, it will probably still be a wildly successful device. However, it won’t have any staying power unless Apple fixes the multitasking problems.
Movin’ Along
The television portion of my RTVF class ended this week. It had to have been the most fun I’ve had at college so far. I learned so much and met a lot of interesting people. Hopefully I’ll get my copy of the projects next week so I can post mine up on here.
Went to Frisco last night to pick up a copy of Snow Leopard. Sure, I could have bought it at Best Buy, but I also didn’t know that there wasn’t a student discount on OS X. Even without a discount, the new OS still only costs $29. I’m still hesitating on taking the plunge today, though, since I’ve seen some pretty obvious, even hilarious, bugs on some Macs at work that shouldn’t have even made the RTM release.
For example, we received two brand-new 13″ MacBook Pros to prepare for use at work. They came with Snow Leopard, of course, and they all had one strange bug in common. In Spotlight, whenever you searched for a particular program, in this case Terminal, the results would show up in Chinese. Chinese. The default language is English out of the box. However, when we changed the default language from English to Standard, the problem was solved. Weird…
There are also some very frustrating changes to the interface, as well. Most notably the Macintosh HD desktop icon, a mainstay of Mac OS systems since at least the early 90′s, is gone by default. They’ve added a shortcut to the applications folder onto the Dock, but it still doesn’t replace that friendly little icon that gave me quick access to Finder. I know that there is a way to turn it back on, but I wasn’t there when my co-workers figured it out, so it is still a mystery to me.
Another thing we do frequently at work is add Macs to our Windows domain. Before, this was a easy as going to Applications > Utilities > Directory Utility. Not anymore. They’ve hidden Directory Utility deep in the bowels of the User Accounts configuration menus in System Preferences. They took something that would normally be simple and proceeded to bungle it up. I don’t think they even changed the program at all; they just made it harder to get to.
Given all of the problems I have with Snow Leopard even before installing it on my own machine, I have to day that my Apple Store experience in Frisco was very pleasant. I had never actually bought anything at the Apple Store before hand; I just browsed and looked in awe at the shiny new machines sitting on their birch veneer tables. I’ve always been pleased at the no-pressure shopping environment. I can do anything I want to those machines because they know that it will eventually lead to a sale. For me, it did, just at a Campus Apple Store, instead. I was really happy that I could just pick up the software, go to the nearest dude wearing the pretentious and uncomfortable-looking nametag, and he could check me out on the spot with his handheld point-of-sale system. Pretty painless. The only negative thing about my visit was realizing that they still charge $60 for the mac version of Sim City 4. Fucking nuts for a game made in 2003.
I’m way behind in the NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got just a bit over 4,000 words. I should be near 15K. Oh boy, wish me luck.
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