Doctorow on the iPad

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Logseman

Why should it be forbidden if it's done by a company? The company can censor books as much as they will: it's the stokeholders who'll bear the consequences with their own monies and will deem the policy correct or incorrect, and it's the CEO and the board who'll get the flak or the boot if the policy is wrong.

They can do whatever they want, naturally. But it doesn't answer my question. What if the government would do it?

I also keep wondering why people insist on buying those Ithingies from Apple, knowing all content is censored... I had expected a much greater outcry...

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

They can do whatever they want, naturally. But it doesn't answer my question. What if the government would do it?

I also keep wondering why people insist on buying those Ithingies from Apple, knowing all content is censored... I had expected a much greater outcry...

Government and big corporations, intertwined as they are now until becoming practically the same matter, are actually different. Government has no willing stockholders, but they have vassals who must pay a ransom for mostly unwilled services, plus they get all things censored and much worse than that, rated by content (a much more refined and devious way of censorship).

At least with Apple you can choose to buy the iS**t or not (pun intended, I am very happy with my censorship-ridden iPod touch).

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

They can do whatever they want, naturally. But it doesn't answer my question. What if the government would do it?

I also keep wondering why people insist on buying those Ithingies from Apple, knowing all content is censored... I had expected a much greater outcry...

I dont get it what is censored by apple?

As far as I was aware i can view any pages on the web and put any media on the device.

Apple dont sell pornography in their store but then neither do my local toys r us.

Are toys r us guilty of censorship?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

They can do whatever they want, naturally. But it doesn't answer my question. What if the government would do it?

the government does censor things.

BOb

[ggendel]

I've seen the iPad and have an Apple fanatic living in my house who works for Apple that got one the first day. I've convinced him that it was a bad investment at this time. It is a cool device, but it doesn't fit my needs.

Holding a 1.5 lb device for a long reading session is just plain silly. The ebook reading software is sure glitzy and has some interesting features, but I would have to constantly keep cleaning the smudges off the touch screen while reading.

For travel, I want more than an isolated machine. I want to use it for teleconferencing (whoops, no camera), saving pictures off my DSLR (whoops, no USB). A netbook makes a lot more sense.

It certainly won't replace my desktop. My work requires me to work concurrently on multiple remote servers (whoops, no multi-tasking).

So, it can't replace my phone, my ebook reader, my laptop, or my desktop. It make a cool coffee table device for a quick browse or game, but I don't need that either.

[CyGuy]

I mostly agree with the article. I too would not even consider an iPad in its current state. I think a lot of the negative criticism of the iPad is from people who have never owned an Apple product but were hoping this might be their first one. I am in this camp. I was really excited when I first heard about the iPad because I have wanted a tablet/slate for a long long time. Then the specs for the iPad were released. What a huge disappointment. I would think that a company like Apple would not make such obviously poor decisions when it came to the design and features of a product like this. The very idea of leaving of a USB port and a built-in SD card reader is just beyond me. I really thought they would not even be able to sell a thousand of them, I was wrong about that. The iPad is obviously not intended for people who are even slightly technically minded, seems like something for children or completely non-computer savvy people.

To sell me an iPad, I insist on:
At least one USB port
SDHC (or SDXC) card reader built-in
No locked hardware (apps from anywhere I want)
The ability to copy/paste to and from the device
Mini USB port for charging and for copy/paste (no proprietary ports)

Hopefully iPad V2 will fix these obvious and fundamental mistakes.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by mores

It would be "censorship" if my iPhone or my MacBook Pro would suddenly blur out all words that might be offensive

No, they just reject apps which use "bad words", including (inconsistantly, but mostly) dictionary apps! (there there are dictionary apps...they had to take OUT the offending words to get on the appstore)

It's still censorship.

[mores]

Originally Posted by Logseman

Well... The blurring part is not exactly like that, but I guess this counts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_525564.html

Whoa
Now that's just silly. I seriously hope it's some tight-assed desk jockey that wrote the blurb that manually inserted those stars.
At least they should allow the developer to mark it as "18+" if it contains words like "fornication" and "breast", or "masturbation".

Reminds me of the time I got my first dictionary in school - first thing we did was to check out how many "bad words" they have in it

Anyhow ... bad Apple, I agree on that.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

That article seems like an accurate take to me. I must admit that the article missed one of the biggest failures of the iPad: the lack of a built-in SDHC card reader and a USB port. Those are huge huge failures...

Those are the deal breakers for me.

I have an XP tablet already, but wish for one the right size to read comics on.
Much of the comics I want to read I have in CBR format, or will have to scan myself into CBR as nobody is going to put them out (old Malibu Graphics and Greater Mercury title)s and I need an SD card or USB connection to transfer them.

On the plus side for iPad, Girl Genius looked quite acceptable on it.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I also keep wondering why people insist on buying those Ithingies from Apple, knowing all content is censored... I had expected a much greater outcry...

Because Apple doesn't censor content. That's misinformation from Apple haters. You can get any book, song, video, browse any website etc. on your iPhone or iPad etc.

Where the "censorship" comes in is Apple has to approve applications that are to be sold in their App store, and they'll deny stuff with nudity, too much violence etc. That's kind of lame, but it's there store and if they don't want that kind of software in their, that's their prerogative and not a deal breaker for me.

