I get the feeling Apple have always wanted iPad to be an extra - an extension to the desktop experience. But the divisions between phone, tablet, "ultralight laptop" and "main laptop" are arbitrary and increasingly opaque. Many people are starting to see tablets and real possible replacements: for light users, it handles 90% of their computer usage (internet browser, video and photo viewing). Even for "serious" computer users, tablets offer many advantages. They are quiet, keep cool, look good, super portable, and last a long time. People seem quite content with the lower processing power if they afforded these big pluses.
This Surface with integrated keyboard and support for regular win 8 apps could take it the extra 10% for a lot of people.
Once Apple can get iOS working well on x86, they'll do the same.
I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that iOS already works well on x86 and has never not worked well on x86. After all, the core OS maintains ongoing heritage with an x86 OS, and every single app in the store has already been successfully compiled for x86...
Uh? No, that's the exact opposite, the simulator is exactly a simulator. What it's not is an emulator: it does not emulate an ARM device, it simulates an iPhone by running iOS/x86.
Presumably an emulator copies the actual instruction set, while a simulator... only pretends to copy the instruction set?
A simulator -- at least in the world of Apple iOS development -- does not attempt to emulate iOS hardware, or even the iOS operating system. All the simulator does is provide a virtual display and launches an instance of Launchpad.app. Your app then runs within that virtual display, and talks with natively compiled copies of the iOS APIs, but otherwise it's a normal Mac OS X process that can be viewed and poked with Activity Monitor, or top, or whatever.
The simulator doesn't need to "boot up". There are no virtual drivers. There's no memory management. There's no emulated silicon whatsoever.
The only downside to this approach I can see is that the simulator can't be used to test some things like resource limits, and some things behave very differently, like OpenGL. But you have to test on real hardware anyway, and Apple have made native testing just as easy as simulated.
An emulator would be binary compatible with the actual device by emulating the ARM instruction set on top of x86. The iOS simulator doesn't do this but instead runs a flavor[1] of iOS natively directly on x86 that is API compatible but not binary compatible (i.e. compiled binaries for the simulator cannot be ran on the devices).
[1] The simulator OS also has distinct limitations that diverge from the real device or what you would expect from a truly emulated environment. There's no motion detection, no GPU performance, no accelerometer or compass, location data is simulated, multitouch input is limited, some frameworks are not available, etc).
Nor is it likely for the emulated environment to be able to provide a sufficiently accurate performance analogue to the devices' CPU and GPU.
The simulator is the ideal development environment: stupidly fast, and completely reliable for most day-to-day development tasks. For Apple to provide more accuracy in the simulator would be a waste of their time, when you can just as easily run your app on a device.
On iOS cross-compilation only occurs when you target an iOS device such as an iPhone which generates armv6 and armv7 code.
Really!?
But if you use the iOS simulator to develop/test your app (which I imagine every developer does), then you're running your iOS app natively on OS X, linked against a version of all the iOS libraries compiled for x86.
On the flip side, ARM doesn't scale as well as x86 to higher power outputs.
Perhaps not for the Hacker News audience. I'd assert that an iPad -- perhaps with a bluetooth keyboard -- is already enough computer for 70% of western world.
I'd say especially for the HN audience.
A lot of people around here live most of their lives in the terminal, using Vi and Git. They have no reason to work on a beefy machine, as long as they can access more hardware somewhere else. It could be a server in the closet, or "the cloud".
When I bought my first laptop and started doing webdev in 2001, I noticed that all I needed was enough power to play music, edit text and run a web/database server. It worked great with win2k WAMP on a P2 266 MHz, 96 MB, 4 GB. My much more powerful desktop was suddenly left powered off most of the time.
