iPad.... iPap?

[NovaScotian]

I'll confirm that medical data is available on the Mac. I was given a CD of X-rays one time to take back to my family doc and on the CD were readers for both Windows PCs and Macs.

[Hal Itosis]

This thread (and many more like it) is living proof justifying Jobs' use of the word "magic". The darn thing won't be available for almost 2 months still, not to mention "iOS" 4.0 won't appear until June/July... yet here we are now, helpless to avoid its magical gaze

[must.. .. . avert.. . .. my . . . eyes. ]

[cwtnospam]

Well, this thread is a special case because of where it is. Lots of technical people wondering about the features and how they'll fit into whatever existing systems they're using now. It's exactly the opposite market from the one that Apple is aiming this product at, and still there are lots of us that are at least intrigued!

The real market will be everything from other technical but non-computer related fields like medicine to people like my mother who still doesn't know how to turn on a computer, but would love to be able to read any book she likes without needing her glasses. Those people aren't going to care about features or technical specs. They only care about benefits — to them — and it looks like the iPad will deliver from day one on those.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam The real market will be everything from other technical but non-computer related fields like medicine to people like my mother who still doesn't know how to turn on a computer, but would love to be able to read any book she likes without needing her glasses. Those people aren't going to care about features or technical specs. They only care about benefits — to them — and it looks like the iPad will deliver from day one on those.

How will your mother be able to read books on the iPad without her glasses? I assume she's long-sighted; you're thinking of mounting it on the wall with a big zoom factor?

[cwtnospam]

The older you get, the larger you need the display type. With a book you're stuck with whatever it was printed in. With the iPad or any other computer you can change the display. The difference is that with another computer it will be more technical and so too difficult for my mother than simply pinch and zoom. Also, she's much more likely to sit at her kitchen table with a tablet than with a laptop with its confusing keyboard and track pad.

[Hal Itosis]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam The older you get, the larger you need the display type. With a book you're stuck with whatever it was printed in. With the iPad or any other computer you can change the display. The difference is that with another computer it will be more technical and so too difficult for my mother than simply pinch and zoom. Also, she's much more likely to sit at her kitchen table with a tablet than with a laptop with its confusing keyboard and track pad.

How about schools/universities replacing all those bulky textbooks with searchable electronic versions?

Inkling (learn more).

[cwtnospam]

I don't doubt that will happen as well. I'm thinking that Apple has discovered a way to get people who have traditionally avoided computers to help them determine how the technology advances. There are many millions of people who are turned off by traditional IT driven computer technology, and it's in Apple's interests to cater to them. That's what the iPod, iPhone, and iPad represent, and I think they're going to keep pushing this technology. If you look at the link I posted, he does a good job with the details of how they have been doing it so far.

[Jay Carr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hal Itosis How about schools/universities replacing all those bulky textbooks with searchable electronic versions? Inkling (learn more).

About seven months ago, when I still worked for Apple, I sat in a meeting between the regional Apple Rep and my local college bookstore. Now, I can't say that the regional rep confirmed this, but I can say that he basically told the bookstore that they needed to be ready for this eventuality, because it was going to change the market pretty severely... Again, he was very careful not to confirm anything, but a simple read between the lines made it sound like this was going to happen.

Our local bookstore was petrified (and still is) to say the least. They make a very good amount of money selling text books. They asked if Apple would let them have a special bookstore that they could control (like iTunes U but with books instead of podcasts). The rep said that he imagined that if something like that were to happen that yes, it would occur that way. Which makes sense if you think about it, because bookstore do a lot to track what books our professors actually need us to get and things like that.

So, there's a nice little rumor for you. As I said, he didn't confirm anything, and to be honest, he isn't a VP so his knowledge was probably limited. But Apples recent talks with a couple of text book publishers make me think this might actually happen.

[anthlover]

While were batting things around lets talk Multi-Tasking for a moment.

To my knowledge the Iphone and for the moment the Pad are capable of but restricted in mult-tasking to those Applications Apple Deems appropriate. That is Phone and Maps or Notifications and Music etc. What is currently prevented is all Apps running willy nilly.

I think that even on our vaunted Macbooks, Pro Desktops etc. we have all seen the spinning beach ball syndrome and are aware that even with multi core x time many and gobs of ram (Not flash ram) the machines can grind to halt on occasion.

Now even the 3gs is a single core running @ what around 600mhz.
The new Pad is 1ghz Multi or single

The 3Gs I believe has 256MB Ram, The Ipad I am not sure.

Point is if one does not carefully control running apps Apple has so far made a design decision to suspend aps and leave your where you left off rather then let them all actually run.

The choice was not to do what was done with the Pre which in tests I have read about can grind to a halt more.

Can true Multi-tasking be done on the 3gs and its soon to be successor and the Pad, I am sure. The question is can be done and provide a mostly rock solid experience and guarantee the Phone, push notifications etc do not go out to lunch. Maybe Maybe not.

[cwtnospam]

Well, on my MBP the spinning beach balls I've seen have all been on a specific application. The rest of the system continues to respond nicely. I'm sure the slower processor is an issue for the iPhone/iPod and even the iPad, but I think the bigger issue is battery life. Another problem is how do you use the same OS for both and keep developers from favoring the iPad for multitasking capabilities?

[anthlover]

Yes. Agree. Of course now that our CPUs are not G4s and have multi-core and have multiples Gigs of RAM, spinning beach balls are more often then not application specific. But that is the statement of an experienced user. The novice user sees the spinning beach ball and the lack of responsiveness. The experienced user has to alt tab to the finder or another app and wait, or option apple/command escape to kill the errant app.

