Digital Americana has just popped up out of nowhere, claiming to be “the first literary & culture magazine developed especially for the interactive tablet experience.”
Or to put it another way, it will be “a new interactive magazine made exclusively for the Apple iPad”. And anyone can contribute.
Boom! Apple broke App Store accounts for many users with multiple accounts recently. On checking for updates and clicking the helpful ‘Download All Free Updates’ button, iTunes rather unhelpfully states: ‘You can not update this software since you have not owned the major version of this software’. Whether this is a bug (which we hope) or a change in App Store policy is unknown at this time. However, since writing about the subject on my own blog and Twitter, it’s clear the issue is widespread, and Apple support has yet to supply any kind of insight regarding a fix.
Previously, App Store updates for users/Macs with multiple accounts were awkward in UI terms but at least logical. You signed into an account, selected Applications, checked for updates and then downloaded what was available. If you noticed a number next to Applications after apps had been updated, that meant updates were available in another account. So you’d sign into that one as well and repeat the process.
Now, all available updates for all accounts are displayed at once, but iTunes isn’t intelligent enough to figure out which apps belong to the active account. Therefore, you try to update everything, iTunes realises some apps it’s showing are tied to a different account, and it throws up the appallingly clumsy dialog error ‘You can not update this software since you have not owned the major version of this software’.
At present, the only solution is to click on every single Get Update link individually, dismiss the dialog if it appears, and when you’ve gone through every app, sign into other accounts and repeat the process.
Perhaps Apple’s cracking down on people with multiple accounts in different countries (although most people I know who do this keep a US account for promo codes, since Apple’s still inexplicably restricting them to the US store). That said, I’ve had emails from people stating that they get the same error with multiple accounts from the same store on a single machine. Therefore, this is most likely a pretty big bug that needs squashing, but if so that’s only indicative of how one of Apple’s most important pieces of software needs some serious TLC, as Pete noted on the 4th.
I currently have a (second-line) support call logged with Apple on this, and will update if I get a response. If you’re also having this issue, please post in the comments.
Just a shade over nine years ago, Apple launched iTunes, a fairly late, fairly average MP3 player with CD burning built in. And though it lacked many of the features of Audion, then the best music player for Mac, it not only became the market leader, but it set the stage for the iPod, widespread legal music downloads, legal TV, the iPhone, and soon the iPad. It would be no exaggeration to say that iTunes saved Apple. It would be no exaggeration to say that iTunes is now Apple’s most successful piece of software ever in terms of users.
But it would also be no exaggeration to call it the worst piece of software Apple makes and the one thing that could disrupt Apple’s current march to mobile device dominance. It has bloated into a crashy kludge that the rest of the Apple universe depends upon. Despite a lot of good intentions from amazing software developers, iTunes has become Apple’s Internet Explorer 6 — an unmitigated disaster.
Apple has just published its annual Supplier Responsibility Report, which discusses its contractor compliance code and what it did about violations. Gizmodo has a fun take on the report: it’s all well and good, but there’s no mention of worker suicide, strikes or reporter beatings.
UPDATE (23 February): The Simply Beach developer just emailed us to say that “Apple appear to have quietly reinstated the Simply Beach app this evening”. He notes that neither he nor his customer received any communication whatsoever from Apple.
Our recent articles on Apple’s decision to ban “overtly sexual apps” have caused plenty of arguments in the comments. Some (including your correspondent) think Apple’s being ridiculous, overbearing and taking a dangerous path in initiating a blanket ban on even extremely mild content, such as images of women (or, er, men) in bikinis. Others claim Apple should be applauded, and they can’t wait to see the back of apps with sexual content, no matter how mild.
However, Apple’s stance hasn’t only affected the likes of iWobble, as Andrew Long of software development company Exploding Phone explains: “One of our customers has fallen foul of Apple’s new puritan crusade—the crazy thing is, the customer is an online beachwear retailer, Simply Beach, that happens to sell bikinis via an online store and the accompanying iPhone app that we developed for the company.”
Andrew notes that Apple removed the app without warning. On Friday, Simply Beach received an email from Apple about the decision to remove any overtly sexual content from the store and that included the Simply Beach application. “The email also made mention to numerous complaints they had received from customers regarding ‘this type of content’ and implied it was these complaints which had led to the changes,” says Andrew, adding that his customer initially thought this was a hoax.