But there's no censorship of content. You can buy plenty of songs with explicit lyrics in iTunes for instance. And there's nothing stopping you from loading any book, video etc. as long as you get it in a format the device supports--which is pretty broad with the array of apps you can get to display content.

Originally Posted by ggendel

It certainly won't replace my desktop. My work requires me to work concurrently on multiple remote servers (whoops, no multi-tasking).

So, it can't replace my phone, my ebook reader, my laptop, or my desktop. It make a cool coffee table device for a quick browse or game, but I don't need that either.

Different strokes for different folks. I don't have an iPad as it's lacking some things, but I very much want a media consumption tablet that's not a full tablet PC.

It won't replace my Laptop as that's my main home work station (I'll never have another desktop at home).

But it will replace my e-reader--don't read enough to really need the e-ink, battery life etc. of my Kindle.

I have no interest in a smart phone--screen's are too small, data plans too pricey (only need WiFi personally) so maybe that ups my appeal since I don't have any kind of net appliance, media consumption thing beyond the desktop in my workplace and my work-provided laptop.

For me the iPad (or other tablet) would be used for:

-Reading. Novels-like the bigger screen, adjustable light (not need for my crappy clip on book light I use on my Kindle. Work reading (PDFs of scholarly articles etc.) which sucks on e-ink devices regardless of screen size due to slow page turns, crummy annotation with the lag etc. Newspapers, magazines and comics are also MUCH better on a tablet than e-ink.

-Net surfing on the couch. I found that much better than on a laptop when playing around with my girlfriend's ipad over the weekend. Just a better experience with the touch interface--and lack of keyboard keeps me from wasting so much time on forums, debating crap with people who's opinions I really don't give a crap about!

-Watching videos in bed, or when traveling. Was much more comfortable catching up on some TV in bed (abc player app) with the iPad vs my laptop which gets hot and is bulky etc.

-Travel. Just need internet and e-mail access when I travel most of the time. And a tablet will do that and be much lighter and take up less space than my laptop. Would still take the laptop for some work trips, like conferences I'm presenting at and need to do real work. But for short trips, vacations etc. the iPad or other tablet would be more than good enough as I'm spending minimal time on a pc on those kind of trips anyway as the point is to leave work behind!


So it doesn't really replace anything fully for me, but would supplement my laptop in areas where I find the tablet form factor superior. But again, to each their own. Tablets aren't for everyone.

[CyGuy]

The main reason I want a tablet/slate is for media consumption. I have several SDHC cards that are full of movies, eBooks, pictures, music, etc. I must be able to swap out the SD cards on the fly depending on what mood I am in and what media I want to consume. Alternately, I have a lot of media content on a few USB thumb drives as well, and must be able to move media to/from the device from those as well. I also use Portable Apps very often since they will run from an SD card or a USB drive with no problems. I would also occasionally browse the Internet, but mostly just want a media consumption device. The iPad has a nice form factor, and has great battery life but fails in some very fundamental ways.

I know someone who has an iPhone, and I understand that you cannot even copy/paste content to/from the device at all (have to use iTunes), and that there isn’t even a file browser at all. Is that actually true?

[dmaul1114]

Yeah, I can see that. I mainly just stream stuff. Aside from MP3s, I have no digital media. Well Kindle books and public domain .mobi books too.

I still mainly by CDs, will buy blu rays rather than download movies etc. So most of my media consumption is watching TV shows from the network sites, streaming Netflix movies, tv shows etc. So for me lack of SD card, USB etc. isn't a big deal. But yeah, that's a deal breaker for you for sure.

For the iPad (assume the iPhone is the same way) you do have to use iTunes to get content onto the device--though some apps can download content from the internet or via wifi file transfer.

And yep, there's no file browser--which to me is the biggest drawback keeping me from buying an iPad right now.

For instance, I can drag and drop PDFs into good reader in iTunes--which is easy. I don't mind using a program like that to drag and drop. I'd prefer being able to do it in windows, and not another program, but I can live with it. But that only puts the PDF in the Goodreader programs library.

There's not file system so you can't go find it and open it. Apps don't have an "open" option like in windows so you can't hit open, browse through folders and find the PDF to open in another PDF reading/annotating APP etc.

So yeah, that's where the sytem needs more work. It's not a big deal on a phone, but a Tablet needs a much more robust file management system.

Hopefully they fix that with a firmware update, or in the 2nd gen iPad. Or some Android tablets come out that match the speed, slickness and battery life of the iPad but are more open, have a full file management system etc.

[CCDMan]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

1. CD is 37 or 38-- that isn't old unless you are 12.

Old is a state of mind...

[Greg Anos]

Please explain the following to me.

how to you load 100 different PDF's into Goodreads and then how do you pick the one you want to read at the time?

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Please explain the following to me.

how to you load 100 different PDF's into Goodreads and then how do you pick the one you want to read at the time?

You could drag or drop them all into Goodreader in iTunes and they'll appear right away.

I believe Good reader supports folders within in from what I've read on here. Not sure if you can drag over folders of PDFs and have the folder maintained, or if you have to sort them into folders in the app on the iPad itself.

Finding the PDF, you can just look through the folders and find the one you want, or there's a search function to search and find it by name etc.

So it's more or less like how you'd find the PDF on your PC, other than you have to do it through goodreader vs. looking through folders in My Computer or searching via the windows search etc.