News and Reviews > Mini-Reviews by Members

iPad 3 and me

<< < (2/3) > >>

elvisbrown:
As it's my first I have nothing to compare it to except my Dell laptop. I am already in the habit of shutting apps down (2 clicks on the home button), to save battery. I have been using it for around 3-4 hours and it still shows 75%. Prior to this I'd be cooking my balls by now :-)

xtabber:
I've played with iPads and there is no question that they beat any Android tablet hands down when it comes to responsiveness.  But the iOS environment simply won't allow me to use a device the way I would like.

The problem is the same thing that kept the Macintosh from becoming a useful personal computer until the arrival of the *NIX based OS-X, and that is Steve Jobs' notion that users should not have to deal with files because data "belongs" to a specific application.   To my way of thinking, data is content and should exist independently of any application. I want to be able to choose the application I prefer in any particular situation to use on it.  Apple deliberately set out to prevent this by not providing a file system to organize data independently of applications.

I don't need to use anything like Dropbox on my Android tablet or phone. I can simply move anything I want to and from the device anytime I want to. I don't even need a USB connection. There are several excellent file managers for Android that allow me to browse my LAN for files over WiFi and even view many of them first. My current favorite is X-Plore, which has a great dual-pane interface, but ES File Explorer,  FX and Astro also make this easy. I can also use an FTP server on the devices that allows me to browse the file system from my PC, and even to manage or edit files from the PC with ftp aware programs like Beyond Compare.

I do have a Nook Simple Touch Reader, and I'd agree that e-Ink is far easier on the eyes than any LCD screen, but I find myself reading more and more on the tablet.  One reason is that I can pick among several excellent readers which have different strengths for different types of documents, or different devices.  With the Android file system, I can organize documents the way I want and use whatever program I want to view or edit them. In other words, I don't have to give up the benefits of the PC environment to  enjoy the advantages of a tablet.

mouser:
The problem is the same thing that kept the Macintosh from becoming a useful personal computer until the arrival of the *NIX based OS-X, and that is Steve Jobs' notion that users should not have to deal with files because data "belongs" to a specific application.   To my way of thinking, data is content and should exist independently of any application. I want to be able to choose the application I prefer in any particular situation to use on it.  Apple deliberately set out to prevent this by not providing a file system to organize data independently of applications.
--- End quote ---

well said, though i don't think people who have't used the ipad for some time will be able to appreciate how awful this restriction is.  it is a very artificial and painful limitation that you eventually come to really resent, and it's a major drawback of the apple devices.

a concrete example to help people understand the issue:

if you want to send some pdf files to your ipad to read, you PICK THE APPLICATION you want to read them with, and send the document files to that application.  if you later install a new ebook reader software, guess what -- you cant read those pdf files with that new software, you have to RE-TRANSFER duplicate copies of the pdf files to the new application.

And all of this is done through itunes, a hellishly evil application whose purpose in life is to prevent you from having control over your device.

AndyM:
Excellent thread!!!!  My wife got an iPad2 a few months ago.  I fooled with it for a few days, very very cool.  For what it is.

The biggest problem with the ipad for use real computer users is that our brains don't cooperate with the device.  Unlike most i-fans, we know way too much about computers to be comfortable on the i-devices.  As soon as you start thinking about files and folders in your mind, you will immediately sense the frustrations.  All those "why can't i..." "how do I..." questions come up and the simple answer is "you can't".
--- End quote ---

Spot on!!!

lotusrootstarch:
It's the power.  It doesn't seem like Apple will ever allow the power that pc users are used to.  They really are meant for a different crowd.  A far dumber crowd when it comes to computers.
-superboyac (July 15, 2012, 01:15 AM)
--- End quote ---

True to an extent. However I don't think it's really got anything to do with intelligence in anyway. The mac cult is generally higher income earners for the reason that, IMHO, the more you earn the more expensive it becomes to use your free hours to hack/tweak here and there. It makes more sense to pay more upfront for the solutions that just work and save much more time/efforts later on, even at the cost of having less functionalities in a few cases. It often is a quality of life, not technical, decision.

Take for example, a purchase of a new PC, there're so many choices/combos out there that it becomes mind-boggling to select/build one. By the time that you racked your nerve and made a decision, you probably already lost the value of the PC that you're gone purchase (taken into view the time x after-hours hourly rate you spent on it). And that doesn't even include the efforts that you have to commit after buying the PC.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page