“Personally speaking, I think the decision is ludicrous, but to be honest not much that Apple does surprises me any more,” says Andrew, stressing that his views don’t necessarily reflect those of his customer. “As an iPhone developer you have to be prepared for the goalposts to shift unendingly and be as dynamic as you can in changing to meet the new way of life.” However, in this case, Andrew thinks it’s clear the content is not ‘overtly sexual’: “Apple has clearly been overzealous and inconsistent in trying to rid the App Store of ‘bikini blight’. It makes a mockery of the rating system, too, which is surely there to ensure that questionable content doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”
To add insult to injury, Andrew notes that his customer sells some of its goods through an Amazon feed, which is still available through the Amazon iPhone app. “And I’m sure if you searched that app for more fruity items, you’d find many images available which are much worse by the average person’s moral compass.”
At the time of writing, Apple hasn’t responded to our request for a comment. We also note that there’s not a total bikini ban—you can still get the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, perhaps because Apple didn’t want to piss off Time magazine? (Hat tip: Nicole.)
What it is: Zinio, in partnership with major publishers of traditional books and magazines, offers subscription-based digital content over the Internet and via its iPhone/iPod Touch native app available free in the iTunes AppStore.
Why it’s cool: Zinio has spent the past 10 years helping people get digital access to the traditional magazine content they already love. Now, at the dawn of Apple’s iPad era, Zinio is poised to offer some of the most compelling content iPad users will see on the device — and just may help save the ailing traditional publishing industry in the bargain.
Many have wondered about Apple’s model for distributing e-reader content — how it will look, what it will cost, and what Apple’s percentage of the revenue take will be — when the iPad makes its market debut in March.
Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, told us in a wide-ranging conversation at Macworld earlier this month such concerns make no difference to her, since Zinio’s own model will remain platform agnostic. “Our most important relationships are with publishers and readers,” she said. “Zinio revolutionizes the reading experience and we’re excited about iPad’s potential for making that a great mobile experience” but the company doesn’t sell its current content through the App Store and that won’t change when the iPad comes along.
Nicole reported on Friday that sexy apps have been pulled from the App Store, and I followed up over the weekend with Apple Censorship Reaches New Level of Stupid: Daisy Mae Pulled (FNAR!), a story about Robotron-style shooter Daisy Mae being removed because—horrors!—it has shocking content such as innuendo and a women in a pair of short shorts.
According to the developer of Wobble (which Apple seemingly considers an utterly filthy, disgusting and horrible app that enables you to add wobbly bits to any iPhone picture, which therefore has the potential to bring down civilisation as we know it, and not—as you might have thought—a little bit of harmless fun), prudes the world over will be delighted by the finer details of Apple’s stance.
After speaking with Apple, Wobble’s creator reveals that he spoke to Apple and was told what is now banned:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in [the Wobble pics shown above])
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
This explains why Daisy Mae got the boot—even if you ignore the ‘bikini’ rules, it would have breached rules 5 and 7. In other words, even innuendo is too strong for Apple when it comes to sex. We’d best set fire to Duke Nukem, GTA, The Sims, and a whole bunch of other games, then, including Vancouver 2010.
What this doesn’t explain is how Playboy’s so far escaped the ban, nor why Apple’s doing this in the first place. The App Store has a ratings system in place. Sure, it’s somewhat broken, but it’s at least there. There’s no reason why Apple can’t just enforce a 17+ rule for apps of this type and get on with things as usual.
What seems more likely is that Apple is using the claim that many people (who, frankly, need to get a life) have complained about ‘sexy’ apps (which, presumably, includes ones that aren’t actually sexy in the sense that normal people would use the word) to create a ‘safe’ (read: sanitised) environment for advertisers and education. In the former space, it’s clear advertisers—particularly in the USA—are often against being aligned with sexual content, no matter how mild. In education, there have already been cases where schools have ditched plans to provide students with Apple handhelds, due to them enabling access to smut. That said, with parental controls in every device and App Store ratings, Apple’s current decision seems absurd in the extreme, not least because the app that provides the fastest access to sex, sexual content, bikinis, innuendo, anything arousing, and implications of sexual content is Apple’s own Safari.
