• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

iPad Reactions

commandlinegamer said:
Unless I read it wrong, he doesn't call H.264 an open standard, just an industry one. He talks about HTML5 as being open certainly.
Click to expand...

He mentions H.264 because it's an industry standard in the "open" HTML5 video realm, but H.264 is not open. He's using the word "open" in quotes constantly in his rant because he seems to know the lie he's telling and appears to be assuming that people who are at least aware of the web development industry won't notice. His statements are a joke because HTML5 development is not nor will it be any more or less open than Flash development, the costs will simply be spread between several licenses instead of Adobe's dominant platform. At best he picked a contradictory example to the point he was trying to make, and at worst he was making it clear that this is a fight he's choosing to have specifically with Adobe and not about promoting open development platforms at all. While Jobs' actual state of mind on the issue may lie somewhere between those extremes, his method of putting forth his argument is poorly thought out if he's trying to convince those who are knowledgeable about the subject.

I find Microsoft and Apple equally bad as companies when it comes to cut-throat business practices, but on a personal level I really find Jobs to be an intellectually dishonest and somewhat slimy individual.
 
I think that it would be hilarious if Adobe just plain stopped making/supporting products that run on OSX in retaliation. If they do this, they should give Mac license owners free Windows licenses though. I could wrong but I think this would hurt Apple more than it would hurt Adobe. Creative professionals that need Adobe software (ie those that actually pay for Adobe's software) and use Macs would install Windows if they haven't already, and those that need new computers would be less likely to buy overpriced Mac hardware if they would have to buy a Windows license just to install the software they need.
 
Last edited:
GreNME said:
I find Microsoft and Apple equally bad as companies when it comes to cut-throat business practices, but on a personal level I really find Jobs to be an intellectually dishonest and somewhat slimy individual.
Click to expand...

I think that Apple is worse, at least lately.

As for a personal level, Bill Gates is a great man and will probably die as the greatest philanthropist in history. What has Steve Jobs done for the world besides sell overpriced gadgets?
 
Last edited:
dtugg said:
I think that Apple is worse, at least lately.

As for a personal level, Bill Gates is a great man and will probably die as the greatest philanthropist in history. What has Steve Jobs done for the world besides sell overpriced gadgets?
Click to expand...

I disagree about Apple being worse. Their exploits in the realm of cut-throat business dealings have differed (sometimes) throughout the years, but overall I wouldn't consider one worse than the other in terms of d-bag quotient.

If I had to pick a jerk on the Microsoft side it would be Ballmer more than Gates, even though Gates used to be more liberal with his knife hand back in the earlier days of Microsoft Ballmer has been more consistently a-hole-ish. Also, on the Apple side of things I consider Wozniak to be one of the great pioneers of personal computing, more so than Gates on a technical level (even if his business acumen is lacking). There's no clear "winner" in the personal assessments of the giants in personal computing, and even if there were Gates wouldn't be at the top of my list anyway (Woz would).
 
GreNME said:
He mentions H.264 because it's an industry standard in the "open" HTML5 video realm, but H.264 is not open. He's using the word "open" in quotes constantly in his rant because he seems to know the lie he's telling and appears to be assuming that people who are at least aware of the web development industry won't notice. His statements are a joke because HTML5 development is not nor will it be any more or less open than Flash development, the costs will simply be spread between several licenses instead of Adobe's dominant platform. At best he picked a contradictory example to the point he was trying to make, and at worst he was making it clear that this is a fight he's choosing to have specifically with Adobe and not about promoting open development platforms at all. While Jobs' actual state of mind on the issue may lie somewhere between those extremes, his method of putting forth his argument is poorly thought out if he's trying to convince those who are knowledgeable about the subject.

I find Microsoft and Apple equally bad as companies when it comes to cut-throat business practices, but on a personal level I really find Jobs to be an intellectually dishonest and somewhat slimy individual.
Click to expand...

You thinks Jobs is bad now, read about his antics in the 1980's. It's like a satire of the obssesed, ruthless businessman come to life.
Agreed Steve Wozinaik, "The Woz",who was the creative genius behind Apple's early sucess anyway.
 
Last edited:
grunion said:
I think he has a point, but it is a typical corporate pissing contest. An interesting case of Apple flexing its muscles. It looks as if Adobe is getting badgered. But I think they're going to have to come up with something quick if they want to remain relevant beyond Acrobat (which seems to be outliving its usefulness as well.)

I agree, Apple owes a lot to Photoshop and CS (and Pagemaker and Postscript and Illustrator and Dreamweaver, etc.) They are, in large part, what drove loyalty to the mac desktop platform. So I really don't know what percentage of all Apple customers are desktop users nowadays but I suspect it is shrinking daily. Still important, but shrinking.

Job's letter boils down to "it's a lot of work to support Flash, the results will be less than thrilling to our users, and we think they don't need it anyway" but the unspoken part is "and there's not much Adobe can do about it." So sure, it is biting the hand that fed them, but I wonder how much power that hand really has to slap back. Jobs doesn't seem like the kind of guy to reward past loyalty.
Click to expand...


The real problem is that Flash, whatever it flaws, is not going to be replaced by another application for a number of years.
 
