Posted on 05/06/2013 7:32:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Bill Gates took a shot at the iPad while explaining Microsoft's rationale for the Surface this morning on CNBC.
He was asked about the declining PC market. He said that tablets are growing in popularity, and it's "going to be harder and harder to distinguish products" that are PCs versus tablets.
The Surface, he says, brings the "portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC."
He then said of people using iPad-like devices, "A lot of those users are frustrated, they can't type, they can't create documents, they don't have Office there."
While some people are frustrated by the iPad's limitations, most embrace it. Apple sold 19.5 million iPads last quarter. Over that same period, HP, the world's number one PC seller, sold 11.7 million PCs, according to Gartner.
It's a cliche, but the truth is that the iPad just works for surfing the web, light emailing, videos, and some games.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Well, if you're going to be "creating documents" larger than casual emails, you probably want to be on your computer, with 16gb of RAM and 8x3ghz cores, two or three large monitors, and a terabyte of flash, ideally with your iWhatsit plugged into a docking station or just there on the network. You don't want to be using Mr Bill's lame excuse for a UI for serious work!
Of course, if you're out and about, then a lightweight pad or smart phone is handy and lighter in weight than a proper computing platform. Look up things on it. Take notes on it. Call or text on it. Then plug it into your real platform and get to work when you get home and comfortable.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fv5I2rmtuU
Zombie == Low Information Voter
Oh please. There are plenty of WIFI keyboards for the iPAD.
But I prefer just the virtual keyboard on the iPAD itself.
VIDEO CALL on it:
My dad loves to call his relatives in England on it.
WEATHER:
Wundermap is his favorite weather application.
SPACE SITES:
Plenty of NASA updates available.
VIDEOS:
Yes, it is great for taking videos of stuff for quick use.
PHOTOS:
Got a nice camera on it. Great for showing the pics.
Watching ‘TV’ (well NetFlix) on it. Prefer it to a big TV.
But when it comes time to get it together, you still need a proper computing platform!
Well, I admit, I love my iPad. If I could change one thing about it, I would allow multitasking. That really is the only thing that bothers me: going between programs and having to close and reopen apps every time. That said, it does not bother me enough to be a deal breaker.
I still use my MacBook all the time, but I *have* noticed that it has become more like the ol’ desktop, and the iPad is the one I tote around. Hey, what can I say, it IS more portable.
I use the iPad for notetaking, for video recording, for educational apps on the go, as a Kindle, email, GPS/maps, minor surfing, pictures!!, music, movies/videos, etc. There are a few things I use the MacBook for specifically: lesson planning, genealogy research, doc storage, photo editing, charging the iPad, updating the iPad OS.
The only place I have ever seen a “surface” is on TV. Does anyone really own one?
“The iPad is too expensive for the limited functionality it offers. All Apple products are pricey. I prefer more bang for the buck when it comes to consumable utilities like cars and PCs.”
The price of the iPad is right in line with knock-offs like the Samsung tablets.
iPads represent incredible value, and have been revolutionary enough to create an entirely new category of computer - one that’s extremely popular.
“But I’m surprised to read here that IPads do not allow use of a mouse or keyboard.”
That would be surprising, as in fact you CAN use a keyboard with no problem. Right now it’s touch only as opposed to using a mouse.
I’m in the market for a pressure-sensitive stylus, there are several on the market and are getting excellent reviews for drawing and note taking.
“Another big negative as I understand is that IPads do not come with Adobe Flash Player, which is used for many sites I visit. Also, Adobe stopped supporting Android last year (my cheap Android has the last Flash Player version for Android devices).”
Flash is on the way out, that’s why it’s no longer being supported on Android (which was originally supposed to be a big deal in competing with iOS).
Almost all Flash content will be moved to HTML5 instead, which will work great on iOS.
There are many choices now with some tablets almost half the price of an iPad.
Although I am a Mac guy, my darling daughter gave me her Samsung Galaxy 7.0 Tab, which she got as a gift and never used because she already has an iPad and is happy with it. I am hoping to find the time to learn how to use the little sucker because it is a nifty little machine — smooth graphics and all that.
The problem is that Android is just close enough to Mac iOS to seem familiar, but different enough to where I haven’t gotten anything to work right yet. I really want to be able to download eBooks. Tokyo is the ass end of nowhere when it comes to current English bestsellers — and I hope to be able to download old TV shows and stuff to watch while I am working out.
Oh well. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.
Bring back the slide rule!
Back so long ago that I didn’t own a calculator because they were expensive, I took a night course and routinely borrowed an HP-35 from work to do homework. One day I forgot to borrow the ’35, and decided to do the homework on my old (even then) slide rule.. . . and then I tried to work out a decimal point!!! You completely forget what a royal pain in the posterior that used to be!
That's the problem in a nutshell. To Gates, "creating documents" means running Microsoft Office. The iWork suite of apps -- Pages, Numbers and Keynote, for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, respectively -- are among the best-selling apps for iPad, and with iCloud, they sync up with the Mac versions pretty seamlessly. I use them every day.
The iPad is not an ideal platform for heavy content creation, and neither is the Surface. Neither one ever will be. Neither can replace a desktop computer; I have an iMac with two external monitors on my desk, and no tablet will come close to that until holographic projectors are perfected. But the iMac is a lot harder to tote along and use anywhere.
And the cheapest ones are pretty awful. CNet, PC World, ZDNet, all the usual suspects tend to have the same few tablets at the top of the list, and the cheapest of those is the Nexus 7 at $200. The Samsung Galaxy Tab/Note and Asus Transformer round out pretty much everyone's list, and they range from about the same price as the iPad to $100 less.
Don't get me wrong. I see the appeal of a cheap little sub-$100 Android tablet; it's adequate for an e-reader and media player, and it has a Web browser. But where they cut costs tends to be with less-responsive touch screens, lower-quality displays, and slower processors. The user experience isn't comparable to any of the top-shelf tablets, iPad included.
I think you're misreading something. The iPad (and the iPhone, for that matter) can use any standard bluetooth keyboard. There's no mouse support, because the interface doesn't have a pointer. A mouse would be ... wait for it ... pointless.
That said, I would like mouse support for VNC, RDC or Cisco apps, which let you remotely connect to a desktop (or a virtual) PC. There are tons of those apps, and while they're not a substitute for sitting in front of a full workstation, they do open up a lot more possibilities.
Another big negative as I understand is that IPads do not come with Adobe Flash Player, which is used for many sites I visit
Most of those sites probably have an iPad-friendly version by now. Mobile Flash was a dog, which Steve Jobs was one of the first to point out and Adobe itself finally admitted; it is a bloated monstrosity that's usable on the desktop only because there's a lot of processor speed and memory to throw at it. In a resource-scarce mobile environment, it was never a good fit, and it was brutal on battery life. Adobe has moved on to its AIR app development environment and tools to produce HTML5 pages.
Depends on the use. For just light couch surfing and email or kid use low end tablets work fine. For higher end stuff I would go with a Samsung or a Surface. I see no rationale to go with any Apple products.
I love my Ipad!!!!!!!!!!!’ You do not need a mouse for crying out loud. Your finger is the mouse. Sometimes you can not teach an old dog new and improved tricks. It is all in a person’s comfort zone with tech. Cheers!!!
Which has nothing to do with what someone might have wanted from a tablet over the past year and before. Without Adobe Flash over the past months, I would have had little reason to own a tablet. There is much sports content around that still runs on Adobe Flash.
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