UPDATE: The gentleman in the video above is Daniel Eran Dilger, author of the Roughly Drafted blog referenced in the post below. I regret any confusion my failure to identify him may have caused. – Lonnie Lazar
Don’t just take Steve Jobs’ word for it. Full-time Flash developer Morgan Adams articulates good reasons why Flash should never come to Apple’s iPad and anyone interested in the Apple-Adobe conflict on the matter of Flash would do well to pay attention to his commentary.
Adams, an interactive content developer, wrote to the Roughly Drafted blog to explain in terms more measured than those used by Mr. Jobs with editors of the Wall Street Journal last week why Flash won’t ever work well on any mobile touchscreen platform:
It’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem.
Many (if not most) current Flash games, menus, and even video players require a visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the difference between hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually clicking. This distinction is not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to interactive design, and vital to the basic use of Flash content. New Flash content designed just for touchscreens can be done, but people want existing Flash sites to work. All of them—not just some here and there—and in a usable manner. That’s impossible no matter what.
Adams goes on to detail several fundamental incompatibilities between touchscreen operating systems and Flash content on the web, showing why current Flash content can never work well on a touchscreen platform.
In addition, workable alternatives exist for delivering the video content many wrongly believe is unobtainable without Flash, according to Adams:
imagine my embarrassment as a Flash developer when my own animated site wouldn’t work on the newfangled iPhone! So I sat down and made new animations using WebKit’s CSS animation abilities. Now desktop users still see Flash at adamsi.com, but iPhone users see animations too. It can be done.
UPDATE: Daisy Mae has returned to the App Store. It is unclear what if any changes have been made to the game. The game is currently rated 12+.
Nicole posted on the 19th that Apple is pulling ‘sexy’ apps, due to deciding that it’s operating out of a fictional puritanical Victorian utopia, rather than the USA. While Apple’s making the case by saying it doesn’t want porn on the iPhone, it’s now decided that ironic cartoon smut within a videogame is also a step too far. Yes, Touch Arcade reports that IUGO’s Daisy Mae has been unceremoniously pulled from the App Store, because—SHOCK!—it features a sassy cartoon woman with a penchant for short shorts as the lead character. Seriously.
***SARCASM WARNING!*** You know, Apple should really deal with this by coming up with some kind of system on the App Store for rating content, so you know whether an app is suitable for someone of a certain age. That would deal with games like this that you don’t want to warp fragile little minds (even though they almost certainly wouldn’t, because any kid with an iPhone who wants to look at boobs just needs to use APPLE’S OWN SAFARI)! ***END OF SARCASM WARNING!***
So, iPhone developers, the message is clear: don’t have any women in your apps unless they’re covered in some kind of burqa-style clothing, otherwise Steve and Tim and Phil will kill it until it’s dead (with virtual knives, guns, bombs and death-rays, all of which are fine, unless they are associated with any kind of vaguely risque clothing that’s within forty feet). And don’t even think of a game startting Jessica Rabbit, unless you turn her into an actual rabbit.
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Helped perhaps by low expectations, David Pogue’s opening keynote here was a surprising success, playing to a packed, standing-room-only audience and bringing in a steady stream of laughs at Apple’s expense.
Pogue’s keynote was a variety show, with interviews, skits, singing and dancing — and a one-act play starring LeVar Burton as Steve Jobs.
Pogue also showcased the work of The Gregory Brothers, a quartet of Brooklynites behind Autotune the News.
Overall, the show was charming and funny light entertainment. A traditional Steve Jobs keynote it was not.
One of the characters in Pogue’s play managed to call Steve Jobs a “creepy vegan megalomaniac.”
That kind of thing would never fly if Apple were here at the show. And perhaps it shows what future Macworlds might be like without the anchor tenant.
The absence of Apple allows the show to be about the bigger topic — the Apple ecosystem — rather than being just Apple, and Apple alone.
“It’s liberating,” said one attendee coming out of the keynote. “I feel good about it. It’s not just about Apple any more.”
