Ipad
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I don't care what any naysayers say, this is flippin' cool! Its an e-book app about the elements that has 3D animations of each of the elements, in color and stereoscopic abilities! The video is longish, but I think you'll be impressed with 3:25 to 5:00. This is definitely a going to be new trend for publishing media.
Here is a Popular Science write-up about it too.
[flash=853,505:3pmv89u2]http://www.youtube.com/v/nHiEqf5wb3g&fs=1[/flash:3pmv89u2] -
Khai wrote:
@unknownuser said:
ppl are already writing it off as nothing but an enlarged Itouch.
If a bunch of people on a forum dedicated to design can't appreciate just how important scale is to an object then I really think something is wrong. Let's stipulate that yes, in raw hardware terms an iPad is 'just a bigger iTouch'. Which it isn't, not really since it has a different processor, but what the hell.
So what happens when you make a bigger iTouch? Well, the way you interact with it changes quite a bit and in ways that depend on how much bigger. Going from a 3.5" screen to say a 5" might not affect the UI much but could make it a real pain to fit in a pocket when it looks like it ought to. How about a 24" screen version? Would that be 'just a bigger iTouch'? What about a 72" one? How about a smaller one - 2" screen - is that just an iTouch? A 1" screen for wristwatch size?
Scale is crucial to how you interact with, make use of and perceive objects. If you don't understand that deep in your design bones, please don't design anything that people have to use, because you won't get it right.
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Looks like HP just got in on the fray with the Slate. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/hp-slate-details-leaked-550-keyboard-less-netbook/
With the Slate, I guess one could theoretically run SU since it is Windows based. I still like the iPad though personally.
Rick
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Better cpu, graphics, SD slot, HDMI out and 2 cameras (1 facing you and one facing out). Not bad and $550 for a 32gb model. Might be a nice addition to my iPod touch (the kids love it BTW).
@rickgraham said:
Looks like HP just got in on the fray with the Slate. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/hp-slate-details-leaked-550-keyboard-less-netbook/
With the Slate, I guess one could theoretically run SU since it is Windows based. I still like the iPad though personally.
Rick
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There is no denying that Steve Jobs is a pioneer, he is a trend setter, be it the personal computer, ipod, iPhone or ipad. But this does not mean Apple is the best at these, take the iPhone as an example of a pioneering smart-phone, it reigned as champ for long, until the competition entered the market that Apple created, today both Droid and Nexus one are seriously rivaling the iPhone with better performance, features and even display size and depths. The ipad is a new need we never knew we needed (Apple did) so they will get the market going and soon we will have many contenders lining up to jockey for the lead, be it in price, features, hardware, software, Apple will get their fair share of opposition and it's a good thing as we are the winners at the end of the day.
IMO Apple will handicap it's products as it always has, trying to limit their interaction with uncommissioned software. I understand why they do it, as it keeps the product stable, but unfortunately it just does not work, see the PC wars for proof of this.
Like I said from the onset of this thread, the Ipad is a brilliant product and if you do not yet you will soon be seeing the need to own one.
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@unknownuser said:
the ipad is a new need we never knew we needed
I've said this for a long time, this should be their motto:
"Apple: Creating Solutions to Problems You Never Had"
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Everyone who believes that he must have these products should buy.
There will be always people who spend money on things they do not need.
The industry benefits from things that are not needed. We benefit from things that are not needed. The only basic question is what is really needed for what.
I'm just more old-fashioned. I'm sitting happy in my chair and read a book and need electricity only for the reading lamp.
If I am out in nature I do not need anything of this electronic stuff.
And if I'm in the mood to do something with the PC, then I'm going to take my laptop or my desktop PC and I have the freedom to decide what to buy or not in contrast to other people on this planet.
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Karl, do you have a smartphone?
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Hi Solo,
No, I don't have. I do not even have a camera phone. I only have a ordinary simple mobile phone. That does not mean I reject the new technologies. I am not against innovation, unless they improve our life. There are only things for which I check exactly whether I need it or not.
So what I do not want to abandon that is the PC and the Internet. I do not remember what we used to do without a PC and the Internet.
Karl
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@charly2008 said:
I'm just more old-fashioned. I'm sitting happy in my chair and read a book and need electricity only for the reading lamp.
Hmm, 60 watts or so instead of less than 5w used by an iPad.You power wasting scoundrel!
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Tim said:
@unknownuser said:
Going from a 3.5" screen to say a 5" might not affect the UI much but could make it a real pain to fit in a pocket when it looks like it ought to.
I haven't seen an ipad face to face yet but I imagine that holding a lightweight paper book (or something the size and weight of a kindle) is more ergonomic. I know you can't really compare the ipad to a book but it does look a bit clumsy to hold.
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iphone OS 4.0 is going to include multitasking: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8610610.stm
Would seem to make the ipad a far more useful beast than it was previously.
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@tim said:
@charly2008 said:
I'm just more old-fashioned. I'm sitting happy in my chair and read a book and need electricity only for the reading lamp.
Hmm, 60 watts or so instead of less than 5w used by an iPad.You power wasting scoundrel!
I use an energy saving bulb 5W
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@charly2008 said:
I use an energy saving bulb 5W
You mean you can read under those horrible things?? Give me an 100w incandescent any day!