Maemo and Meego are dead. Chromebooks are not likely to blow up. If small ARM machines get popular it will be by running some weird mobile-type OS. Native apps seem to be much more commercially attractive than pure HTML5 apps. On the other hand, I don't see evidence that iOS and Android are going to become plausible PC platforms. Netbook sales have slowed way down. All the buzz is about expensive mobile devices like tablets, and expensive laptops, and these two categories are not converging. It only appears that a convergence is coming because mobile platforms are cannibalizing the casual uses for PCs and netbooks.
Chrome will die, and replaced by Android. Google can't have both.
I don't give a damn about these electronics anymore. I use my iPad for video and books, and my computer for gaming and everything else. I say the new MS tablet will be more convenient to use...
When I think of an iPad, I think of something that's a natural progression from the iPod and iPhone, running bigger and better versions of the apps you can get from the Apple walled garden. It's a fantastic piece of hardware and a tight ecosystem.
Microsoft isn't just trying to compete by offering its own similar piece of hardware to run its own similar apps. They are looking to offer high-performance hardware (an Ivy Bridge chip in a tablet!) with great design, and they're looking to run full-fledged Windows applications.
They're not just competing with iPad, they're offering a possible desktop replacement tablet. That's a bold move.
This is much slicker and powerful enough to amount another try, but "bold"? More like stubborn.
Fans and vents on a tablet... I just can't see that catching on for many people. The ARM model is more promising, but this competes much more closely with the iPad.
Also, the video was very funny with the pen input -- his palm interferes with the initial demo and 20 seconds later he's talking about their amazing palm rejection technology. Don't even get me started on the fact that none of the presenters seemed able to get the swipe-in-from-the-side gesture to work on the first try.
seriously, other than PC games, I don't know a single windows app I want to run on a tablet form factor.
If you have thousands of pre-existing spreadsheets in your office, many of them running fairly complex VBA macros, the idea that MS Office is necessary certainly does exist. And I've never worked anywhere where that isn't the case.
And at organizations of this type, the licensing cost of Office per desktop is peanuts. Can't remember what the prices were, but I was shocked how little it costs large organizations.
Necessary disclaimer: Microsoft employee Addendum: I did not work on this machine, and did not know about it (I don't think?) until today.
Are you suggesting that Windows doesn't have an ecosystem?
UIs will need to change, for sure. But as long as it's possible to port large portions of the codebase of existing Windows apps (see the demo of Lightroom they showed), there should be a lot of options.
mkay. I think the market disagrees with you a bit. And your strawman about being the "main machine" is contrary to Apple's goals. They would like nothing better than to sell you an iPhone, iPad and MacBook.
What I'm really referring to is the ability to organise your music, photos, videos, and documents (all of which are files) in a way that is based on topic/project, not application. For content consumption I think the current approach is fine, but for content creation it's often necessary to deal with multiple types of documents (e.g. a spreadsheet, word document, and some photos) and it's really awkward to deal with this in the current model.
If you are working on multiple projects, you want all the stuff for project A in one place, and all the stuff for project B in another place. This is especially important when A and B are for different clients, or you want to collaborate with someone on B but not on A, and easily send others a copy of everything relating to B.
I've seen first-hand how novice users can sometimes get confused about the location of their files, e.g. my documents vs. desktop vs. whatever, and I definitely agree that we need a better approach than currently provided on desktop OSs. But I think iOS goes too far in the other direction, and we're still yet to see a solution that scales well with user skill level and needs.
Apple Newton MessagePad, 1993. It had a stylus, handwriting recognition, you could use it with just your fingertips, and you could connect an external keyboard.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atow/4314242537/
That was almost twenty years a go. Newton was a very expensive experiment for Apple, and they have learned the hard way that styluses are not the way to go.
Also, the general pattern of "someone tried that once, and they failed, so nobody should ever do that" is a really terrible way to go about engineering. Wile E. Coyote should not be a roll model. Just because someone failed at something similar. Just because YOU failed at something similar, doesn't mean you should give up on the whole idea.
You could do a responsible program on a Nintendo DS with 40MHz. Lazy people.
Also, he is a SU-per Geeen-ius!