Peter-Paul Koch is a man with opinions about the mobile web. And his latest opinion is a trifle controversial: Mobile Safari, he says, is this generation’s Internet Explorer 6. All the rage now, but destined to be hated by webdevs of the future.
The announcement of the iPad has done a lot of things: it’s stoked up excitement in the Mac using community, it’s got a bunch of developers feverishly coding exciting new stuff, and it’s got retailers and cell phone companies the world over drooling over the money they can make from it.
And it’s also somewhat upset my plans for buying a new Mac.
A lot of people are nonplussed by the iPad because it doesn’t seem so new, or even very useful. It’s just a big iPod touch. So what?
But one of the most interesting things Apple said has about the iPad is how it improves the “experience” of doing everyday computing tasks — email, web browsing, making photo slideshows.
Again, people say so what? We’ve already got laptops for email and watching movies. But improving experiences is exactly what Apple is great at. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, but the first anybody could enjoy using. The same thing is going to propel the iPad into the mainstream. Everyday tasks like sending email and reading newspapers are going to be so much nicer on the iPad than any other device. (see for example the New York Times screenshot after the jump.)
Software developer Fraser Spiers has been digging through Apple’s iPad videos, pulling screenshots to take a closer look at the details of the iPad’s UI. His conclusion? It’s going to provide a very good experience not just for media consumption, but also media creation.
Look at what’s in here: a full stylesheet engine, multi-column page layout, a complete library of cell formulae and a full set of builds and transitions. You can create a Magic Move transition on the iPad. That’s probably the most advanced technique you can do in Keynote, and it’s there on the iPad.
The New York Times has a fascinating piece by ex-Microsoftie Dick Brass on how interdepartmental fighting is causing the company to fail. Microsoft has turned into an anti-innovation company, he says.
Internecine warfare among Microsoft’s divisions has created a “dysfunctional” corporate culture that thwarts creativity instead of nurturing it. “The company routinely manages to frustrate the efforts of its visionary thinkers,” he writes.
Though the announcement of Apple’s iPad has met with the typical mixture of hyperbolic praise and hyperbolic criticism (no one can talk sensibly about it), there has been one consistent complaint that most would agree is valid: a device this powerful should be capable of some form of multitasking. But I think I have the answer.
Here are two interesting but conflicting opinions on the iPad, pro and con.
Con: Tech author Rafe Colburn says the iPad is a scary harbringer of the closed future of consumer computing.
“General purpose computing is too complicated for most people anyway, and the iPad’s descendants along with similar competing products from other companies will offer an enticing alternative. So I see the death of the traditional, open personal computer as a likely occurrence.”
Pro: But Facebook iPhone developer Joe Hewitt is extremely positively about the iPad’s closed system. To his mind it’s a major asset:
“The one thing that makes an iPhone/iPad app “closed” is that it lives in a sandbox, which means it can’t just read and write willy-nilly to the file system, access hardware, or interfere with other apps. In my mind, this is one of the best features of the OS. It makes native apps more like web apps, which are similarly sandboxed, and therefore much more secure. On Macs and PCs, you have to re-install the OS every couple years or so just to undo the damage done by apps, but iPhone OS is completely immune to this.”
I’m with Hewitt. The IPad is a cloud computer par excellence, and we will likely be able to run almost any software we want on it, but it’ll be on a server somewhere and not on the iPad. Colburn notes this too, but thinks it’s a bad thing.
Guest commentary by David Barnard, owner of App Cubby, publisher of the popular Gas Cubby and Trip Cubby apps.
Much has been written about all the iPad surprises, disappointments, features, missing features, hype, expectations, future, etc. adnauseam. But not much has been written about what the iPad says about Apple. I’m excited about the iPad because of the many ways it demonstrates that Apple just gets it.
Palm almost gets it, Microsoft may be on it’s way to getting it with the Zune platform, Blackberry doesn’t have to get it, and Google just doesn’t get it.
What’s this “it” I’m referring to? Humans.
Enough of my dumb opinions. I thought it would be interesting to find out what some Mac and iPhone developers make of the iPad. What are their first impressions? What do they intend to make for the iPad platform? Do they have any concerns?
