- Posts tagged iPad
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Adobe Flash Still Not Practical For 20 Out Of 20 Handset Companies
Adobe is working with "19 out of 20" handset companies to get Flash working on their devices
Still.
At what point do tech writers call Adobe out on their failure to get Flash working worth a damn on mobile devices, instead of just repeating the standard Adobe line? And at what point will Adobe be embarrassed about it?
It's been years, people, can't we call it like everybody sees it?
Does the iPad Have Competitors? No. Alternatives? No. iPadversaries? Um, ok.
I cheerfully admit that I’ve defined the term “iPadversary” loosely.
I've written about how tech pundits are itching for the iPad to have competition even as they must acknowledge it does not. Articles on the subject have taken to calling them "alternatives" instead of competitors. Now Technologizer's Harry McCracken has gone further, calling them adversaries in a clever take on the name.
I kind of like it.
This isn't a critique of McCracken's piece. Indeed, I appreciate his admission that there's really no rhyme or reason for items included in his list. If we applied some rationality, there's a number of reasonable criteria we could use to toss many of these out:
- Already on sale before the iPad? Then they've got to go, since obviously no one knew, or cared, or bought.
- Pure vapor? I don't mean "just" vapor, as most of these are, but there are some with so few details it's beyond the realm of reasonable thinking to include them on anything but a fun adversaries list.
- Android OS too old? C'mon, is it really anyone's contention that Android 1.5 or 1.6 is a viable competitor to even iOS 3.2, let alone the 4.x coming to the iPad in a month or so, especially long-term?
- And, if you really wanted to be serious, all the vapor devices would go, so 25 items drop off the list.
It seems clear McCracken is just having some fun with all the possibilities, while also providing a nice summary (as much as possible) about these devices. There are 32 of them, and one wonders how many will ever get to the mainstream market.
What's interesting is that if the iPad had even one real competitor—a device where one could make a reasonable case that a meaningful number of consumers would seriously compare the two and pick one over the other as a tablet—then none of this expanded definition of the playing field would be possible. (And the first commentor to point at some 1" thick, 3 pound netbook with the keyboard snapped off as a "real competitor" has lost the concept of the iPad entirely.)
Lacking a legitimate competitor, everyone's free to point out as contenders a number of devices in wildly varying form factors, even though we know the criteria being used is faulty at best. It makes for a fun write up, even fun reading, but can't be taken seriously.
Bottom line is that yet another article of this type serves to prove the only non-vapor and actual fact that we know: there is no iPad competitor right now.
iPad Rollout In Education Encounters DRM Hell
This is a hole in Apple's App Store infrastructure that the massive interest in iPads for education is exposing, in a way that the iPhone and iPod touch never did.
Good article on a major obstacle for rolling out iPads in the education market.
Apple, Their Competitors, and Expectations
But when exceeding expectations becomes the expectation, things get a little sticky.
Good article about Apple and exceeding expectations. Yes, Apple is held to a higher standard. In some cases writers will even explain that they're criticizing Apple for something because they're being held to a higher standard. So Apple gets dinged for things that should cause their competition to get trashed, but never does.
A good example is Android's 2.2 release. Now over two months old, the Nexus One was about the only phone supporting it until this week when Samsung came on board with the Evo, but there are complaints about the install. Imagine if iOS 4 rolled out this way. It runs slow on a two-year-old phone (3G) and the tech community is howling. Android 2.2 can't even be installed on phones released in the last 30 days and no one cares. It must be nice to be in Android's shoes. The bar is set so low for them that anything short of actually setting themselves on fire during a product launch is considered a win.
This is wrong, of course. In fact, a "standard" can't even be a standard if not applied equally. The reality is whatever the "standard" (if properly applied) is, Apple beats it handily. The more you lower the "standard" to include Apple's competitors in the mix, the more Apple exceeds them.
Bottom line is the delta between Apple and their competitors remains the same no matter where you set the bar, as long as that bar is set the same for everyone.
With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables, Let the Howling Begin
The best thing about this isn't that Apple jumps to #3, but rather that it's become realistic to include tablets in the mobile PC numbers to begin with. At the iPad launch just a few months ago this was unheard of, but the iPad has proven so capable it's not a wild idea, it's becoming obvious.
Traditional PC vendors—who still have no iPad rival—will howl and protest at this suggestion. We'll be told that only the type of PC we've been using for years fits in this category. Their rhetoric will be tailored not only against products they don't sell, but also to soothe baffled consumers and IT groups who can't imagine that "portable" isn't synonymous with laptop.
We'll see a lot of this, but ultimately it will fail. When the iPhone came out there was lots of talk about how it wasn't really a smartphone, but that BS didn't last, either. The market defines product categories, not the tech shills and marketers who want to bend a definition to include only what they sell.
Home Sweet Home (Screen)
As of right now, and always subject to change.
The iPad's Competitors Drop Like Flies. Actually, They Never Even Took Off.
The iPad is the king of tablets and might hold that title for years to come. However, there are a ton of alternatives that we’ve featured over the last few months… But since [then], a lot has changed and while some managed to make it to the market, others were delayed or scrapped entirely.
