*Sigh*
I tried, really I did.
Bought an iPad tonight. Shel and I couldn't decide where we really wanted to go with the whole tablet thing, and if we just got one to share we knew it would be a compromise. It got to the point where we were dreaming about the damn things when dozing off on the couch this afternoon. So, the idea occurred to me: Why not just get the iPad and compromise equally, since our previous experience with Apple products left us both feeling equally
meh.
This thing fought me every step of the way. Didn't even wait for me to take it out of the box; *THONK* down it came off the desk, corner-first, into my foot. Yeah, they're light-weight when there aren't any tendons involved. Fired it up and it of course insisted I download iTunes which I actually have no other use for. Then I sign up for an Apple ID, giving it my PayPal account
like it asked for instead of any of my plastic, and it...sends me back to sign up for an Apple ID.
Whatever. The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results, so I said the Apple ID could wait. Let's get the WiFi going and get this puppy online.
Or not. See, my passphrase is 256 bits of hex and deliberately a bitch to crack; generally wireless setup then involves opening a text file and copy/pasting because that's a lot of opportunities for a typo. Problem is I couldn't transfer the file, because Steve Jobs' disdain for the USB architecture meant that the iPad wouldn't function like any sort of storage device known to the other 99.99999999% of Western Civilization. Finally, merely by guessing that WiFi might be in fact working (after 4 or 5 tries and seeing no acknowledgement to that effect nor any response from the browser), we get it online only to find out that yes, Virginia, you HAVE to have an Apple account for iTunes to do anything with your iPad other than sync.
Durrrrrrr...
Ooooookayyyyyy-fine. So let's get around this POS Safari browser (one of the first things I do in any Mac install is get Firefox going). Shel finds something that appears Firefox-related in the App Store, both of us thinking "Really?" (we think the same stuff simultaneously. A Lot.) Nope, it's some link to what might be your bookmarks. Or something. All the browser options are basically what I had available on my Blackberry 2 years ago. Safari or bust.
Shel loves it. She
loves iBooks. She found the piano app. YouTube does HTML5 or h.264 or whatever protocol Jobs has been threatening Adobe with for the last however-long. She swears there is a reasonable number of free apps available in the App Store.
I'm still struggling with the concept of having to invent a reason to use a US$500 device. In Android, I have apps that are actually useful to me. I'm also struggling with the concept of having to do things someone else's way
after paying them. I understand there are multiple ways of going about various processes but good grief, I've had to work less to get files off a 4-year-old Motorola Razr.
This is not a matter of retarded technical evolution on my part: I'm typing this in front of an overpowered Linux workstation while my Droid X patiently keeps time for me in its dock. It may get a big brother if Moto makes good on its unofficial threat to release a WiFi-only Xoom (did you catch that, Kenny?
) at the same price point as the 32 GB iPad. This is also not a generic anti-Apple rant: I have a few Hackintosh installs and have used iDevices in the past...hell, I got my start on computers back in the '80s on an Apple IIe. I don't hate Steve Jobs; he's the greatest salesman since P.T. Barnum. We're not taking the iPad back; it just went from being "ours" to being "hers" (and since we'll be cashiering her Asus in the process, it's only right) and she's thrilled with it. I, of course, love it when my wife's happy. But after careful reasoning and thorough consideration it is my belief that the iOS designers can go do something unpleasant out the door and around the corner.