Why the iPad is a creativity machine

Computerworld ^ | April 17, 2010 06:02 AM | By Mike Elgan

[Swordmaker]

The naysayers who argue it's only for consuming digital content are wrong

Computerworld - You've heard the case against Apple's iPad. It's a media consumption device for mindless couch potatoes. It's a step back in the evolution of computing, because it turns users into passive consumers of content, rather than creators.

"The iPad," journalism professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis proclaimed, "is retrograde. It tries to turn us back into an audience again." His evidence includes the TIME Magazine app, which lacks links and reader commenting, and the iPad's lack of iPad camera and USB port.

O'Reilly Radar blogger Jim Stogdill argued that "the iPad isn't a computer, it's a distribution channel."

The Slate Culture Gabfest podcast attempted an "audio unboxing" of the iPad. Unfortunately, they didn't know you had to plug it into a PC with an updated version of iTunes to activate. (They should spend less time watching The Wire, and more time on this Web site -- maybe they'd know these things.)

The cultural gabbers knew their "unboxing" was an epic fail. But they didn't seem to realize that the conversation about the tablet that ensued was an even bigger failure. They accepted as fact the false idea that the iPad is for content consumption only, and spent the remaining 20 minutes or so talking about whether a device useful exclusively for creating content is OK. One gabber talked about how people need to write e-mails and other things, adding, "I just don't think people are going to give that up."

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Do you pay Jim Robinson for advertising?

Do you get paid for advertising the government program -- "Access to the Internet for the Mentally Retarded"

LOL ...

[Eepsy]

I played with one at an Apple store, not expecting much. The onscreen keyboard was a lot more responsive than I was expecting. The content was beautifully displayed.

The downside is that it’s just too heavy for what is essentially a handheld device. Get that puppy under a pound and I’d buy one in two seconds flat.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The article touches on an important point - journalists look at the iPad and see the Grim Reaper. Of course they are going to play up its negatives.

The MSM, the teachers unions, the music industry - all of the content robber barons are terribly threatened by technology. The end of their reign is not far off.

[moehoward]

"The naysayers who argue it's only for consuming digital content are wrong"

No they are not. Will there be Adobe/Office style aps written to do actual work? Probably. When the dust settles will most of the users 'work' on and iPad? Nope.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

No they are not. Will there be Adobe/Office style aps written to do actual work? Probably. When the dust settles will most of the users 'work' on and iPad? Nope.

Ummmm..., you're showing yourself to be as ignorant as some of those "pundits" quoted in the article above ... LOL ...

That's why some of these idiots either posting about the non-usefulness of the iPad and those other so-called "pundits" are idiots -- when they say such things ... and are just "nattering nabobs of negativity" -- completely and totally uninformed... :-)

It does a lot of work, like spreadsheets, designing webpages, writing letters/documents, creating slide-show presentations, desktop publishing for brochures, advertisements or something to produce for your own use and/or distribution.

And that's in addition to all the apps that you can get with the iPad for organizing whatever other kind of work you like to do (like, for instance), I have several of the Bible apps which make it great for doing Bible study on the run and having excellent "tools" at my disposal.

Then you can use it for reading your books or listening to your music or keeping up on recent television programs (that you may want to catch up on, while getting around in your travels (either day travels or on a trip), organizing and creating picture/slide shows with your own pictures and/or videos that you shoot... and... so much more that it "boggles the mind" that someone can be so ingorant as to say that it's not productive... "amazing" ... LOL ...

iPad Features as listed by Apple

[moehoward]

"Ummmm..., you're showing yourself to be as ignorant as some of those "pundits" quoted in the article above ... LOL ..."

Way to go....

Look, I understand you got a permanent erection for Steve Jobs.

What I am is as big an Apple fan as you will ever find. PERIOD. I have a house full of them including the first one I bought over 20 years ago. I buy them for family members. And I am the Mac Guru every one I know comes to on the rare occasion there is a problem with their machines.

Again. iPads will not be used for much, if any, work. They will be used to consume. Why on earth is that a bad thing?

Next time you might try to not shoot your own troops.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Again. iPads will not be used for much, if any, work. They will be used to consume. Why on earth is that a bad thing?

It's not a bad thing to use it for things that people "consume" ... like reading articles on the Internet, or reading books or listening to TV programs or listening to radio programs or to podcasts or several other things like that -- that one can do on a regular laptop or a desktop computer.

