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Another Rant... iPad 3 and other tablet devices
13 years ago
General
Moo!
original here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104441386868315873040/posts/gy6L18u84ZS
I just read this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/20.....st-pc-era.html and it bothered me.
What the hell is wrong with our society when graphics are the end all of technology. I'm sorry, no, just no. Spending thousands of dollars on graphics for a new video game does not make the video game better, only lets the shit shine louder and clearer. The same is true for tablets and cellphones. If you don't have any guts worth using, slapping a pretty picture on the outside doesn't make it better, it just lets you see how much worse the guts are.
I've had a few chances to play with Apple's iOS. For a simple content consumption device, yes, it works okay. If you want to read, or maybe play a game of angry birds or whatever facebook game of the week is on top... sure it might work. But for the rest of us, who actually want to create, or at the very least connect with others... This device is pointless. Touch interface works alright, but only alright. My fingers are too blunt to hit the proper buttons and keys when I want to (and I have SMALL hands).
The next problem, as I mentioned, iOS. Its a nightmare of usability. There is so little customization in it, no way to make it fit to your needs. Apple's stance is "our way or the high way" really. I'm sorry but that is just insane in this day and age. They have always been skilled at making a good looking UI, but terrible at making a useful UI. Packing all of the icons, in to a static field, which the more you get the more fields you need, that is just plain stupidity.
Windows did it alright with windows 7. Their start menu search function was generally fast enough, you could type out a partial keyword and there your application would be.
Linux bash commandline has done it right as well, type out partial with auto-completion. And both have alternate ways to find your programs... menus... lists... and browsing to the exact folder if you felt like it.
Input is another problem. As I said, for consuming the device is fine, but if you want to create anything or communicate quickly... good luck. I'm a writer, I type between 80 and 100 wpm. In the past I even typed as fast as 110, but that was with one of those split in the middle keyboards. On a touch screen device that speed drops through the floor and I doubt it could ever surpass the efficiency of straight buttons. At the moment, my fingers cannot even hit a single key stroke right without having to backspace, they are just too blunt.
I will admit, i enjoy touch screen over a two button mouse any day. However, I have a 4 button mouse with scroll wheel. Maybe with an attached keyboard and mouse I might be able to write and program on the device, and only if I had something to prop it up. But then... how is it any different from a desktop or a laptop? Oh right, it's not as powerful.
I own an android device to consume on, i read with it, I occasionally IM and email (it has a physical keyboard... which I can use my thumbs on easily enough) But I'll never sacrifice my desktop for such a device.
The other big issue i've had. Multitasking. I get bored, easily, I have two monitors, with dozens of things open at once, and constantly swap between them. Ending one application (or suspending it) to use another is asinine. Many times I come back to another application when it alerts me that some one or something needs my attention. If it is suspended or closed, that is unlikely to happen. Not to mention there is no proper task switching or 'exit' method that is easy to use. Plus a single dinky screen is too small for me.
All in all, Apple, you're stupid, Microsoft, you're even dumber (at least apple is keeping Mac OS X and not sacrificing it for iOS like Microsoft is attempting in Windows 8)
/ #ranting
I just read this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/20.....st-pc-era.html and it bothered me.
What the hell is wrong with our society when graphics are the end all of technology. I'm sorry, no, just no. Spending thousands of dollars on graphics for a new video game does not make the video game better, only lets the shit shine louder and clearer. The same is true for tablets and cellphones. If you don't have any guts worth using, slapping a pretty picture on the outside doesn't make it better, it just lets you see how much worse the guts are.
I've had a few chances to play with Apple's iOS. For a simple content consumption device, yes, it works okay. If you want to read, or maybe play a game of angry birds or whatever facebook game of the week is on top... sure it might work. But for the rest of us, who actually want to create, or at the very least connect with others... This device is pointless. Touch interface works alright, but only alright. My fingers are too blunt to hit the proper buttons and keys when I want to (and I have SMALL hands).
The next problem, as I mentioned, iOS. Its a nightmare of usability. There is so little customization in it, no way to make it fit to your needs. Apple's stance is "our way or the high way" really. I'm sorry but that is just insane in this day and age. They have always been skilled at making a good looking UI, but terrible at making a useful UI. Packing all of the icons, in to a static field, which the more you get the more fields you need, that is just plain stupidity.
Windows did it alright with windows 7. Their start menu search function was generally fast enough, you could type out a partial keyword and there your application would be.
Linux bash commandline has done it right as well, type out partial with auto-completion. And both have alternate ways to find your programs... menus... lists... and browsing to the exact folder if you felt like it.
Input is another problem. As I said, for consuming the device is fine, but if you want to create anything or communicate quickly... good luck. I'm a writer, I type between 80 and 100 wpm. In the past I even typed as fast as 110, but that was with one of those split in the middle keyboards. On a touch screen device that speed drops through the floor and I doubt it could ever surpass the efficiency of straight buttons. At the moment, my fingers cannot even hit a single key stroke right without having to backspace, they are just too blunt.
I will admit, i enjoy touch screen over a two button mouse any day. However, I have a 4 button mouse with scroll wheel. Maybe with an attached keyboard and mouse I might be able to write and program on the device, and only if I had something to prop it up. But then... how is it any different from a desktop or a laptop? Oh right, it's not as powerful.
I own an android device to consume on, i read with it, I occasionally IM and email (it has a physical keyboard... which I can use my thumbs on easily enough) But I'll never sacrifice my desktop for such a device.
The other big issue i've had. Multitasking. I get bored, easily, I have two monitors, with dozens of things open at once, and constantly swap between them. Ending one application (or suspending it) to use another is asinine. Many times I come back to another application when it alerts me that some one or something needs my attention. If it is suspended or closed, that is unlikely to happen. Not to mention there is no proper task switching or 'exit' method that is easy to use. Plus a single dinky screen is too small for me.
All in all, Apple, you're stupid, Microsoft, you're even dumber (at least apple is keeping Mac OS X and not sacrificing it for iOS like Microsoft is attempting in Windows 8)
/ #ranting