Between the Flash issue and cracking down on the iPhone thief, Apple is not having a good PR month. They are fortunate that only techies are paying attention to this stuff, and that the rest of America is drooling over the iPad.
 
Hopefully most of you folks here realise none of this ******* matters even one little bit.
And in 18 months time this'll all have been forgotten, and many of you'll be arguing about the latest piece of **** that helps distract you from your inevitable, and in some cases, imminent mortality.

Just sayin' ;) , you understand.
 
Today at work a gentleman was looking at the netbooks. He held up the Sony one, turn to me and asked, "Why would someone buy an I-pad when they could just get one of these?"


After a few seconds, I came up with an answer!
 
Apparently Apple has already sold a million of these pieces of crap. Their business strategy obviously works. I suppose Steve Jobs is a genius for figuring out that millions of people will buy crippled devices at a highly inflated price if it is packaged slickly.
 
dtugg said:
I suppose Steve Jobs is a genius for figuring out that millions of people will buy crippled devices at a highly inflated price if it is packaged slickly.
Click to expand...

Considering something like a Kindle is $250 I don't really think of the iPad's price as being "highly inflated" since it does a hell of a lot more than the Kindle. I would agree that something like MacBooks are ridiculously marked up but the iPad? Eh, I don't really see it. Of course people could buy a netbook but those suck too.

But my main reaction to hearing they sold a million of these the first month is "sweet!" but that's because I'm a shareholder and not a fanboy.

Little side note, played with my friend's iPad at a barbecue last weekend. Almost unusable outside. The glossy screen basically becomes a mirror. I was trying to play Scrabble but had to adjust it so my shadow fell on the screen or else everything was washed out and instead of a Scrabble board I mostly saw my ugly mug looking back at me. But I've said it earlier in this thread, if I was a frequent flyer I'd buy one. Great video, battery life,and cheap, good games and lighter than a netbook or laptop.

And it's easy to say all these iPad buyers are "sheep" or "fanboys" but there are a lot of people who have zero interest in setting up a computer or tweaking with settings and just want to check email, facebook and consume media and for them this may fit the bill perfectly.
 
HarryKeogh said:
Considering something like a Kindle is $250 I don't really think of the iPad's price as being "highly inflated" since it does a hell of a lot more than the Kindle. I would agree that something like MacBooks are ridiculously marked up but the iPad? Eh, I don't really see it. Of course people could buy a netbook but those suck too.
Click to expand...

The entry level iPad costs about $260 to make. They sell it for $500. I would call that highly inflated. The higher capacity and 3G ones are even worse as it certainly does not cost $100 for 16GB of flash or $130 for a 3G chip.

But my main reaction to hearing they sold a million of these the first month is "sweet!" but that's because I'm a shareholder and not a fanboy.
Click to expand...

I would definitely be very happy about this if I owned Apple stock.

And it's easy to say all these iPad buyers are "sheep" or "fanboys" but there are a lot of people who have zero interest in setting up a computer or tweaking with settings and just want to check email, facebook and consume media and for them this may fit the bill perfectly.
Click to expand...

I don't think that everybody that bought one is a stupid fanboy. But the fact that it is shiny with an Apple logo is certainly a huge reason why they sold so many.
 
El Greco said:
There is however truth in that sentence. The "magical", the "revolutionary" and the "unbelievable" lies in Apple's marketing. They have managed to have "fanboys" in a fast and ever-changing industry. They have managed to take incompatibility and proprietary-everything and turn it from a major drawback to a sought-after feature. They have managed to make technology-savvy young people drool over expensive products with reduced functionality. I am really mystified by their phenomenal marketing and I think it should be taught in universities as not only an amazing economical success model, but also as an in-depth study in modern human psychology.
Click to expand...

Absolutely spot on! I appear immune (and totally bemused by it) myself but it is incredible the effect they've had on people. I still get pitying looks from people because instead of buying an ipod I bought a different make, for half the price and twice the spec (memory, features etc), better music and video quality, not tied to itunes, doubles as a removeable drive etc etc. 'But it's not an ipod!' they cry. 'Er no, it's better.' I reply. 'But it's not an ipod!' and so on ad nauseum.
 
Indeed, perhaps the upside is that we eventually get a choice of cheaper, better spec competing "copycat" devices from other manufacturers.
 
I like the formfactor, but that is about it.. no expansion, no upgradeability, huge software lockin/restriction = pass. I don't want to pay 500 bucks just to be nickel and dimed with apps that don't do anything but access everything i can view freely over the web and quite frankly surfing the web sucks on this thing since the web isn't touch friendly by nature.

I wonder how many of the millions were sold just to resell and make a profit.. seems to be the trend in electronics
 
They are off to a good start, but now that most of the Hard Line Apple fans have bough theirs, I question how well it will continue to sell.
 
Last edited:
Rrose Selavy said:
Indeed, perhaps the upside is that we eventually get a choice of cheaper, better spec competing "copycat" devices from other manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I mean, nevermind that the "copycat" devices have been announced since last year-- Apple and most people (who are mostly unaware of various product announcements) will consider them copycats due to the timing of when they hit the market (beginning this summer). Still, it will be damned nice to get something in the same form factor but running Android or something similar on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom