1. Browsing the app store, I found a game I loved, and when I saw it had 4 player multiplayer on 1 device, decided to buy it for my mom as a present (so I could play it, of course!). I saw the description, price, and lots of details and reviews about the game (Chu Chu Rocket) but I couldn't figure out how to buy the darn thing! Where's the big "Buy Now!" or "Install" button? I clicked on the game title, on the picture, scrolled all around the page looking for the buy button. Perplexed, I finally clicked on the price, which does not look anything like a button, and then was given the opportunity to okay the sale. But it didn't ask me for any payment details. So now my mom's credit card (or whatever) will be charged for the gift I gave her. ARGH!
-Deozaan
Hmmm... that's the way that itunes is. It's not a difference from any other platform. /shrugs. And normally, people buy from their own device- if you want to gift her, you have to do it from your device. I rather like not entering CC details on every purchase.
2. Since it's essentially a giant iPhone without the phone, browsing websites will automatically take you to the Mobile phone version of sites (that are smart enough to do that), which is stupid and annoying because a lot of the mobile versions of sites are limited in what they allow you to see or do. ARGH! (Though to be fair, I imagine Android tablets have this same problem.)
-Deozaan
That is annoying, but Safari is annoying, and it's a function of the agent it sends. I don't use it to browse, and the browser I use (iCabMobile) allows you to change your user agent string. It's just also annoying that since Safari is so annoying, that the device doesn't let you change the default browser.
3. I really noticed the lack of a "back" or "cancel" button on the device. For instance, I was using the Fandango app to browse local movie showtimes, and I clicked the button to watch a movie preview. But my mom's internet isn't that great so it wouldn't load fast enough to stream. So I ended up stuck on a blank screen with no back button to get back to the Fandango app. Touching the screen wouldn't bring up any options, not even playback options like pause, rewind, seek, etc. I could press the "Home" button to take me back to the "desktop" but if I relaunched Fandango it would remember where I was and just take me back to the black screen. Where's the smurfing back/cancel button to go out of the video preview and back to the app? ARGH!
-Deozaan
That's a function of the app. The device doesn't really need a back button. If the app starts not responding, if you hold the home button, it will show the running apps and allow you to kill them. Their implementation of multi-tasking leaves something to be desired in the fact that you have to bring up the apps, hold one, then remove the one that you want to kill. But it's there. And it's not something that I do often enough to bother me. There is also another way to force quit an application from the application, but I forget what it is, as I've not had to do it often.
4. The iPad's iPod mode is retarded. Now, I've never owned an iPod and don't like using them because the "easy and intuitive" wheel thing never works for me. I have to spin and spin and spin just to try to get it to move one place, but it doesn't go anywhere. Finally when it does move, it goes several spaces and I have to repeat the process all over again, but in the opposite direction, to try to get back to the option I want. So anyway, I don't use iPods, and I don't use iTunes, so maybe this is why this seemed so stupid to me, but while trying to select some music to play, I clicked the Albums button at the bottom of the screen and it popped up a little box showing a bunch of albums, and I selected one and told a song to play. Fine, easy, great! But after that as I wanted to browse the rest of the music, nothing on the screen would respond to anything except that little window with the current album open. I tried clicking off of the window to close it, but that didn't work. I looked for an X or close button (which other iPad apps use on popup windows like that one), but there was none. I clicked all over trying to get that little window to close so I could use the darn machine but there was no clear or visible way to get it to go away. I don't remember for sure now, but I think I ended up clicking on the album name to get it to go away. ARGH!
-Deozaan
This isn't a function of iPods, because they don't do this as they don't have the screen real estate. You have to click the album picture to get it to close. Not the most obvious thing. You can also click another one of the buttons at the bottom; they still respond.
It doesn't make sense. It's not consistent, and my "computer illiterate" mom who thinks Apple products are great because they're "so easy they're perfect for stupid people like [her]" still has to ask me questions about how to do stuff. Then when I try to figure it out for her I can't because it's so smurfing stupidly designed it doesn't make any sense.
ARGH! I hate Apple products so much!
-Deozaan
I wasn't going to respond, but righteous hate I can stand... hate for hate's sake, I'm a sucker for. I'm no Apple apologist. They're devices, just like every other one (including Android tablets) are. Any device is going to have a learning curve, especially as you cross into different hardware form factors. And while apple devices aren't perfect, and they have several major problems, in general, I find them more easy to just use than other devices, when they're used in their narrow intended function (pointing to SB's argument after finally getting an iPad). And this is from someone that at every turn has attempted *not* to get an Apple product. My first music player was a Karma (which I still think was better), but after everyone else started trying to make iPod clones, I got one of those instead of one of the others... My first smartphone was a windows phone... finally got an iPhone after I couldn't stand the lack of direction on the platform. Same with iPad... I finally got one after years of playing around with tablets. I still use my tablet as it's more powerful, even if many years old. But for instant media consumption, I pick up my iPad.
I've found over the years that they're tools. Use what lets you do the task better.