That's not the bad part.

The bad part is to start talking like no one will use it for anything else, when you see a large number of articles stating how others are using it for productive items and how businesses and schools and doctors/medical establishments are setting up to use the iPad for very productive uses.

That's the bad part -- to have people thinking (by statements to that effect) ... that it won't be used for productive things, when the evidence is out there, right now, how others are using and setting up to use it for very productive things.

And that kind of "thinking" leads right into those kinds of stupid comments by those so-called pundits, who are "nattering nabobs of negativity" when they say, "people are not going to want to give up their e-mail" ... LOL ...

[moehoward]

Once the keyboard dock comes out, it will be easier to use it as a mini-work station. Those determined types will suffer through it's small form factor to prove it can be done. In a pinch I can "work" on my iPhone. Some invoicing checking order status, and inventory functions. But it's not easy.

Real work. Graphic design, Page layout on and on is best done on a large screen. Most of my work is done on a 17" MacBook Pro. My best work comes from my Quad Core MacPro and 30" Cinema Display.

"...like reading articles on the Internet, or reading books or listening to TV programs or listening to radio programs or to podcasts or several other things like that..."

And the iPad is the hands down best way to do these things.

[avenir]

"In Japan, millions of novels have been written on cell phones. My great-grandfather wrote his Ph.D. dissertation with a #2 pencil. Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jefferson wrote their brilliant works with bird feathers. Yet the iPad's critics say creation is impossible using a device that would have been a Pentagon supercomputer 20 years ago. The computers that today's writers say are absolutely necessary for writing didn't even exist 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Is that when they think literacy started?"

I find this fascinating. Tools, however sophisticated, cannot create quality content.

I watched THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE--a documentary about Anna Wintour and the making of the biggest issue of Vogue ever--and was pleasantly surprised at how old school the master assembly was. In this small room Anna and the other power people at Vogue would work with small magnetic thumbnails and basically do a mechanical storyboard. Behind the scenes all kinds of computer work was being done--on Macs--but the final say was done using physical media.

[PA Engineer]

that’s the 4th Ipad story this page. running a sale?

I'm on the ping list and read the latest Apple news. I appreciate Swordmakers efforts. Why click on a topic you have no interest in only to post a trolling comment? If you don't like it, just don't click on it.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Did your mommy help you come up with that one?

Sorry, I don't "channel the dead" -- like some whackos and the nattering nabobs of negativity, like I see, here, getting bent out of shape about Apple products -- do ... LOL ...

[wiggen]

I clicked on it because it was about half the threads posted in a half hour and seemed like overkill. Sword was polite enough to explain that he was catching up on posting articles. I said nothing further and don’t appreciate the in your face attitude.

[Ronin]

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ll still wait until I can afford the MacBook Air.

[Swordmaker]

The downside is that it’s just too heavy for what is essentially a handheld device. Get that puppy under a pound and I’d buy one in two seconds flat.

it's lighter than an average hardback novel. Certainly lighter than the average textbook.

[Swordmaker]

No they are not. Will there be Adobe/Office style aps written to do actual work? Probably. When the dust settles will most of the users 'work' on and iPad? Nope.

Apple's iWork is already available and it is Word and Excel file compatible. People are already creating content.

[Swordmaker]

No they are not. Will there be Adobe/Office style aps written to do actual work? Probably. When the dust settles will most of the users 'work' on and iPad? Nope.

what do you mean "once it comes out?". I got my keyboard and dock last week. What I don't have yet is my 3G iPad. ;^(>

[RegulatorCountry]

Sometimes, you can't beat just a plain old hand sketch done on the fly. That applies to magazine storyboards, apparel design, what have you. Electronic means subtly introduce electronic appearance. The vision of a skilled designer shouldn't be constrained in this manner, and isn't. That doesn't mean one or the other is good or is bad. The best tool for the task at hand and the desired end result, is what should be used. The untold billions in profit that have been made, originating with a doodle on a cocktail napkin, lol.

[Swordmaker]

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ll still wait until I can afford the MacBook Air.

Not wrong, just another choice. Twice as weighty, though.

[SunkenCiv]

...the iPad's critics say creation is impossible using a device that would have been a Pentagon supercomputer 20 years ago. The computers that today's writers say are absolutely necessary for writing didn't even exist 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Is that when they think literacy started?

Heh, well said, whomever said it.