Posts Tagged “Apple”

Apple announced their iPad yesterday, a tablet-sized version of the iPhone. Other than the unfortunate name, it is an amazing little device. Considering how quickly we all got over the Nintendo Revolution becoming the “Wii”, I think we’ll forgive Apple soon enough.

If you remember my post Friday, I laid out some of the ways Apple could screw up such a product. I’d like to visit some of those points again and compare how they did.

• I mentioned I was worried they’d try and use parts from the MacBook Air (system board, screen, chassis, battery). Thankfully they didn’t even try. The battery life is supposed to be able to play video for up to 10 hours, and standby is rated to last a month. To be sure, the thing was probably in airplane mode (with all radios turned off) and screen brightness was way down, but it’s still better than the 4 hours I get on my laptop.

On January 27th, 2010, Apple Inc is poised to introduce to the world the new iSlate which will change the computing world. Or it might be the iTouch. Or iTablet. Or iCostsomuchyouwanttopuke. We really don’t know. Of course, they were also “going” to do this last year too. The fact is, we don’t know what we’re getting, when we’re getting it, what it’ll do, what it’ll cost, or what it’ll be called. If it is a tablet (and most every market analyst is falling over themselves to say it is), it’s going to be big.

Head on over to Gizmodo’s collection of Apple Tablet Rumors to get a feel for whats being talked about.

My only worry is that Apple might make some of the same mistakes Microsoft made when moving to the tablet. I also worry they might try to hang to some of their existing hardware. Below is my list of ways Apple could possibly screw this up:

Every geek that I know has a favorite media player.  Mac geeks swear by iTunes because they’ve been brainwashed by Steve Jobs.  Some Windows geeks love Windows Media Player because it has Windows in the name.  And let’s not forget about Real, WinAmp, or the numerous other “standards” that people use.  Despite these options, some people have and have discovered new and better ways to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special or listen to their vast MP3 collection.

I’ve mentioned before how I am able to watch various movies and TV shows at my desk while I’m working.  Because these files come from an assortment of locations, I have to deal with a large number of codecs and other hoop jumping in order to watch everything that I want.

At the end of my last entry, I sort of bashed on the iPhone unfairly.  It’s not that I have an actual issue with the iPhone per se, but it was the best example of Apple’s “we can charge you extra for what PC user’s have had for years!” mentality.

In truth, where Mac OS shows everything that making a computer “idiot proof” can do wrong, the iPhone shows where “idiot proof” isn’t such a bad thing!  (special thanks to my friend Robert, a Mac user, for the phrase “idiot proof”).

I would tend to think that I have a little more expirience using a computer than most people.  Not all people, mind you, but most.  I own a Mac and a PC and use Windows and OS X (sometimes at the same time).  I’ve had to teach myself how to recover from any sort of system crash in Windows, and that there isn’t really a way to recover from a crash in OS X (so don’t go screwing around in there).  But it wasn’t until this last weekend that I think I might have hit upon the fundamental difference between an Apple and a PC.

The HTC G1 launched today for T-Mobile (though the phone itself won’t be available in stores until October 22nd).  For anyone who wasn’t paying attention when it wasn’t announced, this is special because the phone uses Google’s mobile operating system, named Android.

And what a botched job it was.  Don’t get me wrong; I love Google, and I love HTC.  I also have T-Mobile service.  So why am I disappointed with this first phone?  Well, namely because it seems like too little fanfare for something that could potentially be huge.  Or, maybe because too much hype has been generated for what it isn’t doing yet.  I’m not entirely sure yet.

The Android Logo