Nice article describing what's happened to alleged iPad alternatives (are they called alternatives to recognize the iPad has no competitors?) in the last few months.
I've written the iPad has no "alternatives", and CrunchGear makes it's easy to see why. We can dismiss seven of them out of hand:
- ModBook - This is a MacBook reconfigured. A laptop with a desktop OS.
- Viliv X70 - A tablet with a desktop OS (XP, no less).
- Archos 9 - A tablet with a desktop OS.
- Viliv S10 Blade - A "convertibile" device. Again, a laptop with a desktop OS.
- Spring Design Alex - This is an eBook reader, what's it doing here?
- Lenovo Skylight - A netbook, not sure how it made even an exaggerated list of competitors.
- Lenovo IdeaPad U1 - Another "convertibile" that comes apart. Desktop OS as PC, and maybe Android as a tablet?
Some of these are not even available, but even if they were they're not iPad alternatives. They're not iPad tablets in any sense. It's not just about form, it needs a touch, not desktop, OS and apps. The human finger doesn't have the precision for software written for the precision of a cursor tip. A stylus can address that, but styli are a big failure, no one wants them. Why would any hardware maker (or anyone else) ignore the decade of failure "desktop tablets" have had in the market?
After weeding out the above, of the six remaining (I left the HP Slate because rumors say it won't run a desktop OS), four of them—Notion Ink Adam, HP Slate, WeTab, and ExoPC—are nowhere to be found. These devices are delayed, or maybe even killed altogether. In any case, they can hardly be called alternatives now. They're vapor, and I remain convinced the iPad will outsell vapor.
So that leaves just two devices: the enTourage eDGe dualbook, which isn't any good; and the Dell Streak, whose too-large-for-a-pocket but too-small-for-a-tablet form factor isn't winning any converts, and it's not yet available in the US.
The tech press loves for Apple to have competition, and sometimes go out of their way to invent it. In the case of the iPad, however, it simply doesn't exist. Not even close. Maybe by the end of the year, but certainly not now.
Dear Apple: Please add decent mobile control over MobileMe photo galleries
As a MobileMe subscriber I enjoy using the Gallery for photos. I think the interface and options for viewing photos in the galleries is beautiful. However, every time I maintain the site I can't help but be frustrated at the lack of control Apple provides. The only real control comes via the Mac using iPhoto or Aperture. And even then, photos placed on the galleries have less utility than on the desktop.
The Mac
With Aperture or iPhoto you can create albums for upload and sync to MobileMe. You can add or delete photos and the albums stay in sync. You can add new albums, drag and drop photos between them, and any keywords or star ratings added to photos in a MobileMe album work just like any other album.
Unfortunately, once you get off the Mac some of this data is not used, and your ability to make changes are reduced drastically.
The Web
The Gallery interface for MobileMe on the web isn't too bad. Here you can add/delete albums. You also have some control over albums, but are missing the ability to set privacy or the download quality of the photos (see album settings below, MobileMe on top, iPhoto on bottom). These are important settings, yet they can't be controlled via the web interface.
As for photos, you can add/delete, rotate, and drag and drop them among existing albums. Not bad, but there are no other editing controls, no ratings, and no keywords. Further, even if ratings and keywords are used on the Mac, they're not available on the web interface. You know the keyword searches you can do in Flickr? Yeah, there's none of that in MobileMe.
The iPhone
On the iPhone it gets much worse. You cannot use the web interface, instead you're routed to a page that tells you to load Apple's Gallery app. The app is beautiful (below) and great for viewing pictures, but that's all it allows. There's no facility to edit information or change settings for albums or photos. There's no upload facility, and not even the ability to delete a photo from an album. Aside from viewing all you can do is email a link to a photo or album.
It should be noted that a picture viewed in the native Photos app can be uploaded to MobileMe, where you can select an existing album (but not add a new one) and a title/description. Again, no editing, deleting, ratings or keywords are allowed.
The iPad
Sadly, the iPad is the worst mobile device of all for controlling one's MobileMe galleries. Like the iPhone, you can't use the web interface and must download the Gallery app. But the Gallery app has not been upgraded for the iPad, so it's either very small or very ugly, take your pick.
The Upshot
In short, you have good control of galleries via your Mac, but some of that data isn't stored online, and when you leave the Mac you're limited. The Web interface is OK, but lacks privacy controls, and the iPhone/iPad have essentially no controls at all.
Apple ought to change this. The Gallery app could take some cues from Flickr's own app, which allows title, description, photoset (including adding a new one), tags, image size, geotag, and privacy level for each upload. Further, it allows editing an existing photo's title, description, photoset, tags and privacy. It also allows you to delete photos.
It's frustrating that real maintenance on my MobileMe galleries requires I get back to a Mac. Frankly, it takes the "mobile" out of MobileMe. It's no wonder I use Flickr more often.
Since I got the iPad, my MacBook thinks it's ignored
As you can see, that's just not true.
Shadows: Coffee and iPads on the porch
Nice shot. Sometimes capturing a shadow (or reflection) of an object is better than the object itself. I posted this because I really like the photo.
And coffee.
And iPads.