And that as my point.

With the Iphone 3gs I do not notice in my use (its my wife's and father's, so my use is not constant) I do not generally see this sort of issues at all. A hand full of times she might have had to restart it once in a blue moon.

It just works. Rapidly switching between apps in a few seconds at most picking up where each left of.

Again an Iphone is a single Core aprox. 600mhz single core processor with 256MB of Ram.

If it were my phone I would want to be sure that I got my calls and mail more then I would worry about a couple of seconds switching apps for those that are not simultaneous.

[Jay Carr]

@anthlover -- I can see your point, and I agree to a large extent. But I think the real question we need to be asking here is what sort of limited multi-tasking does Apple need to allow in order to make these apps just a bit more useful.

Now, it should be noted, in Apples design documents the specifically state that all Apps should be designed so that you can switch between apps swiftly (splash screens and outro screens are discouraged, though some bigger programs frankly need the splash screen.) The idea is that all apps should be light weight enough that switching between apps isn't a burden.

So, speed between apps shouldn't be a huge issue (maybe just a big one.) The thing that bugs me is how hard it is to get info between apps. Now, I'm told that with the new OS Apple is allowing for a shared save space between different apps, which goes a ways towards fixing the problem. We'll just have to see how that works in practice...

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by anthlover Can true Multi-tasking be done on the 3gs and its soon to be successor and the Pad, I am sure. The question is can be done and provide a mostly rock solid experience and guarantee the Phone, push notifications etc do not go out to lunch. Maybe Maybe not.

If Android can do pure real multitasking why can't the mobile version of OS X do it? If you look, there are a ton of slated Android devices coming out and Asus announced its touch screen tablet.

In regards to it being used in hospitals and the medical field, by the time they get around to doing so, there will be more products out there than the iPad which do similar things. So, will the iPad integrate into their systems? Hospitals run all sort of custom apps and databases, which run off of terminal services, citrix, Windows, and Linux. Will a doctor have to quit his medical app to read an email or a page?

I see potential for such a device, sure, I just don't see the iPad doing it. However, I will reserve my final opinion when I get to hold one and play with one.

[Hal Itosis]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Well, this thread is a special case because of where it is. Lots of technical people wondering about the features and how they'll fit into whatever existing systems they're using now. It's exactly the opposite market from the one that Apple is aiming this product at, and still there are lots of us that are at least intrigued!

We don't exactly have the "technical" market cornered around here. Consider the current crop of iPad threads at Ars Technica:

• The iPad thread
  
  
• My iPad Epiphany
  
  
• Am I the only one wishing LaTeX worked on the iPad?
  
  
• If Flash isn't supported on the iPhone/iPad, what are alternative technologies?
  
  
• Will the iPad cut into laptop sales and revive the desktop?
  
  
• iPad: jailbreak or HackiPad?

And those are just the "regular" forum threads (started by members independently). Beyond that, Ars Technica's main page sports several iPad articles, each of which is also *heavily* commented by a variety of <ahem> readership.

[must.. .. . avert.. . . my. . . eyes. ]

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian I'll confirm that medical data is available on the Mac. I was given a CD of X-rays one time to take back to my family doc and on the CD were readers for both Windows PCs and Macs.

Sorry, I just saw this post....

If it is just pictures, any hand held device can read digital pics. Was it actually software that they gave you?

[cwtnospam]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hal Itosis We don't exactly have the "technical" market cornered around here.

I didn't mean to imply that was the case. Only that whether it be here, on one of the sites you listed, or one of many others, the viewpoints come from technically minded people. The ones who really matter in this case are not posting or reading the posts because they're only vaguely aware that these sites exist.

Sure, Apple may be reinventing the personal computer, but that will be decided by people who don't care about that at all. The people who do care are just along for the ride, only able to react to what happens but not control it.

[Jay Carr]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin Sorry, I just saw this post.... If it is just pictures, any hand held device can read digital pics. Was it actually software that they gave you?

I mentioned this before but didn't link it, here it is:
OsiriX

Note that it's coming to iPad soon, if you check the screenshots page you can watch a video of it on iPhone.

@cwtnospam -- I think you're absolutely right, and I think we linked the same article to illustrate that point . This device really isn't meant for power users, and honestly "New World" computers probably won't be ready for people like us for a few years yet (well, except me in my sales position, I can use it for that. Its my programming I can't really do with it.)

[cwtnospam]

Here's another guy who gets it:
http://weblog.muledesign.com/2010/02...of_empathy.php
The future of computers is in hiding the OS so that it doesn't get in the way.

[Woodsman]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam The older you get, the larger you need the display type. With a book you're stuck with whatever it was printed in. With the iPad or any other computer you can change the display. The difference is that with another computer it will be more technical and so too difficult for my mother than simply pinch and zoom.

Gotcha. Don't faint dead away, but I still run both my XP and my Book at 800x600. I run my big-screen iMac at 1280x980 stretched. Can't cope with a higher resolution than that.

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Also, she's much more likely to sit at her kitchen table with a tablet than with a laptop with its confusing keyboard and track pad.

How is the thing to write on, does anyone know? I'm tied to Word for Mac for business purposes, but maybe if I retire I could be like your mom and write my essays on whatever kind of Apple tablet is then around, migrating to iWork. I haven't quite managed to register whether it has the same kind of deal as the Kindle, that you can read it in the sunshine.

[tlarkin]

Text book companies have a huge racket going on, and I don't see them converting to digital copies any time soon. Why would they? Their business model currently would make them more money.