I got in touch with a whole bunch of developer contacts and asked them if they’d like to share their thoughts with you, the Cult readers.
Here are the replies I got.
Ken Case of OmniGroup revealed that the company is working on iPad versions of apps like OmniFocus and OmniGraffle:
“We’re really excited about Apple’s iPad, and are looking forward to updating OmniFocus to take advantage of the larger screen size. We’re also looking at creating iPad adaptations of several of our other productivity apps, such as OmniGraffle.”
Manton Reece of Riverfold Software (maker of Clipstart and Wii Transfer):
“I was so annoyed with the closed nature of the App Store that I stopped developing for the iPhone. The iPad will still have those frustrations, but the large screen opens up a whole new class of applications. It’s impossible to resist.”
Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems (maker of Tinderbox):
“The iPad announcement leaves many things unclear. Does iWork depend on private APIs, or will developers be able to write first-class applications? Will individual books be subject the the approval process — leaving 40 overworked Apple employees the additional task of approving or rejecting books an magazines?
“Since 1982, Eastgate’s been publishing original hypertext fiction and nonfiction. These works — many of which are now studied in universities throughout the world — can’t be printed and can’t be simulated in ePub. But, if we bring them to iPad, would that be vetoed as duplicating the built-in book functionality?
“In short, the app store is a source of grave concern for software developers. That said, the iPad is the most exciting personal computing development for a decade. It will transform our notion of computing and redefine the idea of the information appliance.”
Steve Jobs will never pitch a product more effectively than he did at the announcement of the iPhone. He said he was introducing three products: “A revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a break-through internet device. And they’re all one product: The iPhone.”
I thought back to that legendary pitch when I saw Steve affix one of his weakest lines ever to the iPad, a device I think actually has remarkable potential:
That’s right, the selling point is that it’s “Our most advanced technology in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” Really? Your selling points are advancement, magic, revolution, and cheapness? The best thing that line has going for is that device and price rhyme. First of all, almost no one buys magic. More importantly, Apple should never make price a central selling point; other companies can make cheaper knock-offs and then Apple has to re-convince people that that higher prices are justified. Once you try to become the price leader, you can’t really try to go premium again.
But the tagline was also a summation of the one problem that kept coming up for me as I watched the iPad announcement: the device simply does not have a killer app. A killer app, is the use that shows why a new technology is worth buying. For example, microwaves didn’t start selling until microwaveable popcorn was introduced and PCs didn’t sell until spreadsheet software was launched. The iPhone’s killer app, quite honestly, was Safari; the iPhone could certainly do a lot more than browse the web, but for many people, seeing the New York Times home page in multitouch made the sale.
The iPad? Well, I’ll say that the most impressive thing I saw today was the New York Times home page all over again. It’s even better than mobile web browsing than the iPhone. So what? That’s not enough to get me to spend $500. But not to worry. I believe the killer app for iPad is on the way, and possibly by launch. It’s called iLife.
“Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”
— For What It’s Worth, Stephen Stills
That sound, the one emanating Wednesday from the stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and reverberating throughout the blogosphere and interwebs, the one heard in literally millions of conversations at lunch counters and water coolers and dinner tables across the globe, was the sound of another ding in the universe.
Once all the snickering about feminine hygiene finally dies down, once Apple finally puts the iPad into the retail chain that saw 50,000,000 people walk through the doors in the most recent fiscal quarter, once people — aside from jaded technology journalists and geekazoids — get the iPad in their hands, Apple’s description of it as a “magical and revolutionary” product will begin to come into focus.
Why?
When Steve Jobs first revealed the iPod on 23 October 2001, no-one had the slightest inkling of what it might become.
Nobody at the time predicted that the music player would morph into a phone, and then into a multi-purpose tablet device.
The iPad is itself a very similar starting point. What we’re looking at here is the very beginning of a new product line, one that we can expect to adapt, metamorphose, and grow just as the iPod did.
We have seen an electronic instrument renaissance with the introduction of the iPhone. Apps like DopplerPad, RjDj, Beatmaker and the new synth Argon have shown the potential of a multi-touch device in a live performance setting. The only thing keeping professional musicians from diving all over these devices for music performance and production has been their size. The iPad changes everything.