I agree, that a good stylus would be a good addition to a tablet. A crappy stylus is worthless, though. It has to be a good one.
(I did have one doctor that insisted on using an iPad. It took him forever to type notes to the point of it being extremely irritating. Transcribe your notes later!)
You've either both not worked in any large companies lately AND never really used an iPad, or you are just blinded by platform bias.
The fact is that iPads are being massively adopted in Fortune 500 companies. And I can assure you that those users are not "screwing around with iTunes". In fact, iTunes doesn't even exist on the iPad, so you don't really know what you are talking about, at all.
(edit: Two instant downvotes on this, but I notice nobody is refuting my facts.)
I mean, I didn't work with Apple or Google, so I can guess you'd see them there. Neither bank allowed them on-site, and none of the defense contractors would even entertain the idea. You can also probably rule out obvious ones like Microsoft and HP from being big users of iPads. I can't imagine that the cashiers at Walmart, Target or the Home Depot are spending lots of time swiping around and now I'm quickly running out of companies.
I even did a part-time contract job at a company with 123,000 employees last year and not only didn't see an iPad, but they were forbidden on the corporate network and in most of the corporate offices (as was anything with a camera frankly).
oh, and FYI, jrockway actually does work at #73 on the 2012 list.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/10/04/92-of-the-fortune-500...
I'm active duty Navy, so I hear you. I really do. I'm still using WinXP on NMCI and was recently directed to remove Chrome from my desktop. However,
http://www.dvidshub.net/news/71885/semper-fipad-marine-corps...
What I've seen is an aversion to the iPads, but there are certain places where they can't keep them out. If wireless is authenticated on AD or PSK, it's very difficult to stop them(though there are a growing number of options). If the executive has the power to override IT policy on approved devices, they have no choice.
For what it's worth, it's commonly referred to as the "Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)" movement or "the iPad problem".
Very few have truly accepted and encouraged iPad use since it's not an enterprise device. If you do have IT sponsorship for it, most companies are having to draw new lines around it rather than simply owning it like they historically did with Blackberries. Examples: you have to pay for your own, it has to be managed by MDM and have wipe privileges, you will have to access all applications through VDI, etc.
That said, enterprises aren't thrilled end users can take them home and sync them with their own iTunes and mess with what IT has built on the tablets. Plus Apple's grip on all aspects of the device don't lend to being controlled by MDM very well.
Enterprises are still looking for a replacement for Blackberry, and Microsoft is looking poised to make a shot. Apple doesn't seem interested in compromising their product to fit into the enterprise market.
You've either...
you are just blinded...
you don't really...
Launch the Apple Configurator app.
[+] Profiles -> Create new Profile...
Restrictions -> Configure button
Uncheck [Allow Installing Apps] Uncheck [Allow Use of iTunes Store]
Save, Prepare, done. Nasty icons gone.
Considering that Bud was spouting out of a bodily orifice, the rest of his argument is suspect as well. This, despite the fallacy of jrockway's argument deserves to be corrected.
At any rate, jrockway is a known troll. Should've known better than to enter this fight.
I think that the integrated keyboard in both covers lets you make the choice which is what the point of the product seems to be.
Just curious, was this the Miami Children's Hospital? I actually built their whole check-in on the iPad experience in their hospital :)
No, I'm in the Midwest, far from the sea. Unless you consider cornfields a sea of sorts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300
Probably the best computer ever designed for children. I used one myself in school from 4th grade through 8th grade when I upgraded to a "real" laptop. The main reason for the upgrade: I couldn't program on the emate. Other than that it was in every way superior: Instant on, touch, nice keyboard, no distraction interface, usable in all lighting conditions, ect...
Now of course people would sneer at it since it didn't have any form of internet. However, at the time my teachers were more comfortable with it in the classroom due to those limitations.