FWIW, energy saving lightbulbs are a con (at least for the energy suppliers and their shareholders). The price of electricity is going through the roof (and the energy suppliers announcing great profits for the and their shareholders), and has steadily been getting worse (particularly here in the UK), since the privatisation of these once public-owned companies. All an energy saving lightbulb does is let the providers charge exactly the same amount of money as they currently are, while you draw less power from them. Power demand is drastically reduced, and the shareholders get richer off our backs! What a nice bunch of people.
Further still, in order for many providers to reach their targets, I can think of NPower for one, in this country, have been handing energy saving bulbs, for free, to every UK householder (http://www.which.co.uk/news/2010/03/shadow-cast-on-free-energy-saving-light-bulbs-207174). But it gets worse than that. Having now spent all this money on sending out energy saving lightbulbs that are more or less unwanted, because some don't fit certain fittings or people haven't got a need for all these extra bulbs, only to meet a government target that will have no practical effect, NPower will have to offset the cost by charging its customers more. Ah! Bad science fuelled by capitalism. Don't you just love its enlightened combination?
I'm quite happy to pay money, knowing that it will be used to invest back into newer more efficient technologies, but creaming off profits such as this, in the name of the worst type of lightbulb known to humanity (and dare I say it, "global warming"), and all the connotations that come with it (especially global warming), it really makes me want to puke. No wonder governments are frightened of so-called 'terrorism'.
Tim, you should count your lucky pebbles, because most of the electricity created in Canada, I believe, comes from the best power producing source know to man, hydro-electric power, but not all of us are able to benefit from such sustainable luxuries.
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@linea said:
I haven't seen an ipad face to face yet but I imagine that holding a lightweight paper book (or something the size and weight of a kindle) is more ergonomic. I know you can't really compare the ipad to a book but it does look a bit clumsy to hold.
Weight is another dimension that makes a huger difference to functionality without any change in what the object actually does. A typical sized cellphone (weighs at a guess 100g?) that weighed in at say 3kg would be a massively (ooh the puns just don't stop. Try the veal, I'm here all week) different product despite doing exactly the same and looking the same.
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@tfdesign said:
@charly2008 said:
I use an energy saving bulb 5W
You mean you can read under those horrible things?? Give me an 100w incandescent any day!
{blather, blather, blather}
What nonsense.
For a reading light you want somewhere between 500 and 1000 lumens/m^2. Let's assume a decent chair/light arrangement is with the light about 1m above and a bit to the side of the book being read. Thus we might as well guess at needing 500 lumens from the source and using a 1 sr solid angle.
A 100W incandescent will produce around 1700 lumens, which is an awful lot for a reading light unless you have a shade that really spreads that out and 'wastes' a lot. A 5W led will produce around 4-500 lumens. If you really need 1700-ish lumens, use a 15W led. Apart from saving power it will last many times longer. And to be honest a 100W bulb at that distance might feel like it is about to set your hair on fire.If all the efficient bulbs did was let power companies charge you the same for less power, why would that be a problem for you? You pay the same. Stupidity about sending out inappropriate bulbs is a reflection on the company, not the technology of the bulb.
@tfdesign said:
Tim, you should count your lucky pebbles, because most of the electricity created in Canada, I believe, comes from the best power producing source know to man, hydro-electric power, but not all of us are able to benefit from such sustainable luxuries.
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At 60% -ish it just about counts as most. But it is declining as more power is needed and no investment seems to be allocated to improving things. Dear Mr Harper and his dodgy religionist right-wing chums seem very keen on using up fossil fuels and indeed doing everything possible to hasten the end of the world. I'm not sure I agree about it being the best source though; dams and their lakes cause plenty of issues.I favour burning Conservatives in a modern, well designed pebble-bed combustion chamber, or possibly the attaching of buttered cats to alternators.
And this doesn't have much to do with iPads. Which I very much like the general idea of, hardly surprisingly given that on three occasions scattered over 25 years I've worked on projects to develop something pretty much like it, right down to the cpu in use.
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@tim said:
What nonsense.
Well it depends on how many lights you have on at any one time, and of course, how big your room is!
It also depends on how good your eyesight is. I do agree with you about how good the technology is, but at the moment, if you want good technology, you must pay for it, and in times of recession, that's the last thing on most people's minds.BTW, Conservatism and/or Socialism is dead- or at least it is in Britain. If you look at the policies of the Green Party, they are just as conservative as the Labour party, or even the Conservative party. The Yellow party aren't much different either! As for immigration, a policy so beloved by our friends, the British Nationalist Party, is now very much part of all the other mainstream parties- including the Greens. So in our modern day, everyone can have nazi sympathies
Sorry for the OT, back to the iPad!
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@solo said:
Sorry to hear that Jeff...lost a bet?
I'd assume the ipad would be treated like a laptop in airports, it is after all a computer right? How does the TSA handle Kindles?
here's a tsa blog post on this topic..
http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2010/04/traveling-with-e-readers-netbooks-and.html
basically, kindles and ipad etc. can stay in your bag.
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http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-pro/id364253478?mt=8
i think this app makes the ipad very interesting... it needs only a "sketchup mobile" app, too.
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two new apps
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