The monome, pictured above, goes for a lot of money on ebay. If you buy one of these babies new it will set you back $500-$600. What’s worse is the device is very limited release so they sell out, you have to go on ebay and the price gets jacked up. The iPad would replace this midi controller instantly.
While everyone got wild and crazy with the Leaf Trombone and Ocarina on the iPhone, the iPad is large enough to be a legitimate synthesizer/virtual instrument. Also Korg has a line of Kaoss effect pads that the tablet could easily replace.
Not only live music but recording and production: ProTools, Reason, Abelton Live. All could have versions of the software for the iPad or use it as a control surface to make the best use of multitouch.
DJ tool too. Create live techno joints. Hip Hop. Flava Flav. Boyeee
iTunes’s acquisition of LaLa.com and the cheap(ish) data plan from AT&T may be signaling a significant change in the way Apple would have us access our media. If so, the iPad is going to fit perfectly into their little plan.
Even if this isn’t the case, apps like those from Simplify Media allow me to access my photos and music from a non sleeping computer as well as stream media to my Xbox 360.
I’m hoping I’m right on this one, but I think the 16GB iPad is going to be enough to cover my must have media and I can access the rest when in range of 3G or Wi-Fi.
On Sunday night, I made a set of predictions for what to expect from Wednesday’s keynote. It was intended to be direct, straightforward and make a clear forecast of what we would actually see. How’d I do? Let’s go to the tape.
The Tablet Will Have a Custom UI, but Closer to iPhone Experience Than Mac
Probably the biggest question on everyone’s mind is what operating system will power Apple’s tablet of the future, with the leading candidates being Mac OS X and iPhone OS. The more I’ve thought about it, neither is perfectly suited to running such a device, which will be more focused on content creation than the iPhone but less so than the Mac. I’m therefore willing to say that the Tablet is a lock to get its own user interface built on top of core OS X technologies. It will be heavily gesturally driven (yes, even more so than the iPhone), and have far more precise sensing than the current iPhone screen. That said, this UI will more closely resemble the iPhone in look and functionality than it will Snow Leopard. Multitasking is still of less overall utility on a purely touch device than it is on one with a keyboard and mouse combo, so expect full-screen applications, no overlapping windows and possibly iPhone apps that run as widgets on a Dashboard.
NAILED IT! I was wrong about the apps as widgets on a Dashboard, but that’s a tiny miss — and I think it would have been better than the actual solution, which is to run iPhone apps as either iPhone resolution or blow them up to double size.
Score 9.5/10
The backlash against the iPad was inevitable and predictable. The lack of a hard keyboard was enough to send most geeks into a fit. But the backlash against the iPad is particularly vicious and visceral.
The word “iTampon” is the #2 worldwide trending topic on Twitter right now.
“This thing sucks. Anyone who buys it is a moron,” says one commenter at Engadget.
Some sites, particularly Gizmodo, are going the extra mile in iPad-bashing.
“My god, am I underwhelmed by the iPad,” says Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci. “This is as inessential a product as I’ve ever seen, but beyond that, it has some absolutely backbreaking failures that will make me judge anyone who buys one.”
But similar reactions greeted the iPhone, the iPod and the original iMac (no keypad, closed system, no floppy), and look what happened to them. They’re just the most popular smartphone, MP3 player and single model of a PC ever built.
Thing is, the last people to ask about the iPad are geeks. This isn’t a product built for them. They’re WAY too in the weeds. They can’t get over the lack of camera, multasking or Flash. But ask my wife about the iPad and Flash and she’ll look at you like you’re speaking in tongues.
As we predicted, the iPad is Steve Jobs’ “computer for the rest of us.” It’s a natural successor to the original Mac, which introduced the GUI to PCs – and was derided by geeks as a “toy.” But look around, the GUI kinda caught on.
The iPad is not for geeks. It’s for ordinary people who want a lightweight computer and are sick of computer headaches. This is a machine you’d buy for your grandmother and not have to worry about tech-support.
Yeah, you relinquish some control — which is something PC fans have always hated about Macs — but most ordinary people are grateful not to think about file systems, software installers and virus definitions.
The iPad is the first computer for people who are completely computer illiterate — and there’s millions of them.