But, here we are, with people praising Siri. It's how technology works-- every input modality is useful for some tasks, and at some level of maturity. Dismissing technological potential based purely on past technology is short-sighted. [For examples of how Pen+touch is a good idea see http://billbuxton.com/Pen+TouchUIST.pdf. Add type, and it could be powerful indeed]
1) Making it say silly things about hiding dead bodies in ravines.
2) Trying to make it text things, only to give up and type the message by hand. Usually done while driving, and usually spanning the course of around a minute.
It's not even remotely close to something usable yet, at least not from what I've seen. Just look at how people use it, they don't even understand [or maybe they just don't like?] the interface for it!
Most people I see address it by name, like you would the computer on star trek. They hold down the button, and then say:
"Siri, where can I get a blah blah blah nearby?"
Which usually doesn't return a useful result. In this time I'm usually searching on google maps, and telling them the instructions before they've finished their attempt at an interaction.
You don't invoke the service by addressing it. The service was invoked by pressing the button.
Seriously I have yet to see a person who uses siri for something useful.
It is much, much quicker to say "remind me about X tomorrow at 6pm" than unlock screen, find the app, open it up, create event etc.
- change playlists when when I'm working out or biking
- set the alarm when I go to bed
- reminders (a lot)
- the weather
- looking up something on wikipedia and imdb
- and sending short sms messages
I'd say my use has grown over the last few weeks as I'm biking a lot more. There was an initial trust issue, and I still sometimes have this weird feeling of being on the spot when I'm dictating to Siri, but otherwise best "app" on the phone for me.
I'm also a big fan of the iPad, but this definitely looks like something _worth criticizing_ (to paraphrase Alan Kay).
I think a big problem with this device as conceived is that most of the time I do not use my tablet neatly on a table, so the keyboard/cover is a cute gimmick, but only really of interest in limited cases (in much the same way as all the different keyboard options for the iPad, some quite clever, have proven a waste of time for me).
I'm all for experimenting by releasing products in the wild, hoping that the next iteration will finally find its market. But seriously, it's getting a little ridiculous.
And once the recognition fails, you're left with computer text that needs to be corrected. How? With a keyboard. So most people just gravitate toward using the keyboard in the first place.
A stylus is better for drawing (see: Wacom) but most people don't draw.
As a TabletPC user and a lawyer, I've been waiting for this form factor for years. IMHO, the only reason the TabletPC didn't thrive is (i) short battery life, and (ii) weight/size. This machine is, to me, the great promise.
Yes, but making eInk good enough is just a matter of getting latency down low enough.
No, what they learned is that requiring an active matrix behind the screen consuming battery and weighting more(and adding $1000 per device in terms of licenses), is not the way to go.
But I'm pretty sure that Apple is considering it with other technologies(like the same touch tech they use today with hi res for stylus). Not as the main input, of course, but for drawing like you can do on paper.
This is the single most important thing I need on a tablet as an engineer-designer, drawing sketches on a tablet so I don't need paper.
https://www.google.at/search?q=dauphin+dtr-1&um=1&hl...
We've come a long way since those days .. but then again, maybe its the same, just .. shinier.
There is nothing inspiring in this product, at least they didn't answer a question: is there something new we can do with this tablet?
a) Only the ARM version is running Windows RT. The Intel version I wrote about is using "Windows 8 Pro", which contains the regular Windows desktop.
b) A BT keyboard for the iPad is something you need to select separately, and schlepp around inconveniently. A cover goes together with the device. Stuff like this matters.
As for whether it's doing anything new, dunno. The thing is that with products like this, it's a matter of degrees and refinement - at some point you cross a threshold and a concept works. That's why the iPad works, but Tablet PCs didn't.
The product most similar to the Intel-powered Surfcace + Touch Cover is the Android Transformer Prime with the optional keyboard dock. But the keyboard dock isn't as svelte as the Touch Cover, and Android doesn't have the application base of desktop Windows when used as a laptop replacement. And yet the Prime garnered a lot of interest. Microsoft seems to be in a unique position to offer this refined version of the idea.
Will anyone want it? Time will tell.
This is the opposite of inconvenient:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-57415771-243/logitechs-...
This, plus a good SSH client and the Google apps app, makes a laptop redundant, and is a very nice cover and perfect airplane tray stand to boot (thanks to offsetting the screen away from the seatback in front of you).
I'm voting MBA without hesitation, but everyone has different needs.
On the off chance I'm going to a meeting or an overnight, I swap Apple's smart cover for the Logitech which is also a smart cover.
I agree that Windows in such a form factor could be quite compelling to lots of users.
I think the Asus Transformer has a better form factor though since it does not need a desk to support the screen/keyboard--you can use it on your lap like a laptop.
Mac OS X 10.7 and the future 10.8 are converging on iOS's UI, and I wouldn't be surprised if 10.9 or Mac OS 11 or Mac iOS or w/e the next Apple OS will be called will run on desktops and mobile devices. If so, it will be interesting to see if they merge the iPad and the MacBook Air into a Transformer Prime equivalent that has a full OS. If the Microsoft Surface becomes popular, maybe they'd even rush to do this under Mountain Lion and provide an iOS emulator/virtualizer or something. I get the feeling this will happen sooner than Linux meeting my above-stated requirements, but I'm optimistic that there will soon be at least one alternative to the Surface that runs something more powerful than Android
I just think keyboard cover is overrated in your argument. After all, it is peripheral, iPad can have one too, but that alone doesn't make a MBA killer. Low price + Unrestricted platform (open for all kinds of peripheral development) is the killer weapon. Oh, those USB ports are very nice.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20091329-243/keyboardin...
The Touch Cover is a sanctioned, obvious choice. It's simple to grok. The iPad doesn't have that yet.
It doesn't even matter if the clunky-looking ones perform better, or serve an edge case better.
This is Microsoft learning from Apple. What you're doing is a role-reversal of the situation where anti-Apple folks point to some obscure niche solution as equivalent to Apple integration.
Look, I'm not cheerleading Microsoft here: I'm a Linux desktop developer. If anything, I'm saying these things with a tinge of resignation (not about Microsoft specifically, but the way the market works - though I prefer to accept it as reality, and see it as a challenge).
Now, one thing that might be true: A sanctioned solution leaves less room for accessory makers, so that Siberian Dvorak keyboard may be more likely to be available for the iPad than the Surface, leaving the iPad as the obvious choice for Siberian Dvorak users.
[1] http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/13263622-460/micr...
The new thing is this is a all-in-one machine that can be your only computer.
You can browse the web in tablet mode, then put it on a table, plug in a mouse and play starcraft on a desktop.
Nothing on the market (except old win7 tablets) can do that.
- Read ebooks/pdfs - Browse the web - Work (a text editor and git)
Ideally I would also like to: - Download & watch videos/movies - Something to hook-up to my TV
There is nothing in the market that can do these things. I could get a Kindle for reading, an iPad for browsing the web, and an ultrabook for work. This device is something I would buy (assuming a reasonable price) but the one drawback I see is Windows. Maybe Windows nowadays is a lot better than before and maybe it'll give it a chance. It all depends on the pricing.
Yes, there is... if that's the complete set of things. The iPad can do this.
ebooks/pdfs, browsing, videos, TV hookup - all there and straightforward.
text editor and git (GitHub, in this case): http://worqshop.com/
there are also other editors that have SFTP and SSH programs.
I'm not saying you should replace your current computer with an iPad. I'm saying that based on the list you've given here you could.
The main reason I want to hook a device like that with my TV is so that I can download and watch movies (from torrents). AFAIK you cannot do that on the iPad. I'm I mistaken?
How does one watch the movies? (which app?)
(Genuine questions, I'm curious and don't have one)
Either that or you purchase the movie in iTunes on your iDumb device and watch it there.
Ambitious, and finally makes sense of their Metro/desktop combo OS strategy to a degree. The hardware to go along with it was a missing puzzle piece, and I guess shows just how important it can be.